Classroom Composition and Racial Differences in Opportunities to Learn

Black and White advanced math students leave high school with disparate math skills. One possible explanation is that minority students are exposed to different learning opportunities, even when they are taking classes with the same title. Using a convenience sample of the Mathematics Survey of the Enacted Curriculum (SEC), this study found that math teachers in classrooms with a minority racial composition spend their instructional time emphasizing different topics and instructional tasks than teachers in classrooms that have a predominately White racial composition. Racial differences continue to exist when school socioeconomic level and teacher-reported classroom achievement level are included. Students in classrooms with minority racial compositions have different learning opportunities compared to those of their peers, which may explain racial differences in returns to advanced math course-taking.