A longitudinal study of the relationship between mathematics and science: the case of Texas

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the relationship between mathematics and science scores acquired from the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) examination, and how this relationship changed over the years. The participants were from an independent school district in a northern Texas town. Criterion sampling was used in this study to assure that students who were selected had four TAKS mathematics scores from 2006 through 2010 and two TAKS science scores for 2006 and 2010: 116 students met the criteria. The relationship between two subjects was investigated by analyzing the correlation between students’ mathematics and science scores of 2006 and 2010. Growth curve models were used to reveal whether there was growth on students’ mathematics and science scores over the years. A strong correlation was found between mean mathematics and mean science scores in the whole sample, and a greater growth was found in mathematics than it did for science.