Can equity policies foster success and close the outcome gaps experienced by racially minoritized students in community colleges? Using a critical policy analysis and equity-mindedness framework, we examine whether and how the design and early implementation of one such policy—the California Community Colleges’ Student Equity Policy—addresses racial equity. Findings show that attention to race and racial equity diminished over time in state policy documents, and varied widely in colleges’ response to the policy, suggesting that its potential to tackle racial inequities is so far unexploited. Implications are discussed and recommendations for policy, practice, and research are proposed.

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While assessment, curricular, and pedagogical reforms have improved overall success rates in college math courses, they have been less effective in closing racial equity gaps and fostering equitable classroom experiences for racially minoritized students. Following the insights of critical race math scholars, we argue that racial inequity persists because these reforms do not tackle the dominant instructional template that informs how many math faculty teach. We propose that racial equity requires a reconfiguration of practice involving (a) race-conscious sensemaking of teaching; (b) awareness of racial dynamics in math classrooms; and (c) a humanizing math pedagogy. We describe these three principles of a racial equity practice, along with the challenges that can arise when faculty confront complicity in producing racial inequity, attempt to undo practices serving them well, and wrestle with institutional factors that constrain change.