Civil Litigation
Dec. 2, 2025
The unequal equation: When math placement becomes discrimination
Despite equal ability, Black and Latino students are routinely denied early algebra access -- turning a curricular choice into a civil rights problem hiding in plain sight.
K. Chike Odiwe
Civil Rights Attorney
The Law Offices of Kenneth C. Odiwe, PC
2880 Zanker Road, Ste 203
San Jose , CA 95134
Fax: (669) 315-4431
Schools across the United States continue to ration access to early algebra in ways that disproportionately shut out Black and Latino students. The disparities are now so stark, and the consequences so long-lasting, that this issue no longer looks like a mere curriculum dispute. It looks like a civil rights problem hiding in plain sight.
The data paints a consistent story. When schools offer algebra in eighth grade, more than half of Asian students take ...
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