We investigated the impacts of a peer-facilitated instructional intervention in mathematics on progress towards readiness for college among 10th graders who facilitated instruction for 9th graders in algebra classrooms in urban secondary schools. A goal of the intervention is to promote readiness for college by placing middle-performing students…

Interest in the regression discontinuity (RD) design as an alternative to randomized control trials (RCTs) has grown in recent years. There is little practical guidance, however, on conditions that would lead to a successful RD evaluation or the utility of studies with underpowered RD designs. This article describes the use of RD design to…

Over the last several years, iPads have become increasingly popular in the classroom. The number of available apps that could be used in the mathematics classroom are countless, but some make better mathematical learning tools than others. This research presents a set of sixteen criteria that can be used to evaluate the potential of an iPad app to…

Technological advances require that basic science courses for engineering, including Linear Algebra, emphasize the development of mathematical strengths associated with modelling and interpretation of results, which are not limited only to calculus abilities. Based on this consideration, we have proposed a project-based learning, giving a dynamic…

In response to pedagogical challenges in higher education, blended learning has become a prevalent practice in colleges and universities. Flipped learning (FL) represents a newly emerging form of blended learning, where students individually watch online lectures prior to class and then engage in classroom learning activities interacting with…

In the context of a department of applied mathematics, a program assessment was conducted to assess the departmental goal of enabling undergraduate students to recognize, appreciate, and apply the power of computational tools in solving mathematical problems that cannot be solved by hand, or would require extensive and tedious hand computation. A…

Using a novel design approach, a randomized experiment (RE) was embedded within a regression discontinuity (RD) design (R-RE-D) to evaluate the impact of developmental mathematics at a large midwestern college ("n" = 2,122). Within a region of uncertainty near the cut-score, estimates of benefit from a prospective RE were closely…

Peer-led Team Learning (PLTL) is an instructional method reported to increase student learning in STEM courses. As mathematics is a significant hurdle for many freshmen engineering students, a PLTL program was implemented for students to attempt to improve their course performance. Here, an analysis of PLTL for freshmen engineering students in…

Many inquiries regarding the causal effects of policies or programs are based on research designs where the treatment assignment process is unknown, and thus valid inferences depend on tenuous assumptions about the assignment mechanism. This article draws attention to the importance of understanding the assignment mechanism in policy and program…

This article describes an intelligent, integrated, web-based school for tutoring expansion and factoring of algebraic expressions. It provides full support for the management of the usual teaching tasks in a traditional school: Student and teacher registration, creation and management of classes and test papers, individualized assignment of…

Multisite trials can clarify the average impact of a new program and the heterogeneity of impacts across sites. Unfortunately, in many applications, compliance with treatment assignment is imperfect. For these applications, we propose an instrumental variable (IV) model with person-specific and site-specific random coefficients. Site-specific IV…

This paper describes the structure and impact of an NSF-funded ITEST project designed to enrich science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education using educational modules that teach students to construct, program, and test a series of sensors used to monitor water quality. During the two years of the SENSE IT project, over 30…

Examines the status of Broward County (Florida) Public Schools high school students, who must satisfy the district's algebra requirement in order to graduate. Data indicate that the majority of district students are meeting the new, higher standards; 80% of seniors in school year 1998-99 had previously completed the algebra requirement. (MLH)

This paper describes a high school project where the mathematics teaching and learning software M@th Desktop (MD) based on the Computer Algebra System Mathematica was used for symbolical and numerical calculations and for visualisation. The mathematics teaching and learning software M@th Desktop 2.0 (MD) contains the modules Basics including tools…

This article reports a field evaluation of experimental first-year algebra materials, "Algebra Through Applications." Effectiveness of the materials was evaluated in terms of achievement, attitude, transfer to consumer, problem solving, readability, and implementation. Overall, it was found the experimental materials could be used…