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SALT LAKE CITY — Most high school students graduating next month have had three years of math. But higher education officials are recommending students take math classes all four years of high school, so they will be truly prepared for college.
"Often math is a big barrier to them,” said Utah Commissioner of Higher Education Dave Buhler. “When they arrive in college, they haven't learned the things they need to, or they have forgotten the things they learned. So we are trying to help students know what they can do in high school to be better prepared for college, and thus be more successful."
Educators say more math also will prevent students from leaving college. It’s something Sen. Steven Urquhart, R-St. George, addressed on the education task force.
“A significant majority of our students walk through the college doors not ready to take 1050,” he said, noting that many of them are put into remedial math classes.
“If a student has to take a single remedial course, then that student only has a 20 percent likelihood of completing college,” he said.
That’s because college remedial math classes cost tuition money but don’t count toward credits.
Buhler said often mathematics is the barrier to graduating college.
"We are doing things on our end too, like requiring math in the first year of college so students get it taken care of and not put it off, and finding ways to teach what we call developmental math or remedial math more effectively so help them complete it and move on to credit-granting math."
