This article outlines several forms of instructional practice that distinguished middle-grades mathematics classrooms that were organized around conceptually oriented activity and marked by African American students' success on state assessments. We identified these forms of practice based on a comparative analysis of teaching in (a) classrooms in which there was evidence of conceptually oriented instruction and in which African American students performed better than predicted by their previous state assessment scores and (b) classrooms in which there was evidence of conceptually oriented instruction but in which African American students did not perform better than predicted on previous state assessment scores. The resulting forms of practice can inform professional learning for preservice and in-service teachers.
Jonee Wilson, North Carolina State University, Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences, Campus Box 7801, 2310 Stinson Drive, 317 Poe Hall, Raleigh, NC 27695; jwilson9@ncsu.edu