The purpose of this explanatory, sequential mixed-methods (QUAN [right arrow] qual) study was to investigate undergraduates' attitudes toward mathematics and perceptions of a community of inquiry in the fully online (FO) mathematics learning environment. Specifically, the study aimed to learn more about relationships between undergraduates'…

Secondary course assignment substantially determines a teacher's day-to-day work life, incentivizing them to realize their personal desires, which prior work shows tend to be working with more advanced students. Teachers have varying abilities to enact these desires, potentially due to their political capital, which is largely influenced by…

Teachers are among the most important inputs in the education production function. One mechanism by which teachers might affect student learning is through the grading standards they set for their classrooms. However, the effects of grading standards on student outcomes are relatively understudied. Using administrative data that links individual…

The term engagement appears in teacher effectiveness models as well as state and federal legislation, including the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Schools Act of 1965 (ESEA), known as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), enacted in 2015. Legislators and administrators have charged teachers with engaging all students…

This mixed methods experimental study examined the impacts of the Early College High School model on students' college readiness in mathematics measured by their success in college preparatory mathematics courses in the 9th through 11th grades, and disaggregated for academically prepared and underprepared students. This study looked at the…

The problem addressed in this study was that teachers underestimate the benefits of technology usage in grade nine Algebra mathematics classrooms. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study was to examine how the use of a supplemental digital mathematics tool affected achievement scores among grade nine Algebra mathematics students…

Research has demonstrated that textbooks exert a considerable influence on students' learning opportunities and that technology has the potential to transform mathematics instruction. This brief report provides a systematic analysis of how technology tasks are integrated into secondary mathematics curricula by analyzing a sample of 20 textbooks.…

Grade inflation is pervasive in American high schools. Is rampant grade inflation cause for concern? How teachers' grading standards affect student success is an empirical question--one that the author addresses in this article in a new study of roughly 350,000 North Carolina students taking Algebra I between 2006 and 2016. The author first…

This latent class analysis study used a bias-adjusted three-step approach to empirically identify mutually exclusive clusters of teacher professional qualifications based on commonly studied indicators of teacher quality. We then examined the relationship between cluster membership and the mathematics gains of adolescents at risk for mathematics…

We build on research connecting teaching assignments to teacher effectiveness by examining the characteristics of secondary grades mathematics teachers with more course preparations--both the unique number of courses taught and courses never taught before--and by assessing whether additional course preparations predict teacher value-added.…

Problem solving is an important yet neglected mathematical skill for students with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability (ASD/ID). In addition, the terminology and vocabulary used in mathematical tasks may be unfamiliar to students with ASD/ID. The current study evaluated the effects of modified schema-based instruction (SBI) on the…

We know from previous survey research that teachers who hold high expectations for all of their students significantly increase the odds that those young people will go on to complete high school and college. One indicator of teachers' expectations is their approach to grading--specifically, whether they subject students to more or less rigorous…

Although the vast majority of American parents believe their child is performing at or above grade level, in reality two-thirds of U.S. teenagers are ill-prepared for college when they leave high school. Why this enormous disconnect? Could it be that test scores signaling that kids are "less than proficient" don't register with parents…

In a classroom teaching experiment, we explored fifth graders' ability to identify relationships in and between two patterns--what we may refer to as functional relationships. Conventional functions curricula are dominated by defining relationships between two patterns via a rule, describing how to find y or f(x) given a particular value for x…

This study compared the effects of an integrated reform-based curriculum to a subject-specific curriculum on student learning of 19,526 high school algebra students. Using hierarchical linear modelling to account for variation in student achievement, the impact of the reform-based "Core-Plus Mathematics" curricular materials on student…