Int J Educattonal Development, Vol 17,No 3, pp 313-321,1997

© 1997ElsevierScienceLtd
Pergamon All rightsreservedl~mtedmGreatBritain
0738-0593/97117O0÷ 0 00
PII: S0738-0593(96)0005 I-X

A MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS OF MATHEMATICS

ACHIEVEMENT IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

XIN MA
Department of Mathematics and Science Education, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC,
Canada V6T IZ4; and The Atlantic Center for Policy Research in Education, The University of New Brunswick,
Fredericton, NB, Canada E3B 6E3

Abstract- - The purpose of this study was to examine mathematics achievement of high school sen-
ior students in the Dominican Republic. The data (N = 1082) were collected in a national evaluation
project on the learning of high school mathematics. Multiple regression analyses were used to explain
the relationship of mathematics achievement to characteristics of student, family, school and region.
Sets of independent variables were used and their causal priority in explaining mathematics achieve-
ment was determined by putting child-centered learning into a sociologically specified context. The
main findings were: (a) among the significant predictors of mathematics achievement, student char-
acteristic, school type and geographical region were the most important, while attitude toward
mathematics and father's educational level were the least important; (b) student age, mother's educa-
tional level and career aspiration had no significant effects on mathematics achievement; (c) student
characteristics were still most responsible for mathematics achievement in the hierarchical sociologi-
cal context of family, school and region. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd

INTRODUCTION achievement. It has been argued that individual

More attention is being given to education in
developing countries, because education is more
than ever considered the key element for a stable
and prosperous future. The considerable social
inequalities in many developing countries make it
extremely difficult for education to be efficient
and effective in aiding economic progress (Len-
non, 1988). Major problems have been identified
as enrollment difficulty, shortage of qualified
teachers, lack of learning materials and facilities,
insufficient educational budgets and high rates of
drop-out, repetition and overage (Fuller and
Heyneman, 1989; Hungwe, 1989; Stromquist,
1989). Crespo (1990) and Fernfindez (1990) also
identify these problems in the Dominican Repub-
lic. The most evident difference between develop-
ing and developed countries is their spending
levels on education (Fuller and Heyneman, 1989).
It is a common goal for most developing countries
to make good use of the limited educational
resources to facilitate individual growth in both
affect and achievement - - two widely acclaimed
favorable outcomes of schooling (Chesler and
Caves, 1981).
Characteristics of student, family, school and
region have been identified in the research litera-
ture to have important influences on academic
learners are most directly responsible for their
academic outcomes. Therefore, they are the basic
element in the explanation of academic achieve-
ment. The theoretical root of this argument can
be found in child-centered learning theory that
emphasizes the unique privileges of individual
learners in any educational process (see Miller
and Seller, 1990). Students are encouraged to
make academic progress at their own rates. The
process of learning is, therefore, affected and
determined by characteristics of students who are
self-activated makers of meanings and active
agents in their learning process (Miller and Seller,
1990). Adopting this theoretical position, student
characteristics were given the exclusive priority in
explaining the variance in mathematics achieve-
ment.
This study, then, put child-centered learning
into a sociological context based upon the assump-
tion that the unique privileges of individual
learners may well be compromised by the socio-
logical context in which individual learning inter-
acts with characteristics of family, school and
region. As a matter of fact, family, school and
region have long been identified as factors that
have important influences on students' academic
outcomes. Research literature also suggests that

313
314 XIN MA
the priority of family, school and region in put into this sociological context. Given this
explaining academic achievement be determined hierarchical sociological context of family, school
based upon the closeness of their relations with and region, can student characteristics still be
individual learners. The influence of family on most responsible for mathematics achievement?
students' academic achievement has been recog- A more general research question was: Given the
nized by many researchers (e.g. Anyon, 1983; hierarchical sociological context, what is the rela-
Eccles et al., 1985; Fennema and Peterson, 1985; tionship of mathematics achievement to charac-
Fuller and Heyneman, 1989; Theisen et al., 1983). teristics of student, family, school and region?
Socio-economic status (SES) and home environ- Using data from the Dominican Republic, this
ment variables usually explain a substantial study attempted to investigate these research
amount of variance in academic achievement. questions that have been barely explored in the
Educational sociologists have theorized that fam- developing world.
ily characteristics shape values of individual learn-
ers which may lead to frustration and failure when METHOD
confronted with different values inherent in the The Dominican Republic setting
schools (Cloward and Ohlin, 1960; Cohen, 1955; The Dominican Republic is located in the
Coleman et al., 1966; Jencks et al., 1972; Merton, Caribbean Sea, neighboring Cuba, Puerto Rico
1968). As a result, it has been argued that family and Haiti. The country has an area of about
background plays a central role in determining 49,000 km 2 which is divided into 26 provinces,
students' academic achievement (Fuller and Hey- and one national district where the capital city,
neman, 1989). Santo Domingo, is located. The population is
Research also supports the special place of approximately 7 million, of which nearly 75% are
school in the explanation of students' academic under 25 years of age (Fern/mdez, 1990). The
achievement (e.g. Anyon, 1983; Crespo, 1990; average annual rate of population increase is
Eccles et al., 1985; Fennema and Peterson, 1985; about 2.3%. The form of government is repre-
Fennema and Sherman, 1977; Leder, 1992; The- sentative democracy with traditional division of
isen et al., 1983). Different types of schools have powers between the executive, legislature and
been found to produce different levels of aca- judiciary. The economy is typical of that of many
demic outcomes (Coleman et al., 1982; Hoffer et developing countries, mainly agriculture, mining
al., 1985; Lee, 1986; Lee and Bryk, 1988). It is also and recently tourism.
observable in the literature that family character- Primary and secondary education is compul-
istics often precede school characteristics in sory in the Dominican Republic. The Ministry of
accounting for academic achievement (see Cole- Education controls and provides curricula for
man et al., 1982; Hoffer et al., 1985; Lee, 1986). public and private education at the pre-school,
Academic outcomes of schooling depend on primary and secondary levels. There are three
cultural characteristics of students that differ not types of schools in the country: public, private
only from country to country in the world but also 61ite and private non-61ite, depending upon their
from region to region in a country (Lennon, status with the Ministry of Education and SES of
1988). Crespo (1990) and Theisen et al. (1983) their students (see Luna et al., 1995). Public
contend that it is not possible to ignore the effect schools are run and financed by the government.
of geographical regions on students' academic Students attending public schools are of low SES
achievement, especially in developing countries. because public schools are free of charge. Private
Theisen et al. (1983) further suggest that region ~lite schools are autonomous and authorized to
and school together have some combined effects administer their own examinations. Students
on students' academic achievement. Note also attending these schools are of middle to high SES.
that characteristics of family and school often Private non-~lite schools operate under the super-
precede those of region, because families and vision of the Ministry of Education and are not
schools in a certain region often reserve and authorized to administer their own examinations.
reflect considerable characteristics of the region Students attending these schools are of low to
in terms of culture and educational expectations. middle SES.
Based upon the above review, family, school
and region, in this order, were assigned priorities D a t a source
in accounting for the variance in mathematics The data used in the present study were col-
achievement. Child-centered learning was then lected during the 1988-1989 school year, in a
 MATttEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT
national evaluation project on the learning of
high school mathematics. The stratified random
sampling procedure enables this national assess-
ment to have a fair representation of students
from three types of schools (public, private ~lite
and private non-~lite) in three densely populated
geographical regions (Santo Domingo, Santiago
and the next ten major cities). The target popula-
tion is high school senior students. The original
national sample contains over 1200 high school
senior students from 49 schools. In the present
study, students with missing data were deleted
listwise from the analyses. The deletion procedure
resulted in a sample of 1082 high school senior
students for analyses in this study.
Mathematics achievement was measured
through two test forms. A total of 70 multiple-
choice items (35 in each form) cover four major
curriculum strands in mathematics: arithmetic,
algebra, geometry and trigonometry. Items are
drawn from existing item banks of the Second
International Mathematics Study (SIMS) and
British Columbia Grade 12 Provincial Mathemat-
ics Examinations. Students need three kinds of
cognitive skills (computation, comprehension and
application) to solve test items successfully. In
addition to mathematics achievement tests, there
is a 15-item student questionnaire that was used
to obtain information about students, their fam-
ily background, career aspiration, attitude toward
mathematics and some school characteristics.
The student questionnaire was administered to
the same national sample that wrote mathematics
achievement tests.
Data analysis
There are a number of ways in which independ-
ent variables are entered into the regression equa-
tion, known as simultaneous, stepwise and
hierarchical regression I (Cohen and Cohen, 1983).
The first two statistical techniques are suitable for
prediction. Because this study was mainly explana-
tory in nature, hierarchical regression was utilized
with the purpose of: (a) examining mathematics
achievement, the dependent variable, under a
certain causal priority of independent variables;
and (b) controlling potentially confounding inde-
pendent variables. Cohen and Cohen (1983) and
Pedhazur (1982) provide the rationale for design-
ing a hierarchical regression analysis. Hierarchi-
cal regression is usually considered as theoretically
conservative and statistically rigorous, because it
ensures that the influence of preceding independ-
ent variables is statistically controlled to gain
315
good validity for a follow-up independent vari-
able. Often, sets of independent variables are used
in hierarchical regression. Similarly, seven sets of
independent variables were involved in this study.
Before explaining these sets, a brief description is
necessary on categorical independent variables.
Many independent variables contain exclu-
sively qualitative levels or categories. These kinds
of categorical independent variables can not be
entered directly into any regression equation.
Coding must be used as a method of creating
vectors to represent the levels of a categorical
independent variable. The number of vectors
needed to do so is one less than the number of
levels in the categorical independent variable. One
of the coding methods is dummy coding in which
the values entered in the vectors are Is and 0s.
Each level is represented by one vector in which
that level is assigned a value of 1 and other levels
are assigned a value of 0. The vector for the last
level is a zero (or base-line) vector against which
other vectors are compared. There were five cat-
egorical independent variables in this study,
namely gender, school type, provision of text-
books, desire for future career and region. Dummy
coding was used to represent these categorical
independent variables. The first three columns in
Table 1 present the seven sets of independent
variables and the coding of categorical independ-
ent variables which was used in the regression
analyses.
Note that, in a hierarchical regression analysis,
a causal priority of sets of independent variables
in explaining the dependent variable is specified
(see Cohen and Cohen, 1983). Thus. a set of
independent variables entered at a given step
should not be presumed to have any effect on
another set of independent variables entered at an
earlier step. The causal priority of sets of inde-
pendent variables was decided upon several theo-
retical considerations that were discussed in the
literature review. Student, family, school and
region, in this order, were assigned causal priori-
ties in accounting for the variance in mathemat-
ics achievement. There were four sets of
independent variables related to school. Their
causal priority in explaining mathematics achieve-
ment was determined as follows: (a) school types
decide school characteristics; (b) attitude toward
mathematics is affected by school t3pes and
school characteristics: and (c) desire for future
career is influenced by school types, school char-
acteristics and attitude toward mathematics. In a
hierarchical regression analysis, the proportion of
316 XIN MA

Table 1. C o d i n g a n d descriptive statistics o f variables ( N = 1082)

Variable Category Coding Mean S.D.

Set o f s t u d e n t c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s
Gender 1 = male I 1.625 5.663
2 = female 0 -- --
Age -- -- 18.073 1.097
N u m b e r o f b r o t h e r s a n d sisters -- - - 3 962 1.097
Set o f p a r e n t a l e d u c a t i o n a l levels
Father's e d u c a t i o n a l level -- -- 3.019 1.684
M o t h e r ' s e d u c a t i o n a l level -- -- 2.809 1.613
Set o f s c h o o l types I = public 10 0.268 0.443
2 = private 61ite 01 0.419 0.494
3 = private non-61ite 00 -- --
Set o f school c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s
Frequency of homework -- -- 1.608 0.871
Dally time for h o m e w o r k -- -- 3.004 1.068
Provision o f t e x t b o o k s 1 = yes 1 1.337 0.473
2=no 0 -- --
Set o f a t t i t u d e t o w a r d m a t h e m a t i c s -- -- 45.745 8.750
Set o f desire for future c a r e e r 1 = university s t u d y 10000 0.570 0.495
2 = full-time j o b 01000 0.007 0.086
3 = p a r t - t i m e j o b a n d university study 00100 0.339 0.474
4 = rest a n d then j o b 00010 0.003 0.053
5 = o t h e r plans 00001 0 039 0.193
6 = n o decision 00000 -- - -

Set o f g e o g r a p h i c a l c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s 1 = Santo Domingo 10 0.278 0.448

2 = Santiago 01 0.428 0.495
3 = the next ten m a j o r cities 00 -- --
Mathematics achievement -- -- 18.714 8.128

variance explained by a set of independent vari-
ables at a certain step over and above that explained
by previous sets of independent variables is the
most important statistic. Similarly, in this study,
the significance of a set of independent variables
was tested by examining the increment of R 2 for
the set over and above the R 2 for those sets entered
earlier. Most interpretations were based upon
these significance tests.
The final multiple regression equation is a
weighted linear composite of independent vari-
ables. In that equation, non-significant regression
coefficients are considered to have only trivial
effects on the dependent variable. These regres-
sion coefficients, consequently their correspond-
ing independent variables, are usually deleted to
achieve parsimony of a regression model (see
Shelton, 1987). The simplified regression model is
then re-run to obtain necessary statistics. This
procedure was followed in this study.
RESULTS
The dependent variable in this study was math-
ematics achievement of high school senior stu-
dents in the Dominican Republic. Independent
variables were classified into different sets: the set
of student characteristics, including student gen-
der, age and the number of brothers and sisters;
the set of parental educational levels, including
father's and mother's educational levels; the set of
school types; the set of school characteristics,
including frequency of homework, daily time for
homework and provision of textbooks; the set of
attitude toward mathematics; the set of desire for
future career; the set of geographical characteris-
tics. Categorical independent variables of gender,
school type, provision of textbooks, desire for
future career and geographical region were all
dummy coded for regression analyses. The descrip-
tive statistics of all the variables are listed in
Table 1.
The results of the two multiple regression
analyses (the original and simplified models) are
presented in Tables 2 and 3. In the original
regression model, the set of desire for future
career was the only non-significant predictor set,
F(5, 1066) = 1.614,p = 0.154. The percentage of
variance in mathematics achievement accounted
for uniquely by this set was 0.62%. This predictor
 MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT 317

Table 2. R squared, change m R squared, F ratm for the change, significance of the change (br the original model (N = 1082)

Hierarchical sets of predictor variables R-" Change in R-" F ratio Significance of F

Set of student characteristics 0 0667 0 0667 25,678 0 000"*

Set of parental educauonal levels 0.0771 0 0104 6,041 0.002**
Set of school types 0.1313 0 0542 33 516 0 000"*
Set of school characteristics 0.1686 0 0373 16 012 0 000"
Set of attitude toward mathematics 0.1733 0 0047 6.118 0 014"
Set of desire for future career 0.1795 0 0062 1.614 0.154
Set of geographical characteristics 0.2238 0 0443 30 345 0.000"*

Notes: *p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. Set of student characteristics = (gender. age. number of brothers and sisters). Set of parental
educational levels = (father's education level, mother's education level) Set of school types = (public, private ,~lite,private
non-~lite). Set of school characteristics = (frequency of homework, dady time for homework, provision of textbooks). Set
of attitude toward mathematics = (attitude toward mathematics). Set of desire for future career = (university study, full-t~me
job, part-time job and university study, rest and then job, other plans, no decision) Set of geographical characteristics =
(Santo Domingo, Santiago, the next ten major cities). Gender, school t?pe. proviston of textbooks, desire lbr future career
and geographical characteristics were dummy coded.

Table 3. R squared, change in R squared, Fratio for the change, significanceof the change for the simplified model (N = 1082)

Hierarchical sets of predictor variables R" Change m R2 F ratto Significance

of F

Set of student characteristics 0.0640 0 0640 36.912 0.000"*

Set of parental educational levels 0.0728 0.0088 10.240 0.001 **
Set of school types 0.1289 0 0561 34.618 0.000"*
Set of school characteristics 0.1661 0 0372 15.951 0 000"*
Set of attitude toward mathematics 0.1710 0.0049 6.324 0.012"
Set of geographical characteristics 0.2177 0 0467 31 947 0 000"*

Notes: *p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01, Set of student characteristics = (gender, number of brothers and sisters) Set of parental
educational levels = (father's educational level). Set of school types = {pubhc. private 6hte, private non-~lite). Set of school
characteristics = (frequency of homework, daily time for homework, pro~~sion of textbooks). Set of attitude toward
mathematics = (attitude toward mathematics). Set of geographical characteristics = (Santo Domingo, Santiago, the next ten
major cities). Gender, school type, provision of textbooks and geographical characteristics were dummy coded

set was, t h e r e f o r e , d e l e t e d f r o m t h e m o d e l by the o r i g i n a l m o d e l (22.38%). Therefore, the

(Table 3).
Table 4 shows the final s t a n d a r d i z e d regression
coefficients ([3) a n d the results o f significance tests
o f these [~s in the two models. C o r r e l a t i o n s a n d
p a r t c o r r e l a t i o n s are also p r e s e n t e d in Table 4. In
the original m o d e l , the p r e d i c t o r v a r i a b l e o f stu-
d e n t age in the set o f s t u d e n t c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s was
n o t statistically significant, F (1, 1079) = 1.181,
p = 0.277. N e i t h e r was the p r e d i c t o r variable o f
m o t h e r ' s e d u c a t i o n a l level in the set o f p a r e n t a l
e d u c a t i o n a l levels, F (1, 1078) = 0.827, p = 0.363.
T h e s e two p r e d i c t o r variables were also d e l e t e d to
achieve a simplified regression m o d e l .
In the simplified m o d e l , all p r e d i c t o r sets were
statistically significant (Table 3), a n d the [3 for
each p r e d i c t o r variable was statistically signifi-
c a n t as well (Table 4). T h e t o t a l a m o u n t o f vari-
a n c e a c c o u n t e d for by the simplified m o d e l in
m a t h e m a t i c s a c h i e v e m e n t was 21.77%. N o t e that
this a m o u n t was quite close to the a m o u n t o f
m a t h e m a t i c s a c h i e v e m e n t v a r i a n c e a c c o u n t e d for
p a r s i m o n y in the simplified m o d e l was achieved
w i t h o u t losing m u c h i m p o r t a n t i n f o r m a t i o n .
The m o s t i m p o r t a n t p r e d i c t o r sets in the simpli-
fied m o d e l were the set o f s t u d e n t characteristics
a c c o u n t e d for 6.4% o f the variance in m a t h e m a t -
ics achievement, the set o f school types a c c o u n t e d
for 5.6% o f the variance in m a t h e m a t i c s achieve-
ment, a n d the set o f geographical characteristics
a c c o u n t e d for 4.7% o f the variance in m a t h e m a t -
ics achievement. O n the o t h e r hand, the least
i m p o r t a n t p r e d i c t o r sets were the set o f attitude
t o w a r d m a t h e m a t i c s that e x p l a i n e d 0.5% o f m a t h -
ematics achievement variance a n d the set o f p a r e n -
tal e d u c a t i o n a l levels that e x p l a i n e d 0.9% o f
m a t h e m a t i c s achievement variance.
DISCUSSION
Within the context o f this study, several findings
are noteworthy. First, a diversity o f student ages
can be observed a m o n g the high school seniors in
318 XIN MA

Table 4. Beta weights, correlations, part correlations, and F ratios tbr the orig,nal and simplified models

Original model (N = 10827 Simplified model (N = 1082)

Beta Part F Beta Part F
Predictor variables Weight r r ratio Weight r • Ratio

Gender 0.1703 0.2022 0.1647 37 143"* 0 1709 0.2022 0.1682 . 38.685"*

Age -0.0305 -0.1032 -0.0294 1.181 . . . .
Number of brothers and sisters -0.0635 -0.1719 -0 0599 4.915" -0 0690 -0.1719 -0.0659 5.945"
Father's education level 0.0781 0.1191 0.0656 5 887* 0.0938 0.1191 0.0894 10.924"
Mother's education level 0.0292 0.1003 0.0246 0.827 . . . .
School type (vector 1) 0.1006 -0.0465 0.0784 8.424** 0.1015 -0.0465 0 0799 8.737**
School type(vector 2) 0.3141 0.2505 0.2467 83.475** 0.3209 0.2505 0 2537 88,045**
Frequency of homework 0.1315 -0.0448 0.1188 19.317"* 0.1315 -0.0448 0.1197 19.587"*
Daily time for homework 0.0972 0.1418 0.0912 11.397"* 0.1000 0.1418 00949 12.323"*
Provision of textbooks 0.1461 0.1684 0.1382 26.127"* 0.1460 0.1684 0.1392 26.498**
Attitude toward mathematics 0.I000 0.0714 0.0936 11.987"* 0.1045 0.0714 0.0984 13.248"*
Desire for future career (vector 1) 0.0363 0.0922 0.0140 0 270 . . . .
Desire for future career (vector 2) -0.0145 -0.0368 -0.0132 0.240 . . . .
Desire for future career (vector 3) 0.0025 -0.0481 0.0001 0.001 . . . .
Desire for future career (vector 4) 0.0150 0.0083 0.0144 0.285 . . . .
Desire for future career (vector 5) -0.0435 -0.0336 -0.0312 1.335 . . . .
Region (vector 1) 0.0744 0.0195 0.0576 4.549* 0.0658 0,0195 0.0517 3.652*
Region (vector2) 0.2552 0.1672 0.2002 54.895** 0.2561 0,1672 0.2017 55.661"*

Notes: *p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. School type vectors, desire for future career vectors, or region vectors were entered as a set.
Dummy coding was used for each categorical variable. For gender, males (17 and females (07. For school type: public (10),
private glite (01) and private non-6lite (00). For provision of textbooks: yes (1) and no (0). For desire for future career:
university study (10000), full-time job (01000), part-time job and university study (00100), rest and then job (000107, other
plans (00001) and no decision (000000). For region: Santo Domingo (10), Santiago (017 and the next ten major cities (00).

the Dominican Republic. Data show that the
range of ages is from 12 to 24 years. This study
shows that student age, as a predictor variable,
had only a trivial effect on mathematics achieve-
ment in grade 12. Because of the lack of special
programs for slow and gifted students in develop-
ing countries, students of different ages usually
attend the same grade. The finding implies that
letting gifted students 'jump' grades and slow
students repeat grades is probably a workable
coping strategy to the lack of educational
resources in developing countries.
Another interesting finding is that mother's
educational level was not statistically reliable in
explaining students' mathematics achievement.
Note that, in the Dominican Republic, as in many
developing countries, although society has begun
to change, most mothers still work at home.
Therefore, almost all students have a similar
mother's SES. The finding implies that mother's
educational level affects mathematics achieve-
ment mainly through mother's SES. Stated differ-
ently, mother's educational level is strongly
moderated by mother's SES. If mother's SES
becomes constant, it constrains mother's educa-
tional level from actively affecting mathematics
achievement. In contrast, father's educational
level accounted for a significant amount of vari-
ance in mathematics achievement. The explana-
tion, according to the implication outlined above,
is that father's SES varies dramatically and,
therefore, stimulates father's educational level to
be effective in explaining mathematics achieve-
ment. But the effect of father's SES on mathemat-
ics achievement cannot be exaggerated. Table 4
shows that one unit change in father's educational
level causes a small change of 0.09 in the stand-
ardized score of mathematics achievement
(equivalently 2 percentage points). What was
found in this study on the relationship between
parental educational levels and mathematics
achievement of their children may be typical in
many developing countries that share a similar
situation to that of the Dominican Republic
regarding mother's and father's SES.
Educators often ask whether students' plans
for future careers play an important role in their
study of mathematics. The answer seems negative
in the Dominican setting. In the original model,
desire for future career was the only non-
significant predictor set. In Table 4, part correla-
tions for this set also indicate that the unique
contribution made by vectors of this set to
mathematics achievement was trivial. The finding
 MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT
is in disagreement with not only people's common
sense but also some studies conducted in devel-
oped countries on the relationship between career
aspiration and mathematics achievement (e.g.
Bieschke and Lopez, 1991,; Cooper and Robin-
son, 1991; Pedersen et al., 1986). Note that, when
entering the set of desire for future career into the
regression equation, there had already been five
sets of independent variables in the equation.
Therefore, it is still possible for the set of desire for
future career to have some power to explain
mathematics achievement, but it shares the power
with those sets preceding it in the equation. One
way to rule out this speculation is to examine the
correlation between career aspiration and math-
ematics achievement. Because correlations
between mathematics achievement and vectors in
the set of desire for future career are very small in
Table 4, it is less possible for this set to share a
meaningful power to explain mathematics achieve-
ment with those sets of independent variables
preceding it. Therefore, the conclusion is sustain-
able that students' desire for future career has no
significant contribution to their mathematics
achievement in the Dominican setting.
Recall that, in the present study, child-centered
learning was put into a hierarchical sociological
context of family, school and region in which the
set of student characteristics was assigned an
exclusive priority for the explanation of math-
ematics achievement. The set of student charac-
teristics did continue to be the most important
predictor set for mathematics achievement. Child-
centered learning seems applicable to the hierar-
chical sociological context of family, school and
region: Although individual learning interacts
with characteristics of family, school and region,
individual learners are still most responsible for
their mathematics achievement. It can, therefore,
be speculated that the influences from family,
school and region have to be meaningfully inter-
nalized by individual learners before they are
capable of affecting individual learning. School
and region also seem to have important functions
in the hierarchical sociological context, being
significant predictors for mathematics achieve-
ment. Note that sets of school type and school
characteristics together explained twice as much
variance in mathematics achievement as the set of
geographical characteristics, indicating that school
characteristics are much more important than
region characteristics. One speculation is that
school characteristics are capable of reflecting a
sizable portion of region characteristics, espe-
319
ciaily in terms of educational policies and expec-
tations. Therefore, school characteristics may
affect individual learning more directly than region
characteristics.
Interestingly, in the Dominican setting, family
fails to show significant contribution to math-
ematics achievement in the sociological context.
Note, however, that only parental educational
levels were used to present family characteristics
in this study. Perhaps, they are inadequate to fully
reflect family characteristics and, therefore, con-
strain the importance of family background in
explaining mathematics achievement. Further
studies are recommended to involve more family
characteristics, such as SES and home environ-
ment variables, in the examination of child-
centered learning in the sociologically specified
context.
Finally, I discuss the individual predictor vari-
ables in the simplified model. As mentioned
before, the final regression equation is a weighted
linear composite of individual variables. The
weighted standardized regression coefficient (13)
for each individual variable indicates its impor-
tance in the regression equation. Because the
sample size was large in this study, the practical
meaning or significance of the statistically signifi-
cant results (Table 4) are taken into account.
First, gender differences were statistically signifi-
cant in mathematics achievement, but may not be
practically meaningful. From male to female,
mathematics achievement dropped about 2 per-
centage points. Thus, there were no evident gen-
der differences in mathematics achievement
among the high school seniors.
Students with fewer brothers and sisters had
better mathematics achievement. However, one
more brother or sister caused mathematics
achievement to decrease by about 1 percentage
point. As a result, there were no substantial dis-
advantages regarding mathematics achievement
for students from large families. It is undeniable
that students with a large number of brothers and
sisters at home may receive less care in terms of
their living and learning from their parents than
students with fewer brothers and sisters. But it
seems that the care from'educators may compen-
sate for the lack of care from parents with respect
to the learning of mathematics. As long as edu-
cators pay enough attention to students from
large families, there may not be evident differ-
ences in mathematics achievement between stu-
dents with and without a large number of brothers
320 XIN MA
and sisters. This finding is informative and encour-
aging for educators in many developing countries
with large populations.
Higher frequency of homework, more daily
time for homework, and positive attitude toward
mathematics led to better mathematics achieve-
ment. However, one unit change in the frequency
scale, one more hour of homework, and one unit
change in the attitude scale increased mathemat-
ics achievement by about I percentage point. The
effects of frequency of homework, daily time for
homework, and attitude toward mathematics on
mathematics achievement should not be ignored
or exaggerated. Small differences in these variables
may not cause any evident change in mathematics
achievement. On the other hand, the cumulative
effects of these variables on mathematics achieve-
ment may become potentially significant.
Students with textbooks performed better in
mathematics than students without textbooks.
The difference was less than 2 percentage points,
and may not be practically important. This find-
ing indicates to educators in developing countries
that the negative impact of lack of textbooks is
potentially removable. The Dominican experiences
show that careful classnotes and effective home-
work may help overcome the difficulties caused by
the lack of textbooks in the developing world.
The simplified model explained 22% of the
total variance in mathematics achievement.
According to Cohen and Cohen (1983), this
amount can be considered meaningful in behav-
ior sciences. Also, it seems possible to improve the
model significantly. Note that independent vari-
ables in this study were constrained to the student
questionnaire administered in the national sur-
vey. There may exist other variables at the school
level which affect mathematics achievement sub-
stantially such as disciplinary climate, teacher
qualification and school mean SES. Hierarchical
multilevel regression (see Goldstein, 1987) offers
effective ways to examine the effects of school-
level variables on mathematics achievement. Fur-
ther research is recommended to adopt the
multilevel regression approach to examine indi-
vidual learning in the hierarchical structure of a
sociological context.
Acknowledgements - - The author wishes to acknowledge the
assistance of many people who made this study possible. The
author especially thanks Dr Eduardo Luna and Professor
Sarah Gonz~lez for providing data lbr this study, and Joel
Zapata and Sandra Crespo for their suggestions and com-
ments during the early stage of the analysis.
NOTES
1. The 'hierarchical' multiple regression used in this paper
is entirely different from the hierarchical multilevel regression
often referred to as hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) (e.g.
Goldstein, 1987). This paper refers to the hierarchy for enter-
ing independent variables into the regression equation. Note
that Cohen and Cohen (1983) used statistical terminology
which was popular in the 1970s. The statistical method used
in this paper is commonly classified as 'stepwise' multiple
regression in modern statistics.
REFERENCES
Anyon, J. (1983) Intersections of gender and class: Accom-
modation and resistance by working-class and affluent
females to contradictory sex-role ideologies. In (Edited by
Walker, S. and Barton, L.), Gender. Class and Education.
pp. 19-38. Falmer, New York.
Bieschke, K. J. and Lopez. E G. (1991, August) A Causal
Model of Career Asp:rat:ons. Paper presented at the Annual
Convention of American Psychological Association, San
Francisco.
Chesler, M. A. and Caves, W. M. (1981) A Sociology of Edu-
cation - - Access to Power and Privilege. Macmillan, New
York.
Cloward, R. A. and Ohlin, L. E. (1960) Dehnquency and
Opportunity: A Theory of Delinquent Gangs. Free Press,
New York.
Cohen, A. K. (1955) Delinquent Boys. Free Press, Glencoe, I L.
Cohen. J. and Cohen, P. (1983) Apphed Multtple Regression/
Correlation Analysis in Behavioral Sciences (2nd edn).
Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
Coleman, J., Campbell, E., Hobson, C., McPartland, J.
Mood, A., Weinfeld, E D. and York, R. (1966) Equality of
Educational Opportunity. Government Printing Office,
Washington, DC.
Coleman, J., Hoffer, T. and Kilgore, S. (1982) High School
Achievement: Public, Cathohc and Other Private Schools
Compared. Basic Books, New York.
Cooper. S. E. and Robinson, D. G. ( 1991 ) The relationship of
mathematics self-efficacy beliefs to mathematics anxiety
and performance. Measurement and Evaluation in Coun-
sehng and Development 24, 4-1 I.
Crespo, S. (1990) Mathematics achievement in the Dominican
Republic: Grade 12. Unpublished master's thesis, Univer-
sity of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.
Eccles. J., Adler, T. F., Futterman, R., Goff. S. B, Kaczala. C.
M., Meece, J. L. and Midgley, C. (1985) Self-perceptions.
task perceptions, socializing influences, and the decision to
enroll in mathematics. In (Edited by Chipman. S. E, Brush.
L. R. and Wilson, D. M.), Women and Mathematics" Bal-
ancing the Equation. pp. 95-121. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hills-
dale, NJ.
Fennema, E. and Peterson, P. L. (1985) Autonomous learning
behavior: A possible explanation of gender-related differ-
ences in mathematics. In (Edited by Wilkinson, L. C. and
Marrett, C. B ), Gender-Related Differences in Classroom
Interactions. pp. 17-35. Academic Press, New York.
Fennema, E. and Sherman, J. (1977) Sex-related differences in
mathematics achievement, spatial visualization and affec-
tive factors. American Educattonal Research Journal 14,
51-71.
Fern~.ndez. F. (1990) Dominican Republic. In IEdited by
Postlethwaite, N T.), The Encyclopedia of Comparative
 MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT
Education and National Systems of Educatton pp. 236-238
Pergamon, Oxford.
Fuller. B. and Heyneman, S P. (1989) Third world school
quality: Current collapse, future potential Educational
Researcher 18, 12-19.
Goldstein. H (1987) Multdevel Models in Educational and
Social Research. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Hoffer, T.. Greeley, A. M. and Coleman. J. S. (1985) Achieve-
ment growth in public and private schools. Sociology of
Education 58, 74-97
Hungwe, K. (1989) Culturally appropriate media and technol-
ogy: A perspective from Zimbabwe. Tech Trends 34, 22-23
Jencks, C., Acland, S. H., Bane, M. J., Cohen, D., Gintls, H ,
Heyns, B. and Michelson, S. (1972). Inequality: A Reassess-
raent of the Effect of Family and Schoohng in Amertca.
Harper & Row, New York.
Leder, G. C. (1992) Mathematics and gender: Changing per-
spectlves. In (Edited by Grouws, D. A.), Handbook of
Research on Mathemattcs Teaching and Learning. pp. 597-
622. Macmillan, New York.
Lee, V. E. (1986) Catholic school minority students have
'reading proficiency advantage'. Momentum 17, 20-24.
Lee, V. E. and Bryk, A. S. (1988) Curriculum tracking as
mediating the social distribution of high school achieve-
ment Sociology of Education 61, 78-94.
321
Lennon, O. (1988) Cultural variations, cogmtwe styles, and
educatton m Latin America. Prospects 28, 413--420
Luna, E., Gonz~tlez, S., Robltadle, D. Crespo. S. and Wolfe,
R. (1995) Improving the teaching and learning of math-
ematlCS in the Dominican Republic Journal of Curriculum
Studtes 27, 67-79
Merton, R K. (Ed) (1968) Socsal Theory and Soctal Struc-
ture. Free Press, New York.
Miller, J P and Seller, W (1990) Currtculum Perspectives and
Practice Copp Clark Pitman, Toronto.
Pedersen, K. Elmore, P. and Bleyer. D (1986) Parent attitude
and student career interests in junior high school Journal
for Research m Mathematics Educatton 17, 49-59
Pedhazur, E J. (1982) Multtple Regresston in Behavtoral
Research Explanation and Predtctton Holt. Rinehart &
Winston, New York.
Shelton. E A (1987) Using regression analysis: A guided tour
Computers and Education 11, 95-111.
Stromquist. N. P (1989) Determinants of educational partici-
pation and achievement of women in the third world: A
review of the evidence and a theoretical critique. Revtew of
Educattonal Research 59, 143-183.
Theisen, G. Achola, P and Boakari. F (1983) The undera-
chievement of cross-national studies of achievement Corn-
parattve Education Review 27, 46-68