| In the United States, African American male students as a group perform at one of the lowest levels of mathematics achievement. Yet, little progress is being made in understanding why. Part of the problem stems from insufficient knowledge about African American male student's development (Murrell, 1994). Three urban high schools in Philadelphia were studied using a correlation research design, analysis of variances, t-tests and MANOVA to determine if any relationships exist between the number of semesters of math these students took and their math scores on achievement tests such as the SAT and the Pennsylvania System of State Assessment (PSSA). The results showed a significant linear, quadratic and cubic trend to the data suggesting that as the number of semesters of math increases there was an increase in student test performance. |
