When it comes to maximizing learning opportunities and outcomes for students from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds, race and ethnicity matter: They affect how students respond to instruction and curriculum, and they influence teachers' assumptions about how students learn. Effective implementation of race- and ethnicity-responsive approaches to school improvement requires that educators understand how race affects teaching and learning, use race- and ethnicity-responsive teaching practices, and promote racially responsive conditions in schools. Practices such as engaging in targeted professional development, surfacing issues related to race and ethnicity in the classroom, witnessing and learning from teachers who excel in race and ethnicity-responsive practices, and engaging with students' families benefit all students. They reduce discrimination and racism, honor diversity, promote educational equity, and help close the achievement gap.