**Abstract**

Calculus is perceived as serving many roles in college STEM students' education, including as a way to 'weed out' students who should not be in the major to teaching fundamental concepts. No matter its purpose, it is clear that college calculus is viewed as a critical course in university STEM education. It is also clear that in the US and other countries, STEM education is disproportionately serving men and white and Asian students. In this chapter, I discuss how calculus has come to occupy this position over time and the current state of college calculus drawing on two national studies in the United States. I then define a forward thinking-calculus program as one designed to support a diverse population of students to thrive, provide an example of a program aligned with this approach, and discuss key features to consider in designing a calculus program for the modern age.

**Keywords:** college, calculus, change, equity, STEM education

### **1. Introduction**

In their summary of calculus education research, Rasmussen, Marrongelle, and Borba describe calculus serving the role of "everything from a 'weeding out' course to fundamental preparation to take on applied problems in partner disciplines, preparing students to bring an understanding of rates, concavity, functional relationships, among other topics to bring to bear on multi-disciplinary problems" ([1], p. 507). Calculus is often thought of as the college mathematics course, with the main goal of mathematically preparing students for degrees in STEM, but it is also often seen as beneficial to students in non-STEM degree programs for developing critical thinking and problem solving experience. As a researcher who has spent countless hours sitting in calculus classes across the country, at schools we have identified as having successful or interesting programs, I frequently find these classes stale, uninspiring, and certainly not supporting critical thinking or creative problem solving. As a mathematician who was inspired to study math because of calculus, I find this troubling, but as an educator I find it immoral. In this chapter, I will explore how calculus has come to occupy its current status as the gateway mathematics class for STEM students, discuss the current state of calculus drawing on my research teams' studies of college calculus for the past decade, and offer an example of a forward-thinking calculus program.
