The poor performance of American students in math is seen as a threat to the nation’s global economic competitiveness and national security.

Like a lot of high school students, Kevin Tran loves superheroes, though perhaps for different reasons than his classmates.

“They’re all insanely smart. In their regular jobs they’re engineers, they’re scientists,” said Tran, 17. “And you can’t do any of those things without math.”

Tran also loves math. This summer, he studied calculus five hours a day with other high schoolers in a program at Northeastern University.

Employers, experts raise new alarms about competitiveness and national security. The Bridge to Calculus program at Northeastern is a response to that.