Reyes and Stanic's five-aspect model of differences in mathematics achievement¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 6 claims (6 for) · 1 study (1 theoretical), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 6 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The review describes Reyes and Stanic's (1988) model explaining differences in mathematics achievement based on race, sex, and socioeconomic status. "In this model, five aspects were considered to be relevant: societal influences, teacher attitudes, school mathematics curricula, student attitudes and achievement-related behavior, and classroom processes." The review values it for giving a comprehensive account of possible sources of the problem, while noting the school environment or organization is missing and that the authors called for work on causal interactions among race, sex, and SES.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Research that determines the causal relationships between the factors the model lists

Constraints¶

• The review notes the school environment (or organization) is missing from the model, and that the authors flagged the need for a model of teacher attitudes and a definition of attitude

Target Learners¶

• students differentiated by race, sex, and socioeconomic status in mathematics courses

Target Learning Objectives¶

• explaining differences in mathematics achievement

Claims¶

• Testimony at a 1987 congressional hearing reported 1985 SAT averages in which Black women scored 43 points below Black men and 264 points below white men, which the witness called a double penalty for minority females [+W]
• Congressional hearing testimony reports, citing a 1979 ETS study second-hand, that females tend to do better on test items with female or neutral figures than on items with male figures [+W]
• Testimony at a 1987 congressional hearing reported that the Johns Hopkins talent search, which admitted by SAT score, invited over 2,500 boys but 1,081 girls in one summer although equal numbers took the test [+W]
• PSAT-based National Merit scholarship selection distributes awards disproportionately to boys, with girls receiving 36 percent of scholarships [+W]
• SAT scores underpredict the academic performance of high school girls, who average lower scores than boys despite higher grades [+W]
• Women admitted to MIT with lower SAT math scores perform as well as men in freshman math classes [+W]

Related Theories¶

• Contextual Systems Model (CSM): child/family and school/schooling as interrelated systems
• Cultural Difference paradigm: underachievement explained by mismatch between school and students' cultures
• Deficit paradigm: minority underachievement explained by deficits the child brings to school

Examples¶

-

Key Sources¶

• Vilma Mesa. (1998). A Review of Literature on Under Achievement of Minorities in Mathematics. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED428113