Focusing on student proficiency in reading and math from 2003-04 to 2006-07, this report compares gaps in performance on state achievement tests between grade 8 American Indian and Alaska Native students and all other grade 8 students in 26 states serving large populations of American Indian and Alaska Native students. In response to a request by…

At the request of the State of Pennsylvania, the School District of Philadelphia, in the summer of 2002, asked three for-profit firms to assume responsibility for 30 of its lowest-performing schools and it asked four nonprofit managers to assume the management of 16 other low-performing schools. A difference-in-differences analysis is used to…

This paper presents a mixed methods study that explored how storybooks influence kindergarten children's mathematical achievement and approaches to mathematics learning. Teachers' observations and research stating primary grade children's lack of mathematical knowledge and negative attitudes towards mathematics served as the impetus for the study.…

The purpose of this study is to determine and compare how the attitudes towards mathematics of second grade students in elementary school changes according to some variables. This study was carried out by using survey method. As data collection tool, Mathematics Attitude Questionnaire (MAQ) which consists of 37 items each with five response…

This Information Capsule answers the most frequently asked questions about M-DCPS' academic performance during the 2008-09 school year. M-DCPS earned a performance grade of "B" in 2009 and was only four points short of an "A." Over half of the District's schools (58 percent) earned an "A" and the percent of…

Research findings indicate that specific instructional strategies, such as the use of real-world examples and independent learning activities, are positively related to mathematics achievement. This study was designed to investigate relationships between classroom instructional strategies and mathematics achievement of elementary-school students…

This paper discusses a pilot study of the effects of a curriculum focus intervention on students' prealgebra achievement. Elements of the intervention include identification of high-priority learning objective; structured repeatable testing; and a coherent, rubric-based feedback component. This research differs from traditional mastery learning…

The current migration of Latino/as into the United States has many schools struggling to meet the unique academic needs of this particular group of students. Previous research suggests level of acculturation and perceived social support impact mathematics achievement amongst Latino/a students. The current study employed hierarchical and…

Teacher professionalism is a social construct which varies across time and place. In relation to the teaching of mathematics in the middle school, professionalism is a concept under siege; with the advent of national testing some teachers predict dire consequences for student learning. In this small research project several teachers depicted their…

The focus of this paper is the use of National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) items to develop students' competence in reading mathematical text, to promote thinking strategies including estimation, and to evaluate alternative solutions for errors and misconceptions. Showing students test items and discussing strategies for…

Bracey looks at three well-known assessments--the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the Program of International Student Assessment, and the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study--and concludes that their "instruction-insensitive" design makes them inappropriate as measures of education quality in schools, districts, states,…

Because statistical analysis requires the ability to use mathematics, students typically are required to take one or more prerequisite math courses prior to enrolling in the business statistics course. Despite these math prerequisites, however, many students find it difficult to learn business statistics. In this study, we use an ordered probit…

Due to the clustered nature of field data, multi-level modeling has become commonly used to analyze data arising from educational field experiments. While recent methodological literature has focused on multi-level mediation analysis, relatively little attention has been devoted to mediation analysis when three levels (e.g., student, class,…

This study directly compared the academic gains of reciprocal peer tutoring, nonreciprocal peer tutoring, and a waiting-list control group. Participants included 59 elementary students from second-, third-, and fourth-grade classrooms who performed below average on curriculum-based measurement (CBM) math probes. Students involved in peer tutoring…

This longitudinal study explored the importance of kindergarten measures of phonological awareness, working memory, and quantity-number competencies (QNC) for predicting mathematical school achievement in third graders (mean age 8 years 8 months). It was found that the impact of phonological awareness and visual-spatial working memory, assessed at…