UCLA

There exist considerable achievement gaps in mathematics, where White and Asian students outperform Black and Latinx students across a variety of mathematics assessments. Research demonstrates that students’ beliefs about mathematics exert considerable influence on their performance in the subject: students with negative beliefs about math tend to perform significantly worse in mathematics than students with positive math beliefs. The present research investigated whether students’ perceptions of same-ethnic peers in their math classrooms serves a protective role for the math achievement of students with negative beliefs about the subject. The findings show that students with more negative beliefs about mathematics (i.e. high anxiety, low belonging, low importance, and low perceived competence) receive significantly poorer math grades than students with positive math attitudes. Moreover, perceived same-ethnic representation in math class had an unexpected moderating effect in the relationship between students’ beliefs about math and their actual achievement. When African American students reported they did not belong in math, were not competent in the subject, or had a high level of math anxiety, their math grades worsened when they also perceived there to be a high proportion of same-ethnic peers in their math course. The findings suggest researchers should take a more nuanced approach to exploring the protective function of perceived racial/ethnic representation.