“Misalignment and policy incoherence can place needless obstacles in students’ way. Disjointed pathways create barriers to college access and completion, costing students and the state both time and money. The recommendations in this policy brief focus on how the state and its education systems must work together to eliminate those barriers.”
Quantitative Leap:
How Math Policies Can Support Transitions To and Through College
California’s education systems need to revamp their math policies, writes policy analyst Pamela Burdman. Better coordination will ensure that students face fewer arbitrary barriers to success. Focused on how to ensure more students can take required college-level math courses, the brief homes in on three obstacles:
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- dueling definitions of proficiency in quantitative reasoning,
- inaccurate measures of quantitative reasoning, and
- insufficient opportunities to attain quantitative reasoning
The brief presents a new vision for how the education systems can work together to devise better policies and more opportunities for students to attain the quantitative reasoning skills they need for college and for life.
Quantitative Leap: How Math Policies Can Support Transitions To and Through College was an outcome of Testing and Beyond: The Future of College Math Placement in California, a November 2015 summit hosted by LearningWorks.