Mathematics Productivity and Educational Influences for Secondary Students in Japan, India and the United States.

This paper presents data gathered from three countries. Samples of students of high-school age from Japan (N-l700), India (N-1446) and Illinois (N-9582) completed the High School Mathematics Test, and, at the same time, responded to a questionnaire designed to measure various demographic and psychological variables. This paper reports not only on mathematics achievement for the three samples, but also examines the relationship of mathematics achievement with nine "background" variables, namely, students' gender, age, amount of instruction in mathematics, amount of discussion about school work with parents, frequency of reading during leisure time, self-evaluation of reading ability, level of test anxiety, attributions for success and failure, and the importance accorded the test. Results indicate differences among the samples in mathematics achievement, and, in addition, difference among them in the relative influence exerted by the background variables on students' achievement in mathematics. (Author)