Fewer math opportunities for minorities

Many minority students in America's grade and high schools face a mathematical conundrum. While they are keener than their nonminority peers to take advance placement (AP) math courses, they actually have fewer opportunities to do so.

A recent Harris Interactive survey conducted for the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering found that 41 percent of fifth- through eighthgrade minority students cite math as their favorite subject, compared with just 30 percent of their nonminority classmates. Among high schoolers, 31 percent of minority students, versus just 17 percent of non-minority students, favor math over other courses. Seventy-three percent of minority students said they would take AP math, but only 44 percent were enrolled in schools offering advanced math. Moreover, the study found that minority students place a higher reliance on teacher influence than do nonminority students.

Yet, the survey concluded, teachers are less likely to encourage minority students to take college-level math. John Brooks Slaughter, NACME president and CEO, says this has led to an achievement gap in mathematics between white, African American, and Mexican American students that can ultimately affect the quality of America's workforce. "We really need policies to ensure that all students have access to higher-level math," Slaughter says. NACME says that teachers should be encouraged to help more minority students take advanced math, and also supports calls for national math standards that would require all schools to offer AP math courses.