Many young Indigenous Australian students continue to underachieve in Western mathematics. National test results indicate that they are two years behind their peers. Success in mathematics is important to Indigenous students as it leads to employment opportunities and can assist in identifying power differences among socio-economic classes…

The National Assessment Governing Board used a new method to set achievement level standards on the 2005 Grade 12 NAEP Math test. In this article, we summarize our independent evaluation of the process used to set these standards. The evaluation data included observations of the standard-setting meeting, observations of advisory committee meetings…

This paper presents findings from research exploring gender by item difficulty interaction on mathematics test scores in Cyprus. Data steamed from 2 longitudinal studies with 4 different age groups of primary school students. The hypothesis that boys tended to outperform girls on the hardest items and girls tended to outperform boys on the easiest…

Data from Hong Kong PISA 2003 show that 15-year-old Hong Kong students who have immigrant parents from mainland China are grossly overrepresented in grades below the modal grade attended by most native Hong Kong students. Same-age comparison, when grade level is not taken into account, puts immigrants' children at a disadvantaged position in the…

This article reports the results of a study in which the basic regression-discontinuity approach to assess the effect of 1 year of schooling is extended. The data analysis covers the 6 grades of secondary education in Cyprus and thus assesses the contribution of secondary education to the cognitive development of 12- to 18-year-old students. A…

This article examines the role of reviewer agreement in judgments about alignment between tests and standards. We used case data from three state alignment studies to explore how different approaches to incorporating reviewer agreement changes alignment conclusions. The three case studies showed varying degrees of reviewer agreement about…

The Moving to Opportunity (MTO) program sought to relocate poor families out of high-poverty neighborhoods by providing housing vouchers. Five urban housing authorities (Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York) participated in the demonstration program with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, providing rental…

The use of instructional media is an essential component of teaching-learning process which contributes to the efficiency as well as effectiveness of the teaching-learning process. Computer-supported instruction has a very important role to play as an advanced technological instruction as it employs different instructional techniques like…

Increasing numbers of English language learners enrolled in public schools has brought national attention to issues surrounding the education of linguistically diverse students. Teacher education programs have come under scrutiny for not doing an "adequate job of preparing teachers to teach diverse populations" (Hollins & Guzman,…

This study sought to investigate the relationship between middle school principals' instructional leadership behaviors and student achievement. In particular, this study investigated the specific principal leadership behaviors of middle level principals that promote student achievement in school. A secondary variable for consideration was student…

Charter middle schools popular enough to hold admissions lotteries are, on average, no more successful than nearby traditional public schools in boosting student achievement, behavior, and attendance. However, charter schools vary widely; some are more effective and some are less effective than nearby traditional public schools. Those located in…

In 2008-09, results from End-of-Grade (EOG) reading and mathematics tests in WCPSS continued to demonstrate an upward trend across grade levels and student subgroups. Disaggregation of results by ethnicity, income level, disability status, and English proficiency status showed that achievement gaps between historically underperforming subgroups…

This mixed-methods study investigates the effects of student attitudes and behaviours on the outcomes of learning mathematics with computer tools. A computer tool was used to help students develop the mathematical concept of function. In the whole sample (N = 521), student attitudes could account for a 3.4 point difference in test scores between…

This review examined a study designed to evaluate whether offering student reward and incentive programs in charter schools affects academic achievement. The study measured effects by comparing changes in average grade-level test scores in schools that had incentive programs to changes in schools that did not have incentive programs. The study…

Previous research has shown that training teaching assistants to deliver early phonic reading interventions can have measurable effects at immediate post-test. This study explored whether the effects of interventions delivered by classroom assistants (CAs) were still evident at the end of the first phase of schooling, 16 months after the early…