Marginalized Students' Opportunities to Learn in Integrated Mathematics Courses

• In Event: Exploring and Disrupting Marginality and Inequity in Mathematics Classrooms

Abstract

Marginalized students face a range of gaps in experience, including fewer opportunities to learn in urban and racially-segregated schools. The objective of the current study was to describe teacher-reported opportunities to learn complex mathematics and whether these opportunities varied between racially-segregated and racially-balanced classrooms. This work was conducted with 41 teachers of Integrated Mathematics II courses taught in schools within a metropolitan school district in the Southern U.S. Teachers reported differences in the level of coverage and cognitive demands between racially segregated and racially balanced classrooms. In particular, they report covering algebra topics less and providing less cognitively demanding lessons. These findings are in line with consistent concerns in mathematics education of lowered expectations for students in segregated settings.

Authors

• Bethany Rittle-Johnson, Vanderbilt University

• Kelley Durkin, Vanderbilt University

• Dale C. Farran, Vanderbilt University