Poster #39 - The Relation Between a Math App Intervention and Low-Income Children's Math Achievement

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

An educational app designed to promote positive math interactions between children and parents has been found to increase middle- to high-income first grade children’s math achievement (Berkowitz et al., 2015). The app contains short passages with topics of interest to children, and each passage is accompanied by math word problems relating to the passage at varying levels of difficulty.

We set out to examine whether using this app was associated with math gains in children from low income families during first grade. SES-related math achievement gaps persist within the U.S. and this gap has widened in recent years (Reardon, 2011). Low-SES children tend to underperform in math compared to their higher-SES peers (Jordan et al., 2007), and may have less access to resources that support educational attainment. They therefore potentially have the most to gain from math interventions in the home.

We recruited 136 first grade children (65 girls) and their families with 37.5% of our sample earning less than $35,000 and 27.3% earning $75,000 or more. Parent reports of education indicated that 47% received less than a bachelor's degree. These demographics differed from the previous study, in which recruited annual income included 19.3% of families earning less than $35,000 and 56.5% earning $75,000 or more, and parent education indicated that 36% of parents earned less than a bachelor's degree.

Families received the app at the end of April, 2018, and we examined app usage during the first six weeks that families had the app, while children were still in school. Before distributing the app to families, we pre-tested children’s math achievement in early spring using the Woodcock Johnson Applied Problems subtest. We repeated this test at the end of the school year.

Frequency of app usage significantly predicted children’s end of year math achievement, even when controlling for their math achievement at pre-test, as well as both parental education and family income. These preliminary results suggest that this app may improve low-income children’s math ability.

We also examined the relation between parents’ math attitudes and beliefs—factors that may impact how families use the app. In the current lower-income sample, parent math anxiety was negatively correlated with app usage. Parent math anxiety was also negatively correlated with parents’ feelings of teaching efficacy, as measured by a modified version of a subscale of the Mathematics Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (MTEBI, Enochs, Smith, & Huinker, 2000). We made minor modifications to the scale to measure parents feelings about teaching their children math. Parents who were more math anxious felt less efficacy in their general ability to teach math to their first-grade child.

Using an educational math app was associated with low income first grade children’s math growth, suggesting that such interventions may provide a valuable tool to close the math achievement gap between low and high-income children. Additionally, parents’ math anxiety was related to parents’ sense of efficacy in teaching math.

Authors

• Julianne B Herts, The University of Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Nancy Pantoja, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Christopher S. Rozek, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rachel Alter, The University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Frances Carter, The University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sian L. Beilock, Barnard College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Susan C. Levine, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author