CHAPEL HILL -- Math, so crucial to a student's college plans, is often a subject beset by racial divides.

The fault lines surface when most students are 11 or 12 years old, when a state-mandated exam helps determine which ones will go on to take harder math classes.

Those who do are likely to be white or Asian. They begin an academic path unlocking math and science pre-requisites earlier, giving them more years to compile the classes that college admissions offices love to see.

The others -- who are disproportionately black or Latino -- follow a more-average path, standard in most North Carolina high schools.

Closing the gaps between racial and ethnic groups -- which appear in all subjects -- is now the No. 1 goal for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system.

The math divide, however, is among the most serious.

School leaders hope to narrow it by making the above-average track the norm, or default setting, in middle schools.

To do this, they want more eighth-graders to take what has long been a staple of high school freshman year: algebra.

"For years, we put every kid in tracks and boxes," said Diane Villwock, director of testing for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

"Now, we're saying, 'Put every kid on the high track.' Part of that, honestly, is helping staff understand the kids can do it," she said.

High-end courses

Chapel Hill High has 231 black students -- roughly 13 percent of the total school body.

None of them are in teacher Keith Cooper's calculus topics class or Bert Wartski's advanced placement biology class.

Both are among the teachers' hardest courses, requiring a string of pre-requisites.

Neither is crucial for college admission. But surely, some teachers say, black and Latino talent is being lost if these classes are filled only with white and Asian students.

Their parents might not have known it then, but many students on the slower math track got onto it before they hit their teens.

In elementary school classrooms, the super-bright and the way-behind share the same teacher.

"Elementary teachers are not math specialists," Villwock said. "They're generalists."

Paths diverge in middle school. In sixth grade, most students take a class generically titled "Math Six" or "Sixth Grade Math."

Those on par or struggling would take "Math Seven" the next year and pre-algebra in eighth grade. This is typical in North Carolina.

Sixth-graders who show promise might jump to pre-algebra in seventh grade, setting them off on a solid college prep track.

They would take algebra in eighth grade, giving them good lead time to take at least one math course beyond Algebra II before graduating high school -- a UNC system admissions requirement.

There is a third track, offered by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools but recommended only for very strong math students.

In fifth grade, students who score at or above the 97th percentile on the end-of-grade exam automatically take another algebra aptitude test.

Scoring high on that test puts them in pre-algebra in sixth grade, setting them up to take geometry -- typically a course for high school sophomores -- in eighth grade.

This path, Villwock said, is not for everyone.

"I would ask their parents, 'Do you think your student will be an engineer? If so, go for it. If not, what's the benefit of ramping them up so fast in math?'"

But, just as the traditional track has a disproportionate number of black students, the fastest track has a disproportionate number of Asians.

"Asians, I think their parents push them really hard in math," said Antonio Sales, a black East Chapel Hill High junior and self-described "average" math student.

"Me, I've always felt my drive comes partly from my parents and partly from me," he said.

A dirty word

"Tracking" is a dirty word in many educational circles. It's seen as a system that shackles students early on to a high- or low-achieving future.

But tracks are inherent to studying math, with its courses set up like rungs on a ladder.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system's solution? Put all students on a higher rung sooner.

"At the minimum, we want all students in sixth grade to have the opportunity to take algebra in eighth grade," said Denise Bowling, assistant superintendent of instructional services.

"We've seen that's the target for the majority of students," she said.

By the 2008-09 school year, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools want at least half of all black and Latino students taking algebra or geometry by eighth grade.

Last year, only 20 percent of the students in both groups were -- a total of 39 students.

And of the 88 total students taking geometry in eighth grade, only three were black and one was Latino -- so few that privacy laws prevent schools from reporting even their average scores.

"I don't think African-Americans are pushed as much to be in harder math classes," said Alex Poole, a black 16-year-old student at East Chapel Hill High.

She modestly describes herself as "slightly above average" in math, though she's taking statistics next year.

"I'm not saying we can't do it," Poole said, "but we're not necessarily there."