This Carsey brief reveals that students in rural areas and small towns have less access to higher-level mathematics courses than students in urban settings, which results in serious educational consequences, including lower scores on assessment tests and fewer qualified students entering science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) job pipelines

Graham, Suzanne E.

English

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Carseyi n s t i t u t eissue Brief No. 7fall 2009Students in Rural Schools Have Limited Access to Advanced Mathematics CoursesS u z A n n e  e .  G R A H A Mstudents in rural areas and small towns have less access to higher-level mathematics courses in school than their peers elsewhere.1 approximately one-half of stu-dents in rural areas and small towns attend schools that only offer one to three advanced mathematics courses. There are serious educational consequences when students do not have the opportunity to take higher-level mathematics courses. students who do not take these courses typically score lower on assessment tests, which can restrict their post-secondary educational and occupational opportunities. in addition, limited access to advanced mathematics courses adversely impacts the number of qualified students in science, technol-ogy, engineering, and mathematics (steM) job pipelines.These discrepancies between urban, suburban, and rural schools are not an idle concern. fully one in five public school students attends rural schools, and that number is growing.2 furthermore, equitable access to a high-level cur-riculum is the foundation on which our public education system is based. Access to Advanced  Mathematics Courses suburban students and those in larger towns are consid-erably more likely than rural students to have access to a variety of mathematics courses. Only 15 percent of suburban students, for example, have three or fewer advanced courses from which to choose (see figure 1). fifty-eight percent of students in urban schools and 41 percent in suburban and large-town schools can choose from as many as seven or more courses in advanced mathematics. in contrast, only 10 percent of students attending rural schools have this kind of access. On average, students in rural areas and small towns attend schools that offer only four courses in advanced mathematics (see figure 2).3Key findings:•	 Nearly	50	percent	of	students	in	rural	areas	and	small	towns	attend	schools	that	only	offer	one	to	three	advanced	mathematics	courses.•	 Only	10	percent	of	students	in	rural	schools	and	small	towns	have	access	to	seven	or	more	courses	in	advanced	mathematics.	•	 Suburban	and	urban	schools,	on	average,	offer	three	to	four	more	courses	in	advanced	mathematics	than	rural	schools.figure 1. Percentage of students in schools  offering advanced mathematics courses, by  number of courses offered and location11 31 58 15 43 41 48 41 10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 1 to 3 4 to 6 7 + Percentage Number of advanced mathematics courses Urban Suburban/large town Rural/small town Source: The Condition of Education, 2005. Data drawn from the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) and the High School Transcript Study (HSTS).The Consequences of Limited  Access to Advanced Mathematicsalthough not all students need to take advanced mathemat-ics courses, potentially millions of students in rural areas and small towns would take advanced mathematics if given the opportunity. limited access to high-level mathematics courses caps the possible mathematics achievement levels for many rural students and may have other unintended consequences. figure 3 presents average mathematics scores on the standardized 2005 national assessment of education Prog-ress (naeP) for twelfth-grade students, as a function of the highest-level mathematics course taken during high school. students who completed only the bare minimum math-ematics for high school graduation, which in many states is algebra i or lower, had an average score of only 117 points out of a possible 300. for students who took higher-level mathematics courses, the average score was nearly ten points higher for geometry and twenty-five points for trigonom-etry or algebra ii. students who took pre-calculus averaged approximately 50 percent higher than students who took the minimum mathematics, and those taking calculus had sub-stantially higher mathematics scores than students who took any less-advanced high school mathematics course.  taking advanced mathematics is related to other im-portant educational outcomes. such students are often on a mathematics “pipeline” to major in mathematics-related fields in college, pursue advanced degrees in these areas, and later focus on steM occupations. educators and policy makers have for decades been interested in encouraging and supporting students’ interests in steM college majors and careers. The lack of access to advanced mathematics courses facing students from rural areas and small towns limits their opportunities to major in mathematics-related fields in col-lege and subsequently embark on steM careers.Factors that Characterize Schools Offering More Advanced Coursesnot all schools in rural areas and small towns have limited course offerings in advanced mathematics. in general, larger schools tend to offer more advanced courses. for example, schools with 450 or more twelfth-grade students, on average, offer approximately twice the number of advanced courses as schools with fewer than 150 twelfth graders (eight versus four courses).  school size alone, however, is not the only factor impact-ing the number of advanced mathematics courses offered. Many small schools, after all, either offer advanced math-ematics courses or have devised creative solutions, such as distance education. likewise, just because a school is large does not mean that it offers advanced mathematics courses. for example, when small rural schools are consolidated into large regional schools, the promises of curriculum improve-ment frequently go unmet. Therefore, we cannot focus solely on school size when asking why rural schools offer fewer advanced mathematics courses than schools in urban and suburban locations. Other characteristics that likely impact the number and type of advanced mathematics courses include community wealth, location, educational levels and expectations of parents in the communities, and teacher qualifications, to name a few. little education research has focused specifically on understanding these critical questions about context and its impact on the opportunities that rural students have to enroll in advanced mathematics. as the nation prepares to reauthorize the elementary and secondary education act, it is important for policy makers to have sound information about what opportunities rural schools are offering students who have the potential to be part of the next generation of mathematicians and engineers.figure 2. Average number of advanced mathemat-ics courses offered, by location4 7 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Rural/small town Suburban/large town Urban Source: The Condition of Education, 2005. Data used includes National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) and the High School Transcript Study (HSTS)figure 3. Average twelfth-grade mathematics NAeP scores, by highest level of mathematics completed117126 142 164 181 100 110120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 Algebra I or less Geometry Trig/algebra II Precalculus Calculus Source: NAEP, 2005 Mathematics Assessment, accessed using NAEP Data Explorer  2 C a r s e y  i n s t i t u t ee n d n O T e S1. This fact sheet employs definitions of region used by the national Center for education statistics. revised in 2006 to be consistent with census categories, geographical regions are classified as urbanized areas, urban clusters, or rural. urbanized areas and urban clusters are defined as densely settled areas with adjacent densely settled surrounding areas. urbanized areas have populations of 50,000 or more and contain both a principal city and the suburbs outside the principal city. large towns or suburban areas are defined as urban clusters containing populations of 25,000 to 50,000. rural areas are those regions outside urbanized areas and urban clusters. see http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/ruraled/measuring.asp for further details.2. for the recent increase in rural schools, see J. Johnson and M. strange, “Why rural Matters 2007: The realities of rural education Growth.” arlington, Va: rural school and Community trust, 2007.3. Course offerings are also limited for subjects other than mathematics. Only 53 percent of schools in rural areas offer advanced placement courses in any subject compared with 72 percent in small towns, 85 percent in suburbs, and 78 percent in cities.R e F e R e n C e SMcardle, e. “Boon, not Boondock.”  editorial. Magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, vol. 52, no. 1 (2008): 16–21.national Center for education statistics. 2005. “The Condition of education.” Washington, DC: u.s. Department of education.national Center for education statistics. 2007. “status of education in rural america.” Washington, DC: u.s. Department of education.Oakes, J. “Opportunities, achievement, and Choice: Women and Minority students in science and Mathematics.” in Review of Research in Education, edited by Courtney B. Cazden. Washington, DC: american educational research association, 1990.A C K n O w L e d G M e n T SThe author would like to thank Mil Duncan, sally Ward, todd DeMitchell, rachel tompkins, and Kai schafft for  their thoughtful comments and suggestions; Barbara ray  for editorial assistance; and terri rippett for guidance throughout the process.A b O u T  T H e  A u T H O Rsuzanne e. Graham is an assistant professor in the Depart-ment of education at the university of new Hampshire. (suzanne.graham@unh.edu) C a r s e y  i n s t i t u t e  3building knowledge for families and communities The Carsey Institute conducts policy research on vulnerable children, youth, and families and on sustainable community development. we give policy makers and practitioners timely, independent resources to effect change in their communities. This work was supported by the Annie e. Casey Foundation’s initiative to strengthen rural families and the w. K. Kellogg Foundation.Huddleston Hall73 Main Street durham, nH 03824(603) 862-2821www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu  4 C a r s e y  i n s t i t u t e

Students in rural schools have limited access to advanced mathematics courses

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Students in rural schools have limited access to advanced mathematics courses

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