Exploring African American students’ educational resources and achievement in mathematics cognitive domains in TIMSS 2019

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:40 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Student SES and OTL From the Perspectives of Large-Scale Education Studies (Table 2)

Abstract

The persistent mathematics achievement gap in the U.S. is a significant concern, especially regarding racial, ethnic, and gender disparities (Larke et al., 2014; Valencia, 2015). African American students consistently score lower in mathematics than their peers (Moon & Larke, 2020). These disparities impact college matriculation rates, graduation statistics, and educational trajectories (Valencia, 2015). While many studies explore race/ethnicity and gender achievement gaps, research on the ethnicity-based mathematics achievement gap among African American students is limited (Moon, 2020; Moon & Larke, 2020). This highlights the need for further investigation into factors influencing African American students' mathematics performance, particularly home educational resources and opportunities to learn (OTL), such as quality of instruction and access to learning materials. A critical question emerges: To what extent do these factors impact African American eighth-grade students' mathematics achievement?

The present study investigates how home educational resources, quality of instruction, and access to learning resources for mathematics in school relate to African American students’ mathematics cognitive domains and achievement by using the 2019 TIMSS grade 8 assessment data with the associated school, teacher, and student contextual questionnaires to investigate these relationships. The items from the school questionnaire related to access to learning resources (i.e., the index of schools where instruction is affected by mathematics resource shortages, the teacher questionnaire about teacher education level, and the student questionnaire about student home educational resources (i.e., index of home resources for learning) are included in the analyses. The present study also analyzes the student race/ethnicity variable to explore how these relationships may differ for African American students and impact their achievement in mathematics cognitive domains. The study conducts correlational analyses to examine the strength and magnitude of the relationships between the variables and student performance on the TIMSS mathematics assessment. A discussion of multiple regression results is provided in the study.

Findings from this study suggest that home educational resources, quality of instruction, and access to learning resources in schools are similarly related to mathematics achievement and cognitive domain progression for African American and non-African American students. Students with greater home educational resources, teachers with higher educational levels, and schools less affected by mathematics resource shortages tend to demonstrate higher achievement on TIMSS assessments. Notably, the magnitude of these relationships showed greater variation among African American students. Detailed results from multiple regression analyses are presented in the full paper.

These insights provide a deeper understanding of how various factors influence African American students' achievement in TIMSS mathematics cognitive domains. Such knowledge is crucial for developing more effective educational programs and strategies to improve student achievement across diverse populations. By identifying these key relationships, this study contributes valuable information that can inform targeted interventions and policy decisions to narrow the mathematics achievement gap.

Authors

• Olasunkanmi James Kehinde, Norfolk State Uinversity

• Judy H. Tang, Westat