Abstract
To improve the sustainable development of minority education and ensure equitable quality education, this study explored student- and school-related factors linked to the mathematics achievement of minority senior high school students in China. Based on the data obtained from 932 teachers and 1873 students, within 31 interior ethnic boarding schools in 14 provinces of China, multilevel analysis showed that gender, class organization, learning strategies, and learning self-efficacy were significant student-level predictors of mathematics achievement. Students were more likely to score highly if they were boys, were in mixed classes, had more self-efficacy in learning mathematics, and used more effective mathematics learning strategies. At the school level, teachers’ job satisfaction positively predicted students’ mathematics achievement. Additionally, there was a significant interaction between school location and expected class organization in relationship to students’ mathematics achievement. For schools located in the urban center, the effect of class organization on students’ mathematics achievement was greater than schools located in the suburbs. For the sustainable development of minority education, it is necessary to further promote mixed-class teaching, set such schools in the suburbs, and improve teachers’ job satisfaction through multiple measures.
Highlights
Most countries across the world are multiethnic states, and most Indigenous people and minorities are in weak positions both politically and economically
Model 1 is as follows: Level 1 : yij = β0j + εij, εij ∼ N(0, σ2), Level 2 : β0j = γ00 + μ0j, μ0j ∼ N(0, τ00), where yij is the mathematics achievement of student i in school j; β0j is the mean mathematics achievement of school j; γ00 is the grand mean of mathematics achievement across all schools; εij and μ0j are the random error of the student and school level respectively; and σ2 and τ00 are the variations at the two levels, respectively
According to the set-up approach [41], these school-level variables were included as predictors for the Level 1 intercept, gender, and expected class organization, which significantly varied across schools in Model 2
Summary
Most countries across the world are multiethnic states, and most Indigenous people and minorities are in weak positions both politically and economically. Education plays an important role in promoting the integration of ethnic minorities into mainstream society. A large amount of empirical evidence has highlighted that ethnic minority students often face negative outcomes associated with schooling in comparison to their mainstream counterparts [1], including poor academic achievement, lower enrollment and graduation rates, and higher school dropout rates. The landmark No Child Left Behind Act and Every Student Succeeds Act in the United States; Indigenous Education (Target Assistant) Act 2000 in Australia; and Ka Hikitia—Managing for Success in New Zealand. Rich boarding schools provide access to better education to minority students. Public boarding schools like the Schools for Educational Evolution and Development (SEED) have been established in the United States for disadvantaged students [2]. In Australia, boarding school models were recommended by the 2014 Wilson review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory as the preferred secondary education option for very remote Aboriginal students [3]
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