The Calculus Project and Diversifying the STEM Pipeline

• In Event: Institutional Resources for Navigating Complexity: Designing Policies to Increase College Access and Completion

Abstract

Mathematics represents a core component of students’ educational pathways, and access to and success in math coursework has well-established benefits for both individuals and society. Access to additional or advanced math in high school can boost high school graduation, college enrollment, employment, and earnings. In the last two decades, interventions to improve diversity in the pipeline to rigorous math coursework have often focused on middle grades and more specifically on access to 8th grade Algebra as a gateway to further success. Though numerous studies have now addressed the efficacy of accelerating students into more rigorous math courses during middle grades, none has explored interventions that sustain attention to students beyond that initial choice of math course.
     
This study examines the impact of The Calculus Project (TCP), an initiative to support under-represented minority students and diversify the set of students taking and succeeding in calculus during high school. This study has two research questions: (1) Does a district’s adoption of The Calculus Project increase the number of under-represented minority students taking and succeeding in advanced math coursework in high school, including calculus? (2) Does The Calculus Project improve students’ college outcomes, including the college enrollment rate and the fraction majoring in STEM? Using the data from TCP and Massachusetts’ Department of Elementary and Secondary (DESE) for cohorts from 2007-2025, this study employed Difference-in-Difference(DiD) and Triple Difference(DDD) to examine the impact of TCP on the first three school districts adopted it.  

Our preliminary findings suggest that TCP was at least partially successful in closing gaps in calculus-taking rates between Black and Hispanic students and other students. The results would be shown as descriptive statistics and DiD and DDD regression analysis. In District A, calculus participation showed a roughly 40 percentage point gap between URM and non-URM students in cohorts prior to TCP’s introduction, a gap that narrowed to roughly 20 percentage points five years after the program’s introduction. Within District A, calculus-taking rates of URM students increased 19.3 percentage points more than non-URM students after TCP began. After TCP began, the difference between calculus-taking rates of URM and non-URM students in District A increased 13.7 percentage points more than in other MA districts. In District B, the URM vs. non-URM gap in calculus-taking was about 30 percentage points prior to TCP but narrowed to 10-15 percentage points for later cohorts exposed to TCP. Within District B, calculus-taking rates of URM students increased 15.6 percentage points more than non-URM students after TCP began. After TCP began, the difference between calculus-taking rates of URM and non-URM students in District B increased 8.5 percentage points more than in other MA districts.

In conclusion, the study examines TCP and shows it narrowed calculus participation gaps in two of the first three school districts and increased the URM students’ probability of enrolling in calculus. It highlights TCP’s potential in promoting equitable access to advanced math. Future analysis will explore TCP's impact in other districts and on college enrollment and major choice.

Authors

• Joshua Goodman, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Hanyun Cui, Boston University
  Presenting Author