When it comes to educating U.S. teens in math, schools play a significant factor in reinforcing, and even worsening, the inequalities between students from upper-income families and their low-income peers.
Specifically, unequal access to rigorous mathematics content is widening the performance gap on a prominent international math literacy test between socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged students.
That’s a finding from a new study by Michigan State University researchers that examines math literacy based on learning opportunities, curriculum and family socioeconomic status in 60-plus countries.
Using data from the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment — a test that was coordinated by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development — the researchers confirmed that low-income students are more likely to be exposed to weaker math content at school. They also determined that a substantial share of the achievement gap between low- and high-income students is exacerbated by the curricular disparities.
Published recently in an American Educational Research Association journal, the study is titled, “The Role of Schooling in Perpetuating Educational Inequity: An International Perspective.”
“In the United States, public school curricular and tracking policies are contributing to the growing performance gap between poor and rich students,” says Dr. William H. Schmidt, a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State and one of the study’s co-authors. “The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The belief that schools are the great equalizer, helping students overcome the inequalities of poverty, is a myth.”
Schmidt points out that high-achieving students in math are more likely than their lower-performing peers to master important skills such as calculating interest rates and figuring out price discounts. Teens with strong math skills are more likely to successfully handle basic tasks such as estimating the amount of carpet or floor tiling needed for a room, or what dimensions new curtains ought to be.
