“When states raise the number of math classes they require students to take in high school,” black students take more math and go on to earn more money, writes Emily DeRuy in The Atlantic.
A study by Joshua Goodman, a Harvard public policy professor, “found big differences in outcomes for black students — but not for white students — after states raised minimum requirements,” writes DeRuy. “That was especially true for black students who graduated from public schools with lots of students of color.”
The higher requirements pushed more students to complete algebra and geometry — not calculus. “One of the reasons white students weren’t really affected by curriculum changes is that they were already taking the classes anyway,” she writes. “Black students weren’t.”