The goals of this chapter are threefold. The first goal is to examine the scientific attainment of African Americans in the post-"Brown" era. The term scientific attainment is used here to describe more broadly mathematics and scientific achievement as measured in trend studies, academic coursework, and degrees. A second, related goal is…

Longitudinal data (five waves) from large cohorts of 7th grade students in East Germany ("n"=2,119) and West Germany ("n"=1,928) were collected from the start of the reunification of the school systems following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Here we integrate the two major theoretical models of relations between academic…

Sixth and eighth grade students who are English language learners must be able to read and interpret 39 math word problems in order to successfully calculate the answers on the Massachusetts state math assessment (MCAS). The first year that MCAS was administered, many ELL students read the questions, found them confusing, and left them blank,…

Looping is the practice in which a teacher instructs the same group of students for at least two school years, following them from one grade level to the next. Once a "loop" of two or more years is completed, the teacher may start a new loop teaching a new group of students. This evaluation study of the practice of looping in a large…

Mathematical creativity ensures the growth of mathematics as a whole. However, the source of this growth, the creativity of the mathematician, is a relatively unexplored area in mathematics and mathematics education. In order to investigate how mathematicians create mathematics, a qualitative study involving five creative mathematicians was…

This study investigates the effects of gender and year in program on the performance and mathematical self-efficacy beliefs of 145 pre-service mathematics teachers in Turkey. One of the main purposes of this study is to investigate how duration in a teacher education program influenced the performance and mathematical self-efficacy beliefs of…

This study examined the performance of one hundred thirty-one fifth graders on timed versus untimed mathematics tests. Measures of math fluency and calculation were administered. Low achieving students performed poorly on both calculation and math fluency. Normally achieving children performed within the average range on both calculation and math…

A modified multiple baseline across behaviors design was used to evaluate the effects of an interdependent group contingency program with randomly selected contingency components on the academic performance of an intact middle-school class serving five male students with serious emotional disturbance (SED). During the initial intervention phase,…

The purpose of this article is to provide a rationale for collecting and using curriculum-based measurement (CB) data as well as providing specific guidelines for how to collect CBM data in reading, spelling, and math. Relying on the research conducted on CBM over the past 25 years, we define what CBM is and how it is different from…

This article explores the factors that contribute most to the Iranian students' mathematical achievement using the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 99 data. Mathematics achievement involves a complex interaction of factors that have specific direct effects and/or indirect effects through other factors on school outcomes.…

The purpose of this article is to describe an independent evaluation of the impact, in eighteen countries, of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study of 1999-Repeat, usually referred to as TIMSS-R. The countries of interest were all low- and middle-income countries that had received financial assistance from the World Bank, after a…

Girls take as many mathematics courses as boys do in high school. However, they show lower achievement in mathematics and are less likely to pursue mathematics-related fields. Women's interest and participation in computer science fields is also a concern. Moreover, women in these occupations are more likely than men to use computers for clerical…

The purpose of this study is to describe academic and behavioral outcomes for adolescents who were identified when they were in kindergarten and first grade as being at risk for developing emotional and behavioral disorders. Results indicated that primary school academic achievement and teacher ratings of academic competence were highly…

Educational reform centres on changing teacher behaviour, as it is teachers who filter through the curriculum to learners. Educational reform could therefore be viewed as reforming or changing teacher behaviour. This article investigates some of the factors influencing teachers' behaviour namely knowledge, attitude and views and beliefs. The…

Disappointing results of international monitoring studies such as TIMSS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study) and PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) have fuelled another general debate on the need for a sufficient level of scientific literacy and the necessity to improve the quality of science instruction in…