Calculus is a core part of many college-going students’ high school experiences and may also be important for higher educational opportunities. Many students take it in high school as part of required or advanced-level coursework, especially in STEM-related fields or for K-12 students aiming to pursue a STEM-related field. Several factors hinder the ability for students to access quality calculus courses, such as their district and/or school offering few, if any, courses. Within schools, there might also be structures or practices impeding access to calculus and therefore affect whether students enroll in calculus if their school offers it. Equitably increasing student access to quality math, and specifically calculus, courses can help prepare students for the postsecondary life with the skills they need to succeed, whatever their own personal success looks like.

Corporal punishment has been present in public schools for decades. While certainly a diminished presence in 2025, it is still enshrined in state education statutes in at least 14 states as a legal way of disciplining students. This is in spite of research showing the harm in punitive disciplinary practices like corporal punishment (see here, here, and here). This brief will cover an overview of corporal punishment’s legal history, how corporal punishment has manifested in schools in the last several decades, and what it looks like today. For a snapshot of how state-level trends in CP by race/ethnicity has varied over the last decade, please our prior brief on this topic.

Erica Frankenberg reflects on her recent visit to ERI at the University of Virginia, School of Law