Math model
The final reduced model of math skill acquisition confirms many common sense generalizations. The math skill model is the strongest of the five models, with 54% of the variance explained.
There are many interesting conclusions that can be drawn from this model including, but not limited to the following:
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Math courses directly and substantially contribute to math skills. (OK, if this is the first of the model you've looked at, then this may sound trite. It is not. Other skills are not as easily attributed to specific course work.) |
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Science courses also directly and substantially contribute to math skills. However, this may be a connection that is miss-specified in the model. It may be that this is spurious relationship because higher skills in math may contribute to taking more science courses. (This is mentioned as a warning that modeling is not a test of causation. The process of modeling imposes an order to the data that structural equations do not test for appropriateness.) |
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As a tangent it is interesting to note that the path from study time to GPA is positive. Thus, controlling for work, and prior knowledge spending time does pay off with higher grades. |
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The direction of the path from GPA to skill may also be questioned in that it may be possible to argue that higher skills should lead to a higher GPA. |
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The absence of paths between the Non-native speaker of English and math skill confirms the observation that these individuals are not at a substantial disadvantage in math skill acquisition as contrasted with that of more language based skills such as critical thinking. |
