Predicting 9th Grade Algebra Success

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the grade made in the 8th grade Math course, the performance on the state's 8th Grade Math CRT, and the performances on the individual standards that are included in the CRT that deal with Linear Equations and Fractions. The criterion variable was he performance on the 9th Grade Algebra I End of Instruction Exam. The participants were 589 on-level students who attended 8th and 9th grade in a Northeastern Oklahoma school district. The design for this study is primarily correlational. Multiple Regression analyses were run to investigate which of these variables predicted success on the Algebra I EOI exam. All of the Pearson r correlations were found to be significant at the p < 0.001 level. Three separate regressions were run. The performance on the 8th grade CRT was shown to be significantly associated with performance on the 9th grade Algebra I End of Instruction exam (r = .70). The grade made in the 8th grade math course yielded a correlation coefficient of .66 when compared to the criterion variable (EOI). The performance on each of the individual standards, Linear Equations and Fractions, produced correlation coefficients of .48 and .49, respectively, when compared to the criterion variable. Performance on the Algebra I EOI exam could be strongly predicted by the performance on the 8th grade CRT. In the third regression only the individual standards were included as predictors. The performance of the two individual standards together accounted for 33% of the variance in the Algebra I EOI exam.