Ma, Xin

National Assessment of Mathematics Participation in the United States. A Survival Analysis Model for Describing Students' Academic Careers

1997 0-7734-2222-6
Researchers have not been able to provide policy makers with reliable answers to their basic concerns: how serious is mathematics dropout in US high schools, and what can be done to stop or reduce it, in concern for the future of a society and work force whose main functions are based more and more on elaborate sophisticated mathematical models, elaborate accounting systems, and computerized data analysis. This study tackles those problems empirically and methodologically. It estimates the probability of students' dropping out, conditional on psychological and sociological variables over a six-year period (grades 7-12); identifies conditions that substantially affect the probability of dropout; traces the development of students' decisions to avoid mathematics courses. It is the first book to employ survival analysis in educational research, and to use national data to address mathematics participation of US students.