Disparities in high-leverage mathematics course-taking in New Jersey, 2016–2020

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) study in secondary school can lead to rewarding post-secondary options. Increasing participation and access to STEM fields is a national priority in addition to reducing inequality in access. A basic point of entry to STEM, middle and secondary mathematics course enrollment has been a pothole in STEM pathways because of persistent disparities by racial, socioeconomic, language, and disability backgrounds. This article presents findings of a landscape study of mathematics course-taking in middle and secondary schools in the state of New Jersey between 2016 and 2020 using publicly available school-level data from the New Jersey Department of Education’s (NJDOE) School Performance Reports. Findings focus on rates of enrollment in the standard mathematics sequence – Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II – and high-leverage, advanced coursework – Pre-Calculus, Calculus, and Statistics – often favored in admission to selective post-secondary institutions and many mathematics-related majors. Disparities in enrollment in STEM courses have been along racial and economic lines so this study disaggregates trends by racial and socioeconomic composition of students in schools. Results are further broken down to show cross-sectional mathematics course-taking trends by grade level to depict students’ likely trajectory through secondary school. Findings also focus on mathematics course-taking in schools with varying proportions of English Learners (ELs) and students with disabilities (SWDs). Lastly, we feature schools with trends which are positive outliers from the average pattern. Overall, we find that students in segregated schools (90% + minority and/or 50% + economic disadvantage) do not have the same levels of enrollment in high-leverage coursework in mathematics as those in non-segregated schools. This disparity starts in 8th grade and worsens as students move to the later years of secondary school. We find some similar patterns for schools with the highest EL and SWD enrollments.