Examining Hispanic Student Mathematics Performance on High-Stakes Tests: An Examination of One Urban School District in Colorado

Hispanic students, born both inside and outside the United States, comprise over 80% of the US English language learner population. The difference in mathematics achievement among Hispanic students and other populations has been well documented. As a result, it is important to understand the effects of using standards-based mathematics curriculum with high school Hispanic students. Mathematics achievement scores from the Colorado Student Assessment Program and Measurement of Academic Progress for Hispanic 9th and 10th grade students (n = 1,318) who used the Core-Plus Mathematics Program were compared to the progress of other student demographics (n = 2,003) who used the same curriculum. In following the recommendations of the National Research Council (On evaluation curricular effectiveness: judging the effectiveness of K-12 mathematics evaluations. National Academies Press, Washington, DC 2005), a meta-analysis (Glass in Educ Res 5:3–8, 1976) of Hispanic students using National Science Foundation Funded (NSFF) curricula was conducted to contextualize this study’s findings within the findings of previous studies. The results of this study indicated that Hispanic students have shown modest gains; however, their relative position compared to other ethnic groups is unremarkable. The meta-analysis Cohen’s d results ranged from +.673 (SE = .131) to −.670 (SE = .045) with slightly positive effects for Hispanic students using an NSFF curriculum when compared to those not using an NSFF curriculum (.043, SE = .012).