How to Keep Students From Falling Into ‘Math Traps’

Enrolling in college is supposed to mark a great step forward for high school graduates. But for many it can actually feel like two steps back. 

This is especially the case when enrolling in college math courses. That’s because colleges require so many students to take remedial math before continuing toward their goal of earning a college degree. 

The numbers are dramatic. Nationwide about 40 percent of all two-year college students and 25 percent of all four-year college students take a remedial or developmental math course in college. While some of these students benefit from the extra time and support, a growing body of research shows that such make-up courses are more of a hindrance than a help. 

Among new first-years who start college directly after high school and enroll in math, I estimated about 20 percent were actually in redundant math courses—courses that are at a lower level than what they are predicted to pass. In other cases, students find themselves in the same courses they’ve already taken in high school, in what I call math repetition. Worst of all, many students find themselves in a math trap, getting stuck in those lower-level courses and never surpassing the level they already completed in high school.  In our district case study, we found 48 percent of community college students were in a math trap from which they never escaped.

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There are several possible reasons for this lack of math mobility, including the reality that some students come to college underprepared, having had unequal access to educational opportunity and resources. While remediation may serve some of these students well, many students have been steered into unneeded courses due to placement testing, advising, and other processes. That means they have to spend time and money on courses below their level that slow or even derail their progress toward a degree.

Math misalignment

A key contributor to the prevalence of math traps is a lack of coordination and a lack of trust across education systems. We used the term intersector math misalignment, or ISMM, to describe what happens to many high school graduates when they enroll in their local community college. This kind of misalignment happens when students are deemed “college ready” by their high schools—according to such indicators as standardized test scores, grades in math classes, and completion of advanced math—but then find themselves placed in remedial math courses when they enroll in college. 

We found in our study that such misalignment hit some of the highest-achieving students. In fact, 15 percent of students who had passed calculus with a B or better in high school and 14 percent of students who scored “proficient” or “advanced” on California’s 11th grade standardized math test found themselves in remedial math when they enrolled in community college. 

We also found that female, Black, and Latinx students encountered this misalignment more often than other students, even after controlling for high school achievement and preparation, and even when comparing students attending the same colleges. This inequity can have broader social consequences, because math misalignment has been found to correspond with reduced chances of completing math requirements and lower credit completion. 

There’s something deeper going on, too. Compared with white students experiencing ISMM, Black students experiencing math misalignment were far less likely to finish math and earn college credits. Something about the experience of misalignment—perhaps the added stigma or feeling invalidated—may have influenced Black students’ academic decisions and trajectories in a different manner from those of white students, implying that the lack of math-standards alignment between educational sectors systematically and disproportionately disadvantages and harms Black students.

As a former high school math teacher turned education researcher, I wish I had known that the transition from high school to college isn’t always forward progress, even when it should be. I was so focused on getting my students across the graduation stage that I was not always thinking about how I could partner with college math faculty to smooth these transitions. If I could go back, I would work with the math faculty at the community college just down the street to make sure my students could move forward in math. We could have partnered to align curriculum and assessments and help students understand college math expectations and routines.

A path forward

The good news is that state policies are moving in the right direction to increase math alignment. 

In California, a state law, Assembly Bill 705, lets community college students enroll directly in transfer-level math courses so they don’t have to start college two steps back. 

In Florida, remedial and developmental math (and English) courses have been optional for more than a decade. 

Research on these policy changes has shown not only increased access to higher-level math, but also increased academic success and increased retention and completion. The share of students completing transfer-level math in California community colleges has more than doubled since AB 705 went into effect in 2019, meaning thousands more students each year have met requirements for degree completion and transfer to a four-year college.

Experience shows that pairing these access policies with corequisite support can improve student outcomes in both two- and four-year colleges while still providing the support that many students benefit from. Instead of students spending one or more semesters repeating math they’ve already taken, they can enroll in the next math course and have access to targeted concurrent support while taking the course that will keep them on track. 

In another study, we found that California community college students who followed advisor recommendations to enroll in concurrent math support were 9 percentage points more likely to pass transfer-level math than their peers who didn’t enroll in math support. In Nevada, one of the few states where corequisites are now mandatory for underprepared students, early evidence shows significant benefits to the approach and improvements over the previous model of requiring prerequisites. 

Research on other states and systems tells a similar story—corequisite math helps smooth the transition from high school math to college math without making students experience high school all over again in remedial courses.

These studies of math mobility were possible only because of linked data systems that follow students from high schools into local colleges. As more of these longitudinal datasets become available, we have the capacity and imperative to investigate math tracking across our traditionally siloed K–12 and higher ed systems to identify and eliminate these math traps. 

Higher education policies such as those in California, Florida, and Nevada have helped to address the problem of math misalignment by allowing more students to move forward in math, and tens of thousands of students have benefited. Yet my experience as a teacher reminds me that there is more work that can be done at the classroom and local levels to reduce math misalignment. High schools and colleges can forge intersector agreements that increase standards alignment and shared understanding, and they can work together to devise student supports that keep students from getting stuck in math as they transition to college. 

My research on math coursetaking patterns shows there is opportunity for our education systems to offer more of a continuum-of-care approach, such as those used in health care and other service sectors. It’s a shift to a system that will better acknowledge and validate the prior preparation of students—and set them up to steadily move forward.

Federick Ngo is an associate professor at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education. His research examines the impact of higher education policy on college access and success, with a focus on community colleges and underserved students.