Technical Report:

Introduction:

This report is an analysis of a sample of 49 high school students (25 females and 24

males) on primarily their mathematics achievement and attitudes towards mathematics. The

students in the sample are all college bound. The important variables in this study are the

achievement variables, sat which is the student’s performance on SAT math and math which is

the student’s performance on the math final exam. There are three variables measuring student’s

attitudes towards math (known as the attitude variables), the questions asked are, level of interest

in math, how useful is math for your future career and likely to study math in college. These last

three variable are all categorically measured from 1-low to 5-high. The last two variables are

tvhrs which is the hours of evening TV in a typical week, and gender. The teachers and

administrators in the school from which the sample is taken have recently become interested in

knowing the patterns of achievement and attitude and also how they might be related to gender.

This report will look at the relationships between these variables, the best predictors for

mathematics achievement, the relationship between TV habits and mathematics achievement and

finally the role of gender.

Relationships amongst the variables:

Relationships among these variable can be analyzed using the Pearson correlations test

and are shown in Table 1. The null hypothesis is that there is no correlation in the population for

achievement variables i.e. SAT math and Math final exam. The null hypothesis is rejected at the

0.05 significance level and the correlation is strong 0.78 (p < 0.001). Students who tend to score

higher in SAT math tend to score higher in math final exam and students who tend to score lower

in SAT math tend to score lower in math final exam.

 The null hypothesis for the attitude variables is that there is no correlation in the

population for attitudes. The null hypothesis using a 0.05 level of significance is rejected in all

three cases, interest in math and useful for future has strong correlation 0.68 (p < 0.001), interest

in math and study in college has strong correlation 0.65 (p < 0.001), and useful for future and

study in college also has strong correlation 0.72 (p < 0.001).

The null hypothesis is that there is no correlation in the population for attitude variables

as related to achievement. The null hypothesis using a 0.05 level of significance is rejected in all

cases. Interest in math and math final exam has moderate correlation 0.51 (p < 0.001), useful for

future and math final exam has moderate correlation 0.53 (p < 0.001), and study in college and

math final exam has moderate correlation 0.43 (p < 0.01). The results of the correlation tests

between attitude variables and the other achievement variable Sat math are similarly significant

and moderately correlated.

Other important correlations using the 0.05 level of significance in the population

amongst the variables are the following. Hours of TV per week has moderate negative

correlation with achievement, for math final exam -0.46 (p < 0.01) and for sat math -0.37 (p <

0.01). Hours of TV per week has weak negative correlation with a single attitude variable, useful

for future -.032 (p < 0.05). Gender has a weak correlation 0.33 (p < 0.05) of being male and Sat

math performance.

Combining the Attitude Variable:

For further analyses into the relationships and patterns between variables, it would be a

good idea to combine the three attitude variables into a single composite variable. There is a

statistical basis for doing so that measures internal consistency using Cronbach’s coefficient

alpha. Item analysis shows that level of interest in math has a 0.72 correlation with the other two
attitude variables, how useful for your future has a 0.77 correlation with the other two attitude

variables, likely to study math in college has a 0.75 correlation with the other two attitude

variables. All three attitude variables combined have a strong Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of

0.86. There is a strong correlation amongst attitude variables and students who report higher

scores in attitude on one attitude variable tend to have higher scores on the other two attitude

variables. Students who have lower scores on one attitude variable tend to have lower scores on

the other two attitude variables. Therefore it would be useful to use a composite variable for

attitudes.

Linear Regression Analysis:

After analyzing the relationships between the variables, the next step is to find the best

predictors of mathematics achievement using regression analysis. The best predictor for SAT

math scores is scores on the math final exam as it has the strongest correlation for SAT amongst

all the other variables 0.78 (see table 2.). The null hypothesis is that there is no slope in the

population for SAT math scores as predicted by math final exam. Using a 0.05 level of

significance the null hypothesis is rejected p < 0.001. The value of r-square was 0.60, indicating

that 60% of the variation in SAT scores was associated with variation in math final exam score.

The regression equation shows that, predicted SAT scores = 102 + 6(math). On average students

who differed by 1 point on the math exam, differed by 6 points on the SAT exam.

The best predictor for math scores leaving SAT scores aside is overall math attitude as it

has the stronger correlation 0.55. The null hypothesis is that there is no slope in the population

for math scores as predicted by overall math attitude. Using a 0.05 level of significance the null

hypothesis is rejected p < 0.001. The value of r-square was 0.3, indicating that 30% of the

variation in math scores was associated with variation in overall math attitude. The regression
equation shows that, predicted math scores = 63 + 5(aveq). On average students who differed by

1 point on overall math attitude, differed by 5 points on the math final exam.

The people in the school are very interested in knowing how students’ TV habits may be

related to their academic performance. Using TV hours as a predictor for mathematics

achievement the outcome of math final exam will be used because between the two achievement

variables, it has a stronger correlation of -0.46. The null hypothesis is that there is no slope in the

population for math scores as predicted by hours of TV per week. Using a 0.05 level of

significance the null hypothesis is rejected p = 0.001. The value of r-square was 0.21, indicating

that 21% of the variation in math scores was associated with variation in hours of TV per week.

The regression equation shows that, predicted math scores = 87 – 0.5(Hours of TV). On average

students who differed by 1 hour of TV viewing, differed by -0.5 points on the math final exam.

The Role of Gender:

This last section of the report will focus on the role of gender in the patterns of achievement and

attitude. The research question being addressed is, are the outcomes of boys and girls similar? A

t-test approach will be utilized to compare the boys and girls. The F-test was used to check the

assumptions of the t-tests and no adjustment was found to be necessary.

For the achievement variable SAT math, girls in the sample had a mean score of 551

points (see Table 3.), whereas boys had a mean score of 588 points. The null hypothesis is that

there is no difference in the population means of SAT math scores for boys and girls. The null

hypothesis is rejected at the 0.05 level of significance (t(47) = -2.41, p = 0.02, d = -0.69). Boys in

the population had a higher mean score for SAT math. The high effect size suggests that on

average girls score -0.69 deviations lower than boys in the population.
 Using a t-test for math exam, the null hypothesis is that there is no difference in the

population means of math exam scores for boys and girls. The null hypothesis cannot be rejected

at the 0.05 level of significance (t(47) = -1.46, p = 0.15, d = -0.41). There may be no difference

in the population means of boys and girls in math exam scores. The results are summarized in

Table 3.

Using a t-test for attitude towards math (the composite variable for overall attitude), the

null hypothesis is that there is no difference in the attitudes towards math in the population for

boys and girls. The null hypothesis cannot be rejected at the 0.05 level of significance (t(47) = -

1.64, p = 0.11, d = -0.47). There may be no difference in the attitudes towards math for boys and

girls in the population.

Using a t-test for TV viewing per week, the null hypothesis is that there is no difference

in the TV viewing per week in the population for boys and girls. The null hypothesis cannot be

rejected at the 0.05 level of significance (t(47) = 0.6, p = 0.55, d = 0.18). There may be no

difference in the TV viewing per week for boys and girls in the population.
Summary Report:

This report is an analysis of a sample of 49 high school students (25 females and 24

males) on primarily their mathematics achievement and attitudes towards mathematics. This

report analyzes the relationships between the given variables, provides the best predictions for

mathematics achievement, the relationship between TV habits and mathematics achievement and

explores the role of gender.

The results found a strong association between the achievement variables as students who

scored higher on the SAT math scored higher on the math final exam, and students who scored

lower on SAT math scored lower on the math final exam. There was a strong association in the

three attitude variables as students who had a more positive attitude on one variable had a more

positive attitude on the other two variables as well. There was a moderate association between

math attitudes and math achievement.

The best prediction for SAT math scores was scores on the math final exam. On average

students who differed by 1 point on the math exam, differed by 6 points on the SAT exam. The

best prediction for math scores leaving SAT scores aside was overall math attitude. On average

students who differed by 1 point on overall math attitude, differed by 5 points on the math final

exam. On average students who differed by 1 extra hour of TV viewing, differed by -0.5 points

on the math final exam.

For the variables of achievement, attitude and TV viewing, being female did not pose a

statistically significant difference in results as compared to being male. Except in the SAT math

scores where males tended to have on average higher scores.

Appendix:

Table 1. Pearson correlations of the student-level variables.

Q1: Q2: Q3:

Student variable SAT Math Interest Useful for Study in Hours

in math future. college. of TV

SAT math --

Math final exam .78*** --

Q1: Interest in math .48*** .51*** --

Q2: Useful for future .47*** .53*** .68*** --

Q3: Study in college .36* .43** .65*** .72*** --

Hours of TV per week -.37** -.46** -.26 -.32* -.20 --

Gender (0 = female) .33* .21 .21 .22 .19 -.09

* p < .05 ** p < .01 *** p < .001

Table 2. Pearson correlations of student achievement variables for

selecting regression models

Overall

Student variable SAT Math math Hours of

attitude TV

SAT math --

Math final exam .78*** --

Overall math attitude .49*** .55*** --

Hours of TV per week -.37** -.46** -.30* --

Gender (0 = female) .33* .21 .23 -.09

* p < .05 ** p < .01 *** p < .001

Table 3. Comparisons of Girls and Boys on math achievement, math attitudes, and

television viewing hours

Girls Boys

(n=25) (n=24) t p-value d

SAT math Mean 551 588 -2.41 0.02 -.69

(SD) 58.5 48.6

Math exam Mean 76.6 79.6 -1.46 0.15 -.41

(SD) 6.67 7.78

Attitude toward math 3.12 3.51 -1.64 0.11 -.47

Mean .84 .83

(SD)

TV viewing per week 18.6 17.3 .6 .55 .18

Mean 6.3 7.9

(SD)

Note. Effect sizes represent the difference in the means divided by the pooled standard

deviation.