Mathematics Disparities in Urban School Contexts: Examining Race, English Proficiency, and Course-Taking

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: Poster Session on the Social Context of Research on Schools and Communities

Abstract

This paper analyzes the second (2004) wave of the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS: 2002-04) to examine the relationship between, schools’ urbanicity, students’ racial-ethnic identification, degrees of English-language proficiency (ELP), mathematics course-taking and 12th-grade mathematics achievement. A hierarchical linear models (HLM) method is used to account for students’ clustering in specific schools. Our findings revealed that while the concentration of low-income students within schools has a negative effect on achievement, higher proportions of students enrolled in college-preparatory courses attenuates that effect. Additionally, course-taking resulted as the most influential factor on achievement. Further, while ELP had a negative effect on the achievement of Latino and Asian LMs, relative to non-LMs, the effect of ELP on achievement was more pronounced for Latinos.

Authors

• Eduardo Mosqueda, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Marco A. Bravo, Santa Clara University

• Saul Isaac Maldonado, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Pedro E. Nava, Mills College