This issue of ETS Policy Notes highlights the ETS Symposium on Latino Achievement in the Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), held by ETS, the College Board, and the Hispanic Research Center at Arizona State University in Princeton, NJ, November 20-22, 2005. The conference had three major goals: (1) Exploring the challenges,…

The purpose of this applied dissertation was to examine the effects of constructivist pedagogy when addressing the issues associated with below proficiency scores in basic skills in mathematics on the state exit exam. Scores of thirty-four 11th and 12th grade students who did not perform at the state-mandated levels of proficiency in basic skills…

Girls consistently out perform boys in mathematics in Hawai'i. Starting from the premise that literacy is a prerequisite for mathematics learning, a causal model was proposed to account for gender differences in mathematics on multiple choice (MC) and constructed response (CR) items in conjunction with the effects of reading and writing. Two…

The proportion of variance in student achievement that is explained by student SES-"poverty's power rating," as some dub it--tends to be lower among smaller schools than among larger schools. Small schools, many claim, are able to somehow disrupt the seemingly axiomatic association between SES and student achievement. Using eighth-grade…

This technical report describes a study that was undertaken to compare the content of three mathematics assessments conducted in 2003: the NAEP fourth-and eighth-grade assessments; the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), which also assessed mathematics at the fourth-and eighth-grade levels; and the Program for…

The National Indian Education Study is a two-part study designed to describe the condition of education for American Indian/Alaska Native students in the United States. The study was conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics for the U.S. Department of Education, with the support of the Office of Indian Education. This report, Part…

This report presents trial school-district-level results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics 2003 and 2005 assessments at grades 4 and 8 for nine urban public-school districts: Atlanta City, Boston School District, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, City of Chicago School District 299, Cleveland Municipal School…

The purpose of this study was to determine if teaching techniques and teacher attitudes tend to reduce math anxiety in secondary-level students. The research group consisted of 48 secondary students enrolled in Algebra I at a rural school in West Virginia, with the experimental period lasting 12 weeks. The control group was instructed in the…

The publication gives a comprehensive overview of work done across all parts of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Each issue contains short publications, summaries, and descriptions that cover all NCES publications, data products, and funding opportunities developed over a 3-month period. Each issue also contains a message from…

This study modeled school and district effects in the mathematics scores of the Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP) using hierarchical linear modeling. Three-level hierarchical models were fitted to estimate school and district effects in the DSTP mathematics scores and to examine the school and district variance with variables assessing…

Rather than describe mean gender differences in mathematics across different cultures, this study instead focused on an in-depth item analysis across two countries, the United States and Spain. The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences on multiple-choice mathematics items across two countries by using the data gathered in the…

Papers from the 22nd Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia Incorporated include the following: (1) "Making Sense of Primary Mathematics" (Gillian M. Boulton-Lewis); (2) "Seeking a Rationale for Particular Classroom Tasks and Activity" (Peter Sullivan); (3) "Research in Mathematics…

The standards presented in this book, for reading, writing, and mathematics, are those that will be initially assessed by Arizona's Instrument To Measure Standards (AIMS). These standards and those for other content areas will be a road map for education in Arizona. A statewide test is being developed for each of these areas to measure student…

This study investigated the perceptions of 30 predominantly white pre-service teachers about African American students' ability to achieve in mathematics and science. Participants completed a three-part, open-ended questionnaire that asked them about their experiences with and awareness of African American students' mathematics and science…

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a new system of international assessments that focus on 15-year-olds' capabilities in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy. PISA, which is sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), also measures general or cross-curricular…