A study focused on students in Central Texas has found that student enrollment in advanced math courses is a good indicator of a student who will go on to graduate college.

“[D]ata from E3 Alliance, a local education non-profit, shows that when students take math classes more advanced than Algebra II—Pre-Calculus or Advanced Placement Calculus—the chances of them enrolling in college increases at least 20 percentage points. Christine Bailey is with E3 Alliance,” says KUT.org.

Currently, Algebra II isn’t a requirement for Texas students because policy makers argued the difficultly of the math course was deterring students who aren’t college bound from also graduating high school.

Critics of this decision argue that because advanced math is so directly correlated to enrollment in and graduation from college, dropping Algebra II as a requirement could be potentially detrimental to students who could have been on the path to pursue higher education.

In order to meet a goal of 70 percent of students enrolling in college, The Austin Chamber of Commerce is determined to ensure that students take four years of math with the hopes that they will end up with advanced coursework.

“That is our commitment for Central Texas, that 70 percent of our students will enroll direct to college. Algebra II is not enough … We need students to take four years of math. We need students to get to the advanced coursework,” said Christine Bailey to KUT.

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Nicole Gorman, Senior Education World Contributor

6/28/2016