Instruction in Black and White: The Relationship Between Instructional Practices and Student Demographics in English Language Arts Classrooms

• In Event: 35.081 - Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: 35.081-23 - Teacher Attitudes and Instruction

Abstract

This paper investigates whether variability in classroom instruction could be exacerbating the achievement gap by examining the relationship among instructional practices, student demographics, and student achievement in English/Language Arts classrooms. It draws data from the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) study in 2009-10 school year. Results indicate that lower-quality instruction is observed in classrooms with high percentages of Black students, particularly in comparison to classrooms with high percentages of White students. The instructional practices predict higher student achievement in classrooms with high percentages of black students, providing evidence that their absence is detrimental to student learning. This provides evidence that instruction might be contributing to the black-white achievement gap and also a potential avenue for moving forward.

Author

• Lindsay Brown, Stanford University