Factors associated with mathematics achievement and the selection of a mathematics-related or a nonmathematics-related major among Black college student

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which attitudes toward mathematics, mathematics background, sex, achievement motivation and self-perceived ability account for the variance in mathematics achievement and choice of major among Black college juniors and seniors. It was expected that the independent variables would account for a significant proportion of the variance in mathematics achievement and choice of major and significantly predict a student's selection of a mathematics-related or a nonmathematics-related major.;Blacks are underrepresented in mathematics-related careers which have the highest salaries as well as the highest rates of employment (NCES, 1983). This underrepresentation is a reflection of their earlier educational training. As early as elementary school, there is a weeding out process which limits the participation of some students in mathematics and science. Mathematics is a prerequisite for advanced study in science, engineering and other technical fields. Disproportionately low numbers of Black students are enrolling in advanced level mathematics courses in high school (Matthews, 1984). Thus, many lack the necessary mathematics background to major in mathematics or a mathematics-related field in college.;An ex post facto research design was used in this study. A sample of classes of male and female junior and senior students were randomly selected from undergraduate programs in colleges and schools at Howard University. There were 150 students in the mathematics-related classes and 150 students in the nonmathematics-related classes for a total of 300 students. After securing permission of faculty, the researcher went at the beginning of each class to administer the questionnaires which were completed anonymously.;The instruments used in the study were: The Mathematics Attitude Scale, a Mathematics Background Questionnaire, A Questionnaire Measure of Individual Differences in Achieving Tendency and a Biodata Sheet. The entire testing time lasted approximately 20 minutes. Multiple regression analysis and discriminant analysis were used to analyze the data.;All five of the research hypotheses were confirmed. The five predictor variables account for a significant amount of the variance in mathematics achievement (p $<$.001), and they significantly predict choice of major (p $<$.001). The overall classification accuracy was 75.56 percent.