dr. william allan kritsonis, dissertation chair for clarence johnson, proposal defense

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IMPACT OF HIGH SCHOOL

MATHEMATICS CURRICULA ON THEMATHEMATICS TAKS EXIT-LEVELPERFORMANCE OF AFRICAN AMERICAN

STUDENTS

Presented By

Clarence Johnson

September, 2007

Dissertation Proposal Defense



Committee MembersWilliam A. Kritsonis, Ph.D.

(Dissertation Chair)

Douglas Hermond, Ph.D.(Member)

David Herrington, Ph.D.(Member)

Pamela Barber-Freeman, Ph.D.(Member)

Veda Brown, Ph.D.(Outside Member)



Proposal Defense OutlineI. The Problem

II.

Purpose of StudyIII. Research Questions

IV. Hypotheses

V. Importance of Study VI. Review of Literature

VII. Research Design



The Problem In the United States, remedial mathematics

classrooms contain large number of African

American students; however, advancedmathematics classes mainly served Whitestudents (Snipes & Waters, 2005).

Luebienski (2001) reported that, in both 1990

and 1996, White students in the lowest socioeconomic subgroup scored equal to orhigher than African American students in thehighest socioeconomic subgroup.



The Problem

In a summary of four national surveys

reported between 1969 and 1987, Horn(1990) found that Asians earned twice thenumber of mathematics and science creditsthan did Whites, and Whites earned twice

the number of credits for those subjectsthan did African Americans or Hispanics.



The Problem Forty-three percent of African American

high school students failed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS)Exit-Level Mathematics Test in 2005.Current documentation indicates the failure

rate is higher among African Americanstudents than any other ethnic groups (TEA

Accountability System State Data Table,

2005).



New Jersey Mathematics

Curriculum Framework

HighExpectations inMathematics

for All Students

The

Significanceof

MathematicsCore

CurriculumContent

Standards

IdentifyingEquity

Concerns inDistricts and

Schools

Challenging All Studentsto Maximize

Their

Achievement

OvercomingBarriers to

Equity



New Jersey Mathematics

Curriculum Framework

Investigate CoreCurriculum Content

Standards

InvestigateHigh

Expectations in

Mathematics forAll Students

Identify 6 HighSchools

MathematicsTAKS Exit-Level

Passing andFailure Rates of

African AmericanStudents

Survey 27Counselors for

MathematicsPlacement of 8th

and 9th GradesAfrican

AmericanStudents



Purpose of the Study Investigate the relationship of high

school mathematics curricula on themathematics TAKS Exit-Levelperformance of African Americanstudents using the New JerseyMathematics Curriculum Framework.



Purpose of the Study Investigate high expectations in

mathematics for all students using theNew Jersey Mathematics CurriculumFramework.



Research Questions

Quantitative

1. What is the impact of the decision of African American students to enroll in trackone or track two in the eighth and ninthgrades mathematics and the pass/failstatus on the eleventh grade Texas

Assessment of Knowledge and Skills(TAKS) Exit-Level Mathematics Test?



Research Questions

Quantitative

2. What is the impact of African Americaneighth and ninth grade mathematicsstudents pass/fail status on the eleventhgrade Texas Assessment of Knowledge

and Skills (TAKS) Exit-Level MathematicsTest among six high school campuseswithin a large urban school district?



Research Questions

Quantitative

3. What is the impact of African Americaneighth and ninth grade students enrolledin track 1 or track 2 mathematics andadvancing in mathematics learning by

entering in chemistry, physics, pre-calculus, AP Physics, or AP Calculus in theeleventh and twelfth grades?



Research QuestionsQuantitative

4. What factors do counselors identify asinfluential on African American studentsplacement in track 1 or track 2 in eighthand ninth grades mathematics?



Hypotheses

Ho1 There is no statistically significant

relationship between the decision to enrollin track 1 or track 2 in the eighth and ninthgrades mathematics and pass/fail status of

African American students on the eleventhgrade Texas Assessment of Knowledgeand Skills (TAKS) Exit-Level MathematicsTest.



Hypotheses


relationship between African Americaneighth and ninth grades mathematicsstudents pass/fail status on the eleventhgrade Texas Assessment of Knowledge and

Skills (TAKS) Exit-Level Mathematics Test among six high school campuses within alarge urban school district .



Hypotheses


relationship between the African Americaneighth and ninth grade students enrolled intrack 1 or track 2 mathematics andadvancing in mathematics learning by

entering in chemistry, physics, pre-calculus, AP Physics, or AP Calculus in the eleventhand twelfth grades.



Importance of Study

Results of the study could provide a

learning foundation for educationalleadership in areas where the increasedsuccess of African American students on

the mathematics exit-level tests has beenidentified.



Review of LiteratureNo Child Left Behind

On January 8, 2002, President Bushsigned the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) into law to begin educational

reform designed to improve student achievement and change Americanschool culture (Jones & Hancock, 2005).



Review of Literature

Eighth-Grade Mathematics as the Gate-keeper to Advanced Mathematics Learning

In 1996, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (N AEP) revealed that for Grade 4, 8, and 12, less than one thirdof U.S. students were proficient or above inmathematics and science (Glenn, 2000).



Review of Literature African American Students in AdvancedMathematics Courses

Unfortunately, African American studentsin education today often experience alow-level, watered-down curriculum,

negative perceptions about their ability,and low expectations regarding theirachievement (Russell, 2005).



Review of LiteratureMiddle School Course Selection Patterns

In their analysis of American students achievement in the Third InternationalMathematics and Science Study, WilliamSchmidt and his colleagues (1999) noticed

how tracking creates differences instudents opportunities to studymathematics and how reducedopportunities result in lower achievement.



Review of Literature

Disparities in Mathematics Achievement andInstruction

National Assessment of Educational Progress(N AEP) data suggest that most African Americanstudents are not experiencing instructional

practices consistent with the recommendationssuggested by the National Council of Teachersof Mathematics (NCTM), whereas more whitestudents are experiencing NCTM standards-based instruction (Lubienski, 2001).



Review of LiteratureMinority Gap in Mathematics

According to a 2004 report from the California

Teacher Association (CTA), the wideningachievement gap in Californias public schoolsraises many questions about educational equality.

The report further indicated that in 1990, therewas a 33 point gap between the scores of Blackand White students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP) mathematics test at the eighth grade level as compared to 2000scores, the gap had grown to a 39 point gap.



Review of LiteratureImpact of the Mathematics Curricula on theSuccess of African American Students

As Warren Simmons of the CaseyFoundation observed, the nation entered the1990s with twin goals for education reform.

One of the goals was to create curricula andinstructional approaches that would help allstudents attain world-class levels of achievement (Futrell & Brown, 2000).



Research Design The research design for this study is in two

phases. Phase one is a correlational studybased on post hoc data. The Pearsons r

statistic will be used to determine whethervarious factors are related to academicsuccess in mathematics as measured bythe Texas Assessment of Knowledge and

Skills Exit-Level Mathematics Test. Phasetwo is a survey of 27 counselors todetermine factors for mathematicsplacement of African American students inthe eighth and ninth grade. These data willbe reported as descriptive data.



Subjects of the Study Participants for the study will include 262 African American eleventh grade studentsand 27 eighth grade counselors. Thestudents will be identified from thepopulation of 827 eleventh grade students

enrolled in mathematics courses in sixhigh schools in a large urban schooldistrict.



Simple Random Sampling The targeted population of 827 African American eleventh grade students enrolled

in the eleventh grade in 2006-2007 will beinvolved in the random sample.

Krejcie and Morgan in 1970 generated a

model of appropriate sample size (Barlett,Kotrick, & Higgins, 2001).



Instruments In the study the dependent variables, exit-level tests

achievement, will be measured by the mathematicsportion of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills(TAKS) Exit-Level Mathematics Test scores. Texas

Assessment of Knowledge and Skill (TAKS) Exit-LevelMathematics Test has been found valid and reliable inthe Texas Education Agency. The Texas Assessment of

Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Exit-Level Test is also acriterion-referenced test, and was found to be reliableand valid for measuring the achievement in themathematics courses as outlined by the Texas EssentialKnowledge and Skills curriculum.



Instruments A survey containing 15 questions will be

given to 27 eighth grade counselors. The

15 questions on the counselors survey willbe field tested. The dependent variables,documentation of the counselors survey

will be reported as descriptive data.



Data CollectionQuantitative A letter from the superintendent of schools will be

requested for an approval of retrieving students data.School district archived data that include student identification number, demographic data, courserequirements, course selections, program participation,and at-risk identification will be collected and kept under locked files by the investigator.

A master-schedule from 2003-2004 will be printed, andthe classes will be counted. Students records will beaccessed through Schools Administrative Student Information Systems (SASIxp). These records will beused to track student progress from eighth grade to

high school.



Data AnalysisIndependent

VariablesDependent

VariablesStatistic

Eighth and

Ninth GradesStudentsenrolled intrack 1 or track

2

TAKS Raw

Scores

Correlational

Method usingPost Hoc Data



Data Analysis School master schedules will be utilized to

match the eighth grade and ninth gradesstudents enrolled in track 1 or track 2with the respective TAKS Exit-Level rawscores.



Data Analysis 1. State the null hypothesis: There is no

statistically significant relationship between thedecision to enroll in track 1 or track 2 in theeighth and ninth grades mathematics andpass/fail status of African American students onthe eleventh grade Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Exit-LevelMathematics Test.

2. Use Correlational Method; Use Pearsons r



Data Analysis3. Use the Alpha Level P < 0.05.

4. Compute statistic using SPSS.

5. Apply the rejection rule: P < 0.05reject the null hypothesis

Analyze your Descriptive Statistics Tableand your Correlations Table.



Data AnalysisIndependent

VariablesDependent

VariablesStatistic

Survey

Questions

Counselors

Responses

Descriptive

Documentation



Data Analysis Develop matrix for data gathering.

Develop protocol

Arrange a meeting with each counselor tomeet for 60 minutes to retrieve responses.

Meet with 27 counselors and deliver

instructions on the process of responding tothe 15 questions on the survey.

Document all responses by the 27 counselors.

dr. william allan kritsonis, dissertation chair for clarence johnson, proposal defense

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