Press Release

The rapid rollback of civil rights in the United States exposes a long history of policies and practices that restrict access and opportunity for Black people. While the history of voting rights may be more widely known—and top of mind in an election cycle—there are parallels between denying Black voters representation and constraining Black students’ math education. 

“For generations, Black students have been disproportionately excluded and tracked away from high-quality math-learning opportunities—and, unfortunately, many of these racial disparities persist today,” said Andrea McChristian, Just Equations’ national policy director and author of the report. “Tracing the historical roots of math inequities makes clear that it is educational policies and practices that have driven differential math outcomes for Black students.”

Just Equations’ new report, Calculated Barriers: Examining the History Behind Math Inequities Facing Black Students, documents seminal events that have constrained Black students’ access to quality math education:

• While some Black students in segregated schools had access to advanced course offerings, after desegregation many were tracked into lower-level math courses based on racist stereotypes and beliefs about their math potential in newly integrated schools.
• The 1957 Sputnik launch spurred a desire for strengthened math education, including making more advanced math courses available to students. However, Black students were mostly left out of this post-Sputnik fervor and unable to access advanced math courses.
• While the Higher Education Act of 1965 led to an increase in Black students’ access to and enrollment in higher education, many Black students were tracked into remedial courses or lengthy prerequisite sequences, slowing, if not blocking, their entrance into STEM programs.
• The 1983 report A Nation at Risk led many schools across the nation to increase their math graduation requirements. Yet again, advanced math courses were mostly unavailable to Black students because of inequitable access to middle school algebra.

After decades of using the same playbook, math education is facing a moment of reckoning, with calls to enact broad reform. The report focuses on policy interventions at institutional, state, and national levels that eliminate math disparities once and for all, including: 

• Redesigning high school mathematics to dismantle barriers to advanced courses.
• Ending postsecondary access and admissions policies that perpetuate inequity.
• Eliminating lengthy postsecondary math prerequisite sequences.
• Investing in culturally responsive instruction and student-centered support.
• Aligning math policies across K–16 systems.
• Using data and accountability goals to ensure equitable educational policies and practices. 

“This is a wake-up call for every education stakeholder and racial justice advocate,” McChristian noted. “We hope this report serves as a foundational tool for transforming our math education system—grounded in the belief that all students are capable of math success when provided with the proper support.”