Pamela Burdman, executive director of Just Equations, and Kyndall Brown, executive director of the California Mathematics Project, penned an op-ed for EdSource calling for more access to math courses for underrepresented students and a bigger investment in the teacher pipeline.
Too many [students] are being left out of the math opportunities that are increasingly important for participating in 21st-century professions and civic life. Research links taking four years of high school math to college access and success. But a quarter of California seniors take no math at all.
The gap in requirements, however, is just one barrier to deep math learning—one that won’t be solved without bridging a second gap, a teacher gap. Doing that demands a commitment from our public universities.
Which math courses [students] are allowed to take in high school is immaterial if they take only two years of math or if they lack qualified teachers, period. Ultimately, ensuring math opportunity for students means investing in quality teachers.
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