| Urban African American students lack an abstract understanding of algebra and are below their academic level in comparison to other ethnic groups, and this is a pervasive problem (McKinney, Chappell, Berry, & Hickman, 2009). The purpose of this quantitative study using a quasi-experimental design was to determine whether the use of multimedia-based instructional technology had an effect on urban African American ninth grade students' mastery of algebra concepts. A pretest and posttest of algebra concepts comparing the results from the treatment group taught with an interactive whiteboard and the comparison group without any multimedia-based instructional technology occurred in this study. One hundred thirty seven African American ninth grade students enrolled in Mathematics I in an urban high school in Atlanta, Georgia participated in the study. Students' posttest scores was the dependent variable, the independent variables were the integration of multimedia-based instructional technology and gender, and pretest scores was used as the covariate. Posttest scores were significantly different between the treatment group and comparison group in students' mastery of algebra concepts when using multimedia-based instructional technology, specifically an interactive whiteboard. A difference did not exist between females and males mastery of algebra concepts when using multimedia-based instructional technology. Educational leaders can utilize the findings of this study to maximize student achievement in mathematics. Further research is recommended to determine the effectiveness of multimedia-based instructional technology with students with learning disabilities, single-gender and coeducational schooling, and teacher-student perceptions and effectiveness. |
