Quality instruction and student engagement in mathematics are strategies that are becoming more vital as the new century unfolds. To prepare for living and working in a technically intensive world, high school students need a culture of high expectations, quality college-preparatory-level courses and numeracy across the curriculum. The following…

We are researching actions that teachers can take to improve mathematics learning for all students. Structural elements of the lessons being trialled include making aspects of pedagogy explicit to seek to overcome differences in familiarity with schooling processes, and sequencing tasks with the potential to engage students. This article reports…

Charter schools have become a very popular instrument for reforming public schools, because they expand choices, facilitate local innovation, and provide incentives for the regular public schools while remaining under public control. Despite their conceptual appeal, evaluating their performance has been hindered by the selective nature of their…

"The Achiever" is published monthly during the school year for parents and community leaders. Each issue contains news and information about school improvement in the United States. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) President Establishes National Advisory Panel on Math: Experts to Advise on "Best Available…

With the goal of academic excellence for all students in mind, The College Board's EQUITY 2000 educational reform program was designed to test the hypothesis that enrollment and success in the gatekeeper courses of algebra and geometry will bridge the gap of achievement and college-going rates between minority/nonminority students and economically…

This study examines whether changes in teacher compensation, specifically increases in salary, could improve student performance. Studies show that performance based award systems for teachers can increase their motivation to improve instruction. Data were collected from nine randomly chosen states. Each state's average teacher salary was compared…

This paper discusses learning outcomes resulting from three national curricular reform efforts in mathematics. Focus is placed on the College Board's Equity 2000 program which operates on the principle that all students are given the opportunity to demonstrate high levels of academic achievement in mathematics. Information is provided on the…

This report describes a program for motivating students in mathematics in order to improve achievement at the high school level. The targeted population consisted of high school students in a middle class community located in a suburb of a large metropolitan area. The problems of underachievement were documented through data collected from surveys…

Boise State University, Idaho, now has a better idea how well entering freshmen perform in reading, writing, and mathematics because of an Academic Profile instrument administered to freshmen at Boise State and other institutions. In general, Boise State students performed somewhat below other freshmen. The testing was initiated in response to the…

This bulletin outlines the reading and mathematics improvement goals for the Washington public schools. In 1998, the Washington legislature required that school districts establish 3-year reading improvement performance goals for elementary schools to be achieved at the end of the 2000-01 school year. Additional improvement goals were adopted by…

Using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEO) for 1990, 1996, and 2000, this study examined trends related to race and socioeconomic status (SES) in student mathematics achievement, beliefs, classroom experiences, course taking patterns, and teachers' educational backgrounds. Although overall mathematics achievement…

This paper presents the results from a paper-and-pencil instrument designed to elicit students' thinking about the rate of change in particular situations. A scoring rubric was designed to classify students' solution strategies to algebra problems. The purpose of the study was to validate the results in different ways. First, the results from this…

This study assessed the effects of participating in Florida's Prekindergarten Early Intervention Program (PKEI) on fourth grade mathematics and reading standardized norm-referenced test scores and the incidence of retention. PKEI serves mostly 4-year-old children from families whose income falls below the federal poverty level. Study subjects were…

This paper comments on three concepts in mathematics that need harmonizing: attitudes, mathematics, and evaluation. Some ways of evaluating achievement are suggested. Discusses portfolios as an evaluation process and provides information about additional assessment procedures. (ASK)

This study investigates how the structure of the high school curriculum influences how far graduates get in the secondary mathematics course pipeline, and their level of achievement in that subject by the end of high school. The study draws on data from the High School Effectiveness Supplement (HSES) of NELS:88, a broad-based longitudinal study of…