Importance of Middle School Mathematics on High School Students' Mathematics Achievement

The authors explored the consequences of middle school mathematics course taking, a measure of opportunity to learn, disparity in students' high school mathematics achievement, and achievement growth. Using 4-year longitudinal data from an ethnically and linguistically diverse district, they applied a 3-level hierarchical linear growth model to address potential inequity in course taking and its consequences. The results indicate that course-taking patterns, even when controlling for prior achievement, play a prominent role in identifying performance differences. The distribution of mathematics course taking among various subgroups not only differed in Grade 8 but also became increasingly inequitable by Grade 11.