Greater Texas Foundation will support E3 Alliance’s Pathways of Promise 3.0: Building Systems for Equitable STEM and Career Pathways initiative with a $712,120 grant. Students who begin taking higher-level math courses in middle school have much greater access to college-level math courses in high school. In fact, 66% of students who accelerated their math coursework in middle school ultimately complete college-level math coursework in high school, as compared to just 8% of students who follow the traditional math pathway. Low-income students especially stand to benefit from accelerated math, since taking just one more math course puts them on par with their non-low-income peers for college completion. Low-income students, however, are only half as likely to be placed into accelerated math as their non-low-income peers, with 18% of low-income students accelerating as compared to 40% of non-low-income students statewide.
Through PoP 3.0, E3 Alliance and districts throughout Central Texas will work to systematically eliminate the equity gap for taking Algebra I by eighth grade by 1) designing strategies that promote student interest and intent to enter accelerated mathematics, and 2) developing campus and district policies that promote opportunity and access through a focus on equity and in partnership with the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE). E3 Alliance and community partners seek to increase the percentage of minority and low-income students accelerated by 6th grade, enrolled in Algebra I by 8th grade, pursuing the STEM Endorsement, completing college-level math in high school, enrolling in college directly after high school, and, ultimately, completing college within six years.
