This paper reports data from the evaluation of the numeracy component of a long-running educational intervention, covering the period from 2001 to 2008. "QuickSmart" is both an intervention and research project operating in Australian schools. It is a structured intervention program designed for middle-school students (ages 10 to 13…

Individuals, randomly selected from important but diverse community and school groups, rated the tasks tested and the items used in the Mathematical Tests of the Australian Studies in School Performance. For tasks at the basic numeracy level, disagreement was generally insignificant. (Author/SJL)

In the context of math education, students should achieve transferable understanding and skills that allow students to use math flexibly (such as understanding a percentage in a newspaper article), functional performance (such as being able to take medicine or use public transportation), and social knowledge (concepts necessary to interpret and…