Statistical literacy is key in this heavily polarized information age for an informed and critical citizenry to make sense of arguments in the media and society. The responsibility of developing statistical literacy is often left to the K-12 mathematics curriculum. In this article, we discuss our investigation of K-8 students' current…

While achievement gaps have been well-established, much remains to be understood about the manner and extent to which school leadership either increases or decreases student access to opportunity to learn. The current study uses nationally representative samples of U.S. and Flemish students in Grade 4 from the 2011 Trends in International…

Researchers use data from the RAND American Mathematics Educator Study surveys of public school principals and teachers to investigate three school structures--referred to as "school opportunity structures" throughout this report--that may affect kindergarten through 8th grade (K-8) students' mathematics learning. These structures are…

Stagnation or promise? The third and final installment of "Quality Counts 2019" offers evidence for both in an annual summing up of the nation's K-12 system. The Education Week Research Center analyzed dozens of factors ranging from the academic to the socioeconomic in coming up with its all-inclusive state rankings and A-F grades. The…

The Afterschool Alliance's fourth edition of "America after 3PM" provides a detailed accounting of the circumstances and conditions of U.S. children during the hours of 3 to 6 p.m. and compares afterschool program participation and unmet demand statistics for 2020 with results from 2004, 2009, and 2014. It identifies trends in…

Educational opportunities in the home, at school, and within the community differ across countries and affect students' achievement and future success in science fields. Bandura's Social (Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory, 1986) and Bronfenbrenner's Ecological System Theory (Ecological models of human development.…

In standards-based science fairs, children learn more about what they are interested in. They deepen understandings of how science works and improve inquiry skills--including the ability to communicate and share research results. Parents learn more about science inquiry and their child's science abilities. The standards-based science fair builds…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the perceptions of public elementary school principals in Kern County who have participated in the SB 472 ELPD Institute and their preparedness as instructional leaders for teachers teaching English learner students. And to identify what resources, support, and/or professional development opportunities…

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of center-based care and children's school readiness in predicting their first and third grade reading and mathematics achievement. Predictions derived from an opportunity-propensity theoretical framework applied to data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-99. …

The Teacher Education Study in Mathematics or TEDS-M is a study conducted under the aegis of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). The lead research center for the study is the International Study Center at Michigan State University (ISC/MSU). The ISC/MSU worked from 2006 to 2011 with the International…

The Teacher Education Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) 2008 is the first cross-national study to provide data on the knowledge that future primary and lower-secondary school teachers acquire during their mathematics teacher education. It is also the first major study to examine variations in the nature and influence of teacher education programs…

Rising immigration in the United States has been accompanied by growth in the number of children from homes where a language other than English is spoken. Of utmost national concern is to provide the best possible program models and educational opportunities to address the diverse needs of this growing group of students. This article provides an…

In 2007, nearly one in five or 18 percent of children in the U.S. lived in poverty (KIDS COUNT Data Center, 2009). Many of these children come from minority backgrounds. African American (35 percent), American Indian (33 percent) and Latino (27 percent) children are more likely to live in poverty than their white (11 percent) and Asian (12…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Education Secretary Outlines Obama Education Agenda: In Appearance Before House Committee, Duncan Stresses Reform…

The racial/ethnic populations in public schools have changed dramatically in recent years and will continue to shift to a majority non-White population. The National Center for Education Statistics (2010) reports 67.3% of the student population in urban districts is composed of students of color. Yet, the population of teachers in the United…