Monitoring the Mathematics Achievement of Black Students

Findings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress for 1973 and 1978 are reviewed. They show improvement in levels of mathematics achievement for black students at ages 9 and 13, compared with a decline for white students at those ages. In a special National Assessment of mathematics in 1975 -76 for ages 13 and 17, substantial differences are found between average mathematics achievement scores of white and black youth. Based on a multiple regression analysis at age 17, more than half of the total variance in mathematics achievement scores is accounted for by regression, with schoolto-school differences in background variables and individual background differences within school about equally influential. About half of the white-black mean difference is accounted for by regression and, in this accounting, school differences in background variables play a more prominent role than individual differences within school. A particularly influential predictor of mathematics achievement is the number of high school algebra and geometry courses taken. Marked differences are found between predominantly black and predominantly white high schools in the average numbers of such courses taken. The adoption of policies that reduce those differences would be expected to result in relatively higher levels of mathematics achievement for black students.