Adapted Measure of Math Engagement: Designing Self-Report Measures of Mathematics Engagement for Black and Latina/o Middle School Students (Collaborative Research: Holquist)

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is a continuously growing and relatively high-paying field in the United States, which also fails to recruit and retain Black and Latino talents. Mathematics is a key subject for entering STEM fields, and research suggests that various educational factors influence student engagement in math. However, existing measures of Black and Latino student engagement in mathematics often fail to capture the different ways in which math can be engaging for these students. Additionally, current measures of student engagement are inconsistent in what they assess—making it difficult to track engagement over time—and have not been widely validated across different student groups. To address these concerns, this project investigates the experiences of Black and Latino students’ engagement in mathematics and develops the Adapted Measure of Math Engagement (AM-ME) a new evidence-based measure for mathematics teachers to assess students’ engagement.

This project is a collaborative effort between five schools and the AM-ME Research Group—a cross-disciplinary team of five researchers, five teachers, and six students—who co-design and implement every aspect of the work. The project will (1) qualitatively investigate the experiences of Black and Latino students’ engagement in mathematics, and (2) develop and produce evidence of validity and reliability for a multi-dimensional measure of students’ mathematics engagement. It is anticipated that that the measure and results will have broader impact as they may transfer to other contexts, particularly other urban schools. Additionally, the participatory action research design has a direct impact on promoting diversity in the field of STEM research as students gain experience conducting research and practitioners grow in their capacity to authentically listen to and uplift student voices. By prioritizing and uplifting the voices of students through collaborative meaning-making and using rigorous strategies from modern measurement theory, the project aims to enhance mathematics learning environments and increase students’ engagement in mathematics.