RELATIONSHIP OF FAMILY SUPPORT AND ETHNIC-MINORITY STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

The academic interest and competencies in science and mathematics of c hildren are often begun in families. This research seeks to identify t hose aspects of family support that have the most influence on student s' learning in mathematics and science. It examines the relationship o f the mother's support and participation to the eighth grade ethnic mi nority child's score on standardized tests, particularly mathematics a nd science. Mothers of 80 students responded via telephone to 63 quest ions on their behavior, on the physical environment of the home, on th eir attitudes toward science and mathematics, and four demographic que stions. Alpha reliabilities of groups of questions, frequencies, facto r analysis using varimax rotation and principle components, and ANOVAs were computed. Finally, multivariate analyses ended with three stepwi se multiple regressions using the test scores as dependent variables. This preliminary research on involvement of parents of ethnic minority students shows that students have higher test scores if parents help them see the importance of taking advanced science and mathematics cou rses, emphasize the importance of mathematics in today's careers, set limits, and visit science/mathematics exhibits and fairs with their ch ild. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.