Improving Access to Successful High School Calculus for All Students: Synthesizing Evidence of Systemic Strategies

• In Event: Mathematics Teaching: A Focus on Pedagogical and Content Knowledge

Abstract

This field scan addresses the challenge of inequitable access to high school Calculus, a course associated with college and STEM career success. Enrollment in and successful completion of high school Calculus is low, particularly among Black, Latine, and low-income students. This review synthesizes literature from the field and interviews of practitioners to identify contributing factors to enrollment inequity, more and less promising strategies for equity, and the key levers those strategies attempt to shift. We thematize strategies into two domains: administrative and pedagogical. We surface the interdependence of these domains and present recommendations for future researchers and designers of interventions to address persistent inequities.

Authors

• Drew Nucci, WestEd

• Ann R. Edwards, WestEd

• Brent Jackson, WestEd

• Rebecca R. Perry, WestEd

• Kirk Walters, WestEd