This study investigated the interaction between students' academic background (high school grades, standardized exams, and enrollment in advanced high school courses) and how much autonomy they reported having in high school science through labs and projects. The objective was to see if students who reported experiencing more or less self-directed…

In this cross-national study, the authors compared mathematics self-efficacy beliefs of American (n = 107) and Taiwanese (n = 188) middle-school students for level and calibration (accuracy and bias). Taiwanese students surpassed Americans in math achievement. American students evidenced slightly higher self-efficacy levels for easy math items but…

Policies governing divorce and parenting, such as child support orders and enforcement, child custody regulations, and marital dissolution requirements, can have a large impact on the welfare of parents and children. Recent research has produced evidence on the responses of divorce rates to unilateral divorce laws and child support enforcement. In…

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) reviewed interventions to promote middle school students' math knowledge and skills. Because there is some variation in how school districts organize middle school, we considered curricula aimed at students in grades 6 through 9, covering one or more of the following content areas: numbers and operations,…

This appendix focuses on the descriptive statistics of the middle study schools that participated in the "Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades: Why Some Schools Do Better. A Large-Scale Study of Middle Grades Practices and Student Outcomes. Initial Research." This appendix contains the following figures: (1) Student…

The purpose of this report is to provide descriptive data regarding the test scores of Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) students in grades 4, 8 and 10 in reading, math, and science, as reported to the School Choice Demonstration Project 2008-2009. The tables, graphs, and histograms presented in this paper provide a snapshot of these…

A study examined the correlation between mathematics achievement and television viewing, and explored the underlying processes. Data were gathered from 13,542 high school seniors from the first wave of the High School and Beyond project, conducted by the National Opinion Research Center on behalf of the National Center for Education Statistics. A…

This report describes a program for improving homework on-time completion with high school Fundamental Algebra students in an urban gifted and arts magnet high school. The Grade Control Chart was selected as a strategy for presenting students with a visual reminder of the value of timely completion of homework. The skills needed to produce this…

In this study, the effects of a form of cooperative group instruction (Student Teams Achievement Divisions) on student motivation and achievement in a high school geometry class were examined. Ninety (mostly 10th-grade) students were randomly assigned to either a control group receiving traditional instruction or one of two treatment groups…

The interchange series of documents aims to improve the Research and Intelligence Unit's dissemination of the findings of research funded by the Scottish Office Education Department. In 1991 this department commissioned the Scottish Council for Research in Education to investigate the performance in Standard Grade mathematics of those candidates…

Mathematical problem solving has been the focus of much concern. This study investigated the relationship of various cognitive factors, attributions, and gender to the solution of mathematics problems by 100 high school seniors. The independent variables examined in this study included: (1) mathematics knowledge as measured by a score on the…

A 10-year study examined the relationship between type of school and student self-concept and academic achievement. The study was conducted at two coeducational high schools in Australia, one of which had been an all-girls' school and the other an all-boys' school. Subjects were approximately 1,300 students from grades 7 to 11 in the two schools.…

Assuming that young children's involvement in music programs provides a conceptual foundation for subjects such as mathematics, this study examined the impact of music education on mathematics achievement in preschool children. A pseudo-experimental design was used in which 35 preschool children involved in a music program treatment were compared…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a congressionally mandated national assessment program, can provide valuable data to educational policy makers in Massachusetts and other New England states concerning the status of their educational reform initiatives and performance standards. The three purposes of this paper are: (1) to…

In the last few years educational researchers have become increasingly aware of the need to examine interaction among students to understand the impact of cooperative small groups on learning. For this study 26 students in an 11th-grade Algebra II/Trigonometry class were trained to use a didactic cooperative learning technique called scripted…