This study uses student panel data to examine the association between algebra placement and student motivation for mathematics. Changes in achievement goals, expectancy, and task value for students in eighth-grade algebra are compared with those of peers placed in lower-level mathematics courses (N = 3,306). In our sample, students placed in…

Mathematical problem solving typically involves manipulating visual symbols (e.g., equations), and prior research suggests that those symbols serve as diagrammatic representations (e.g., Landy & Goldstone, 2010). The present work examines the ways that instructional design of student engagement with these diagrammatic representations may…

A national initiative encourages STEM careers to prepare students to succeed in an increasingly competitive economy (National Research Council, 2011). The STEM pipeline is dependent on students' mathematics course-taking trajectories, which are determined once a student enrolls in his/her first Algebra course. Despite efforts to increase access to…