Researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and parents have assumed a positive relationship between school attendance and academic success. And yet, among the vast body of empirical research examining how input factors relate to academic outcomes, few investigations have honed in on the precision of the relationship between individual attendance…

The No Child Left Behind Act requires each state to set a series of annual targets to ensure that all students make adequate yearly progress in achieving proficiency in reading and mathematics by 2013/14. Schools must monitor annual progress toward proficiency goals for each of several subgroups, including students with disabilities, as well as…

Designed for the primary and elementary levels, this book helps teachers transform the way they think about and teach mathematics. While many teachers feel confident about their preparation and strategic repertoire for literacy instruction, some are less confident about their preparation and content depth for teaching math. This book makes visible…

High schools have over the past few decades been discredited with institutionalization, standardization, and academic-orientation (Manno, 1995; NASSP, 1996). As a result, it has failed to prepare students for the society which has been undergoing exponential change. A majority of students have been either neglected or left uncared for because of…

The case study approach is commonly used in the fields of law, medicine, and business administration to help apply theory to practice. This approach is equally useful in the teaching and learning of mathematics since various categories of coping strategies used to alleviate math anxiety become more meaningful when they are used to assist "real"…

We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study to estimate how parents' union dissolution influences changes in adolescents' mathematics course work gains, overall grade point average, and course failure rates during a window of approximately 1 year (N = 2,629). A…

Two experiments demonstrate how individual differences in working memory (WM) impact the strategies used to solve complex math problems and how consequential testing situations alter strategy use. In Experiment 1, individuals performed multistep math problems under low- or high-pressure conditions and reported their problem-solving strategies.…

In the context of the critical role of self-efficacy in educational achievement, this present research examined students' and teachers' efficacy in use of learning strategies in mathematics, and the relationship with achievement. The second phase of a multi-method doctoral study, ninety-two students and ten teachers from a diverse secondary school…

The purpose of this study was to investigate adult literacy education learners' self-esteem and to examine the relationship between self-esteem and measures of achievement in reading and math. The rationale for the present study stemmed from the lack of research into adult literacy students' self-esteem levels. More than 200 learners enrolled in…

The focus of this article's study was to evaluate the impact of the school counselor-led Student Success Skills program on the academic and social competence of students. A randomized comparison group design was used to measure treatment outcomes for students in grades 5, 6, 8, and 9 from six schools using state-mandated achievement tests in math…

This article talks about UTeach, a teacher-preparation program at the University of Texas at Austin that presents courses through the lens of math and science. The program has drawn widespread recognition in recent years, and it is now a model for revamping the training of math and science teachers on campuses nationwide. Backers of the program…

This article describes the significant gains in student achievement in an urban elementary school when teachers worked together to develop, administer, and review assessment items. In grade-level teams, teachers completed item analyses and engaged in instructional conversations about students' needed instruction. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)

All states that meet federal criteria will now be allowed to take part in the U.S. Department of Education's 2-year-old experiment with "growth models," which let states measure individual students' achievement gains as a way of ensuring accountability under the No Child Left Behind Act. After originally capping participation at 10…

Many schools have adopted early-grade retention as an intervention strategy for children displaying academic or behavioral problems. Previous analyses of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort data have found evidence of negative effects of kindergarten retention on academic learning during the repeated year. Will kindergarten…

Research with first year engineering students on an extended programme at the University of Pretoria indicates that competence in mathematics can be enhanced through academic support that combines the development of mathematical and non-mathematical skills. This paper investigates the effect of this approach on students' performance in mathematics…