

When states adopted Common Core's math standards, they were told (among other things) that they would make all high school students "college- and career-ready" and strengthen the critical pipeline for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

However, with the exception of a few standards in trigonometry, the math standards end after Algebra II, as James Milgram, professor of mathematics emeritus at Stanford University observed in "Lowering the Bar: How Common Core Math Fails to Prepare High School Students for STEM," a report that Milgram and I co-authored for the Pioneer Institute.

Who was responsible for telling the truth to the Colorado Board of Education when it adopted these standards in 2010? Who should be telling Gov. John Hickenlooper, business executives, and college presidents today that Common Core includes no standards for pre-calculus and that high school graduates taught only to Common Core's mathematics standards won't be prepared to pursue a four-year degree in STEM?

Superintendents, local school committees, and most parents don't seem to know that under Common Core, their students won't be able to pursue a STEM career. In fact, they think that Common Core's math standards are rigorous.


U.S. government data show that only one out of every 50 prospective STEM majors who begin their undergraduate math coursework at the pre-calculus level or lower will earn bachelor's degrees in a STEM area. Moreover, students whose last high school mathematics course was Algebra II or lower have less than a 40 percent chance of earning any kind of four-year college degree.

It's not as if the lead mathematics standards writers themselves didn't tell the public how low Common Core's high school mathematics standards were. In 2010, Jason Zimba, a lead writer, said the standards are "not only not for STEM, they are also not for selective colleges."

In January 2010, William McCallum, another lead mathematics standards writer, said, "The overall standards would not be too high, certainly not in comparison [to] other nations, including East Asia, where math education excels."

There are other consequences to having a college readiness test in math with low expectations. The U.S. Department of Education's competitive grant program, Race to the Top, requires states to place students who have been admitted by their public colleges and universities into credit-bearing (non-remedial) mathematics (and English) courses if they have passed a Common Core-based "college readiness" test. Selective public colleges, engineering schools, and universities in every state will likely have to lower the level of their introductory math courses to avoid unacceptably high failure rates.


It is still astonishing that Colorado's state board of education adopted Common Core's standards without asking the engineering, science and math faculty at its own higher education institutions (and the math teachers in our own high schools) to do an analysis of Common Core's definition of college readiness and make public their recommendations. After all, who could be better judges of what students need for a STEM major?

We clearly need to revise Common Core's mathematics standards as soon as possible so that all American schools are able to offer the coursework beginning in grades 5 or 6, enabling mathematically able students to aim for a STEM major in college. Unless, of course, Colorado's towns and cities aren't interested in American-born and educated engineers, doctors or scientists.
