Native Hawaiian Students' Mathematics Achievement

• In Event: 33.078 - Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: 33.078-14 - Toward Justice for Indigenous Peoples: Education Research and Praxis 1

Abstract

Native Hawaiian students are almost a quarter of the student population in Hawaii’s public education system. The goal of this paper is to provide estimates of the achievement gaps through a hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) approach, which controls for both student- and school-level level confounding factors. We estimated the mathematics achievement gaps at the elementary, middle school and high school grades using a statewide assessment that is used for the reporting requirements of the No Child left Behind (NCLB) act. The achievement of Native Hawaiian students on this assessment was found to be 0.31 to 0.41 of a standard deviation below their white peers. Methodological and educational policy issues will be discussed in light the study’s results.

Authors

• Malkeet Singh, Education Northwest

• Hella Bel Hadj Amor, New York University

• Shuqiang Zhang, University of Hawaii - Manoa