This report summarizes key findings from the 2003 Massachusetts State Assessment of Adult Literacy (SAAL). Administered in Massachusetts in 2003 and early 2004, the assessment measures the prose, document, and quantitative literacy of Massachusetts's adults. The Massachusetts SAAL was conducted in conjunction with the National Assessment of Adult…

This book is designed to help adults gain the range of math skills they need to succeed in life and work and on standardized tests including the GED. It is expected to help students overcome math anxiety, discover math as interesting and purposeful, and develop good number sense. Lessons are organized around four strands: (1) skill lessons…

This book offers ideas to enrich instruction and help teachers explore the intrinsic beauty of math. Through dozens of examples from arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and probability, the symmetries, patterns, processes, paradoxes, and surprises that have facilitated generations of great thinkers are revealed. Activities include: (1) The Beauty in…

This chapter describes a study adopting the findings from an investigation of the cognitive processing and knowledge requirements of individuals taking the Graduate Record Examination Quantitative (GRE-Q) Test. The study investigates subgroup differences such as major field of study, gender, and racial-ethnic backgrounds of students taking the…

This report has two objectives: first, to explore how the demographic and educational characteristics of low-performing students compare to other students within the United States; second, to analyze if the United States differs from the other PISA countries in terms of the characteristics of its low-performing students. The Program for…

Arithmetic is the major focus of elementary mathematics instruction. This book offers lessons for developing children's numerical understanding and skills. The lessons help children learn to estimate, understand numerical relationships, develop number sense, compute mentally and with paper and pencil, and use arithmetic as a tool to solve…

This report reviews and summarizes the findings of a research and development project investigating effective pedagogy using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in literacy and numeracy in primary schools in Great Britain. It also provides information about the main stages of the research process and the model of teaching and learning…

This report describes the work of the schools in the Local Initiative Grants Programme (which funded, through the Basic Skills Agency, 103 secondary schools throughout England and Wales), and draws upon the most effective practice identified in aspects of basic skills provision. Emerging from the work of the Local Initiative Grants Programme are…

In the elections of 2000, one-half of U.S. citizens did not vote, or vote effectively. This reflects a marked decline in civic participation. Before these serious civic issues could be addressed, a second national civics lesson suddenly upstaged the first when international terrorists hijacked and crashed commercial airliners into the World Trade…

In order to better understand the role of child-centered learning strategies in creating democratic, collaborative behaviors for states of the former Soviet Union, this study evaluated the impact of Step by Step, an early childhood development program in Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan, Romania, and Ukraine. The study compared educational performance and…

A teaching experiment involving 30 third graders investigated the transformation of their concepts of numbers. Observations of their notations and problem-solving procedures show development that progresses from a focus on states to a type of reasoning in which changes become quantifiable "objects of awareness." (SLD)

This study examined the mathematical development of 2 children from 18 to 48 months as part of a larger longitudinal study of the impact of home environment on later learning attitudes. It was concluded that early pedagogical strategies may vary in the manner in which they not only pave the way for later development, but also foster expectations…

Explores the challenge of providing all future citizens with an appropriate quantitative literacy by means of teaching mathematics through useful applications with local and global perspectives. (Author/KHR)

Traces the history and philosophy of core skills. Suggests that, although the way they are used in training and vocational education has positively changed the way skills are viewed, the approach is narrow in outlook, especially the General National Vocational Qualifications, and may not serve the best interests of industry or society. (Author/JOW)

Discusses the literacy program of a charter school in Denver, Colorado, which focuses on the basic literacy of reading and writing spoken, computer, and mathematical languages, along with the languages of music, dance, and the visual arts. The curriculum also emphasizes higher-level scientific, civic, and cultural literacy. (MDM)