Women’s Media Center covers Just Equations’ report, Calculated Barriers: Examining the History Behind Math Inequities Facing Black Students, in the context of the ongoing debate at the University of California over reinstating standardized testing requirements for admission.
Emphasizing the report’s finding that Black students have been systematically denied high-quality math education for generations, the article notes that historical tracking of Black students into lower-level math courses hasn’t disappeared; it simply evolved into the systemic barriers we see today.
“Professors in favor of the standardized tests want an objective way to assess math readiness. But how can a test be objective when the education leading up to it was fundamentally unequal? Reinstating these exams wouldn’t fix the fact that some students arrive at college underprepared. Instead, it would simply punish Black and low-income students for attending schools that were historically underfunded.”
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