Proponents of national tests claim they are needed to provide individual student test scores and to yield aggregate statewide and nationwide data. However, other sources already provide mountains of data, and U.S. school children are already the most tested in the world. The tests proposed by Congress will be harmful, since there are inadequate…

Investigated the long-term influence of a longitudinal calculator awareness approach to numbers on British elementary students' mathematical achievements and attitudes. Teacher and student interviews and student test scores from intervention and nonintervention schools indicated that the curriculum had no substantial long-term influence on…

Self-concept to performance congruence among academically able adolescents (54 females, 49 males) in both math and English was explored. Although analyses revealed similar congruence patterns for females and males in both subject areas, the overall majority of these able learners fell outside the congruent range. (Author/CR)

This longitudinal study correlated block play performance at age 4 to mathematics achievement for third-, fifth-, and seventh-graders, and high school students. No correlation was found between block performance and standardized mathematics tests or grades in elementary school. Beginning in middle school and through high school grades, a positive…

Examines effects of teacher behaviors and classroom organization on 2,128 pupils' progress in mathematics in UK primary schools participating in a math intervention program. Using multilevel modeling techniques, finds that teacher behaviors could explain between 60 and 70 percent of pupils' progress on numeracy tests. (Contains 35 references.)…

Developed a model and an operational measure of collective teacher efficacy and tested the measure in a pilot study involving 70 teachers. Also used the instrument to study collective teacher efficacy and academic achievement in 47 urban elementary schools. Results show collective teacher efficacy to be positively associated with student-level…

Discusses the role of middle school education for providing students with a strong foundation in mathematics and preparing them for college. Considers research studies, such as the Third International Mathematics and Science Study and the National Education Longitudinal Study, which demonstrate the connection between middle schools and college and…

Examines importance of a school climate characterized by high levels of academic emphasis. Drawing on effective-schools research and social-cognitive theory, uses hierarchical linear modeling to show that academic emphasis accounts for differences among urban elementary schools in student math and reading achievement. (Contains 48 references.)…

Evaluates the relationship between within-district transfers and achievement among elementary schools in metropolitan system. Negative correlations were indicated with significant differences in reading, mathematics, language and total achievement battery scores favoring schools with little or no student mobility. Discusses implications and…

Examines relationships between temperament, social skills, and academic competence with reading and math in first grade students. Parents and teachers rated students (N=104) with social skills battery at the beginning of the year and psychoeducational battery at the end of the year. Teacher ratings of persistence and approach/withdrawal and parent…

Investigates differential effects of small classes on academic achievement among disadvantaged elementary students using data from Tennessee's Student Achievement Ratio Project. While positive effects of small classes are evident on both reading and mathematics achievement, there is no evidence of differential effects for low socioeconomic status…

Inner-city families with babies received books under Project Bookstart. Follow-up of 41 children in their first year of school showed that, compared with 41 who did not participate in the project, participants were significantly farther ahead in six measures of literacy and numeracy. (SK)

Cites excerpts from three peer-reviewed studies on the Milwaukee voucher program that contradict John Witte's arguments in a September 1999 "Kappan" article. Results (incorporation of low-income families, parents' satisfaction with private/parochial schools, and student improvement on math achievement measures) justify the program's…

This article presents an overview of two studies that examined the relationship between metacognition and mathematical problem solving in 165 third-graders. Principle components analysis on metacognition revealed that three metacognitive components (global metacognition, off-line metacognition, and attribution to effort) explained 66-67 percent of…

Conducted a 6-year followup of almost 4,000 students in Project STAR in Tennessee, a 4-year, large-scale randomized experiment on the effects of class size. Though follow-up data could not be obtained on more than one-half of the students, class size effects persisted for at least 6 years and remained large enough to be of importance for…