4 Years of Math Better Prepares Students for College: UCLA Study

A student performs a math assignment in Laguna Niguel, Calif., on May 12, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Students who take a fourth year of math in high school are 5 percent more likely to enroll and persist in college than their peers who don’t, according to a UCLA study of students in the second largest school district in the U.S.—Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)—published last month.

The study—which tracked 45,000 LAUSD students from junior year until two years after high school—also found those students also have a 5 percent higher chance of enrolling in four-year colleges.

Similarly, college persistence—meaning students who remained enrolled for a second year—was about 5 percent higher among students who took a fourth year of math.

California currently requires high schoolers to take just two years of math to graduate. However, many school districts—including Los Angeles Unified—require students to take three.

Researchers said the results are likely because most of the state’s colleges prefer applicants who have taken additional years of math—and such may become even more important as an increasing number of four-year and private colleges no longer consider applicants’ SAT or ACT test scores.

Additionally, researchers suggested taking math as a high school senior may encourage those who do to consider college more seriously.

However, the study found that a fourth year of math may negatively impact students’ grade point average by .03 or .06 points due to more challenging courses.

A child wears a face mask while attending an online class at a learning hub inside the Crenshaw Family YMCA during the Covid-19 pandemic in Los Angeles, Calif., on Feb. 17, 2021. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said the longer-term benefits outweigh the small drop in grade point average.

Students who choose a fourth year of math, he said, learn resilience by putting themselves in “a more challenging and rigorous environment.”

Carvalho said he plans to take action on the study’s findings.

“We are now further armed with information that validates and supports the investments and additional offerings of mathematics in the senior year,” he said in a Feb. 9 statement.

About two-thirds of surveyed LAUSD seniors took a fourth year of math, while 25 percent didn’t. Another 10 percent took just one semester of math their senior year and were excluded from the study.

However, LAUSD still has a long way to go when it comes to student math standards.

In September, the California Department of Education’s “Smarter Balanced Assessments” study reported that only about one-fourth of LAUSD students met the state’s math proficiency standards for the 2021–22 school year. The tests evaluate students in grades 3–8 and 11.

Statewide, the numbers were worse, showing two out of three students didn’t meet the standards.