Influences on Mathematics Learning and Attitudes among African American High School Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if the influences of educational productivity factors on mathematics achievement and attitudes toward mathematics are the same for African Americans and other ethnic groups. Using Walberg's Educational Productivity Model as a framework, this study estimated the influence of home environment, quality and quantity of instruction, use of out-of-school time, peers, perceptions about the usefulness of mathematics in the future, and school socioeconomic status on mathematics achievement and attitude outcomes for students of various ethnic backgrounds. Transcript and survey data representing the factors were collected from 10,001 students who participated in all of the first three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88). These results suggest that narrowing the gap in student achievement across ethnicity lies in simultaneously optimizing several different alterable factors related to achievement outcomes. Although recent studies have indicated that the gap in achievement test scores among ethnic groups has narrowed appreciably over the years (Cross, 1995; Gross, 1993, Jones, 1985), many of these studies revealed that Asian/Pacific Islander and White students continue to substantially out-perform students from underrepresented ethnic minority groups, particularly African Americans, on tests of mathematics achievement. Moreover, while some ethnic minority groups (e.g., Hispanics and Native Americans) have made substantial gains on mathematics achievement tests in recent years, African Americans have exhibited the least amount of improvement among the major ethnic and language minority groups in the United States (Cross, 1995).' The substantial disparities in mathematics and science achievement between Asian/ Pacific Islanders and Whites and underrepresented minority groups have raised serious concerns among educators and policymakers.2 First, from a national perspective, deficiencies in the education of any ethnic minority group in mathematics and science would subsequently impact the quality and quantity of human resources in the United States. The rationale for this concern comes from the fact that many ethnic minority populations, such as African Americans and Hispanics, have been growing at a much faster rate than other ethnic groups. The Bureau of the Census reported that by 2005, 30% of the United States population will be ethnic minorities and by 2050, the ethnic minority population will be up to 50% (Peng & others, 1995).3 Some authors have posited that failure to improve the education of any ethnic group in science and mathematics could seriously jeopardize the availability of human resources and subsequently hamper the economic advancement and competitiveness of the United States (Bailey, 1990). According to a report by the U.S. Department of Labor, (as cited in Anderson, 1990), between 1986 and 2000, 21 million new jobs will be created in the United States, and many of these new jobs will require basic skills in mathematics and the ability to reason. Furthermore, more than half of these new jobs will require some education beyond high school and almost one-third will require a college education (Anderson, 1990). As underrepresented ethnic minority populations are expected to increase greatly through the year 2000, it is important to encourage students belonging to these groups to focus on academic areas (i.e., mathematics and science) that those jobs will demand (Anderson, 1990). Secondly, ethnic minority populations that have a poor understanding of mathematics and science face possible economic disadvantages in an increasingly technologically-- oriented society and labor market (Bailey, 1990; Peng & others, 1995). Peng and others (1995) reported that among the high school class of 1982 who did not attend college the unemployment rate for students with science and mathematics test scores below the national average was higher than those with scores at or above the national average. …