This study demonstrates that the validity and usefulness of mathematics achievement tests can be improved by defining psychologically meaningful subscores that yield differential relations with student, teacher, and school variables. The eighth- and tenth-grade mathematics tests from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) were…

Many teachers use cooperative learning methods during instruction but face the problem of aligning evaluation techniques with that instruction. Described are methods to include cooperative problem solving in evaluation, including strategies to identify possible grading schemes, to make appropriate problem choices, and to evaluate individual versus…

Describes a program to improve problem-solving skills of children by incorporating parents as partners in cooperative learning experiences with the children. Research results indicate that students working with parental partners displayed higher problem-solving ability on posttests than those not working with partners. (MDH)

Effects of ability grouping on cognitive achievement in mathematics and science were studied for middle school students from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth, with a seventh grade sample of 1,900 students. Ability grouping helped the advanced, harmed the slower students, and had a negligible overall effect. (SLD)

Procedures to overcome four major factors that cause many middle-school-aged students to lose interest in, and start having trouble with, learning mathematics are discussed. The factors are identified as consisting of more difficult mathematical content, students' orientation toward concrete learning, peer influence, and students' rapid physical…

Data from the Second International Mathematics Study for 3,724 eighth graders are used to demonstrate the potential of multilevel factor analysis (MFA) methodology. Issues related to between-class and within-class decomposition of achievement variance and the change in this decomposition over the course of the eighth grade are revealed through…

Examines path-analytic models linking measures of self-concept, attributions, and grades of 194 Filipino high school students. Finds attributions for successful outcomes to ability or effort mediated the causal relationship between achievement and self-esteem. Interprets negative paths from ability attributions for success in mathematics to…

Uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) to reveal a detrimental contextual effect on 10th-grade mathematics and reading achievement associated with attending a school with a high concentration of children from single-parent homes. Maintains this effect is evident even when individual demographic characteristics and family…

Evaluated effects of Chicago Child-Parent Center and Expansion Program on 559 low-income, inner-city African American children. Found that program participation for two or three years after preschool and kindergarten was associated with higher reading achievement up to seventh grade and lower cumulative grade retention and special education…

Examined fourth graders' affective experiences and achievement outcomes in small-group learning in mathematics. Students reported that personal experiences changed with increased exposure to their small group and were adaptively reconstructed upon delayed reflection. There were no results associated with individual student gender; group gender…

Examines the effect of foreign language education on the basic skills of elementary school students. A group of third-grade students given three 30-minute Spanish language lessons per week performed as well as or better than a control group (given no second-language instruction) on academic achievement tests. (ER)

A case study is presented of a second-grader whose parents receive a report that her reading and mathematics achievement is far below grade level, based on a newly implemented computer-based assessment and intervention program. Discussion concerns her previous grades, assessment results, the constructivist theory-based curriculum, and legal…

A recently developed statistical technique, often referred to as classification and regression trees (CART), holds great potential for researchers to discover how student-level (and school-level) characteristics interactively affect growth in mathematics achievement. CART is a host of advanced statistical methods that statistically cluster…

Background: Five DNA markers (single-nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs) have recently been found to be associated with general cognitive ability "g") in a sample of 7414 7-year-old twins. These children have also been studied at 2, 3, 4, and 7 years of age on measures of cognitive and language development and behaviour problems; family environment…

This study examined scores on second, third and fourth grade reading and mathematics tests to determine the effects of beginning school age on later school success. The analysis involved 352 participants in one rural school district in Western New York. Participants were divided into three groups: (a) age appropriate for entrance to school, (b)…