In Tunisia, calculus is a fundamental component of mathematics curriculum in high school and a major requirement at the advanced level in the mathematics bachelor's degree and in engineering. Yet, paving the way for a passage between high school calculus and university calculus remains a challenge for both mathematics education researchers and…

In this paper we introduce the reader to a foundational topic of differential geometry: the curvature of a curve. To make this topic engaging to a wide audience of readers, we develop this intuitive introduction employing only basic geometry without calculus and derivatives. It is hoped that this introduction will encourage many more to both…

The Tennessee Department of Education explored course enrollment patterns in an effort to better understand in which courses students are enrolling and whether course enrollment policies and procedures are promoting students' interests. This report focuses on math course enrollment patterns throughout high school by following the 2013-14 twelfth…

"Inequitable Opportunity to Learn: Access to Advanced Mathematics and Science Courses" is the second in a series of Learning Policy Institute reports analyzing data primarily from the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). This report uses the most recent CRDC data from 2017-18. The CRDC includes data on a…

The 2015-16 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) is a survey of all public schools and school districts in the United States. The CRDC measures student access to courses, programs, staff, and resources that impact education equity and opportunity for students. The CRDC has long provided critical information used by the Department of Education's…

There is widespread concern about the reduction in the number of students in Australia studying calculus-based mathematics courses in the final year of secondary education. Over the last 20 years in New South Wales, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of students studying general mathematics in place of calculus courses. The concern…

"University of Chicago School Mathematics Project" ("UCSMP") is a core mathematics curriculum that emphasizes problem solving, real-world applications, and the use of technology. The curriculum is based on a student-centered approach with a focus on active learning that incorporates reading and uses a flexible lesson…

Much of what is taught, especially in college, is designed to support other disciplines. To determine the current mathematical needs of twenty-three partner disciplines, the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) conducted the Curriculum Foundations Project (Ganter and Barker 2004; Ganter and Haver 2011), as discussed in the appendix…

Since the mid-20th century, the standard U.S. high school and college math curriculum has been based on two years of algebra and a year of geometry, preparing students to take classes in pre-calculus followed by calculus. Students' math pursuits have been differentiated primarily by how far or how rapidly they proceed along a clearly defined…

Recent mathematics education reform calls for efforts to create collaborative and student-centered environments, where students have opportunities to reason and construct their understanding as part of a community of learners. Mathematics instruction should provide students opportunities to engage in mathematical inquiry and meaning making through…

In the mid-1990s, Mercer University's undergraduate schools placed incoming freshmen in their first mathematics course, using only their scores on the mathematics portion of the SAT (SATM). This placement policy was strongly supported by the admissions office because it did not require additional testing of the freshmen in their on-campus summer…

Various studies suggest that covariational reasoning plays an important role on understanding the fundamental ideas of calculus and modeling dynamic functional events. The purpose of this study was to investigate a group of mathematics teachers' covariational reasoning abilities and predictions about their students. Data were collected through…

A summer bridge program for incoming engineering and computer science freshmen has been used at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 2007 to 2010. The primary purpose of this program has been to improve the mathematics course placement for incoming students who initially place into a course below Calculus I on the math placement examination.…

Last year the United States unveiled the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English and Mathematics for grades K-12. In particular, the authors included two possible sequences of 8-12 mathematics courses that would fulfill the standards. Most notably, the courses titled "3a" and "3b" in these two sequences have become…

The most of the long distance courses are mainly based on two or three face to face meetings and printed courses or courses available on the online course web site. In this case the individual students study has attached an important amount of time. Usually the students do not receive a feed-back of their progress and do not receive answers to…