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Does being “good at math” mean using a set of discrete skills and procedures to correctly answer problems on homework and timed tests? Or is it about making sense of real-world problems and using quantitative reasoning to solve them? Some of both, according to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.

At most U.S. colleges, Precalculus is considered a college-level course. But when taught in high school, the course rarely confers college credit. More typically, high school Precalculus signals readiness for a college Calculus—though often, it doesn’t even do that: It’s not uncommon for students who take Precalculus in high school to repeat the course when they get to college.

My interest in redesigning math pathways dates back at least a dozen years. While working on improving student opportunities and outcomes at California community colleges, I came to realize how required mathematics courses—especially remedial algebra courses— were in fact limiting those opportunities and outcomes.

After years of debates over their validity, the SAT and ACT were removed quite abruptly last year from most colleges’ admissions requirements. Though their elimination—spurred by the cancellation of test administrations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic—was temporary in many cases, it could become a permanent state of affairs for some institutions.

Tracking in mathematics has been a practice in U.S. schools for decades, but it hasn’t always been the subject of candid conversation. Along with increased attention to systemic racism in our public discourse, the perils of tracking and its racialized outcomes are growing more visible—and the appeals for its eradication more vocal.