Socio-economic status and mathematics achievement in China: a review

Mathematics education is a cultural-specific social activity. China, as a developing country with a long history and a unique culture, has the largest number of teachers and students in the world. Hence, it is of significance to explore the issue of the impact of socio-economic status (SES) on mathematics education within the Chinese context. However, investigations aiming to address this issue are relatively rare. This study was designed to examine the relationship between Chinese students’ SES and their mathematics achievements. Results reveal that Chinese students’ SES exerts significant influence on their mathematics achievements, and several important constituents of SES, such as parents’ education and family income, stand out among others. In this paper, the cultural causes of the influence are discussed, together with a general introduction to the social and educational context. These could partly explain the empirical results, along with factors such as the values of education in traditional Chinese culture and the current important status of mathematics in modern society as well as Chinese school curriculum materials’ effect on students’ mathematics achievements. The economic and social situation in China, especially the imbalanced distribution of educational resources between and within the urban and rural areas, could magnify the role of SES in mathematics achievements. Finally, the future direction of measuring and interpreting the SES’s influence on mathematics achievement in the Chinese context is also discussed.