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…

This document looks at the performance of Illinois schools. The positives include: (1) more schools are meeting tough No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements; and (2) math scores in all grades have improved significantly over the past five years. However, there continues to be room for improvement, including: (1) improving reading at all grade…

This report presents mathematics benchmarks organized into instructional sequences by topic. Each sequence is based upon an analysis of the order of content as it appears among a set of highly rated state standards. The report is intended to inform and guide state or district curriculum directors or others who, starting from content that is placed…

This study showed that almost all of the students brought calculators to the administration of the SAT I test in November 1996 and 1997 and continue to do so today. The number who actually used the calculators on the test and the extent to which they used them varied across students. Performance on the math sections of the exam was associated with…

A test of the hypothesis that sex differences in quantitative Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) performance may be due to differences in the pattern of quantitative coursework taken in high school showed that the male-female gap in quantitative SAT performance shrinks considerably where coursework differences are controlled. (Author/LC)

Achievement of women in an all-female section of a noncredit, basic algebra course was compared with achievement of women in mixed-sex classes at Indiana University. Women who selected the all-female section had lower mathematical ability scores, yet attained significantly higher achievement scores. (MNS)

As a state and national model for a basic skills curriculum for Kindergarten through grade 12 students, Coordination Learning Integration--Middlesex Basics (Project CLIMB) is described. The unified system was developed by teachers with administrative support to accomodate all students' reading and mathematics needs. Project CLIMB's development and…