Quint reports on a synthesis evaluation of three widely used high school reform models--Talent Development, First Things First, and career academies. She highlights approaches within each model that helped high schools restructure themselves in ways that affected student outcomes, particularly for struggling 9th graders and students from…

Although many students who enter kindergarten are cognitively ready to meet the demands of the kindergarten mathematics curriculum, some students arrive without the early abstract reasoning abilities necessary to benefit from the instruction provided. Those who do not possess key cognitive abilities, including understandings of conservation,…

These collected papers are a record of the proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia entitled, "Shaping the Future of Mathematics Education." The conference is held in Fremantle, as was the previous conference a decade earlier. Keynote speakers are discussing issues that are emerging more…

Reported here are the results of analyses to describe the patterns of identification and academic and developmental outcomes for children with disabilities, conducted as part of the 2004 National Assessment of the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This report provides background context for National…

This research focused on the perceptions of pre-service and beginning health and physical education (HPE) teachers in relation to their preparedness for teaching. A questionnaire was designed to engage with teacher professional standards addressing (i), professional knowledge; (ii), professional relationships and (iii), professional practice.…

This longitudinal study investigated the academic and cognitive characteristics of persistent mathematics difficulty (MD-p) from first to fourth grade. Ninety-nine children were retrospectively categorized into one of three groups: MD-p, transient mathematics difficulty (MD-t), or typically developing. MD-p was defined as persistently low…

The second in a series of five, module 2 provides everything one will need to run sharply focused, practical staff development training sessions for adult and Post-16 literacy, language and numeracy teachers. Each module addresses aspects of teaching and learning commonly identified as areas in need of improvement and can be used individually or…

This study examines the mental computation strategies used by pupils at the end of primary school. In 1998 a new strategy for teaching mathematics was introduced into British schools (the National Numeracy Strategy) that specifically focused on mental calculation. The first part of the study took place in 1999, one year after the implementation of…

Large-scale assessments of student achievement provide a window into the broadly defined concepts of literacy and generate information about levels and types of student achievement in relation to some of the correlates of learning, such as student background, attitudes, and perceptions, and perhaps school and home characteristics. This paper…

In this article, the author discusses the importance of early childhood play. Play is simply shorthand for everyone's capacity for curiosity, imagination, and fantasy--everyone's creative dispositions. What makes play unique is that it enables everyone to create new learning experiences. To illustrate, an infant who drops a rattle from the crib,…

A holiday quilt project in a kindergarten classroom becomes a focus for exploring patterns, shapes, measurement, spatial relationships, and number sense. Cooperative group work, problem solving, and communication of mathematical ideas enhance the completion of the project. (Contains 5 figures.)

This article considers steps towards making a numeracy-across-the-curriculum policy. Numeracy means more than the kind of everyday arithmetic a person (a competent independent adult) needs to handle whole number (and simple decimal) calculations; e.g., money, time, and simple measurement. Importantly, aspects of numeracy arise in any everyday task…

Number sense development was tracked from the beginning of kindergarten through the middle of first grade, over six time points. Children (n=277) were then assessed on general math achievement at the end of first grade. Number sense performance in kindergarten, as well as number sense growth, accounted for 66 percent of the variance in first-grade…

In this article, Richard Barwell comments on "Mathematics as Social: Understanding Relationships between Home and School Numeracy Practices," [Baker, Street, and Tomlin 23(3)]. In their article, Baker, Street, and Tomlin give an example of a numeracy event, in which Aayesha, a young informant from a South Asian background, counts on her…

The question of how the skills and knowledge of the adult language, literacy and numeracy workforce can be improved is particularly relevant in view of the ongoing debate on how language, literacy and numeracy skills should be taught. This study reflects on the professional development needs of the three sectors--vocational trainers, specialist…