Algebra Gatekeepers: Schools deny advanced math to the highest-scoring students

> More than half of students predicted to succeed in advanced math are denied access to those classes.

> Our research firm evaluates federally funded education programs in K-12 schools. In the early to mid-2000s, these grant-funded program evaluations began requiring measurable objectives and pre- and post-data comparisons. During this period, federal grants aimed at getting more low-income and minority students into advanced STEM courses became a common trend.

> These program evaluation requirements led to a striking discovery. Tens of thousands of high-scoring students in North Carolina were not enrolled in advanced math courses. When staff working on the grant-funded programs (typically school counselors, school improvement teams, and administrators) discovered they already had hundreds of top-scoring, academically successful students in a single middle or high school who were not in advanced math, they usually wanted to enroll them. More often than not, they were told by their math departments that they couldn't enroll these students because students needed a teacher recommendation.