NC House lowers math requirements

By Heather Koons

Public Schools First NC

RALEIGH (May 10, 2025) – In another blow to public schools, a majority of House members voted this week to lower the high school mathematics graduation requirements for all public schools.

Because the new, lower standards fall below the minimum admissions requirements for UNC system schools, the bill also directs the UNC Board of Governors to lower its standards to align with the new high school graduation standards.

Instead of supporting high standards and student success through investments in the teacher pipeline, tutoring, counseling, and other widely researched effective strategies, House legislators opted to simply lower the standards. These changes risk making North Carolina students less competitive when compared to their national and international peers.

House Bill 415 “Modify Math & Social Studies Grad. Req” removes Math 3 as a graduation requirement and replaces it with a computer science course. Under this bill, mathematics graduation requirements will include four “math” courses: 1) NC Math 1, 2) NC Math 2, 3) Computer Science, and 4) a fourth mathematics course aligned with the student’s career development plan.

Current mathematics high school graduation requirements include NC Math 1, 2, and 3 and a fourth mathematics course aligned with the student’s post high school plans.

The current Math 1, 2, and 3 content standards loosely align with traditional Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry courses, but they integrate the three content threads throughout the full Math 1-3 sequence. As a result, completing the full Math 1-3 sequence is needed to meet college admissions requirements for Algebra 1, 2, and Geometry.

During House debate on Wednesday, Rep. Julie von Haefen pointed out that when legislators added a computer science course to the high school graduation requirements last year, they specifically chose to keep it an elective course instead of labeling it as a mathematics course. For college admissions purposes, computer science is often not considered a mathematics course, so students who complete high school in North Carolina with just the required courses, will have completed only three traditional math courses, one short of the minimum required of many colleges and universities.

Rep. von Haefen’s amendment to keep the current computer science requirement labeled as an elective course and require four years of conventional mathematics courses failed mostly along party lines.

House Bill 415 also directs educators to enroll students in “Foundations of Math 1” instead of Math 1 if they did not pass (i.e., score Level 3 or higher) the eighth grade EOG mathematics test. Students who don’t pass Math 1 are to be enrolled in “Foundations of Math 2” instead of Math 2.

The Foundations of Math courses would be taken in addition to Math 1 and Math 2, likely prior to enrolling in the standard courses.

The bill allows parents or the principal to intervene and enroll the student in Math 1 or Math 2 (instead of Foundations of Math 1 or 2) as appropriate.

The bill sponsor, Rep. David Willis, gave two primary reasons for the mathematics changes: 1) too many students are not succeeding in Math 1, and 2) higher level math courses are not needed for many postsecondary career options, so students should not be required to take them.

House Bill 415 directs public schools to encourage all students to complete additional math courses beyond the required courses. In addition, public schools must continue to make “NC Math III and all other math courses existing on the effective date of this act” available to all high school students.

However, many students do not choose a post-secondary path until well into their high school careers or even after graduation. If House Bill 415 becomes law, some students may find that even though they’ve met all high school graduation requirements, they have not met the minimum standard for college entrance.

Families often rely on the public schools to adequately prepare their students for postsecondary options by establishing appropriate graduation requirements. This bill, through inappropriately low graduation standards, signals an end to the state’s commitment to college and career-ready preparation for all students.

Although the bill requires the UNC system schools to lower their admission standards, the lowered high school graduation standards puts North Carolina graduates at a clear disadvantage if they move out of state or want to attend a private college/university.

To address challenges in finding enough computer science teachers, House Bill 415 directs DPI to create a pathway for any licensed teacher—regardless of licensure area—to teach computer science if a school district determines the teacher “possesses the necessary content knowledge to effectively teach the course.”

In addition to the mathematics changes, House Bill 415 also makes changes to one of the required high school history courses: Founding Principles of the United States of America and North Carolina: Civic Literacy. Specific course content is described, including subjects such as “the Creator-endowed inalienable rights of the people,” and “rule of law.”

Students will also be required to take a new United States History test. Developed by DPI, it must be composed of questions from the pool of publicly available questions used for the civics test given by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as part of the naturalization interview for prospective U.S. citizens.

House Bill 415 goes to the Senate where its fate will be decided in the coming weeks. Please contact your senator and urge them to support students in achieving high standards instead of lowering the state’s mathematics requirements.

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