Vol.:(0123456789) The Australian Educational Researcher https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-019-00351-1 1 3 Student self‑reported motivation and teacher‑rated engagement as predictors of mathematics achievement by sex and SES in a U.S. sample Stephen D. Whitney 1  · Fiona M. Asigbee 2  · Shannise Jones 3  · Kara Schulte 3 Received: 15 August 2018 / Accepted: 24 August 2019 © The Australian Association for Research in Education, Inc. 2019 Abstract Teacher-rated classroom engagement and student self-reported motivation for math- ematics were used to predict mathematics scores in 3rd and 5th grade. Students were grouped based on a combination of biological sex and SES quintiles resulting in 10 independent groups. The mathematics achievement patterns were predicted based upon a combined within-group model. Results indicated female mathematics achievement was not significantly related to self-reported mathematics motivation but was related to classroom engagement. In males, mathematics motivation was not significantly related to achievement for lowest SES males; however, there was a sig- nificant relationship for highest quintile class males. Conversely, classroom engage- ment was significant for lower class males and was not significantly related for high- est quintile SES males. Implications of the results are discussed. Keywords Classroom engagement · Motivation · Mathematics achievement · Biological sex · SES * Stephen D. Whitney whitneyst@missouri.edu Fiona M. Asigbee fiona.asigbee@utexas.edu Shannise Jones shannisebriannejones@mail.missouri.edu 1 Educational, School and Counseling Department, University of Missouri-Columbia, 5B Hill Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA 2 Department of Nutritional Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 103 West 24th Street; A2703 T.S. Painter Hall, Room 3.24, Austin, TX 78712, USA 3 Educational, School and Counseling Department, University of Missouri-Columbia, 16 Hill Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA