The Influence of Student-Perceived School Climate and Language Background on Mathematics Achievement

• In Event: Power and Design, Model Misspecification, and Multilevel Modeling

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to detect how school climate and school language diversity environment influence students’ mathematic achievement by building a multilevel model. The results showed that (1) students’ language background can influence their mathematic achievement, after controlling socio-economy status and gender. The math score of students speaking foreign language at home is lower than that of native speaker students; (2) students’ mathematic achievement is positively influenced by student-teacher relationship and discipline climate, and negatively influenced by teacher support and the degree students’ language background diversity at school level; (3) the relationship between student language background and mathematic achievement is significantly moderated by the degree students’ language background diversity at school level.

Authors

• Jingxuan Liu, Georgia State University

• Hongli Li, Georgia State University