Parents' education level in students' mathematics achievement; do school factors matter?

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of parents' education level in students' mathematics achievement and identify school factors which increase school level math-achievement while reducing the effect of parent's education level. The data for this study is drawn from the Third International Mathematics and Science (TIMMS 2003) database corresponding to eighth grade students in USA. The variables considered in the study are mathematics achievement, parents' education level (student related), principals' perception of school climate, good school and class attendance, and availability of school resources for mathematics instructions (school related). Multilevel linear model is used to analyze the data. The results show a strong positive relationship between parents' education level and students' math-achievement, strong positive relationships between principals' perception of school climate and school level math-achievement, between good school and class attendance and school level math-achievement, and no relationship between availability of school resources for mathematics instruction and school level math-achievement. Further, results show that none of the school variables which increase the school level math-achievement reduce the effect of parents' education level on students' math-achievement.