DEGREES OF FREEDOM:
Diversifying Math Requirements for College Readiness and Graduation

There is growing debate about the relevance and utility of the traditional sequence of math classes taken by U.S. students pursuing college admission and success. New alternative pathways in disciplines including statistics, data analysis, modeling, and computer science are diversifying math education for today’s students from high school all the way to medical school. The new approaches are driven in part by the growth of technology and new uses of math in academia and industry. They are also propelled by concerns about low math achievement, particularly in U.S. high schools and college remedial classes. With leading mathematicians urging their discipline to become more relevant and responsive to these needs, DEGREES OF FREEDOM: Diversifying Math Requirements for College Readiness and Graduation highlights the challenges and opportunities in implementing these changes and ensuring that they support student success.

DEGREES OF FREEDOM: Diversifying Math Requirements for College Readiness and Graduation is the first in a series of three reports being co-published by LearningWorks and Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE).