Minority Retention in Mathematics Classrooms     by Jack Rotman

It is my belief that all students should be equally served by our math classes, so that all students can be empowered to reach their goals.

A special concern, therefore, is the relationship between gender, ethnicity and outcomes in math classes.  Our experience at Lansing Community College indicates that gender is not an issue within a class ... women and men are about equally likely to receive passing grades.  There is a different enrollment pattern between men and women, in that more men take further mathematics classes; that is a concern, but is not an issue of equity of instruction.

Unfortunately, there is often a difference in the rates of passing math courses between ethnic groups.  Minorities are more likely to not pass a given course.  In our case, we enforce prerequisites -- so that the difference in outcomes is not simply due to a difference in mathematical preparation.

The result of my exploration of the issues related to minority retention is the PowerPoint presentation shown here:

           Internet Explorer Users, click here ...  Retention PowerPoint Presentation   (includes references)

           Firefox and Netscape Users, click here ...  Retention PowerPoint Presentation  (includes references)

and the list of references shown here References - Retention in Math Class    (a bit older list of references, but longer!)

Return to Mr Rotman's web page

Return to AMATYC's Developmental Math Committee "Links" page

updated July 12, 2007