0

Eric.ed.gov – Establishing a Strong Foundation: District and School Supports for Classroom Implementation of the MDC Framework

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested in the development and dissemination of high-quality formative assessment tools to support teachers’ incorporation of the Core Common State Standards (CCSS) into their classroom instruction. Lessons from the first generation of standards-based reforms suggest that intense attention to high quality instructional tasks, use of formative assessments embedded in those tasks, and professional development (PD) that attends to both content knowledge and instruction are essential considerations if teachers are to meet the demands of the CCSS. Experts from the Shell Centre have developed a set of formative assessment lessons (FALs) for high school mathematics teachers to facilitate CCSS-based student mathematics learning and provide teachers with feedback about student understanding and mastery. The tools are designed to target the “instructional core”… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Can Everyone Master Mathematics?

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Twenty secondary math and science teachers from a large urban school district in Texas were recently asked: Why don’t English language learners succeed in school? Their answers included: students feel isolated because of language, students get mixed up with gangs, and students do not value education. This article compares student-attributed and school attributed explanations for the persistent failure of many students to develop mathematical thinking and offers alternatives for success. Educational practices, ingredients for success, and natural math are described. A list of math resources is included. [This document originally appeared in the “IDRA Newsletter”, however some accompanying charts and graphs may not be provided here.] Link til kilde

0

Eric.ed.gov – Can Formal-Informal Collaborations Improve Science Literacy in Urban Middle Schools? The Impact of Urban Advantage. IESP Policy Brief 03-11

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This brief presents findings from a study on Urban Advantage (UA), a collaboration between the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), other New York City informal science institutions, and the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) to improve the science literacy of NYC public school students. The analysis draws on a rich longitudinal database, containing student- and school-level data for all NYC public schools and students from 2004-05 to 2009-10. Results indicate that these collaborations can have a positive impact on student achievement and science learning. Key findings include: (1) Students at UA schools outperform students at non-UA schools. In 2006- 07, the third year of the program, 44.2% of students at UA schools are proficient on the Intermediate Level Science Test (ILS) exam, compared to… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Affective and Motivational Characteristics of 60 Urban JHS Math Classrooms: A Class-Level Analysis of Student Beliefs in Three Instructional Activity Settings.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study is an exploratory analysis of class-level data concerning junior high school (JHS) students’ affective and motivational beliefs. It examines class-level information on selected psychological characteristics that students, who read at the fifth-grade level, bring to learning mathematics and that teachers encounter during instruction. Focus is on the variability among 60 classes on 7 affective and motivational indicators and determining whether teachers encounter different psychological characteristics of a class across classes of different mathematical achievement levels and in the same class across different activity settings. Study data are from the fall 1988 administration of the Mathematics Assessment Questionnaire (MAQ) to 1,737 students in 7th- through 9th-grade mathematics classes at 8 junior and senior public high schools in New York City. Students’ responses to four affective beliefs… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Task Force on the Education of Maryland’s African-American Males

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: On June 9, 2003, the Task Force on the Education of Maryland’s African-American Males was convened by the Maryland K-16 Leadership Council (chaired by the University System of Maryland Chancellor William E. Kirwan, former Maryland Acting Secretary of Higher Education John A. Sabatini, Jr., and Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick) to evaluate Maryland’s progress in addressing persistent academic achievement problems imperiling African-American boys and men. This Task Force was co-chaired by Vice President Dunbar Brooks, Maryland State Board of Education and Treasurer Orlan M. Johnson, Board of Regents, University System of Maryland. The task force evaluated the successes and failures of Maryland’s public schools with regard to African-American males’ school readiness; reading, math, and science achievement; attendance, graduation, suspension, and expulsion rates; participation in… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – One Vision, Seven Strategies

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The “American Dream” is under duress as the economy slows, incomes stagnate, and upward mobility is more limited than at any time in recent history. Despite a steady increase in per-pupil spending on public schooling over the last decades, not enough students graduate with proficiency in reading and math. And despite some progress over the past decade, students living in poverty and who are African American or Hispanic, still lag far behind white students with more means. Yet not all schools are failing. There are many exemplary schools including urban schools that are succeeding despite high poverty rates, and growing numbers of district leaders taking courageous steps toward real and lasting improvement. To achieve the nation’s ambitious performance goals for all students, school-level change alone is not… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – 12th Annual Comparative Analysis of the Racine Unified School District: Demographics, Attendance, Finances, Student Engagement, and Achievement

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This is the 12th annual report on conditions affecting the Racine Unified School District (RUSD). This year, the analysis again focuses on the long-term historical trends in RUSD. The analysis compares RUSD data to data of nine peer school districts as well as statewide data. The peer districts are defined as those Wisconsin districts with enrollments most similar to the enrollment in Racine. In addition to enrollment trends, the findings pertain to three RUSD quality objective measures: operational efficiency, student engagement, and student achievement. Operational efficiency includes finance data, student engagement includes attendance and disciplinary data, while student achievement includes test scores and graduation rates. Major findings include: (1) RUSD enrollment declined for the second year in a row; (2) RUSD jumped up in the peer rankings,… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Assessing Academic Rigor in Mathematics Instruction: The Development of the Instructional Quality Assessment Toolkit. CSE Technical Report 672

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The development of an assessment tool to measure the quality of instruction is necessary to provide an informative accountability system in education. Such a tool should be capable of characterizing the quality of teaching and learning that occurs in actual classrooms, schools, or districts. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of the Academic Rigor in Mathematics (AR-Math) rubrics of the Instructional Quality Assessment Toolkit and to share the findings from a small pilot study conducted in the Spring of 2003. The study described in this paper examined the instructional quality of mathematics programs in elementary classrooms in two urban school districts. The study assessed the reliability of the AR-Math rubrics, the ability of the AR-Math rubrics to distinguish important difference between districts, the… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Sharing the Vision: Curriculum Articulation in Math and Science K-U in an Urban School District.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper presents a site and project description and the conceptual framework of the Curriculum Articulation Project (CAP) and its relation to current math and science education reform initiatives. CAP is based on the notion that the teacher is the best individual to ascertain the learning needs of the urban, and often economically disadvantaged, youth. The project addresses the concerns of reform proposals in math and science by striving to articulate the current curriculum, by ranking the skills and knowledge necessary to provide science and math literacy to urban youngsters, and by integrating math and science in units that address the unique needs of city youth. An appendix includes a unit from the program entitled “The Clean Water Problem,” which is a CAP project designed for grades… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Perception, Curriculum, and Subject Matter: Reforming Instruction

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The purpose of this study is to illuminate the reciprocal relation between teacher leaders’ perception and practice to subject matter. The researcher conducted interviews and observations of 30 teachers from 8 urban elementary schools. The data and results evidently identify those teachers’ views of subject matter both shaped and were shaped by their teaching strategies. Teachers’ strategies for improving math instruction focused on external supports such as professional training in mathematics and building skills through sequenced instruction and curriculum. In improving literacy instruction, teachers emphasized the school community as the locus for development of literacy programs and materials that applied to a variety of academic subjects. (Contains 2 tables.) Link til kilde