skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


  • NSF Public Access
  • Search Results
  • U.S. Ninth Graders’ Math Course Placement at the Intersection of Learning Disability Status, Race, and Socioeconomic Status
Title: U.S. Ninth Graders’ Math Course Placement at the Intersection of Learning Disability Status, Race, and Socioeconomic Status
This study integrates an intersectional framework with data on 15,000 U.S. ninth graders from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to investigate differences in ninth-grade math course placement at the intersection of adolescents’ learning disability status, race, and socioeconomic status (SES). Descriptive results support an increased liability perspective, with the negative relationship between a learning disability and math course placement larger for adolescents more privileged in terms of their race and/or SES. Adjusted results suggest that the lower math course placements of youth with learning disabilities are due to cumulative disadvantage rather than disability-related inequities in the transition to high school for youth of diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. In addition to demonstrating the importance of intersectional perspectives, this study provides a roadmap for future studies by introducing the new perspective of increased liability to be used in conjunction with the widely employed perspective of multiple marginalization.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1652279
PAR ID:
10511785
Author(s) / Creator(s):
Publisher / Repository:
Sage Journals
Date Published:
Journal Name:
AERA Open
Volume:
9
Issue:
1
ISSN:
2332-8584
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1-24
Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
disability disability studies intersectional theory intersectionality math mathematics education quasi-experimental analysis race regression analyses social class socioeconomic status
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; (, Sociology of Education)
    Using data on ninth graders, math teachers, and schools from the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, we investigate the following questions: (1) How do ninth graders’ perceptions of their math teachers as equitable relate to their math identity at the intersection of adolescents’ race and gender? and (2) Do differences in the percentage of students at the school who share the adolescent’s race moderate (i.e., differentiate) the salience of perceptions of math teachers for adolescents’ math identities? Our results suggest that adolescents who perceive their math teachers as equitable typically have higher levels of math identity regardless of their race or gender. Adolescents’ perceptions of their math teachers as equitable are most salient for adolescents’ math identity in racially diverse schools, where racial differences and stereotypes may be more visible. Findings also indicate the seeming resistance of Black youth to racist stereotypes, whose math identity remains high regardless of their perceptions of their teachers. 
    more » « less
  2. ; (, Sociological Perspectives)
    Math achievement in U.S. high schools is a consistent predictor of educational attainment. While emphasis on raising math achievement continues, school-level interventions often come at the expense of other subjects. Arts courses are particularly at risk of being cut, especially in schools serving lower socioeconomic status youth. Evidence suggests, however, that arts coursework is beneficial to many educational outcomes. We use data on 20,590 adolescents from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to answer two research questions: (1) Does student accumulation of fine arts courses across different topic areas relate positively to math test scores in high school? (2) Does school SES differentiate this potential association? Results indicate that youth attending higher-SES schools take more art courses and taking music courses is related to higher math test scores. However, this benefit only seems to only apply to more socially advantaged student bodies. Results reveal a site of additional educational advantage for already privileged youth. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; (, Journal of Research on Adolescence)
    Abstract Socioeconomic disparities in academic progress have persisted throughout the history of the United States, and growth mindset interventions—which shift beliefs about the malleability of intelligence—have shown promise in reducing these disparities. Both the study of such disparities and how to remedy them can benefit from taking the “long view” on adolescent development, following the tradition of John Schulenberg. To do so, this study focuses on the role of growth mindsets in short‐term academic progress during the transition to high school as a contributor to longer‐term educational attainment. Guided by the Mindset × Context perspective, we analyzed new follow‐up data to a one‐year nationally representative study of ninth graders (National Study of Learning Mindsets,n = 10,013; 50% female; 53% white; 63% from lower‐SES backgrounds). A conservative Bayesian analysis revealed that adolescents' growth mindset beliefs at the beginning of ninth grade predicted their enrollment in college 4 years later. These patterns were stronger for adolescents from lower‐SES backgrounds, and there was some evidence that the ninth‐grade math teacher's support for the growth mindset moderated student mindset effects. Thus, a time‐specific combination of student and teacher might alter long‐term trajectories by enabling adolescents to develop and use beliefs at a critical transition point that supports a cumulative pathway of course‐taking and achievement into college. Notably, growth mindset became less predictive of college enrollment after the onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic, which occurred in the second year of college and introduced structural barriers to college persistence. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; (, Child Development)
    Abstract Investigating socioeconomic status (SES) biases, Nepalese children and adolescents (N = 605, 52% girls, Mage = 13.21, SDage = 1.74) attending schools that varied by SES composition were asked to anticipate whether a peer would include a high or low SES character as a math partner. Novel findings were that students attending mixed SES schools were more likely to expect inclusion of a low SES character than were students attending high SES schools. With age, high SES participants attending mixed SES schools increasingly expected the inclusion of the low SES character. Moreover, teachers' democratic beliefs in high SES schools predicted inclusive expectations. Teacher beliefs and school diversity play a significant role for fostering students' inclusivity in educational contexts. 
    more » « less
  5. ; (, Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World)
    The STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) potential of youth with cognitive disabilities is often dismissed through problematic perceptions of STEM ability as natural and of youth with cognitive disabilities as unable. National data on more than 15,000 adolescents from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 first suggest that, among youth with disabilities, youth with medicated attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have the highest levels of STEM achievement, and youth with learning or intellectual disabilities typically have the lowest. Undergraduates with medicated ADHD or autism appear to be more likely to major in STEM than youth without cognitive disabilities, and youth with autism have the most positive STEM attitudes. Finally, results suggest that high school STEM achievement is more salient for college enrollment than STEM-positive attitudes across youth with most disability types, whereas attitudes are more salient than achievement for choosing a STEM major. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email