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How Prioritizing Number Skills Can Act as a Mediator for Socioeconomic Inequality within a National Math Compulsory Curriculum
Abstract
Although prior knowledge is an important predictor of futureperformanceinmathematics,fewstudieshaveanalyzed which areas of the subject are most critical. Most evidence is based on small- and medium-scale studies fromdevelopedcountries,withresultsthatcannotbegeneralized. We explore which areas of mathematics are the mostimportantpredictorsoffutureperformancebyconsidering the sociodemographic and academic factors of Chile. Scores from a standardized test for eighth-grade mathematics and fourth-grade language arts were analyzed for a sample of 158,818 students, together with data on different areas of fourth-grade mathematics. The results reveal that the association of future performance in mathematics with number skills is as strong as the association of future performance in mathematics with attending an elite private school, in comparison to attending a state-subsidized school. Literacy skills also proved to be an important predictor of future performance in mathematics.
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Education is recognized as a human right since the adoption of Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 besides health and shelter. Education for All Goals was established where more than 150 governments have adopted world declaration on Education for All policy to support the universal right for education. The ultimate goal of many countries is to guarantee the optimum educational access rates for improving the quality. Similarly, quality is reflected by a range of indicators, including government spending on education, student/teacher ratios, teacher qualifications, test scores, and the length of time students spend in school. Every investment must be measured against how it can serve such aspects to ensure the ultimate quality of Education for All programs. Investing in education reinforces a society’s wealth and growth, where individuals can easily improve their own personal efficacy, productivity, and incomes. A major challenge lies in defining the ideal education indicators and circumstances among countries; especially poorly developed countries that strive to establish a quality evaluation theme. Therefore, there is need of multifaceted standpoint and reasoning framework to realize educational policy evaluations that can truly contribute to the improvement of educational situation in developing countries and around the world.
We investigated teacher effects (magnitude, predictors, and cumulativeness) on primary students’ achievement trajectories in Chile, using multilevel cross-classified (accelerated) growth models (four overlapping cohorts, spanning Grades 3 to 8; n = 19,704 students, and 851 language and 812 mathematics teachers, in 156 schools). It was found that teacher effects on achievement growth are large, exceeding school effects. Also, the contribution of teachers to student achievement growth was found to accumulate over time. The study advances the field by exploring teacher effects in the context of an emerging economy, contributing further evidence on the properties of teacher effects on student achievement growth and demonstrating the combined use of accelerated longitudinal designs, growth curve approaches, and cross-classified and multiple membership models.
Early mathematics knowledge is a strong predictor of later academic achievement, but children from low-income families enter school with weak mathematics knowledge. An early math trajectories model is proposed and evaluated within a longitudinal study of 517 low-income American children from ages 4 to 11. This model includes a broad range of math topics, as well as potential pathways from preschool to middle grades mathematics achievement. In preschool, nonsymbolic quantity, counting, and patterning knowledge predicted fifth-grade mathematics achievement. By the end of first grade, symbolic mapping, calculation, and patterning knowledge were the important predictors. Furthermore, the first-grade predictors mediated the relation between preschool math knowledge and fifth-grade mathematics achievement. Findings support the early math trajectories model among low-income children.
Socio-economic hardships put children in an underprivileged position. This systematic review was conducted to identify factors linked to underachievement of disadvantaged pupils in school science and maths. What could be done as evidence-based practice to make the lives of these young people better? The protocol from preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) was followed. Major electronic educational databases were searched. Papers meeting pre-defined selection criteria were identified. Studies included were mainly large-scale evaluations with a clearly defined comparator group and robust research design. All studies used a measure of disadvantage such as lower SES, language barrier, ethnic minority or temporary immigrant status and an outcome measure like attainment in standardised national tests. A majority of papers capable of answering the research question were correlational studies. The review reports findings from 771 studies published from 2005 to 2014 in English language. Thirty-four studies were synthesised. Results suggest major factors linking deprivation to underachievement can be thematically categorised into a lack of positive environment and support. Recommendations from the research reports are discussed.
The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the importance of growth in math fact skills within the context of overall math proficiency. Data for 1,493 elementary and middle school students were included for analysis. Regression models were fit to examine the relative value of math fact fluency growth, prior state test performance, and a fall administration of a computer adaptive test for predicting performance on a year-end state math test. Across all grades, the largest effect sizes were observed for student performance on the fall computer adaptive assessment (β = .43–.56). Fact fluency growth accounted for unique variance in each regression model, with the largest effect size observed for students in Grade 4 (β = .20) and the smallest effect sizes observed for students in Grades 7 and 8 (β = .11). Results provide insight into the potential role of math fact fluency across late elementary and middle school. In particular, the observed results indicate that math facts may retain predictive value for math proficiency despite their absence from the formal curriculum in later grades.
El trabajo describe los contextos, fundamentos, componentes claves y evolución de las políticas educacionales en Chile en el período 1980-2002, referidas al sistema escolar y con énfasis en la década de los años
Noventa. Tiene como objetivo analítico el intento de conceptualizar la especificidad de las políticas educacionales y de reforma de Chile en la última década del siglo XX, en términos de sus principios orientadores, estrategia, proceso de implementación y resultados. La perspectiva es la del análisis de la particular combinación de criterios y herramientas de
estado y de mercado, centralistas y descentralizados, de intervención directa y a través de incentivos, en la implementación de un proyecto de transformación gradual pero ambiciosa del sistema escolar. Proyecto que llevan a cabo gobiernos sucesivos de una alianza política de centro-izquierda, en un contexto nacional de transición a la democracia, y en un contexto global que plantea intensificados requerimientos de manejo del conocimiento y formación de las personas, como factor estratégico del
desarrollo económico y socio-político.
This paper uses rich data of 79,418 elementary teachers from 5,521 schools in Chile to study the extent of teacher sorting and its association with teacher career paths. A complete analysis of ten measures of teacher quality shows that highly qualified teachers are unequally distributed across schools. Some schools present a large concentration of highly qualified teachers while others do not even have a single one. Schools with a low concentration of highly qualified teachers are more likely to be public and rural, & have a bigger enrollment of low-income and low-performance students. Thus, it is precisely those schools that are most in need. This paper combines the analysis of teacher sorting with teacher career decisions and finds that teacher career paths are associated with the unequal distribution of teachers. At the start of their careers, less qualified teachers are more likely to teach in rural, public, low-income and low-performance schools. These teachers are then more likely to stay in those schools, while less qualified teachers who start working in highincome and high-performing schools are less likely to stay there compared with highly qualified teachers. Education reforms have recognized the key role of teachers. However, efforts have focused on increasing the quality of the teaching workforce and do not target any specific types of schools. This study discusses the lack of targeted policies and educational inequality, & proposes the need for an educational reform.
Using panel data for 161 countries, we explore the determinants of cross-country disparities in personal computer and Internet penetration. We find evidence indicating that income, human capital, the youth dependency ratio, telephone density, legal quality, and banking sector development are associated with technology penetration rates. Estimates from Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions comparing rates in the developed-country total to developing countries (Total, Brazil, China, Indonesia, India, Mexico, and Nigeria) reveal that the main factors responsible for low rates of technology penetration rates in developing countries are disparities in income, telephone density, legal quality, and human capital. In terms of dynamics, our results indicate fairly rapid reversion to long-run equilibrium for Internet use, and somewhat slower reversion for computer use.
This study examines the allocation of novice primary teachers in Chilean schools, looking at their characteristics and at the attributes of the schools at which they are hired after having completed their initial teacher training. The study reveals that in Chile, more qualified novice teachers are more prone to get jobs in socio-economically advantaged schools or in schools with better academic outcomes. In contrast, in disadvantaged schools, it is more likely to find novice teachers with poor results on their exit exams and who come from socioeconomic backgrounds similar to those of the school populations. These findings provide new data to inform Chilean policies. Hence, achieving a more equitable distribution of highly qualified teachers is a challenge for Chile if the aim is to reduce the achievement gap between schools attended by pupils of higher and lower socioeconomic status. Furthermore, these findings might shed some light on the current debate surrounding teacher education policies. A new law will mandate that novice teachers pass the exit exam that until now they have taken voluntarily in order to be hired in any publicly funded school. This study provides support and evidence to inform the debate that will follow in parliament, since we found that novice teachers performing at a very low level-perhaps below the minimum that will be required-have a high probability of ending up working in schools in more disadvantaged areas. On a more general scale, this research also provides a simple but complete methodology that can be used to study issues of teacher distribution elsewhere.
This article suggests a new framework for analysing attitude and changes in attitude. After reviewing relevant findings in the field of psychology of emotions, the author will provide a new conceptualisation for attitude. Four different evaluative processes are identified as aspects of attitude: emotions aroused in the situation, emotions associated with the stimuli, expected consequences, and relating the situation to personal values. The usefulness of this analytical framework will be illustrated with an exemplary case study. An ethnographic case study of Rita, a lower secondary school student, will be analysed. The case study will describe her negative attitude towards mathematics, and then examine how negative emotions developed during problem solving situations. Within half a year her attitude towards mathematics changed dramatically to more positive.
La desigualdad espacial de ingresos en los países latinoamericanos es un tema que ha despertado reciente interés académico. Particularmente, Chile se destaca mundialmente por sus altas tasas de desigualdad espacial e individual. Este artículo analiza la desigualdad espacial de ingresos en Chile durante 1992 2011 evaluando el rol de la localización espacial del capital humano o spatial labor sorting. Los resultados confirman que el capital humano no se distribuye aleatoriamente en el espacio sino que su concentración en los grandes centros urbanos impacta significativamente sobre la desigualdad de ingresos entre comunas. Estos resultados motivan a la discusión sobre la dimensión espacial de la desigualdad de ingresos y sugiere políticas de equidad espacial orientadas a reducir la concentración espacial de capital humano avanzado.
This study aimed to investigate the interplay between mathematical word problem skills and reading comprehension. The participants were 225 children aged 9-10 (Grade 4). The children's text comprehension and mathematical word problem-solving performance was tested. Technical reading skills were investigated in order to categorise participants as good or poor readers. The results showed that performance on maths word problems was strongly related to performance in reading comprehension. Fluent technical reading abilities increased the aforementioned skills. However, even after controlling for the level of technical reading involved, performance in maths word problems was still related to reading comprehension, suggesting that both of these skills require overall reasoning abilities. There were no gender differences in maths word problem-solving performance, but the girls were better in technical reading and in reading comprehension. Parental levels of education positively predicted children's maths word problem-solving performance and reading comprehension skills.
This paper presents a technique based on the intuitively-simple concepts of Sample Domain and Effective Prediction Domain, for dealing with linear regression situations involving collinearity of any degree of severity. The Effective Prediction Domain (EPD) clarifies the concept of collinearity, and leads to conclusions that are quantitative and practically useful. The method allows for the presence of expansion terms among the regressors, and requires no changes when dealing with such situations.
Following an exploratory factor analysis, factor scores may be computed and used in subsequent analyses. Factor scores are composite variables which provide information about an individual's placement on the factor(s). This article discusses popular methods to create factor scores under two different classes: refined and non-refined. Strengths and considerations of the various methods, and for using factor scores in general, are discussed.
Dans le contexte des efforts de reforme entrepris en Amerique Latine, l'article evoque l'impact et l'influence mondiale sur l'orientation et l'elaboration des programmes d'etudes au Chili. L'auteur s'attache tout d'abord a essayer de comprendre les mecanismes lies a la structure des initiatives et institutions pedagogiques...
This meta-analysis reviewed the literature on socioeconomic status (SES) and academic achievement in journal articles published between 1990 and 2000. The sample included 101,157 students, 6,871 schools, and 128 school districts gathered from 74 independent samples. The results showed a medium to strong SES–achievement relation. This relation, however, is moderated by the unit, the source, the range of SES variable, and the type of SES–achievement measure. The relation is also contingent upon school level, minority status, and school location. The author conducted a replica of White’s (1982) meta-analysis to see whether the SES–achievement correlation had changed since White’s initial review was published. The results showed a slight decrease in the average correlation. Practical implications for future research and policy are discussed.
Understanding the consequences of growing up poor for a child's well-being is an important research question, but one that is difficult to answer due to the potential endogeneity of family income. Past estimates of the effect of family income on child development have often been plagued by omitted variable bias and measurement error. In this paper, we use a fixed effect instrumental variables strategy to estimate the causal effect of income on children's math and reading achievement. Our primary source of identification comes from the large, non-linear changes in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) over the last two decades. The largest of these changes increased family income by as much as 20 percent, or approximately $2,100. Using a panel of over 6,000 children matched to their mothers from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth datasets allows us to address problems associated with unobserved heterogeneity and endogenous transitory income shocks as well as measurement error in income. Our baseline estimates imply that a $1,000 increase in income raises math test scores by 2.1 percent and reading test scores by 3.6 percent of a standard deviation. The results are even stronger when looking at children from disadvantaged families who are affected most by the large changes in the EITC, and are robust to a variety of alternative specifications.
The number of women in science and engineering is growing, yet men continue to outnumber women, especially at the upper levels of these professions. In elementary, middle, and high school, girls and boys take math and science courses in roughly equal numbers, and about as many girls as boys leave high school prepared to pursue science and engineering majors in college. Yet fewer women than men pursue these majors. Among first-year college students, women are much less likely than men to say that they intend to major in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM). By graduation, men outnumber women in nearly every science and engineering field, and in some, such as physics, engineering, and computer science, the difference is dramatic, with women earning only 20 percent of bachelor's degrees. Women's representation in science and engineering declines further at the graduate level and yet again in the transition to the workplace. Drawing on a large and diverse body of research, this report presents eight recent research findings that provide evidence that social and environmental factors contribute to the under-representation of women in science and engineering. (Contains 21 figures, 13 footnotes, and a bibliography.) [This report was supported by the Letitia Corum Memorial Fund, the AAUW Mooneen Lecce Giving Circle, and the Eleanor Roosevelt Fund.]
Given its important role in mathematics as well as its role as a gatekeeper to future educational and employment opportunities, algebra has become a focal point of both reform and research efforts in mathematics education. Understanding and using algebra is dependent on understanding a number of fundamental concepts, one of which is the concept of equality. This article focuses on middle school students' understanding of the equal sign and its relation to performance solving algebraic equations. The data indicate that many students lack a sophisticated understanding of the equal sign and that their understanding of the equal sign is associated with performance on equation-solving items. Moreover, the latter finding holds even when controlling for mathematics ability (as measured by standardized achievement test scores). Implications for instruction and curricular design are discussed.
ABSTRACT—There is no universal guideline or rule of thumb for judging the practical importance or substantive significance of a standardized effect size estimate for an intervention. Instead, one must develop empirical benchmarks of comparison that reflect the nature of the intervention being evaluated, its target population, and the outcome measure or measures being used. This approach is applied to the assessment of effect size measures for educational interventions designed to improve student academic achievement. Three types of empirical benchmarks are illustrated: (a) normative expectations for growth over time in student achievement, (b) policy-relevant gaps in student achievement by demographic group or school performance, and (c) effect size results from past research for similar interventions and target populations. The findings can be used to help assess educational interventions, and the process of doing so can provide guidelines for how to develop and use such benchmarks in other fields.
The Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) and tolerance are both widely used measures of the degree of multi-collinearity of the
ith independent variable with the other independent variables in a regression model. Unfortunately, several rules of thumb
– most commonly the rule of 10 – associated with VIF are regarded by many practitioners as a sign of severe or serious multi-collinearity
(this rule appears in both scholarly articles and advanced statistical textbooks). When VIF reaches these threshold values
researchers often attempt to reduce the collinearity by eliminating one or more variables from their analysis; using Ridge
Regression to analyze their data; or combining two or more independent variables into a single index. These techniques for
curing problems associated with multi-collinearity can create problems more serious than those they solve. Because of this,
we examine these rules of thumb and find that threshold values of the VIF (and tolerance) need to be evaluated in the context
of several other factors that influence the variance of regression coefficients. Values of the VIF of 10, 20, 40, or even
higher do not, by themselves, discount the results of regression analyses, call for the elimination of one or more independent
variables from the analysis, suggest the use of ridge regression, or require combining of independent variable into a single
index.
Identifying the types of mathematics content knowledge that are most predictive of students' long-term learning is essential for improving both theories of mathematical development and mathematics education. To identify these types of knowledge, we examined long-term predictors of high school students' knowledge of algebra and overall mathematics achievement. Analyses of large, nationally representative, longitudinal data sets from the United States and the United Kingdom revealed that elementary school students' knowledge of fractions and of division uniquely predicts those students' knowledge of algebra and overall mathematics achievement in high school, 5 or 6 years later, even after statistically controlling for other types of mathematical knowledge, general intellectual ability, working memory, and family income and education. Implications of these findings for understanding and improving mathematics learning are discussed.
This study examines the power of cognitive and noncognitive variables to predict students’ performance in algebra. We investigated students’ prior year’s assessment scores and demographic characteristics to predict eighth-grade algebra scores. Using California statewide assessment data, we explored predictive factors in three regression models. These analyses reveal that the seventh-grade mathematics test scores account for 61% of the variance in eighth graders’ algebra test scores. Analyzing subscores of the seventh-grade mathematics test, the assessment content focus of rational numbers is a major predictor, contributing 48% of the variance in eighth graders’ algebra test scores. On the other hand, students’ demographic variables show little predictive power for eighth-grade algebra scores. This study provides empirical evidence for understanding the factors that impact a student’s success in learning algebra.
The dominant focus on generalizing in the development of algebraic thinking has to a large extent obscured the process of seeing structure. While generalization-oriented activity remains highly important in algebra and early algebra, and in fact includes a structural component, equal attention needs to be paid to the complementary process of looking through mathematical objects and to decomposing and recomposing them in various structural ways. With the aim of instigating greater attention to structure and elaborating more widely on its meaning with respect to developing early algebraic thinking, this chapter explores the notion of structure and structural activity from various perspectives, and then presents a research-based example of 12-year-olds seeking structure within an activity involving factors, multiples, and divisors.
Most large-scale summative assessments present results in terms of cumulative scores. Although such descriptions can provide insights into general trends over time, they do not provide detail of how students solved the tasks. Less restrictive access to raw data from these summative assessments has occurred in recent years, resulting in opportunities for data to be analysed at a deeper level. This article examines longitudinal data on students’ performance on spatial numeracy tasks, with a specific focus on gender differences. Using an adapted Knowledge Discovery in Data (KDD) research design, data from a nationally-representative cohort were analysed over a five-year period. Results highlighted distinct differences in how males and females processed many of the spatial tasks. The opportunity to analyse summative assessment instruments at a deeper level offers more scope for worthwhile curriculum and classroom implications.
To read mathematics textbooks, answer questions on mathematics assessments, and understand educator and student communication, students must develop an understanding of the academic language of mathematics. A primary aspect of academic language is vocabulary. In this study, we focused on the mathematics-vocabulary performance of students in 3rd and 5th grade. We designed and implemented a measure of key mathematics vocabulary in the late elementary grades, and we compared performance on this measure to scores from general vocabulary and mathematics computation measures. Student performance at both grades was variable, with a 62-point range at 3rd grade and a 95-point range at 5th grade. General vocabulary and mathematics computation were significant predictors of mathematics vocabulary, but the influence of these predictors differed by mathematics-vocabulary performance levels.
Learning profiles that track changes in student skills per year of schooling often find shockingly low learning gains. Using data from three recent studies in South Asia and Africa, we show that a majority of students spend years of instruction with no progress on basics. We argue shallow learning profiles are in part the result of curricular paces moving much faster than the pace of learning. To demonstrate the consequences of a gap between the curriculum and student mastery, we construct a simple, formal model, which portrays learning as the result of a match between student skill and instructional levels, rather than the standard (if implicit) assumption that all children learn the same from the same instruction. A simulation shows that two countries with exactly the same potential learning could have massively divergent learning outcomes, just because of a gap between curricular and actual pace--and the country which goes faster has much lower cumulative learning. We also show that our simple simulation model of curricular gaps can replicate existing experimental findings, many of which are otherwise puzzling. Paradoxically, learning could go faster if curricula and teachers were to slow down.
Teachers' first employment is key to explain their final distribution in the system. Through a mixed-method approach we study the factors that are related to the first job for teachers in Chile in schools with different regimes. Specifically, we consider teacher's socio-demographic and initial training-related characteristics, the application and hiring processes, and job characteristics. We find that teachers with a higher social capital are less likely to start teaching in public schools, and that participation in field experience during their initial training in a public school, increases the probability to teach in those contexts.
Two second-order meta-analyses synthesized approximately 100 years of research on the effects of ability grouping and acceleration on K–12 students’ academic achievement. Outcomes of 13 ability grouping meta-analyses showed that students benefited from within-class grouping (0.19 ≤ g ≤ 0.30), cross-grade subject grouping (g = 0.26), and special grouping for the gifted (g = 0.37), but did not benefit from between-class grouping (0.04 ≤ g ≤0.06); the effects did not vary for high-, medium-, and low-ability students. Three acceleration meta-analyses showed that accelerated students significantly outperformed their nonaccelerated same-age peers (g = 0.70) but did not differ significantly from nonaccelerated older peers (g = 0.09). Three other meta-analyses that aggregated outcomes across specific forms of acceleration found that acceleration appeared to have a positive, moderate, and statistically significant impact on students’ academic achievement (g = 0.42).
Significance
This study is the first, to our knowledge, to show that a growth mindset (the belief that intelligence is not fixed and can be developed) reliably predicts achievement across a national sample of students, including virtually all of the schools and socioeconomic strata in Chile. It also explores the relationship between income and mindset for the first time, to our knowledge, finding that students from lower-income families were less likely to hold a growth mindset than their wealthier peers but that those who did hold a growth mindset were appreciably buffered against the deleterious effects of poverty on achievement. These results suggest that mindsets may be one mechanism through which economic disadvantage can affect achievement.
In this paper, student-level indicators of opportunity to learn (OTL) included in the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment are used to explore the joint relationship of OTL and socioeconomic status (SES) to student mathematics literacy. Using multiple methods, we find consistent evidence that (a) OTL has a significant relationship to student outcomes, (b) a positive relationship exists between SES and OTL, and (c) roughly a third of the SES relationship to literacy is due to its association with OTL. These relationships hold across most countries and both within and between schools within countries. Our findings suggest that in most countries, the organization and policies defining content exposure may exacerbate educational inequalities.
Our purpose is to bring together perspectives concerning the processing and use of statistical graphs to identify critical factors that appear to influence graph comprehension and to suggest instructional implications. After providing a synthesis of information about the nature and structure of graphs, we define graph comprehension. We consider 4 critical factors that appear to affect graph comprehension: the purposes for using graphs, task characteristics, discipline characteristics, and reader characteristics. A construct called graph sense is defined. A sequence for ordering the introduction of graphs is proposed. We conclude with a discussion of issues involved in making sense of quantitative information using graphs and ways instruction may be modified to promote such sense making.
We examined the potential effectiveness of four brief interventions, three behavioral and one nutritional, for helping high math-anxious college students regulate negative emotions immediately prior to a time-pressured arithmetic test. Participants with low versus high math anxiety performed a timed arithmetic task after practicing one of three short-term breathing exercises promoting focused attention, unfocused attention, or worry, and after consuming either 0 or 200 mg l-theanine. Overall, participants with high math anxiety underperformed relative to those with low math anxiety. This effect, however, was largely alleviated by a focused breathing exercise, which increased rated calmness and enhanced performance on the arithmetic test amongst those with high math anxiety. l-theanine supplementation showed only minimal effects. These results provide insights into the attentional mechanisms involved in regulating the negative emotions that lead to testing underperformance, and suggest that focused breathing exercises can be a useful, practical tool for helping address the negative impacts of math anxiety.
The last 10 years of active research in the area of hierarchical, multilevel data modeling has brought problems as well as benefits. The three conference papers reflect well both the potentialities of the new procedures and some of the dangers we need to guard against. As in all statistical modeling of the real world, our inferences are no better than the data upon which they are based and the adequacy of the assumptions we are prepared to make. The paper by de Leeuw and Kreft sounds some useful warnings, and I will discuss that one first. The paper by Rogosa and Saner focuses in detail on a repeated measures application and one software package, and asks questions about the usefulness of the available analysis procedures. I shall have some general remarks about ways of handling repeated measures data, but leave comments about the HLM software to Professor Raudenbush to respond to. The paper by Draper is concerned with causal inference and ways in which this can be strengthened by using multilevel models. He also places these models in their historical context, and his discussion of competing estimation procedures raises some interesting topics for future research.
This paper utilizes data from U.S. districts that participated in the 1999 TIMSS-R study to explore the consequences of variation in opportunities to learn specific mathematics content. Analyses explore the relationship between classroom coverage of specific mathematics content and student achievement as measured by the TIMSS-R international mathematics scaled score. District level SES indicators demonstrated significant relationships with both the dependent variable of interest: mathematics achievement, and the classroom level measure of content coverage. A 3-level hierarchical linear model demonstrated a significant effect of classroom content coverage on student achievement while controlling for student background at the student level and SES at all three levels documenting significant differences in mathematics learning opportunities as a function of the U.S. education system structure.
Recent changes in national and state mathematics standards have increased the level of algebraic thinking taught in younger grades. These changes have prompted more inclusive curriculum designs that open the opportunity to enroll in advanced mathematics courses at younger ages. Of particular interest to this study is the access to eighth-grade algebra, once traditionally reserved for select populations. This study examined long-term academic outcomes for students who did or did not enroll in eighth-grade algebra in one district that implemented an initiative to increase access. The outcomes of students with similar ability, as measured by preassessment in seventh grade, were compared. The groups performed similarly on end-of-course exams in high school math and the mathematics section of the SAT I. However, students who completed algebra in the eighth grade stayed in the mathematics pipeline longer and attended college at greater rates than those who did not. Because of the sequential nature of mathematics course work, students taking algebra at an earlier age have the opportunity to enroll in more advanced courses in the future. Results suggest the need for further exploration of how to provide access and promote enrollment in eighth-grade algebra for students who demonstrate readiness. (Contains 10 tables.)
We used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) data to examine how important mathematics readiness levels are to subsequent achievement growth and the efficacy of instruction and engagement in producing such growth. The ECLS-K selected a nationally representative sample of kindergartners in fall 1998 and is following these children through the end of eighth grade. We employed the standardized mathematics assessments that were administered to the students by ECLS-K staff. Separately for students who began kindergarten with low, medium-low, medium-high, and high mathematics skill, we examined achievement growth through third grade and the effects of teacher-reported time on mathematics instruction and student engagement (as perceived by the teacher) on such growth. We found that students who began with the lowest achievement also showed the least growth over this period. Students in the two highest skills groups had similar growth, and the highest levels of growth. Students in the lowest group received the most time on instruction but had the lowest engagement with instruction. Time on instruction increased achievement for all students equally, but the effect of engagement was strongest among the lowest-performing group. The lower engagement of the lowest-performing group explained more than half of their lower achievement growth in grades K-3. If inequality in mathematics achievement is to be reduced, teachers must make greater efforts to improve the beginning knowledge and academic engagement of this group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The main aim of this study was to find out what kind of factor model of written language skills could be created on the basis of tests of reading accuracy and fluency, spelling and reading comprehension, and how the written language skills factor and school achievement predict choice of secondary education and what effects gender, special education support and socio-economic background have on this prediction. Altogether 1700 students were assessed with two word-level reading tests and word- and pseudo-word-spelling tests and by a reading comprehension test. Remaining data were elicited with a questionnaire. The findings showed that a latent written language skills factor could be formed, separately for boys and girls, and that the level of difficulties in reading and spelling predicted powerfully school achievement and choice of secondary education. The effect of reading and spelling skills on secondary education choice was much stronger and direct for boys. Parents' occupation and special education support did not play a major role as predictors.
Since the publication of the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), scholarly interest in analysing the effectiveness and performance of education policy has risen again. The present article follows this path and presents the first empirical evaluation of the influence of national education policies on educational inequality in the European Union member states. We examine whether the availability of preschool education, an all-day school tradition, tracking during secondary education, a large private school sector, average class size and education expenditures moderate the relationship between individual social background and educational success. As a main finding, our multi-level analyses show that education policy affects educational inequality very differently, an outcome that is most visible when comparing West European and post-communist countries.
This paper draws upon a distinction between fundamental and derived senses of literacy to show that conceptions of scientific literacy attend to the derived sense but tend to neglect the fundamental sense. In doing so, they fail to address a central component of scientific literacy. A notion of literacy in its fundamental sense is elaborated and contrasted to a simple view of reading and writing that still has much influence on literacy instruction in schools and, we believe, is widely assumed in science education. We make suggestions about how scientific literacy would be viewed differently if the fundamental sense of literacy were taken seriously and explore some educational implications of attending to literacy in its fundamental sense when teaching science. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed87:224–240, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/sce.10066
As the previous chapter indicates, there has been a significant shift in advanced economies from manufacturing to information
and knowledge services. Knowledge itself is growing ever more specialized and expanding exponentially. Information and communication
technology is transforming the nature of how work is conducted and the meaning of social relationships. Decentralized decision
making, information sharing, teamwork, and innovation are key in today’s enterprises. No longer can students look forward
to middle class success in the conduct of manual labor or use of routine skills – work that can be accomplished by machines.
Rather, whether a technician or a professional person, success lies in being able to communicate, share, and use information
to solve complex problems, in being able to adapt and innovate in response to new demands and changing circumstances, in being
able to marshal and expand the power of technology to create new knowledge, and in expanding human capacity and productivity.
The low performance of Chile in the TIMSS 1998/99 international study of mathematics and science achievement was a great disappointment for that country. To investigate the likely causes for low performance in mathematics, this study (1) compared Chile to three countries and one large school system that had similar economic conditions but superior mathematics performance, and (2) examined how important characteristics of the Chilean educational system could account for poor student achievement in mathematics. The study finds that, compared to South Korea, Malaysia, the Slovak Republic, and Miami-Dade County Public Schools: (a) Chilean 8th graders had parents with fewer years of schooling and with fewer educational resources at home; (b) the Chilean mathematics curriculum covered less content and fewer cognitive skills; and (c) the meager official curriculum translated into a weaker curricular implementation. Hierarchical linear models found that, in Chile, school assets were unequally distributed across social classes, with schools in socially advantaged areas more likely to have their own mathematics curriculum and better prepared teachers who emphasized more advanced mathematics content. Schools with their own mathematics curriculum and whose teachers covered more advanced content had significantly higher student achievement in mathematics.
About 80% of the world's children live in developing countries. Their well-being as adults depends heavily on the education they receive. School enrollment rates have increased dramatically in developing counties since 1960, but many children still leave school at a young age and often learn little while in school. This chapter reviews recent research on the impact of education and other policies on the quantity and quality of education obtained by children in developing countries. The policies considered include not only provision of basic inputs but also policies that change the way that schools are organized. While much has been learned about how to raise enrollment rates, less is known about how to increase learning. Randomized studies offer the most promise for understanding the impact of policies on learning.