eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In this commentary, Danny Martin describes five key take-aways and two sets of questions that arose from his reading of “Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematics Success for All (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 2014). Martin begins by noting that “Principles to Actions” is clearly a political document that advances particular views and visions of mathematics teaching and learning and per the copyright page of the document, represents the “official position of the National Council of Mathematics Teachers as approved by the NCTM Board of Directors.” Martin goes on to touch upon the tone of the document and notes that it reflects a deep and unequivocal commitment to the Common Core by NCTM even as it seems that elements of the Common Core movement are starting… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Research for Action (RFA) has completed its second year of a five-year external evaluation of the Project Leadership and Investment for Transformation (LIFT) Initiative in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District (CMS). Project LIFT is a public-private partnership between CMS and the local philanthropic and business communities in Charlotte, designed to turn around nine schools in the West Charlotte Corridor. Starting in the 2012-13 school year, Project LIFT operates as a semi-autonomous Learning Community within CMS, providing the initiative with CMS infrastructural support and access to an initial $55 Million investment of private resources to drive a multifaceted reform effort in Charlotte’s highest poverty schools. Project LIFT’s long-term goals are to significantly improve student achievement in the following ways: 1) 90% of students will achieve proficiency in math and… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Constructivist approaches to mathematics instruction based on the standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) have been widely advocated and are expanding in use. However, many educators express a need for constructivist approaches that provide specific student materials, assessments, teachers’ manuals, professional development, and other supports to enable a broad range of teachers to succeed with a broad range of children. MathWings was designed to accomplish this goal. MathWings provides a practical, comprehensive approach based on the NCTM standards. Three evaluations have examined the impact of MathWings. The first involves four rural Maryland schools and found substantially greater gains on the mathematics sections of the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program for MathWings students than for the rest of the state. The four pilot schools,… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Eleven experts in mathematics education, special education, and assessment completed an open-ended survey on current math instruction in relation to the “Curriculum and Evaluation Standards” of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the perceived appropriateness and feasibility of the standards for students with disabilities. In general, the experts agreed that adoption of the Standards has been minimal and that math education in practice continues to emphasize basic skills. Two opposing viewpoints were evident in the experts’ responses. One viewpoint was that the Standards did not recognize the importance of individual differences and were not better than current practice in math education. The opposing viewpoint was that the Standards reflected a vision of what mathematics should be and that minimal, nonsubstantial modifications were needed for students… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The appropriateness and feasibility of the “Curriculum and Evaluation Standards” published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics were examined with respect to the mathematics education of students with disabilities. Eleven experts from the areas of mathematics education, special education, and assessment were surveyed using a five-point forced rating scale. To investigate the response patterns among the experts, their responses were clustered using a hierarchical agglomerative technique. Most of the experts reached consensus that the Standards should be addressed through curriculum and evaluation in elementary level math education. All respondents perceived that the basic skills were adequately and feasibly addressed in the elementary curriculum. Some experts who believed in the visions provided by the Standards also approved the feasibility of the Standards in evaluation. In contrast,… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper reviews nationwide education reforms under No Child Left Behind and state reforms in Florida–comparing federal and state results. The paper examines the danger that federal regulations and incentives pose to testing and accountability systems in Florida and every other state. The limits of No Child Left Behind and the promise of Florida’s success suggest that federal policies that give states greater authority to direct education reform hold promise for improving education when states and citizens commit to effective reforms. The paper states that as policymakers review No Child Left Behind, Congress and the Obama Administration should recognize three important lessons: (1) No Child Left Behind has failed to deliver meaningful improvement in student learning; (2) Florida’s experience demonstrates the opportunity for state-directed education reform; and… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Within a response to intervention framework, teachers regularly base important instructional decisions on the results of formative assessments. The validity of these decisions depends, in part, upon the validity of the inference of students’ skills drawn from the formative assessment. If formative assessment items do not genuinely measure the skills they purport to measure–that is, if they are misaligned with their content standards–then the resulting inferences may be threatened. Alignment is thus critical, given the potential practical repercussions of misalignment (e.g., students denied needed interventions). In the following technical report, we report on the alignment of a randomly selected sample of roughly half the easyCBM CCSS middle school math items with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Results suggest a high degree of alignment, with 87% of… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This final report and appended conference proceedings describe activities of the Earth Math project, a 3-year effort at Kennesaw State University (Georgia) to broaden and disseminate the concept of Earth Algebra to precalculus and mathematics education courses. Major outcomes of the project were the draft of a precalculus textbook now being reviewed prior to field testing, and a series of independent study modules appropriate for use in mathematics education courses or as supplementary material in algebra and trigonometry courses. Earth Math materials focus on application of mathematics to real world problems and are intended to improve students’ problem-solving and decision-making abilities. The materials are also intended to demonstrate how to implement the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards in school mathematics courses. Separate sections of the… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This standards review is the first in a series of annual reviews of the Colorado Model Content Standards. Its purpose is to identify student performance over time on measures of exiting mathematics standards, identify ways to affirm and strengthen standards and more clearly articulate the practices used by Colorado schools to promote student achievement to those standards. Discussion areas include: (1) national overview of K-12 mathematics; (2) math standards and achievement in Colorado; (3) input from educators; (4) research and financial resources; and (5) characteristics of “math-successful” elementary and secondary schools. Ten recommendations are presented for improving mathematics teaching and performance: (1) Be clear about the math topics students are expected to know at each grade level; (2) Be clear about what specific proficient student work looks… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study was designed in response to a request from rural educators in the Northeast for support in identifying high-quality online resources to implement the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM). The process for identifying online resources included selecting resources that had an easily navigable CCSSM organizational structure and explicit references to the CCSSM content and/or practice standards. The process for evaluating quality involved math content experts applying the Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products (EQuIP) rubric to the selected online resources. A total of 184 online resources were initially screened, with 59 meeting all three of these criteria. Among these 59 resources, 19 were determined to be exemplary according EQuIP: 13 of the 19 were classified as instructional resources and 6 of the 19… Continue Reading →
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