The Inequality of Educational Opportunity in the Southwest: An Observational Study of Ethnically Mixed Classrooms

Abstract

This study assesses teacher behaviors as a factor in the quality of educational opportunity afforded students of different ethnic groups within the schools of the Southwest United States. Observers visited 494 classrooms. They used a slightly modified Flanders interaction coding system to code teacher verbal behaviors with reference to the ethnicity of the student to whom each behavior was directed. The results indicate a number of statistically significant, substantial, and pedagogically important disparities in the teacher behaviors that are directed toward Mexican American and Anglo students. Twenty-two teacher, student, classroom, and school characteristics were also investigated for their possible association with these disparities; a few significant relationships were found.