Automatically enrolling students in advanced math courses when they're ready is a simple, yet powerful, shift that could change the trajectory of thousands of students.
What are Automatic Enrollment policies?
A growing group of bipartisan states are adopting auto-enrollment policies to ensure all students who are ready for expanded opportunities in math are able to claim a seat in an advanced math course.
In states like Texas, Washington, and North Carolina, schools automatically enroll students who perform at the highest levels on state math tests into an advanced math course for their next school year. While only implemented in recent years, schools are already seeing large increases in the number of students of color and students from low-income backgrounds enrolled in – and sticking with – advanced math courses.
Expanding Auto-Enrollment
During the 2021-22 school year in Florida, only 7.8% of public high school students taking Advanced Placement Calculus AB were Black, despite Black students representing 20.9% of the cohort.
A 2023 report by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) found that Black students in California were the least likely to enroll in advanced math courses, while English Learners were the most likely to be enrolled in foundational math courses preceding Algebra II while in the 12th grade. The findings pointed to “substantial disparities in opportunity” between student groups.
In 2020, EdTrust – New York found that students who were White and not low-income were approximately twice as likely to be enrolled in advanced courses than their low-income, Black, and Latino peers.
According to EdTrust, the enrollment of Black students in AP Math courses in Michigan would need to double in order to achieve fair representation.
Key Supporters
Check out EdTrust’s tool for exploring advanced course data in your state or learn even more about auto enrollment policies here.
Learn how efforts in North Carolina to create stronger math opportunities for all students are paying off:
To hear from leaders in North Carolina and Texas on auto-enrollment policies in their communities, listen in to the Route K-12 podcast for more:
Model Policy
Our friends at ExcelinEd – a nonprofit that supports state leaders in transforming education – have developed a model automatic enrollment policy for advanced math coursework that can easily be adapted to meet the needs of any state.