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Policy decisions about mathematics education need to be rooted in the purposes of teaching math. The reason math plays a central role in the K–12 curriculum and shows up in most college graduation requirements is not to ensure that every student will become a mathematician or enter math-intensive fields. It’s to develop mathematical reasoning skills that students need to understand their world

I have written about the importance of diversifying the STEM fields and ensuring that all students, particularly those from historically excluded groups, have the opportunity to pursue STEM careers. But doing so shouldn’t entail requiring every single student to take courses such as Precalculus and Calculus if they have no interest in STEM.

The valid fear of creating an alternate “separate but equal” route through math provides an important caution: Don’t use new math pathways to exacerbate inequity in STEM.

Fifty years ago, when university mathematics department chairs were surveyed about whether math should be a graduation requirement, only 15 percent said yes. Today, math requirements—sometimes referred to as “quantitative reasoning requirements”—are the norm at universities across the country.

Although today’s technology-rich environment has changed the way math is used in many fields, college admission still relies heavily on decades-old math expectations, viewing calculus on a transcript as a gold standard while slighting other rigorous math offerings.