Abstract

The study examined the effects of computer use on the math and science performance of ethnic and linguistic minority students. The underachievement of ethnic minority students in math and science is well documented and is a matter of grave concern to educators, policy makers and general public. The recent massive influx of immigrant students further adds to the problem of underachievement among new minority groups. One solution offered to improve the low performance of minority students is increased computer use and skills. This study focuses on computer use in math and science classes in support of student learning. Educational researchers have noted that the advanced features of new technologies of computers can help minority students overcome learning difficulties in class. The study analyzed Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), a large-scale dataset, with proper weights and statistical adjustments. The statistical analyses were done on ethnic and linguistic groups of the third and fifth graders to assess the effects of computer use. The results indicated students who used computers frequently for various educational purposes showed high mathematics and science performance across all groups. The effect of the frequent computer use was positively associated with the math performance of Caucasian students, while frequency of use was negatively associated with the math and science performance of Asian immigrant students. These results contribute to a better understanding of computer use for math and science learning and provide implications for practice.