Mathematics achievement among K-12 students has been a long-standing concern in schools across the United States. A possible solution to this mathematics achievement problem is student motivation. A survey was administered to 65 mathematics students at a Midwestern middle school to determine their beliefs and attitudes related to motivation and…

Central to argument are evidence-based claims, requiring coordination of a claim with evidence bearing on it. We advocate a dialogic approach to developing argument skills and in the work reported here examine the further scaffold of prompts that exemplify functions of evidence in relation to a claim. This scaffold was successful in accelerating…

This article outlines the complexity of reading with understanding, what is required for full and deep comprehension, the state of affairs with regard to reading comprehension in developed countries, possible etiologies for low performances, and suggestions for instruction in specific skills and strategies to improve students' demonstrated…

Educational reform efforts are necessary for state and local educational agencies to prepare students to meet the demands of the 21st century and to follow federal and state education laws. In efforts to support low-performing schools, education officials have concentrated educational reform on replicating the characteristics of high-performing…

Contemporary interest in STEM education is fueled, in part, by the poor performance of U.S. students on national and international assessments. According to a recent National Research Council (2011) report on STEM education in the United States, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) indicates that approximately 75% of U.S. 8th…

This paper, written by strategic partner of the Center on School Turnaround (CST), Julie Corbett, provides research and examples on England's approach to turning around its lowest performing schools. The English education system utilizes private vendors to support chronically low-performing schools and districts. The introduction is followed by…

Secondary sources are used in this paper to highlight how African Caribbean pupils and students--the Black British-born descendants of post-war Caribbean migrants--are victims of symbolic violence, because they are denied the educational capital needed to improve their social status. Since African Caribbean children entered the 1960s British…

Using a randomized placebo controlled design, we examined the direct and follow-up effects (at 6 and 12 months) of a mathematics tablet intervention. Math training focused primarily on basic arithmetic (addition and subtraction facts up to 12), and secondarily on number knowledge and word problems. We investigated the moderating effects of IQ and…

The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between executive functions and mathematical abilities to determine the contribution of these functions to math performance. In this study, 30 students were selected from among 4th graders of elementary school, in two groups with low achievement in mathematics (poor) and high achievement…

The problem addressed in this study is that Native American and Hispanic English language learners (ELLs) in a rural Mississippi school district are not performing at the same level as non-ELLs. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the perceived causes of ELL failure and low academic performance on district and state…

'A New Way for New Talents in Teaching' (NEWTT), an Erasmus+, Key Action 3: Policy Experimentation project, explores alternative pathways into the teaching profession for highly motivated graduates and professionals. The project is inspired by prior research that compares traditional teacher education programs to alternative pathways to the…

Teachers want all students to succeed. As physical educators, the goal is to create physically literate students. However, what does a physical educator do when regular differentiation techniques are not enough to provide success for each student? This article provides a description of how one elementary school met the needs of low-performing…

Many young children engage in challenging behaviors that could have short- and long-term negative effects for both the children and their families. Challenging behaviors refer to "any repeated pattern of behavior, or perception of behavior, that interferes with or is at risk of interfering with optimal learning or engagement in prosocial…

Although approximately 5-8% of students have a mathematical learning disability (MLD), researchers have yet to develop a consensus operational definition. To examine how MLD has been identified and what mathematics topics have been explored, the authors conducted a systematic review of 165 studies on MLD published between 1974 and 2013. To move…

This study reports the psychometric properties of a Basic Number Processing Test (BNPT), which was developed in order to determine elementary school students at risk for Mathematical learning disorder. A total of 478 primary school students were selected from 12 different public schools with an attempt to get a representative sample. The…