One of the intractable aspects of the so-called achievement gap between Black and White students lies in our failure to identify viable ways to increase science achievement and participation among African American students living in our inner cities. However, there has been little research that attempts to understand how the social and cultural…

This report presents information about the types of courses that high school graduates in the class of 2009 took during high school, how many credits they earned, and the grades they received. Information on the relationships between high school coursetaking records and performance in mathematics and science on the National Assessment of…

Increased numbers of elementary and secondary students with learning and other disabilities are participating in inclusive science classrooms. Unfortunately, many of these students struggle to achieve at a level commensurate with their peers. As a result, few students with disabilities pursue advanced scientific coursework or enter science,…

As Sweden drew nearer to the 2006 national election, two themes emerged in the educational debate: a concern for order and discipline in schools, and the ambition to raise educational levels of achievement. The objective of this article is to locate these two themes within a broader framework of understanding by: 1) discussing examples of how the…

In the past 150 years, educational systems have expanded and become integrally linked with economic, political, and social status in modern nation-states. As the stakes for education have risen, so has the call for more and improved use of scientific evidence as a basis for educational policymaking. Evidence from averaged scores on international…

With the passage of 2005 Wisconsin Act 125, private schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) are now required to administer a nationally normed standardized test annually in reading, mathematics, and science to their MPCP (a.k.a. "Choice") students enrolled in the 4th, 8th, and 10th grades. The law further…

Increasing demands for students to perform at higher levels at the middle school level have caused educators to closely examine the quality of personnel working with middle level students. Middle school advocates and professional organizations have claimed that the preparation of teachers and principals who work with middle school students should…

"Science: A portrait of current practice" is part of a series of portraits by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) which builds on the messages of the "Improving Scottish Education" report. This portrait reviews the extent to which current practice in science is successfully promoting the four capacities of Curriculum…

This paper explored and described the analogical reasoning occurring in the minds of different science achievement groups for the concept of translation in protein synthesis. "What is the process of self-generated analogical reasoning?", "What types of matching was involved?" and "What are the consequences of the matching…

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a dynamic software simulation on the understanding of the kinetic molecular theory by 7th graders. Students in the control group (n = 62) studied a curricular unit that addressed the differences in arrangement and motion of molecules in the three phases of matter. The experimental group (n…

U.S. students spend too little time and effort on academics in high school, compared with harder-working young people in China and India, according to a new documentary being shown to "thought leaders" in states holding presidential primaries this winter. The documentary, conceived and financed by high-tech entrepreneur Robert A.…

The present study investigated whether computer assisted instruction was more effective than face-to-face instruction in increasing student success in physics. The study was conducted in the spring semester of 2006 at the Department of Science and Mathematics for Secondary Education at Hacettepe University. Seventy-eight freshman students from…

The authors investigated the comparative effect of the learning cycle and expository instruction on 8th-grade students' achievement in genetics. They adopted the nonequivalent control group design as a type of quasiexperimental design. The experimental group (N = 104) received learning cycle instruction, and the control group (N = 109) received…

This paper highlights the dynamics that led to the narrowing of the achievement gap between students in the Hebrew-speaking and Arabic-speaking schools in Israel. Instead of looking at one point of time (Zuzovsky, 2005), this paper examines changes between 1999 to 2003 in certain school/class-level variables and relates them to the uneven increase…

Mathematics and science achievements have been assessed in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and its repetition (TIMSS-R). Most existing reports are largely separated into the subject domains. This article is focused on an examination of the relationship between mathematics and science achievements based on student test…