Examining the factors influencing mathematics academic achievement in mainland China: A multilevel analysis

ABSTRACT

This study used large-scale regional monitoring data of eighth-grade mathematics students at the compulsory education stage from various areas of mainland China. It extracted a total of 156,661 students and 4,676 junior high school mathematics teachers from 146 districts and counties located in six regions (provinces or cities). The study analysed academic achievement in mathematics in these areas and established a hierarchical linear model to explore the factors affecting academic achievement at different levels. The results are as follows: (1) approximately 94% of eighth-grade students reached the level C academic benchmark - students in East China had the highest compliance rate with this level, followed by those in North, South, and Central China; (2) girls, non-leftover students, and children without siblings performed better, and urban students performed significantly better than county and rural students; (3) approximately 34% of students’ mathematics academic performance came from inter-school variability - regional background had a greater impact on mathematics than did teaching factors, while urban and rural background had the least impact. In contrast, the influence of individual characteristic variables was higher than that of student background variables, including a greater positive effect of self-efficacy and a greater negative effect of mathematics anxiety.

KEYWORDS:

• Hierarchical linear model
• mathematics academic achievement
• school factors
• student factors

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Two different tests were administered to different groups of subjects. One of the two tests had the same title used as the equivalent medium. This part of the test is called the anchor test. The anchor test design was also called the common problem design.

2. The Angoff method is one of the most commonly used in standard setting procedures and could be also used to determine the academic benchmark. Specifically, two or more split points were used in large-scale assessments to classify students’ academic performance into multiple levels to determine classification criteria for different proficiency.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the project of The China Basic Education Quality Monitoring Collaborative Innovation Center: “Middle School Mathematics Literacy Evaluation and Diagnostic Improvement (no. 110105006)” and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Shanghai International Studies University: “Research on the development and application of the diagnostic analysis tool of middle school mathematics core literacy enabled by technology (no. 2022114029)” [110105006].

Notes on contributors

Zhuzhu Xu

Zhuzhu Xu is a Ph.D. and post-doctoral fellow in education. His main research direction is large-scale mathematics literacy assessment. In recent years, he has paid special attention to the fields of education policy evaluation and high school education quality survey.