Mathematics Performance and Reading Skills: Problem Solving

Mathematics Performance and Reading Skills is a study of the correlation between a student?s reading skills and that student?s ability to solve math problems, particularly word problems. Fifty-eight students from a private school in a southwest city in the United States comprised the study?s sample population. The data for the quantitative analysis was derived from students? scores on the Stanford Achievement Test. A qualitative analysis was employed by evaluating recordings of six students attempting to solve word problems. Reading skills are correlated to a student?s ability to solve math problems. However, this correlation is not as strong as one may believe. Specifically, a student's problem-solving sessions may reveal that a student?s ability to read and understand word problems is not significantly correlated to that student?s ability in the context of mathematics problems involving decoding and setting. Consequently, evaluation of another set of skills, other than reading skills, may be necessary before attempting to predict a student?s success in mathematics problem solving.