Twelve colleges are redesigning calculus gateway courses to address persistent STEM bottlenecks that can derail student persistence and progression. The effort targets how students experience early mathematics—where performance gaps often cascade into later credit loss and major switching. The reporting highlights that calculus can derail STEM pathways, prompting institutions to shift course design toward approaches aimed at persistence. While specific pedagogical mechanisms vary by campus, the common goal is to improve “gateway math” outcomes before students lose momentum. The initiative also reflects growing attention to course-level interventions as a student-success lever. Institutions are increasingly treating foundational math as a curriculum and assessment problem, not merely a prerequisite hurdle. For faculty leaders and academic affairs teams, the development reinforces that measurement of persistence outcomes and iterative redesign cycles are becoming core to pathway reform.