Inside the Math Trap: Chronic Math Tracking From High School to Community College

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-3-2020

Publication Title

Urban Education

First page number:

1

Last page number:

29

Abstract

Examining linked academic transcripts from urban community colleges and their feeder high schools, we identify math course-taking patterns that span sectors. We highlight stifled mobility and chronic repetition of math coursework in the transition to college, and we identify “math traps” from which students do not escape. Math mobility was limited, math repetition was rampant, and nearly half of students found themselves in math traps. All else equal, being trapped in math was significantly linked to race/ethnicity, suggesting that these forms of chronic math tracking across sectors expose previously undocumented forms of inequality in educational experiences.

Keywords

Community college; High school; Tracking; Math

Disciplines

Higher Education | Science and Mathematics Education

Language

English

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