Mathematics Learning and Diverse Students

 

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prioritized designating time for teachers to refine their curriculum collectively, work through 

classroom challenges as they arose, and develop shared understandings of equity in mathematics 

education, activities that were essential to the successes they achieved (Horn, 2005; Little & 

Horn, 2007).  

 

In this section, we described several components of successful mathematics teaching for 

equity, and highlighted the ways that these components were taken up in the work at Railside 

High School. We must also note the importance of the school, district, and policy context in 

supporting such work at the classroom level. We have already discussed the importance of 

practices at the school level, such as a commitment to de-tracking that is necessary for the kind 

of equity work that occurred at Railside. However, there must also be support at the district level 

for the kinds of curricular and pedagogical approaches that we have described here to be 

effective. That said, such support may be increasingly difficult to find, particularly in urban 

districts which are under the threat of sanctions under federal education policy.  

 

In fact, at Railside High School since 2007, mathematics teachers have been under 

increasing pressure to shift to practices more aligned with high stakes standardized exams, as the 

district has faced increasing scrutiny under No Child Left Behind, and under a new 

superintendent who does not share the Railside teachers’ vision of equity pedagogy. The district 

mandated that rather than draw on the curriculum they had produced together and were working 

to tailor to their students, mathematics teachers use the district-adopted textbook—despite the 

fact that several of the teachers had participated in writing the textbook. Additionally, the district 

shifted from the block schedule to a regular 7-period day, which made it impossible for the 

teachers to continue to implement the problem-based curriculum that they had been working for 

years to perfect. To make matters worse, a district-wide budget crisis resulted in increased class 

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sizes and a shift in school assignment procedures. Consequently, with a larger influx of students, 

Railside enrolled fewer students who had been successful educationally, which led to larger 

classes of more needy students. This combination of a lack of support for their work, and a new 

context within which the practices they had developed together were impossible to sustain, 

several of the core mathematics teachers at Railside left the school, and the remaining teachers 

say that they are unable to continue the work that they had done for over a decade; they report 

that they are just biding their time until retirement (Louie, 2011). 

 

This course of events at Railside points to the importance of support at multiple levels for 

equity pedagogy in mathematics, and the challenge of enacting such a pedagogy in a time of 

high-stakes accountability and standardization.  

 

PART 4: Implications for Schools & Directions for Future Research 

This literature review demonstrates that mathematics teaching, learning, and achievement 

for students from marginalized groups is contingent upon both systemic and pedagogical factors. 

We maintain that the achievement gaps in mathematics education that we describe at the opening 

of this report are the result of social, political, and economic forces converging in ways that 

systematically delimit the opportunities that students from historically marginalized groups have 

to learn mathematics. We identify four critical components that serve to differentially restrict 

opportunities to learn mathematics for students from marginalized groups: 1) access to advanced 

mathematics courses; 2) access to quality mathematics curricula and instruction; 3) access for 

English learners; and 4) access to productive mathematics identities. In light of these systemic 

challenges, we also summarize what existing research tells us about effective classroom 

instruction for equity in mathematics, and the necessary conditions at the district, school, and 

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department levels to support such instruction. Specifically, we found that effective approaches 

tend to include the following characteristics: high-quality curriculum, classroom practices to 

foster equity, connecting to students’ cultural and real-world experiences and organizing for 

equity.  

Following the case of Railside High School, we illustrate how these various systemic and 

pedagogical factors interact so as to impact student outcomes and teachers’ dispositions, 

explaining how a once highly effective, equity-driven mathematics department was ultimately 

“derailed” by inefficacious state mandates. Although Railside is a single case study involving 

one mathematics department, we believe that it is characteristic of the types of challenges faced 

by many teachers serving marginalized youth. Taken together, this review and the lessons 

learned from Railside lead us to a discussion of future research directions and policy 

considerations, at both the structural and pedagogical level.  

 

Policy and Practice Implications 

Structural Level 

 

Our review revealed that structural barriers to access to quality instruction in mathematics 

played a significant role in perpetuating achievement gaps based on race/ethnicity, social class, 

and English proficiency. Thus, one set of implications from the research literature involves 

working to both remove these structural barriers and support students in overcoming them. An 

obvious implication from the research on equitable mathematics instruction is to create 

alternatives to systems of tracking which, especially at the high school level, create unequal 

opportunities to learn, and exacerbate learning gaps. Prior studies have shown that one 

alternative to tracking is to create rigorous heterogenous classes, where students are supporting 

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