Examining the Role of Teaching Quality and Assessment Practice in Reducing Socioeconomic and Ethnic Inequities in Mathematics Achievement

This study explores the role of teacher practices in mathematics classrooms on mitigating socioeconomic and ethnic inequalities in mathematics performance across Nordic countries. It specifically examines teaching quality, formative assessment practices, content coverage, and teachers’ emphasis on academic success in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. By analyzing IEA’s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 grade four data with a two-level structural equation modelling technique, the study reveals that the socioeconomic and ethnic contexts within classrooms significantly influence students’ mathematics achievement. Students attending schools or classrooms with a higher proportion of native students and a higher socioeconomic status experience a reduced effect of family background on their achievement. Positive correlations exist between classroom sociodemographic contexts, particularly the socioeconomic composition, and teachers’ emphasis on academic success. However, the impact of teachers’ instructional and formative assessment practices, as well as content coverage, on mathematics achievement is largely insignificant, except in Norway. Formative assessment practices in Norway have been effective in reducing performance differences between native and immigrant students. This compensatory effect of formative assessment practices is strengthened by the classroom’s socioeconomic context and the teachers’ emphasis on students’ academic success. The study highlights the importance of considering the classroom context and its sociodemographic composition when addressing socioeconomic and ethnic disparities in mathematics achievement across Nordic countries.