Recent research shows that U.S. 15-year-olds are behind their international counterparts in problem solving and mathematics literacy, ranking 24th of 29 nations (Lemke et al. 2004). Therefore, a key concern among policymakers and educators is improving the quantitative and analytical skills of American youth, who face job prospects in an economy…

Raising the level of academic achievement of all students in New Jersey has been a major goal since 1982. As a part of that effort, the focus has changed from the low expectations of the Minimum Basic Skills program to the more rigorous demands of the High School Proficiency Test. This report includes background information on the effort to…

Using the High School and Beyond 1980 to 1982 Longitudinal Study data base, this paper focuses on cognitive growth as evidenced by changing scores on achievement tests of adolescents during their last two years of high school. The analysis had two major phases: (1) a descriptive analysis which provided a variety of cross tabulations of change in…

One of the clear findings of recent research on the learning of science has been that students who have completed science courses commonly use conceptions held before instruction to interpret natural phenomena. This paper reports on a study of conceptual change in mechanics with particular concern with the nature of student awareness of any…