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Colleges nationwide have been embracing developmental education reforms. A popular reform is math pathways, which places students in math classes that relate to their intended majors and abilities, rather than forcing all students to take the same math courses.
But there's some concern that this could track some students -- especially students of color -- away from more lucrative pathways, like science, technology, engineering and math.
A new report from Just Equations, a project aiming to improving math policies, looks at whether implementing new math pathways strategies can improve math success for students, especially those are traditionally underserved.
The report found that misinformation and self-placement created the most risk for inequity in the process of placing students in math pathways.
Misinformation can hamper students' abilities to choose equitable pathways, and self-placement can often lead students to avoid STEM math pathways due to math anxiety, according to the report.
Colleges can do several things to improve math pathways for students, such as increasing support strategies, like corequisite courses, and providing more support for undecided students to explore major and career options.
Just Equations recommends that colleges offer professional development to counselors and math faculty and extended counseling for students who are undecided on their majors and eliminate structural barriers that can lead to students pursuing lower-level pathways than they should.
