Is Poverty a Hurt for Maths? Study Finds Money and Food Problems Confuse Poor Kids
A study of more than 5 million students in 58 countries found that the content of math tests may unintentionally disadvantage students from low socioeconomic status families. The problem? It turns out that math problems involving money, food, and social interactions, which were considered more “relatable” to children from low-income families, actually hindered their problem-solving. Why? Researchers attribute this phenomenon to a family’s socioeconomic status, which has a profound impact on access to educational resources, quality of life, and, consequently, cognitive development.
Socioeconomic status is the social and economic position of an individual or family in society. It is assessed by combining the income, educational level, and occupation of the individual or family members. This status affects many aspects of life, including access to resources and opportunities, which significantly impacts educational outcomes.
Children from families with high socioeconomic status:
• Have access to better education (tutors, developmental classes);
• Live in a more stable environment;
• Receive more support and learning opportunities.
Children from families with low socioeconomic status:
• Often lack educational resources;
• Face daily stress;
• Have fewer opportunities to enrich their educational experiences.
The author of the study, published in the journal Science of Learning, Marjolein Maskens and her colleagues note that in countries around the world, math tests play a decisive role in determining certification and admission to secondary and higher education. Such tests often play a key role in shaping a student’s academic and professional future. Math tests are among the tests on which children from families with high socioeconomic status tend to perform better than children from families with low socioeconomic status.
These statements make us think. Should the content of math tests be revised? How can we create a fairer education system that does not discriminate against children from low-income families?
What if the tests were made more “relatable” to everyday life? The researchers initially suggested that problems related to money, food, and social interactions might help children from low-income families do better on the tests. After all, they encounter these problems in real life, and the problems should be more understandable to them.
However, the results of the study showed that this is not the case. The researchers analyzed TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies) data from 2007 to 2011, covering more than 5 million fourth- and eighth-grade students from 58 countries. What did they find?
• Children from families with the lowest socioeconomic status performed 16% (in 8th grade) and 18% (in 4th grade) worse than children from families with the highest socioeconomic status on problems related to money, food, and social interactions.
• The largest gap was in the food problems (22% lower) and the smallest in the social interaction problems (12% lower).
Why is this happening? Scientists believe that such tasks may create unintended biases in math tests for children from low-income families. This means that the way math tests are administered needs to be rethought.
Simply eliminating tasks related to money, food, and social interactions will not solve the problem. It is important to develop new approaches that will help minimize the impact of biases and make tests fairer.
The study has some limitations.
• Incomplete data on parental education: Students with the lowest SES often had missing information on parental education.
• Using information on the number of books in the home: Instead of information on parental education, the researchers used the number of books in the home as a proxy for SES, which may have skewed the results slightly.
Despite these limitations, the study highlights the importance of a fair approach to the design of mathematics tests: it is important to consider the impact of socioeconomic status on test scores and to design tests that are fair and do not discriminate against children from low-income families.
What's next?
• Further research is needed to better understand how to take socioeconomic status into account when creating math tests.
• It is important to create a more equitable education system that provides equal opportunities for all children.
The article we talked about is called “Math items about real-world content lower test-scores of students from families with low socioeconomic status” and its authors are Marjolein Muskens, Willem E. Frankenhuis and Lex Borghans. We hope that this information will serve as a good start to the conversation about the importance of fair education and how to create a fairer assessment system.
