NC bill may overhaul high school math and social studies graduation requirements
North Carolina lawmakers could overhaul high school math requirements and make it mandatory for students to pass a U.S. history test to get a diploma.
The N.C. House K-12 Education Committee backed a revised bill Tuesday that replaces NC Math 3 with computer science as one of the four math credits needed for high school graduation. House Bill 415 requires the UNC System Board of Governors to adopt the new high school math requirements as the system's minimum math admissions requirements.
The bill also changes social studies requirements, including requiring students to pass a test on their civics knowledge before they can graduate from high school.
Rep. David Willis, a Union County Republican, said the changes better reflect the math needs for most high school students. He said Math 3, which begins to go into areas like calculus, is not a skill that most students will need either in college or in their career.
'Our goal is to give the kids what they actually need and meet them where they're at and stop pretending to put a band aid on a system where we're graduating students who aren't math ready for college,' said Willis, one of the bill's primary sponsors and a co-chair of the Education Committee.
Bill opponents argued the bill sends the wrong message about math standards.
'We are lowering now the standards for students in North Carolina, and we're requiring our UNC system to lower its standards,' said Rep. Julie von Haefen, a Wake County Democrat. 'That is not the pathway that I think we should be going down.'
The bill now goes to the House Rules Committee. If adopted, the new high school graduation requirements would go into effect for students entering ninth grade in the 2026-27 school year.
The legislation comes at the same time the State Department of Public Instruction has begun work on developing new K-12 math standards.
Do students need to take Math 3?
High school students currently need to pass Math 1, Math 2 and Math 3 and a fourth math course aligned with their post-secondary plans to get a diploma.
Math 1 integrates algebra, geometry, function and statistics
Math 2 builds on Math 1 and goes into more on topics such as polynomials, trigonometric ratios, probability and geometric concepts like congruence and similarity.
Math 3 builds on Math 1 and Math 2 and goes into topics such as complex numbers, inverse functions, trigonometric functions and geometric concepts such as conics and circles.
'The reality is the vast majority of the students don't need or will never use what's learned in Math 3,' Willis said.
Unless they're in a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) field, Willis said most UNC System students or community college students won't take a college math course beyond algebra.
At the same time, Willis pointed to how the state end-of-course Math 1 exam passing rate was 37% for high school students. Many middle school students take Math 1. If you include them, the passing rate rises to 51%.
'I'd say what we're doing is getting more realistic about where we are in the world today and not continuing down a failing mechanism that is is not working for our students,' Willis said. 'When 70% of our students in high school are not on grade level for Math I — 70% are not on grade level — what are we talking about?'
New math placement guidelines
Under the bill, students would take Math 1, Math 2, computer science and a fourth math courses aligned with their career development plans. Last year, lawmakers had added passing a computer science class as a graduation requirement but made it one of the elective credits students must fulfill.
'We're giving the students what they need to meet the career that they're going to have, and not ask them to take something more than the UNC System, which is one of the best college systems, and if not the best in the country, is going to require of them,' Willis said.
High schools could still offer Math 3. But the bill would no longer make the class mandatory beginning in the 2025-26 school year. This means students would also no longer have to take the state's Math 3 end-of-course exam.
Under the bill, students who didn't pass the state's 8th-grade end-of grade math exam would be required to take a new Foundations of Math I class before they could take Math 1. There would be exceptions, such as if the parent requests their child take Math 1 or the principal can cite evidence for why the student should be enrolled in Math 1.
Similar requirements would be in place for Math 2. Students who don't pass the Math 1 exam would be enrolled in a Foundations of Math 2 class before taking Math 2 unless their parents or the principal objects.
Students who passed the 8th-grade math EOG class or the Math I EOC exam would be encouraged not to take either foundational math course.
Willis said his bill gives students who need more math help the time to build on their foundational skills while allowing students who can handle it to pursue advanced high school math courses.
But von Haefen, the lawmaker, said that she's worried that the legislation could create a system of have and have nots.
'I also worry that putting students on these two tracks ... where our lower income and minority children, who tend to test at those lower levels in math, are going to be on one track and all the other students are going to be on the other track,' von Haefen said.
New social studies requirements
Under the bill, high school students would need to pass a US history test as a graduation requirement. Students used to have to pass state end-of-course exams in civics and American history before they were eliminated by state lawmakers in an effort to reduce standardized testing.
Under the bill, the State Board of Education would develop the new required U.S. history test. The test would consist of questions taken from the pool given to people trying to complete the naturalization requirement for U.S. citizenship.
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