A key characteristic of both high-quality professional development and successful online learning communities is peer-to-peer interaction. This paper describes the results of a study in which we examined the quality of peer-to-peer interaction among diverse groups of geographically dispersed educators in an online professional development project…

This paper examines the role of facilitation in the Investigations Online seminars, which support the professional learning of elementary school teachers and mathematics specialists using the Investigations in Number, Data, and Space curriculum. Our study considered how a facilitator fosters collaborative discussion that leads to co-construction…

To compete and succeed in modern society, high school graduates need to be expert readers, writers, and communicators. Too many are not. Annually, hundreds of thousands of 12th graders on the threshold of graduating can barely read or write. Given the high stakes for these students and knowing a great deal about their literacy needs and the…

This monograph chronicles a field-based investigation of children's learning in a second grade mathematics classroom over the course of a school year. The interrelated aspects of the processes by which children learn mathematics with meaning are illustrated here. The investigation was expanded to include a sociological analysis in an attempt to…

The Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP) measures reading, mathematics, and writing skills through multiple-choice test items and a writing test essay. It is administered, by law, to students entering Texas public institutions of higher education before they complete 9 semester hours. Passing all sections indicates a general readiness to perform…

Chapters in this book address the problems faced in today's diverse neighborhoods, schools, and classrooms, as well as the opportunities diversity provides. The schools, teachers, administrators, families, and communities drawn on in these selections provide examples of the effective integration of what is known about achieving success for all…

This paper illustrates the themes of reflection and connection in teacher education by discussing the experiences and conceptions of one preservice teacher who was enrolled in a secondary mathematics methods course. Small groups of preservice teachers created hypermedia stacks to demonstrate their views on important issues in mathematics…

The purpose of this research study was to determine if the implementation of a social skills curriculum would have a positive effect on the performance of severely emotionally or behaviorally disordered students (SEBD). The program studied was the Boys' Town Educational Model (BTEM). Student performance was defined in terms of reading recognition…

The cognitive components standard setting method, recently introduced by D. McGinty and J. Neel (1996), asks judges to specify minimum levels of performance not for the test items, but for smaller portions of items, the component skills and concepts required to answer each item correctly. Items are decomposed into these components before judges…

Researchers have claimed both that female students are discouraged from taking higher level math and science courses and that they actually take more of these courses than males do. On the surface, data from the Florida community colleges would appear to confirm that females take more science and math courses than males, with 63% of the fall 1995…

Changes in assessment practices are central to ongoing reform efforts in science and mathematics education. The education community is currently focused on new ways to measure, evaluate, and report students' progress toward standards and learning goals. The focus of this publication, using assessment for informing and improving instruction is not…

This volume for instructors contains general information about gender equity in mathematics, science, and technology (MST) education, teaching activities, learning assessment materials, and suggestions for action research projects to be carried out for students. The second volume for students contains source materials for use with various…

This report compares selected estimates from the 1996 National Household Education Survey (NHES:96) with estimates from previous NHES collections, the Current Population Survey (CPS), and other relevant data sources. The comparisons provide an indication of the reasonableness of selected NHES:96 estimates. Where discrepancies were found between…

The 1987-88 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) looked at a national sample of elementary and secondary public and private schools. Components of the SASS, a data collection effort of the National Center for Education Statistics, were surveys of teacher demand and shortage, schools, administrators, and teachers. Approximately 13,000 schools and…

This practical guide to teaching reading offers activities to teach reading readiness and mathematics. It also discusses the reasons for reading to children, teaching phonics, and using the basal reader. The section on reading readiness focuses on the importance of such skills, and specific reading readiness skills such as visual discrimination,…