Subtraction and Substitution - The Role of Schools in Math Course-Taking

Oct 15, 2026

A brief companion to the report Subtraction and Substitution: Shifts in High School Math Course-Taking examines how California high schools shape students’ math course enrollment. Using 2023–24 enrollment by school characteristics and student-course patterns from 2014–15 through 2023–24, plus educator interviews, it finds large variation across schools. Access to the most advanced coursework is uneven, and course offerings have shifted over the past decade, with declines in precalculus and calculus enrollment.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages23

Reading Time58 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Data

Table 1. Math Course Categories

Subtraction and Substitution The Role of Schools in Math Course-Taking Beryl Larson Jacob Jackson Sherrie Reed Michal Kurlaender This brief, a companion to the report Subtraction and Substitution: Shifts in High School Math Course-Taking, examines how schools shape math course-taking among California high school students. The brief looks at math course enrollment in 2023–24 based on school characteristics, course offerings from 2014–15 to 2023–24, and interviews with educators about math pathways at their schools. Results indicate that math course-taking varies considerably across schools. Whether students enroll in math in 12th grade and what kinds of courses they take differ by school characteristics, such as school size and proportion of socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Findings reveal that math course offerings in California have changed over the past decade and that not all students have access to the most advanced math coursework at their schools. April 2026 Introduction This brief accompanies the recently released report Subtraction and Substitution: Shifts in High School Math Course-Taking.1 Using student-level course data for ten recent cohorts of high school seniors, Dykeman et al. uncovered several noteworthy trends in mathematics coursetaking. For example, about 70–75 percent of high school seniors enrolled in math courses from 2015 through 2024,2 while 25–30 percent did not enroll in a math course at all during their senior year. The proportion of students taking any math course during their senior year increased from about 71 percent in 2015 to about 75 percent in 2019 but then declined about four percentage points (back to 2015 levels) by 2024. The report also finds that 75 percent of high school students enrolled in the highest math course necessary for admissions eligibility at California’s public 4-year universities (Algebra 2 or its equivalent)—a rate that has remained stable over the last decade.3 At the same time, enrollment in some advanced math courses has decreased. Compared to 2015, students in the 2024 cohort were less likely to enroll in precalculus (45 .9 percent in 2015 vs. 33.4 percent in 2024) and calculus (17.8 percent in 2015 vs. 14.2 percent in 2024) . Finally, the report notes a modest increase in statistics course enrollment over the past decade. Math enrollment in 12th grade is positively related to college enrollment and persistence, especially if those courses are advanced.4 Although many individual-level factors can influence whether students enroll in math and which classes they take, schools play a critical role in students’ course-enrollment decisions.5 In this brief, we focus on differences among California high schools in math course enrollment. The school that a student attends affects the courses available for enrollment, the student’s prior mathematics preparation, and the academic support that the student can access. Previous research has found that schools primarily serving low-income students tend to offer fewer advanced courses as well as fewer resources for college preparation.6 To examine the role that schools play in students’ math course-taking, we extended the findings of the primary Subtraction and Substitution report by exploring how changes in math course-taking manifest in California’s traditional public high schools, including differences based on school characteristics, such as size and socioeconomic makeup. This brief mirrors the structure of the primary report by first examining 12th-grade math course-taking at the school level and then analyzing the math courses taken from Grades 9 through 12. 2 Subtraction and Substitution: The Role of Schools in Math Course-Taking Policy Analysis for California Education [edpolicyinca.org](edpolicyinca.org) Data To examine school-level enrollment, we used 2024 data from the California Department of Education’s California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) .7 Students were a

FAQs

What does this brief investigate about math course-taking in California high schools?

It examines how schools influence students’ math course enrollment, focusing on differences among California high schools and how school characteristics relate to course availability and student access.

What data sources are used to analyze school-level enrollment and course-taking?

The brief uses 2024 data from CALPADS for school-level enrollment assignments and demographics, and CALPADS Course Completion files to study course-enrollment patterns across student cohorts.

How are math courses categorized for the analysis?

The analysis groups state course codes into seven policy-relevant categories, including no math, AP statistics, non-AP statistics, calculus, precalculus/trigonometry, algebra 2, and lower than algebra 2.

Oct 15, 2026

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