Explores factors that affect student learning and the well-publicized achievement gap between students from different ethnic and socio-economic groups. Poses some questions and offers some thoughts on how beliefs, attitudes, values, and emotions about teaching and learning, nature of schools, culture, and language effect equity in mathematics…

Presents eleven open-ended questions used to address students' beliefs about mathematics that were culled from a wide variety of mathematics education populations. Each question is followed by a summary of typical responses from those populations that can help teachers plan instruction and structure the classroom environment. (JJK)