This report provides analysis and discussion of the 1996 Rhode Island State Assessment Program performance for grade 4 in mathematics, writing, and health education. It addresses the effects of accommodations and the inclusion of all students in these state assessments, examining some of the characteristics of tests administered to students with…

This study examined the experiences of 15 elementary schools in Washington state demonstrating relatively slow improvement on the reading and mathematics sections of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. Since the passage of educational reform legislation in 1993, Washington has undertaken a systematic overhaul of its K-12 public school…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the nation's only ongoing representative sample survey of student achievement in core subject areas. In 2000, NAEP conducted a national mathematics assessment of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students. State-level results were also collected at the fourth and eighth grades within…

A description is given of a game simulation course, developed for a full year of general mathematics credit. It traces a rock-and-roll band, with each student acting as manager. Ten activities are outlined. (MNS)

Social, cultural, and personal factors in moderating achievement attributions and evaluation anxiety as they affect math performance were studied for 397 Anglo, Black, and Hispanic students. Motivation contributed to low academic achievement in all groups; causal attributions were more predictive for Blacks and Anglos, while anxiety scores were…

Difficulties that entering college freshmen showed on a mathematics assessment test are discussed. More students can perform decimal computation than can order decimals. The concept of equivalent decimals should be taught more carefully at every level. (MNS)

Discusses the limitations of crossnational comparisons of secondary student performance in the U.S. and selected European and Pacific industrial countries, using mathematics and science data from the International Assessment for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Suggests the most serious problem is the rise of a new educational…

Starting on the cover, this article describes programs developed by Julian Stanley's Study for Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) at Johns Hopkins University (Maryland) for the early identification and accelerated training of mathematically and verbally gifted students. Also discussed are SMPY spinoff programs and the shortage of math and…

Describes a conceptual framework for cost-effectiveness analysis that attempts to determine the relative impact of the different input variables on the output measures. Applies the model to a school district. (Author/JM)

Data were obtained from the 1987-1991 Longitudinal Study of American Youth for this study of secondary students. Beyond the expected effects of gender, socioeconomic status, reading ability, and prior achievement, homework effects were found for mathematics achievement; and homework and assessment format effects were found for science achievement.…

Analyses of data for three cohorts of middle-school students (more than 5,600) show that communal organization was not related to mathematics achievement or attendance, but academic press was positively related to both mathematics achievement and attendance. Results call for more skepticism about the currently popular communitarian approach to…

The effectiveness of the Mathematical Skills Foundation Programme at Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canada), a program that evaluates the mathematical knowledge of each student to individualize instruction, was studied with data from 304 students. Results suggest that the remedial program did not have a positive measurable effect on students…

This study examined how well the positive effects of cooperative learning would generalize to private schools, comparing mathematics achievement, friendship, attitude toward mathematics, and self-concept outcomes of students taught with and without cooperative learning. Significant increases in mathematics achievement surfaced for cooperative…

The agreement of diagnostic classifications from two parallel subtests assessing a mathematics skill with three levels of scoring was studied with 431 Arab Israeli 10th graders. Results indicate that, even when parallel form reliability is high, less agreement is apparent when performance is evaluated at the micro level. (SLD)

Presents the assessment and grading practices of 19 mathematics classes in five high schools in three states. In each class the most frequently used assessment tools were tests and quizzes, with these determining approximately 77% of students' grades. In 12 classes other forms of assessment such as written projects or interviews were also used.…