Exploring the Math Journeys of Latino American Teens: Their Math Identities, Math Mindsets, and Experiences Studying Math. Research Brief

By developing innovative technologies and products and establishing new companies, workers in STEM professions make a major contribution to our nation's global competitiveness. The participation of Latino Americans in STEM fields in higher education and the workforce is an important labor market issue. Despite some efforts to recruit Latino students to pursue degrees and careers in STEM, they continue to comprise a lower proportion of STEM graduates relative to their proportion in the adult population. Research indicates that some of these differences in STEM participation is related to students' early math and science course-taking, their classroom learning environments, and their beliefs about the importance of math and their own math abilities. To better understand Latino teens' experiences studying math and the factors that may influence their math course-taking and achievement, we studied their responses to survey questions about the following factors: (1) Classroom climate (teacher and peer interactions in math class); (2) Math identities and beliefs about math (teens' views of their math ability, how math ability develops and the importance of studying math), and (3) Support from parents around math learning (parental expectations and providing help). This analysis is part of a larger study NORC conducted to explore how teens view math (math mindset), their own math abilities (math identity) and their experiences studying math (instructional contexts). The data was collected through a survey of a nationally representative sample of teens ages 13-17, administered in the Fall of 2021. This report is a brief description of the methods followed by a summary of the findings.