The relationship of race, class, and gender with mathematics achievement for fifth-, eighth-, and eleventh-grade students in Pennsylvania schools

• Published in: Peabody journal of education 1989-01, Vol.66 (2), p.147-171
• Main Authors: Kohr, Richard L., Masters, James R., Coldiron, J.Robert, Blust, Ross S., Skiffington, Eugene W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Disadvantaged Youth; Educational research; Elementary Secondary Education; Equal Education; Gender differences; Grade 11; Grade 5; Grade 8; Grade levels; High school students; High socioeconomic status; Low socioeconomic status; Mathematics Achievement; Mathematics Education; Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania Educational Quality Assessment; Racial Factors; Sex Bias; Socioeconomic Status; Student Characteristics
• ISSN: 0161-956X; 1532-7930
• DOI: 10.1080/01619568909538643

This integrative study of student socioeconomic status (SES), race, and gender focused on mathematics achievement derived from the Pennsylvania Educational Quality Assessment Program for the years 1981 through 1984. Analyses were conducted at the 5th, 8th and 11th grade levels. Replicable achievement differences in mathematics were observed across grade levels for student SES and race, but not for gender. White students were found to score higher than black students and achievement varied directly with student SES level. The only replicable interaction to emerge was a relatively weak but persistent SES by race effect that occurred for all analyses involving students attending low SES schools. This was a function of the fact that, although achievement increased across student SES level for both white and black students the increment tended to be slightly larger for white students. Supplementary analyses of mathematics achievement incorporating school SES, student SES, and race were also performed. In addition to significant results for each main effect, several interactions were found, the most prominent being a race by school SES effect, which occurred at each grade level. This was due to the fact that the difference between white and black student achievement was greater in low SES schools than in high SES schools, possibly indicating that black students were hurt more than white students by the environment of a low SES school. Overall, the significant effects of the study did not account for large amounts of variance in student achievement. At each of the three grade levels, only about 10% of the variance in mathematics achievement was found to be related to student SES, race, or gender.