This paper examines how mathematics education policy at the national level affects practice at the local level, using a policy trajectory model that attempts to trace policy through the contexts of influence, policy text production and practice (Bowe and Ball, 1992). It focuses on the development of calculation in the National Numeracy Strategy…

Schneider found no statistically significant differences between the intervention and comparison groups on the school-level Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) analyzed in the study. The findings may have been affected by only three schools implementing more than one-third of the total math problems in each year and grade. In addition, the…

Brooks (1999) compared algebra achievement of students enrolled in the intervention group (I CAN Learn[R] classes) to that of students enrolled in the comparison group (traditional classes) at pretest, midyear, and posttest. Brooks found that students in the I CAN Learn[R] classes achieved higher scores in algebra than students in traditional…

This report examines a Massachusetts pilot program for quarterly benchmark exams in middle-school mathematics, finding that program schools do not show greater gains in student achievement after a year. But that finding might reflect limited data rather than ineffective benchmark assessments. Benchmark assessments are used in many districts…

An e-mail survey was conducted in the summer of 2007 to obtain information from state supervisors of mathematics (employees of state departments of education with primary responsibility for K-12 curriculum leadership) regarding the impact of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) 2006 publication, "Curriculum Focal Points (CFP) for…

In a continuing effort to improve student-learning opportunities in mathematics, state departments of education have focused on articulating standards or learning goals at all levels, including high school mathematics. A review of K-8 mathematics curriculum standards (many of which have been published since 2002) compiled by staff from the Center…

The current study examined the mathematical achievement of high school students enrolled for 3 years in one of three NSF funded "Standards"-based curricula (IMP, CMIC, MMOW). The focus was on traditional topics in mathematics as measured by subtests of a standardized achievement test and a criterion-referenced test of mathematics…

This paper aims to examine the nature of the new elementary school curriculum in Turkey. In particular, the authors provide a coherent picture of the fundamentals, basic elements and the classroom implications of the new curriculum development initiative in five content areas: mathematics, science, social science, life science, and Turkish. This…

This report describes one preservice teacher's development of mathematics instruction during her student-teaching internship in a kindergarten classroom at a low-performing, urban elementary school. A framework of social strategies was used to describe the student teacher's use of strategic compromise as a way to deal with competing pressures and…

When asked to calculate the area of a particular shape, one student responded by asking, "Is that the outside or the inside?" while another student replied, "I think it's the one where you put a little 2 next to it." Both of these responses indicate a lack of conceptual understanding of area and reinforce the research findings…

Recently, there is a growing interest in the automatic analysis of learner activity in web-based learning environments. The approach and system SIAM (System for Interaction Analysis by Machine learning) presented in this article aims at helping to establish a basis for the automatic analysis of interaction data by developing a data logging and…

"Pre-K Mathematics" is a supplemental curriculum designed to develop informal mathematical knowledge and skills in preschool children. Mathematical content is organized into seven units. Specific mathematical concepts and skills from each unit are taught in the classroom through teacher-guided, small-group activities with concrete…

This paper will describe results concerning the impact of the PD on the three primary study outcomes: teacher knowledge of rational number topics, teacher instructional practices, and student achievement in rational number topics. All analyses are completed. However, the results cannot be shared at this time because the report is currently under…

This article describes a problem-centered curriculum for grades 9-12, using problem sets developed by a mathematics department and designed to take the place of textbooks. The students discover mathematical concepts in the context of the problems and activities in the materials.

Views of mathematical modeling in empirical, expository, and curricular references typically capture a relationship between real-world phenomena and mathematical ideas from the perspective that competence in mathematical modeling is a clear goal of the mathematics curriculum. However, we work within a curricular context in which mathematical…