Reasoning and constructing mathematical explanations for an audience have become increasingly important activities in elementary classrooms with the implementation of reform-oriented curriculum and standards. Mobile learning tools and applications, such as screencasts, allow students to generate multimedia presentations of their solution…

This case study was conducted within the context of a place-based education project that was implemented with primary school students in the USA. The authors and participating teachers created a performance assessment of standards-aligned tasks to examine 6-10-year-old students' graph interpretation skills as part of an exploratory research…

The "TOEFL"® family of assessments includes the "TOEFL"® Primary"™, "TOEFL Junior"®, and "TOEFL iBT"® tests. The linguistic complexity of stimulus passages in the reading sections of the TOEFL family of assessments is expected to differ across the test levels. This study evaluates the linguistic…

Some statisticians have pointed out that the field of statistics essentially exists to study the variability seen in everyday life. Because variability is so foundational, the "Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education" (GAISE 2007), published by the American Statistical Association (ASA), recommend that teachers…

The road from prekindergarten (pre-K) to post-doctoral (post-doc) work is riddled with potholes, detours, u-turns, and construction zones. National education initiatives such as No Child Left Behind, the Common Core, Race to the Top, Performance-Based Funding, College Readiness and Completion Acts, and Post-Graduate Gainful Employment Reports…

In a two-year study, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University education staff found that students who participated in a museum-school collaboration became more proficient in several Common Core State Standard skills than a control group. The program, Words & Pictures, directly ties to the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards and is…

Scores on national and international tests for students in the United States indicated that students are not performing proficiently in reading. Furthermore, students are not able to comprehend complex reading tasks, which resulted in an adolescent literacy crisis (NGA & CCSO, 2010). In this collective case study, I explored ways four fifth…

After spending years in a special education system that carefully spells out their rights and the services they should receive, students with disabilities often find it daunting to contemplate their next steps after high school. Should they apply to college, look for a job, or stay in the special education system until they "age out" at…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have been developed in response to the criticism that students in the U.S. are graduating from high school without being college and career ready and that they are falling behind their counterparts in other countries in key subject areas. In this work, the authors report the results of an efficacy study that…

With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, researchers and experts in mathematics education developed the Mathematics Design Collaborative (MDC) as a strategy to support the transition to Common Core State Standards in math. MDC provides short formative assessment lessons known as Classroom Challenges for use in middle and high…

Schools around California are implementing the new Common Core State Standards. In math specifically, where significant disparities in proficiency exist for African American, Latino, and low-income students as compared to their white, Asian and higher-income peers, these new standards provide an opportunity to close achievement and opportunity…

Quitting in the face of hard work is never the response a teacher wants to see, but it's one that threatens to become more common as academic pressures rise. The new Common Core State Standards, the latest in a decades-long effort to drive educational improvement, soon will be setting unprecedented expectations for the performance of students,…

Through extensive research, the Foundation has identified the most critical levers for success in the classroom -- high standards, high-quality feedback, and effective tools -- and worked with teachers to develop, test, and strengthen them. This report describes what we know about these factors, why they are important, and what we need to learn,…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) identify parents as a key component of the effort for improving student achievement in the areas of mathematics and English Language Arts. However, with its emphasis on discussion and inquiry, the CCSS for Mathematics (CCSSM) may require parents to interact with mathematics in ways very different from their…

In the fall of 2013, a parents' group formed to protest the new Common Core based mathematics textbook recently adopted by their school district. Quickly allying with teachers, the new coalition began to, "hammer," the district to drop the Common Core and return to more traditional texts and pedagogies. They did so by speaking at…