Reviewing current conditions and projecting future directions, this paper explores trends in high school mathematics and discusses their implications for two-year college education. The first section examines the secondary school mathematics program, indicating that until now this two-track curriculum has focused on precalculus mathematics for college-bound students and a year of general math, often followed by consumer or vocational mathematics for non-college-bound students. This section reviews the flexible curriculum suggested by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics for all students and notes its failure to materialize. The next section examines achievement trends among high school students, citing the relatively stable achievement of 17-year olds in the 1973, 1978, and 1982 national assessments of mathematics. After a brief discussion of the shortage of qualified mathematics teachers in certain areas of the United States, the paper reviews federal, state, and local initiatives for improving math education. The next sections project future curriculum trends toward emphases on discrete math, statistics and probability, and computer science, and look at the probable impact of computers and calculators on math education. The next section looks at the changing nature and influence of standardized, locally developed criterion-referenced, and College Board tests. Finally, the implications of these trends for two-year college mathematics are discussed, and the argument is made that two-year colleges should take a proactive role and work directly with feeder schools. (HB)