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Considerations of diversity in mathematics education usually arise in discussions that focus on disparities in the collective participation, persistence, and achievement between White males and Asian American students, on the one hand, and African Americans, Latina/o/s, Native Americans, females, and poor students, on the other. A number of conventional explanations have been offered for these differential outcomes. However, as concerns about education for students from diverse background-shave increased and new directions in research and policy have emerged, alternative explanations and interventions have been suggested in order to rectify these disparities. This entry discusses the interrelated nature of these diversity concerns in mathematics education.

From the Best and the Brightest to Mathematics for All

A historical analysis of diversity, access, and opportunity in mathematics education shows that over the last 50 years there has been a slow but gradual shift in policy and reform rhetoric focusing on who should be educated in mathematics. In 1957, after the Soviet Union launched into orbit the Earth's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, the U.S. reaction was to usher in the era of new math reform as a way to educate the best and brightest students so that the nation could maintain its international standing in science and engineering and outpace the Soviet threat of superiority in mathematics. However, given the realities of racism, segregation, and gender inequality in the larger society and in the schools, the best and brightest referred mainly to White males and largely excluded African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and women for whom educational and social opportunity was limited. This was evidenced, for example, by the fact that it was only 3 years earlier, in 1954, that the U.S. Supreme Court declared that laws establishing separate schools for Black and White students were unconstitutional.

Approximately 30 years after the U.S. reaction to Sputnik, organizations such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), the world's largest organization concerned with mathematics education, began to promote Mathematics for All as a guiding idea for reorganizing and redistributing access and opportunity in mathematics. In 2000, NCTM listed equity as the first of its six principles in its flagship document, Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, which describes preferred content and practices for mathematics in kindergarten through Grade 12. A number of other policy-related documents have taken up the Mathematics for All theme and related themes like Algebra for All, signaling at least a rhetorical concern for issues of diversity and equity in mathematics education.

Access, Opportunity, and Achievement

Numerous research studies and policy reports over the last 30 years have documented that many African American, Latino, Native American, female, and low-income students—beginning as early as elementary school and becoming more pronounced at the graduate and professional levels—have less access to school-based mathematics opportunities, for example, availability of Advanced Placement math courses, than their White male and Asian peers. This limited access in the school context has often translated into limited access to, and underrepresentation in, the larger opportunity structure, including college majors and careers related to mathematics. As a result, school-based mathematics has often been characterized as a filter and a gatekeeper that limits diversity.

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