Mathematics achievement at the sixth-grade in Israel

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not a gap between Arab and Jewish students in Israel exists, and, if so, to describe the nature of that gap. Specifically, the extent to which socioeconomic factors seem to be associated with mathematics performance and achievement at the sixth grade level was examined. The study included two major groups of independent variables--pupil characteristics and teacher characteristics--and one dependent variable--the achievement test outcome. The 400 students who participated in the study were selected from fourteen Israeli schools. This sample was composed of two groups: 210 Arabs and 190 Jews. The three instruments used for the collection of data were the pupil's questionnaire, the mathematics achievement test, and the teacher's questionnaire. This study found that overall there was a significant difference between the Arab and Jewish students' mean scores on the mathematics achievement test. The variable of student's sex did not result in a significant difference in test scores. When the effect of the place of birth variable was tested, the results showed that overall, immigrants performed better than the students born in Israel. But there was no statistically significant difference in the performance of the Jewish groups regardless of whether or not the students were born in Israel. The findings showed that the variables: family size, father's and mother's education, father's and mother's occupation, the teacher's degree, teacher's mathematics degree, and teacher's sex were significant in terms of the entire sample.