Basic Math Skills and Performance in an Introductory Statistics Course

Figures & data

Table 1. Summary Statistics for Demographic Variables

Variable	Percentage	Mean	Standard Deviation
Gender      Female      Male	39.42 60.58
Class      Freshman      Sophomore      Junior      Senior      Other	2.12 49.74 41.27 5.82 1.06
Ethnicity      Minority      Not	23.22 76.78
Class Required for Major      Yes      No	94.71 5.29
English is Native Language      Yes      No	97.35 2.65
Weekly Hours Work for Pay		14.42	12.18
Work more than 0 but less than or equal to 20 hours/week      Work more than 20 but less than or equal to 30 hours/week      Work more than 30 hours/week	77.26 16.16 6.58
Weekly Hours in an Extracurricular Activity		4.49	6.00
Paricipate more than 0 but less than or equal to 10 hours/week      Work more than 10 but less than or equal to 20 hours/week      Work more than 20 hours/week	65.54 12.16 2.34
Weekly Hours Study for All Courses		11.54	7.36
Official University GPA		2.80	0.52
ACT English Score		22.05	3.32
ACT Reading Score		21.56	3.53
Grade in Course		2.81	1.03
4.0      3.5      3.0      2.5      2.0      1.5      1.0      0.5      0.0	20.44 15.53 26.16 12.53 14.17 3.81 1.36 5.99

Table 2: Mathematics Quiz

Table 3. Summary Statistics of the Mathematics Variables

Variable	Percentage	Mean	Standard Deviation
Calculus or Business Calculus      Yes      No	68.25 31.75
Remedial Mathematics      Yes      No	16.76 83.24
ACT Mathematics Score		21.46	2.98
ACT Science Score		22.43	2.74
Most Recent Math Course      Taking a math course this semester      Took a math course last semester      Took a math course within the last year      Took a math course two or more years ago	47.09 42.59 6.61 3.70
Math Quiz Score		11.10	2.31
15 correct      14      13      12      11      10      9      8      7      6      5 or fewer correct	3.97 8.58 10.04 23.22 25.94 11.09 6.69 5.44 2.72 1.46 0.84

Table 4. Estimated Coefficients and Significance (Dependent Variable = Course Grade)

Explanatory Variable	Estimated Coefficient	Standard Error	z-value
Female	0.38	0.14	2.73^***
Sophomore	0.20	0.14	1.49
Minority	−0.21	0.43	−0.48
Hours Work per Week	0.00	0.01	0.20
Hours Study per Week	0.02	0.01	1.65^*
GPA	1.45	0.16	9.10^***
Professor      Professor 1      Professor 2	0.31 −0.59	0.17 0.19	1.78^* −3.20^***
Math ACT Score	−0.01	0.02	−0.53
Science ACT Score	0.05	0.03	1.90^*
Reading ACT Score	−0.03	0.02	−1.36
English ACT Score	0.00	0.02	0.20
Calculus	0.01	0.15	0.06
Remedial Mathematics	−0.23	0.15	−1.56
Math Quiz Score	0.09	0.03	2.73^***
N, R-squared (End Note 7)	292, 0.16

Table 5. Estimated Coefficients with Interaction Terms (Dependent Variable is Course Grade)

Explanatory Variable	Estimated Coefficient	Standard Error	z-value
Interaction Terms
Female*Professor1	−0.77	0.34	−2.24^**
Female*Professor2	0.50	0.35	1.43
Sophomore*Professor1	−0.48	0.36	−1.33
Sophomore*Professor2	0.58	0.37	1.57
Work*Professor1	0.03	0.02	1.61
Work*Professor2	0.00	0.02	0.19
GPA*Professor1	−0.77	0.38	−2.03^**
GPA*Professor2	0.36	0.39	0.92
Remedial*Professor1	0.13	0.53	0.25
Remedial*Professor2	0.02	0.53	0.03
English ACT*Professor1	0.10	0.05	1.91^Table Footnote*
English ACT*Professor2	−0.05	0.05	−1.00
Non-Interaction Terms
Female	0.53	0.27	1.97^**
Sophomore	0.08	0.28	0.28
Work	−0.01	0.01	−0.71
Minority	−0.34	0.47	−0.72
GPA	1.82	0.31	5.82^***
Study	0.02	0.01	1.69^Table Footnote*
Calculus	0.14	0.15	0.92
Remedial	0.00	0.48	0.00
Professor 1	0.58	1.57	0.37
Professor 2	−0.83	1.64	−0.50
English ACT Score	−0.01	0.04	−0.23
Math ACT Score	−0.01	0.03	−0.55
Science ACT Score	0.05	0.03	1.86^Table Footnote*
Reading ACT Score	−0.02	0.02	−0.83
Math Quiz Score	0.10	0.03	2.84^***
N, R-squared (End Note 7)	292, 0.22

* Ordered probit estimation. Significance levels are indicated as: *=10%,**=5%, and *** =1%.