The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that growth in “math occupations” — where workers regularly use arithmetic to make calculations and analyze data — is set to outpace growth in other fields over the next decade. 

Yet colleges are enrolling students who arrive with weaker math skills than ever before. 

📚 Read more: With test optional now the norm in college admissions, another gatekeeper rises: calculus (via our partner WBEZ Chicago) 

Journalist Derek Thompson explored this phenomenon in a recent episode of his podcast Plain English. Professors he spoke to argued that it’s occurring for a number of reasons: the growth of cellphone use that’s distracting young people, a pandemic-induced shift to remote learning and away from standardized testing, and rampant grade inflation at the high school level. 

📚 Read more: College students and professors contend with hangover from virtual high school (via our partner Pittsburgh’s Public Source) 

These factors combined are making it hard for colleges to assess in the admissions process whether students are truly ready for college-level math. 

Thus, students are arriving on campus without the skills they need. George Mason University overhauled its summer math program because students arriving to calculus class couldn’t do basic algebra. Far more students are signing up for remedial math at the University of California San Diego than ever before. 

Further, in the last five years, the number of UC San Diego students whose math skills are below the high-school level has increased nearly thirtyfold, according to a report from a group of administrators and faculty tasked with creating a new admissions framework that better responds to this reality.

In addition to setting students up for struggles, these skill gaps strain faculty. 

“If we take seriously our mission as an engine of social mobility, we must be prepared to support students who have been underserved by their prior schooling. But our capacity is not limitless,” the UC San Diego admissions working group said last month. “Especially now, when our resources become more constrained, we cannot take on more remedial education than we can responsibly and effectively deliver.”

Math skills matter. Improving a child’s math skills boosts earnings later in life more than similar improvements in reading, health, or family relationships, according to an Urban Institute report. 

Several states are testing potential solutions:

• In Texas, more than half of the state’s third graders aren’t reading or doing math at grade level. Sneha Dey, our pathways reporter at the Texas Tribune highlighted two proposals that would provide those struggling students with extra support, as early as kindergarten. Lawmakers eventually wrapped those measures into H.B. 2, the broader school-funding package that Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law over the summer. 

• In California, the UC San Diego admissions working group proposed creating a “math index” — based on a student’s transcript, courses, grades, and high school — to more accurately predict the likelihood they’d need remedial courses if admitted.  

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Elsewhere on Open Campus

From Wisconsin: Dual enrollment — where high schoolers take college courses for credit — is growing in Wisconsin and across the country. But a recent rule change in the state means that these classes need teachers with the qualifications of college instructors. For most, that would require enrolling in graduate school, even if they already have a master’s degree.

It’s a tough sell, even with the state offering to reimburse for the cost, found Natalie Yahr and Miranda Dunlap, our pathways reporters at our partner Wisconsin Watch.

“You’re asking people who are well educated to begin with to go back to school, which takes time and effort, and their reward for that is they get to teach a dual credit class,” said Mark McQuade, Appleton Area School District’s assistant superintendent of assessment, curriculum and instruction.

From Pittsburgh: Graduate students at the University of Pittsburgh say protecting academic freedom — which allows professors and researchers the ability to study and teach their subjects without fear of censorship — is one of the core pillars of their union negotiations, reports Maddy Franklin at our partner Pittsburgh’s Public Source.

Academic freedom usually extends to students only in their right to learn. The university has said that it isn’t applicable to grad students.

“It’d be impossible to kind of maintain an environment conducive to learning and research if we are just constantly worried about being disciplined for our teaching methods or any research decisions,” said Lauren Wewer, a Pitt Ph.D. candidate and chair of the union’s bargaining committee.

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