The role of social status, school belonging, and teacher gatekeeping in high school math coursetaking: a status system approach

Generally, people believe that school success depends on students’ effort and academic skills. However, in U.S. high schools, Black and Latino students and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds have fewer opportunities to take high-level courses (e.g., Pre-Calculus and Calculus) than peers from the same school with comparable achievement. Still, those factors unrelated to academic skills that influence access to high-level courses in high school have remained unclear. The present study fills that research gap by examining the relationship between secondary math coursetaking and the three following factors: (1) in-school social status, (2) school belonging, and (3) teacher gatekeeping. Longitudinal data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) and multilevel linear regressions are employed to test the effect of these three factors on high school math placement. This study focuses on math coursetaking as the relevance of high-level math courses in secondary education for college success is well known in the literature. This study looks at curricular tracking as a process of cumulative advantage during K–12 schooling that frames within-school social structures, social systems, and status processes in ways that continue unequal learning opportunities across race/ethnicity and class lines. This study challenges traditional cultural-based explanations of educational inequality.