Schiller Kathryn S, Schmidt William H, Muller Chandra, Houang Richard
University of Albany, State University of New York.
Equity Excell Educ. 2010;43(4):414-433. doi: 10.1080/10665684.2010.517062.
Efforts to promote academic achievement by increasing access to courses, especially in mathematics, may mask educational disparities if variations in curriculum are not also monitored. A multi-dimensional description of students' mathematics curricula during high school was obtained from analyses of surveys, transcripts, and textbooks collected for a nationally representative study of adolescents during the mid-1990s. Few gaps in the number of years or credits in mathematics coursework were found. However, the quantity and cognitive challenge of instructional materials in textbooks adopted for those courses differed significantly both across and within mathematics tracks. Differences in the quality of curriculum accumulating during high school were also related to parents' education level. Reducing such gaps in learning opportunities would require teachers to supplement adopted instructional materials to ensure that all students receive a high quality mathematics curriculum.
如果不监测课程设置的差异，仅仅通过增加课程获取机会（尤其是数学课程）来提高学业成绩的努力，可能会掩盖教育差距。通过对为20世纪90年代中期一项具有全国代表性的青少年研究收集的调查、成绩单和教科书进行分析，得出了高中阶段学生数学课程的多维度描述。在数学课程的年数或学分数量方面几乎没有发现差距。然而，这些课程所采用的教科书中教学材料的数量和认知挑战在数学课程轨道之间和内部都存在显著差异。高中阶段积累的课程质量差异也与家长的教育水平有关。缩小学习机会方面的此类差距将要求教师补充所采用的教学材料，以确保所有学生都能获得高质量的数学课程。
