Advancing Equity With Policy

Executive Summary

New York currently has an educational system in which access to rigorous STEM coursework is primarily determined by residential ZIP code, race, and class. This disparity in access is due to concentrated poverty and racial segregation, which have been driven by decades of exclusionary housing practices. These discriminatory public policies have resulted in dramatic inequities in foundational math achievement that need to be addressed now to improve math outcomes across the state. As educational inequity in STEM is a housing, zoning, and finance issue, local school governance alone cannot dismantle the structural factors that drive opportunity segregation. This brief proposes a five-part policy strategy that links school finance reform, curricular guarantees, STEM teacher pipelines, zoning reform, and out-of-school STEM ecosystems to disrupt the cycle of spatially concentrated educational disadvantage.

Policy Solutions

To reform the availability of STEM opportunities in New York requires a comprehensive restructuring of state policy across funding, coursework access, and the educator workforce. The following five policy solutions will effectively target each of these aspects to improve student outcomes. 

1. The New York State Legislature must revise the Foundation Aid formula, specifically the Pupil Needs Index (PNI) and associated student-based weights. This modification would account for the structural effects of neighborhood-level segregation and concentrated poverty. The current PNI is based on individual student characteristics, such as poverty status, but has fallen short of improving equity because it fails to capture the compounding resource challenges faced by schools in high-poverty neighborhoods. Thus, comprehensive reform is needed to ensure the PNI includes new weights for both poverty concentration and racial isolation to account for the intensive, specialized support required to mitigate structural disadvantage. These equity efforts must be paired with dedicated funding streams to expand access to technology and ensure sufficient numbers of qualified STEM educators in every district to improve STEM outcomes. 
2. The state must guarantee Algebra I in both grades 8 and 9 until proficiency rates rise above 80 percent. When students fail the Algebra 1 Regents in 9th grade, their STEM trajectory falters because they cannot take advanced STEM or AP courses if they must repeat Algebra 1 in Grade 10. According to Figure 1, only 40% of students in high-poverty districts were proficient in Algebra 1. If the state revises its math trajectory to push higher-level math in lower grades, provides academic support to students in need, and then offers Algebra 1 Regents in Grade 8 to all students, there will be a buffer for students who fail the Regents. As the state curriculum is revised, the need for Algebra 1 in Grade 9 will diminish, and within 5 years, New York State can make the Algebra 1 Regents an 8th-grade-only course.
3. 3Since equitable access to coursework is impossible without qualified educators, the state must strengthen the STEM teacher pipeline. Solutions include expanding SUNY and CUNY teacher residency programs, offering loan forgiveness and/or housing subsidies for educators who commit to long-term service in high-poverty districts, and providing retention bonuses for experienced STEM teachers. 
4. Exclusionary zoning practices limit low-income families’ access to well-resourced, STEM-rich schools. Therefore, the Legislature should incentivize mixed-income and multifamily housing development in high-opportunity zones. Additionally, the state can encourage municipalities to reduce residential segregation by linking financial incentives to substantial improvements in school socioeconomic diversity. Because housing policy determines who can live near high-performing schools, zoning reform is the highest-leverage tool for advancing educational integration and expanding equitable access to STEM opportunities.
5. Even with improvements to school funding, curriculum, and housing policy, many students in high-poverty communities face significant barriers to STEM participation beyond the school day. Limited access to enrichment opportunities, transportation, and basic supports can prevent students from fully engaging in rigorous academic pathways. Therefore, the state should invest in expanded after-school STEM programs, transportation to STEM enrichment, mentoring, and learning opportunities alongside STEM industries. By including out-of-school supports, New York can address a range of structural barriers that limit STEM access and ensure that opportunity extends beyond the classroom.

Indicators of Success

The effectiveness of statewide STEM equity reforms must be assessed through clear, measurable indicators that reflect both academic progress and structural transformation. Within the first year, districts should be required to publicly report advanced STEM course offerings, enrollment, and proficiency, disaggregated by race, income, and ZIP code, as well as annual STEM teacher certification and retention data. This data can be used to measure success starting from the first year. 

Within the first three years, Algebra I proficiency rates should rise to at least 60 percent in high-poverty neighborhoods. This increase in proficiency would reflect improved access to foundational mathematics and targeted instructional support for all students. Within these three years, racial proficiency gaps should shrink by at least 15 percentage points as opportunity barriers are dismantled.

Conclusion

STEM opportunity in New York is currently distributed based on residential sorting mechanisms rooted in racism and economic exclusion. Concentrated poverty ensures that children in some neighborhoods are never given the chance to become scientists, engineers, physicians, or programmers, which limits both their individual potential and the collective prosperity. To address injustice in the education system, the Legislature must treat housing policy as education policy, school funding as racial justice policy, and STEM access as an economic policy. The current financial and educational systems are disenfranchising our youth, and the resulting compounding problems require multifaceted, robust solutions. The Legislature must act now to ensure that every student, regardless of their race or place of birth, can have equal oppurntunites to succeed in our great state of New York.