College Algebra is a gatekeeper course that serves as an obstacle for many students pursuing STEM careers. Lack of success in this course could be a key reason why the United States lags behind other industrialized countries in the number of students graduating with STEM majors and joining the STEM workforce. Of the many topics presented in…

A central argument for school choice is that families value the freedom to exercise choice and can make wise decisions. This principle may underlie why lottery-based school evaluations, which exploit over-subscription due to excess demand, have almost always reported positive or zero achievement effects. This paper reports on a striking empirical…

Girls and women, especially the most vulnerable, are more likely to be excluded from education than their male counterparts. Exclusion and gender disparities in access to and performance in education are also observed among immigrant children, with immigrant girls often being the most disadvantaged. Data from the International Association for the…

This paper reports on a study that examines the effects of problem context on students' performance. The performance of 151 Year 10 students on six mathematical problems was compared with the performance on fifteen variants with more and less context familiarity (CF) and engagement (CE) across levels of context use (LCU). The latter explanatory…

Reports and surveys by the U.S. government and international organizations have repeatedly acknowledged the achievement problem in math in K-12 regardless of various efforts (e.g., by the U.S. Department of Education) to diminish it. To address the problem in math achievement in K-12, teachers, scholars, and the U.S. government have developed…

Mathematics education usually concentrates on achievement in cognitive domain. As the subject triggers many negative emotions among students, research in mathematics education needs attention on affective outcomes. Learning goals, perseverance, learning strategy and decision regarding future learning may influence students' affect. Students hold…

Empirical evidence on the association between the shifting component of executive functioning and academic performance is equivocal. In two meta-analyses children's shifting ability is examined in relation to their performance in math (k = 18, N = 2330) and reading (k = 16, N = 2266). Shifting ability was significantly and equally associated with…

This study examines the impact of social capital on mathematics achievement in eight European cities. The study draws on data from the 2008 Youth in Europe survey, carried out by the Icelandic Center for Social Research and Analysis. The sample contains responses from 17,312 students in 9th and 10th grade of local secondary schools in the…

Achievement growth in math is often framed in the context of monitoring student progress within a Response to Intervention (RTI) approach to teaching and learning. In this research brief we report on a study that examined initial status and within-year growth for fourth grade students who received short progress-monitoring assessments in math…

This fact sheet explains that to thrive in today's world, all students will need to graduate with very strong math skills. That can only mean one thing: advanced math courses are now essential math courses. Highlights of this paper include: (1) Advanced math equals college success; (2) Advanced math equals career opportunity; and (3) Advanced math…

Few developing countries participate in external educational evaluations. Information gaps on education quality make it imperative to expand such evaluations. Furthermore, international comparability across different evaluations should be improved. In addition, data from evaluations must be combined with data on access or coverage. Finally,…

This comprehensive volume offers a snapshot profile of every public school district in the United States serving 1,500 or more students and provides pertinent evaluative and demographic statistics necessary to evaluate educational programs nationwide.This edition includes profiles on 5,749 school districts in the United States, representing 90% of…

Results from international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) garner considerable attention in the media, academia, and among policy makers. Although there is widespread recognition that ILSAs can provide useful information, there is debate about what types of comparisons are the most meaningful and what could be done to assure more sound…

The purpose of this evaluation was to determine the impact of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) Literacy Empowered (LE) initiative on the reading, literacy, and performance in core courses among high school students. Literacy Empowered is a districtwide initiative that provides support for high school students through the expansion of…

Florida enacted legislation in 2008 for a statewide program known as the Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI), which was intended to reduce the need for postsecondary remediation. The FCCRI consisted of testing grade 11 students to determine their college readiness and offering math and English college readiness and success…