This article aims to interrogate the Cartesian rationality determining current early childhood mathematics by highlighting the irrational aspect of mathematics learning, which is usually underemphasized and even devalued by the dominant discourse. Using Deleuze and Guattari's concept of refrain as the method, the article explores the unfolding…

The Wallace Foundation is funding a multiyear demonstration project to determine whether voluntary, district summer learning programs can stem summer learning loss for low-income students. Six districts--Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Duval County (Florida), Pittsburgh, and Rochester, New York--were selected for the demonstration project and…

Choice-making of task-sequence was implemented to determine the effect on the percentage of time on-task behavior, task-completion, and accuracy for five students with E/BD served in a residential setting. An ABAB design was used to examine a potential functional relation between choice-making and the dependent variables. All sessions were…

The purpose of this study was to explore the nationwide historic trend of elementary social studies marginalization compared to math, science, and language arts. Incorporating 17 years of data from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) Schools and Staffing Survey, the authors conducted comparative analyses to investigate…

This report uses NAEP background data to track time and learning since the mid-1990s in three areas: student absenteeism; classroom instructional time in mathematics, reading, music and the visual arts; and homework time expected by teachers. Key report findings are: (1) Students with higher rates of "monthly absenteeism" score…

This study evaluated the effects of color highlighting during a math computation task on performance accuracy and behavior of students with attention problems. Using a multiple baseline across participants design, three students solved math computation problems on worksheets with and without highlighting. Off-task behavior recorded from videotape…

As part of an ongoing study of the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the Center on Education Policy (CEP) conducted a deeper analysis of 2006-07 survey data first reported in July 2007 on the amount of instructional time devoted to specific subjects. This follow-up report takes a closer look at the shifts in instructional time for…

Both the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the National Association for the Education of Young Children recognize that well-designed opportunity to learn mathematics can help improve mathematics achievement of students from low-income families and from minority backgrounds. Using data from a nationally representative sample, the…

The authors investigated the effects of student spatial ability, as measured by Raven's Progressive Colored Matrices (J. C. Raven, 1938) and type of instructional program on geometry achievement. Sixth-grade students worked through either 6 instructional activities in Geometer's Sketchpad (Key Curriculum Press, 1993), a dynamic geometry program,…

The use of computers to deliver course-related materials is rapidly expanding in most universities. Yet the effects of computer vs. printed delivery modes on students' performance and motivation are not yet fully known. We compared the impacts of Web vs. paper to deliver practice quizzes that require information search in lecture notes. Hundred…

This paper explores what happens when students engage with mathematical tasks that make no attempt to be connected with students' everyday life experiences. The investigation draws on the work of educators who call for a broader view of what might count as real and relevant contexts for studying mathematics. It investigates students' experiences…

Assignments were altered to determine if interspersing additional briefer and easier mathematics problems enhanced students' accuracy on longer, more difficult target problems across two types of mathematics assignments. Students (N = 52) from three fifth-grade classes completed six math assignments incorporating two task demands and three…

This study investigated students' allocation of responding as a function of task difficulty and type of reinforcement contingency (i.e., accuracy based or time based). Four regular education fourth-grade students were presented with two identical stacks of easy and then difficult math worksheets using a reversal design. Regardless of condition,…

For students to develop an understanding of functions, they must have opportunities to solve problems that require them to transfer between algebraic, numeric, and graphic representations (transfer problems). Research has confirmed student difficulties with certain types of transfer problems and has suggested instructional factors as a possible…

Basic fact acquisition is an important component for developing higher-order math skills. However, getting students with a history of academic noncompliance to engage in activities related to skills acquisition can be difficult. Prior research demonstrates that engagement increases when nonpreferred activities are preceded by a series of brief…