This study aims to investigate Malaysian students’
performance in mathematics literacy from gender
and socioeconomic perspectives based on the Programme
for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009? and
2012 datasets. The results revealed that girls significantly
scored about eight points higher than boys in mathematics
literacy in PISA 2012. Additionally, girls significantly
outperformed boys in all three mathematical content categories
and processes. However, proportion of boys at
school level had no significant interaction effect with
gender and ESCS at student level on mathematics performance
in PISA 2009? and PISA 2012. Boys and girls
performed equally after controlling socioeconomic status at
student and school level. The significant influence of economic,
social and cultural index on students’ mathematics
literacy performance indicated the presence of socioeconomic
inequity in mathematics literacy performance.
Schools with high average of socioeconomic status outperformed
schools with low socioeconomic status in
mathematics literacy in both PISA 2009? and PISA 2012.
The socioeconomically disadvantaged students from school
with low ESCS mean outperformed the socioeconomically
disadvantaged students from school with high ESCS mean
in PISA 2009? and PISA 2012. The multilevel analyses
showed that between-school variance explained was about
54 and 61 % in PISA 2009? and PISA 2012, respectively.
Implications and suggestions for future studies are
presented.

EB00000002660K

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• Malaysian Students’ Performance in Mathematics Literacy in PISA from Gender and Socioeconomic Status Perspectives