Parental Characteristics and the Achievement Gap in Mathematics: Hierarchical Linear Modeling Analysis of Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY).

Abstract

One of the most salient problems in education is the achievement gap. The researchers investigated the effects of parental education and parental occupations in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, or medical professions (STEMM) on the achievement gap in mathematics. Because students were nested within schools, two-level Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was the main analysis. Findings were consistent with another Multilevel Modeling analysis, that is, parental characteristics such as parental education had a positive effect on student achievement (Teodorovic, 2012). Moreover, parental occupations in STEMM had a positive effect on student mathematics achievement. L’ecart de rendement constitue un des problemes les plus importants en education. Les chercheurs ont etudie les effets de l’education et de la profession des parents en sciences, technologie, ingenierie, mathematiques et medecine (STIMM) sur l’ecart de rendement en mathematiques. Puisque les eleves etaient emboites dans les ecoles, l’analyse repose sur un modele de regression lineaire hierarchique a deux niveaux. Les resultats correspondent a ceux d’une autre analyse basee sur la modelisation a niveaux multiples qui indique que les caracteristiques des parents telles leur education a eu un effet positif sur le rendement des eleves (Teodorovic, 2012). De plus, quand la profession des parents est reliee a STIMM, le rendement en mathematiques de leurs enfants a eu meilleur.