By Natalie and Fausel and Arman Sidhu, ExcelinEd in Action
This article was originally published in AZCentral.
In classrooms and communities across Arizona, thousands of students who demonstrate readiness for advanced mathematics courses are never given the opportunity to do so. This isn’t due to ability or interest. There are systemic barriers that limit those opportunities.
House Bill 2423, authored by House Education Committee Chairman Matt Gress, would address this issue. The bill would establish a guaranteed access policy for advanced math in Arizona’s middle schools, ensuring students who demonstrate proficiency on state assessments are automatically placed on an advanced math pathway with the ability for families to opt out. It is a straightforward reform modeled on policies already succeeding in a handful of other states.
This is not a bill designed to give already advantaged students another leg up. It’s designed to identify and invest in the talented students our current system overlooks.
Research from the Education Trust and Just Equations shows that when Black and Hispanic students pass algebra I in eighth grade, they still enroll in advanced high school math classes at lower rates than their peers. Even when schools offer advanced coursework, relying solely on an opt-in system creates gatekeeping barriers that disproportionately limit students from low-income families.Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!
As the Collaborative for Student Success has noted, when the responsibility falls on a student or their parent to seek out more advanced math classes rather than being automatically enrolled, the students who miss out the most are those whose families have less information and less familiarity with how school systems work.
The evidence from states that have removed these barriers is compelling. When the Dallas Independent School District shifted from an opt-in to an opt-out model in 2019, Hispanic sixth-grade enrollment in honors math jumped from 33% to 59%, and Black enrollment rose from 17% to 43%. Significantly, there was no change in the percentage of students who passed the advanced class. Texas later adopted the Dallas model statewide with unanimous bipartisan support. North Carolina, Virginia, Washington and Indiana have since enacted similar guaranteed access policies. In each of these cases, the largest gains were seen among historically underrepresented students.
The case for HB 2423 extends beyond equity. Arizona’s economy increasingly depends on a workforce fluent in quantitative reasoning. A 2024 study shows that more than one in five Arizona job openings requires some form of data science skill. This can be attributed to the economic benefits of investments made in Arizona’s semiconductor, aerospace and bioscience sectors that are dependent on nurturing a talented workforce.
