Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) oriented schools are being formed to provide 21st century learning opportunities for students. After going through an exhaustive evaluation period schools are being recognized as STEM schools. The number of these schools is increasing every year. Education agencies provide professional development…

Prior research has found gender differences in spatial tasks in which men perform better, and are more confident, than women. Do gender differences also occur in people's confidence as they perform number-line estimation, a common spatial-numeric task predictive of math achievement? To investigate this question, we analyzed outcomes from six…

Prior research has found gender differences in spatial tasks in which men perform better, and are more confident, than women. Do gender differences also occur in people's confidence as they perform number-line estimation, a common spatial-numeric task predictive of math achievement? To investigate this question, we analyzed outcomes from six…

This dissertation study investigated the efficacy of a multi-component intervention package delivered via an online learning tool on math fluency for prerequisite algebra skills for three 6th-grade students. Students were referred by their math teacher due to concerns with academic performance. Target skills were individualized for each student…

Summer learning loss (SLL) is a familiar and much-studied phenomenon, yet new concerns that measurement artifacts may have distorted canonical SLL findings create a need to revisit basic research on SLL. Though race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status only account for about 4% of the variance in SLL, nearly all prior work focuses on these factors.…

Given the well-documented relation between executive functioning (EF) and math skills in preschool, there is a surprising lack of evidence on early intervention approaches that have successfully, and consistently, impacted both EF and math skills. To confront this gap in the literature, Study 1 explored why an established EF intervention impacted…

This dissertation consists of three papers about quantitative research methods in education. Each paper is a response to potential limitations of the current approach to building evidence for effective education -- an approach that is dominated by Randomized Controlled Trials of school programs, with mathematics and English achievement as primary…

There is a need to increase mathematics achievement in U.S. schools, as only 41% of students in Grade 4, 34% of students in Grade 8, and 25% of students in Grade 12 have reached proficiency in mathematics (NAEP, 2019). Building acquisition and fluency with basic math facts has been identified as an important indicator of math achievement, as this…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of African American high school students in southeast Colorado who are scoring low on geometry assessments. There are many studies on African American students scoring low on math assessments. However, there are no studies presented in literature on the topic coming…

We examined the math facts fluency growth of students receiving explicit timing practice in either a massed, short-distributed, or long-distributed fashion. In a repeated-measures group design, 50 mid-western 3rd grade students completed four one-minute math probes each day for 20 days. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that students who…

In the pursuit of continuous improvement in education and closing the achievement gap, educators are experimenting with different environments that will assist students in increasing academic achievement. The media bombards Americans with news about the failing educational system that is being outperformed by counterparts around the world. In this…

Background/context: Student heterogeneity is a persistent and fundamental challenge in all school systems. In many countries, including Norway, politicians and actors within the educational sector have increased the use of additional teachers, teacher assistants, and special education teachers to respond to this challenge (Bonesrønning, Iversen…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) program only reports state-level subgroup results if it samples at least 62 students identifying with the subgroup. Since some subgroups constitute small proportions of many states' general student populations, these minority subgroups are seldom sufficiently sampled to meet this sample size…

It is now well established that the COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating and unequal impact on student achievement. Test score declines were disproportionately large for historically marginalized students, exacerbating preexisting achievement gaps and threatening educational and economic inequality. In this paper, we use longitudinal student-level…

The study aimed to investigate the impact of incorporating deep learning strategies in mathematics instruction on students' problem-solving abilities, critical thinking skills, academic achievement, and mathematical skills development. The study population consisted of 280 students, with a sample size of 162 participants. Employing a purely…