Shawna Raydene Cluff and Dr. Mikaela Dufur, Sociology
Jaime Escalante received considerable recognition for an extensive calculus program that he initiated at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. In the 1970’s, Escalante began actively recruiting otherwise-ordinary students to the college mathematics track. He said, “By showing them that there is an upward route to well-paid fulfilling careers through higher education, I immerse them in the concept that they, too, can succeed…” (Escalante and Dirmann 1990:411). The movie, Stand and Deliver, chronicles his success with this program.
An understanding of mathematics benefits the learner personally and socially. In addition to providing tools for survival in today’s world, math learning enhances students’ problem solving, risk-taking, and “information processing” skills (Fleming, Garcia, & Morning 1995:437). Because math is organized as a linear sequence, competence can be easily recognized and rewarded by advancement to the next level. Proficiency develops self-esteem and educational aspirations through a sense of academic achievement. In a mathematics classroom, students learn to share knowledge and help one another. Many believe that science (using mathematics) leads our nation by advancing our understanding of the world. Thus, our world responds well to those with math skills. Mathematics can therefore transcend cultural and social barriers because its skills are in high demand.
I focused my study on determining the extent to which a student’s interaction with mathematics affects his or her expectations about college. For this study, I equated entrance in a four-year college with general success in life. Using existing data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS), I created various statistical models that tested the relation between math and college for various groups of students. The NELS data were collected in a series of surveys given every two years, beginning in 1988, using a sample of 25,000 eighth graders.
I first filtered the data to focus on students from disadvantaged backgrounds, which I classified by income (family income below $25,000 per year), urbanicity, race, and English language proficiency. I ran computer-generated models, which correlate specific variables, such as the students’ attitudes toward math, ability levels, test scores, and coursework completed, to specified outcomes, such as entrance in a four-year college. I compared these results with the results generated from running similar models with data from students of privileged backgrounds: rural/suburban students, with relatively high family income (above $25,000 per year), who are white or Asian.
The results were mixed, but still potentially meaningful. Most of the mathematical factors I tested were apparently only significant for, or at least more significant for, the privileged students. This could simply mean that the factors I selected from the study have more meaning in privileged schools. For example, for the privileged students, “high” or “middle” math ability groupings were strong indicators of being college-bound, but these were not very significant for underprivileged students. Perhaps this means that the labeling system at privileged schools has a different meaning than the labeling system at the underprivileged schools. Another example is that the coursework completed in algebra I, algebra II and geometry was significant for privileged students, while only geometry was significant at underprivileged schools. It is likely that the underprivileged schools from the study do not have a math program that is as strong as the privileged schools. This would explain the deficiency in the result; and perhaps algebra I and II, taught well, could be very significant factors in a student pursuing a college education.
While the indicators are relatively weak for the underprivileged students, several factors were still significant in connecting them to four-year colleges. A high score on the proficiency exam (given to all NELS participants) was more indicative of their entering college than the arbitrary math grouping mentioned above. This means that perhaps there is a certain standard at which a student’s math ability will enable them to go to college. The existence of an AP calculus class at the school benefited the underprivileged students more than it did the privileged students. This would support an argument that when our expectations for underprivileged are raised, their performance improves as well. If a student had never been enrolled in a remedial class, they were more likely to go to college, in both privileged and underprivileged settings.
I plan to continue to use the NELS data to answer related questions that I have. Namely, how does math proficiency compare to proficiency in other disciplines, such as English, science, history, etc? Are they all equally indicative of college entrance, or are certain subjects (e.g. math) more indicative than others? I would also like to investigate individual cases of students from disadvantaged backgrounds who scored a four or a five on the AP Calculus exam, to see how that influenced their later careers. In particular, how many continued for baccalaureate and possibly post-graduate degrees, and how many pursued occupations that required math skills?
Math proficiency prepares students for mathematics degrees—and related degrees in computer science, the earth and social sciences, etc.—and enriches their lives with a sense of accomplishment that will serve them throughout their lives. With continued research, I hope to offer motivation to students to excel academically (specifically in mathematics) and make a case for the need of superior math teaching, especially for underprivileged students, in the United States.
Works Cited
- Escalante, Jaime and Hack Dirmann. 1990. “The Jaime Escalante Math Program.” Journal of Negro Education 59(3):407-423.
- Fleming, Jacqueline, Nancy Garcia and Carole Morning. “The Critical Thinking Skills of Minority Engineering Students: an Exploratory Study.” Journal of Negro Education 64(4): 347- 453.