477 Review of Educational Research Winter 2006, Vol. 76, No. 4, pp. 477–506 African American Male Adolescents, Schooling (and Mathematics): Deficiency, Rejection, and Achievement David W. Stinson Georgia State University The academic achievement gap, particularly the mathematics achievement gap, between Black students and their White counterparts has been well documented with numerical facts. As mathematics education researchers attempt to develop theories and practices that assist in eradicating the gap, they would serve math- ematics education well if they would expand the sphere of their research into the sociocultural arena. To assist in expanding the sphere, this article presents a review of key historical and current theoretical perspectives regarding the schooling experiences of African American students, with an emphasis on African American male students, borrowed from the disciplines of anthropol- ogy, social psychology, and sociology. The review is organized around three dis- course clusters: the discourse of deficiency, the discourse of rejection, and the discourse of achievement. The author suggests that researchers move away from the discourses of deficiency and rejection and toward the discourse of achieve- ment when developing sound education theories and classroom practices that assist in eradicating the academic (and mathematics) achievement gap. KEYWORDS: academic achievement, African American male students, mathematics achievement, mathematics education. The academic achievement gap, 1 particularly the mathematics achievement gap, between Black 2 students and their White counterparts has been well documented with numerical facts (Strutchens, Lubienski, McGraw, & Westbrook, 2004; U.S. Depart- ment of Education, 2003). Although a recent Education Trust study using National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) data documented that U.S. students were improving in their academic performance, it also noted that the achievement gap between Black and White students was increasing (Gewertz, 2003). This increase was especially evident in the eighth-grade NAEP mathematics test, where the Black–White gap increased from 33 points in 1990 to 39 points in 2000 (Strutchens et al., 2004). Although mathematics educators know that the achievement gap exists (and is increasing), we do not fully understand the complexities of why it exists. I believe, however, that Lubienski and Bowen’s (2000) analysis of equity research within mathematics education might provide an explanation for this lack of under- standing. In their essay, “Who’s counting? A survey of mathematics education research 1982–1998,” they concluded, “One gets the impression that researchers look primarily at outcomes of these equity groups [ethnicity or class] and rarely examine how schooling experiences contribute to these outcomes” (p. 631).