Countries around the world are striving to improve their educational systems with a view to improving their economy and society. In this global competition, national and international test results are of considerable interest. In this paper, we show that national testing in England and the USA have shown little or no improvement over the years.…

In a recent paper, Reardon found that the relationship between family income and children's academic achievement grew substantially stronger in the 1980s and 1990s in the United States. We provide an international context for these results by examining the income-achievement association in 19 other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and…

With the adoption of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2002, the federal government signaled its intention to close achievement gaps in K-12 education, particularly for minority students. While there has been surprising progress in educating disadvantaged students since the law was passed, according to a new report released today by Education…

Teaching math problem solving has been a challenge for many educators, especially in Title I schools. Textbooks provided by the district under study were the primary source of math instructional material. Moreover, the instruction of computation was the method used for preparing students for success with later problem solving lessons. The lack of…

This report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) presents results from the Trial Urban District Assessment in science. Science results are based on representative samples of fourth- and eighth-grade public school students from the 17 urban districts that volunteered to participate in the 2009 assessment. Between 900 and…

Standards drive critical elements of the American educational system--the curricula that schools follow, the textbooks students read, and the tests they take. Similarly, standards establish the levels of performance that students, teachers and schools are expected to meet. To succeed in the 21st century, all students will need to perform to high…

Fourth-grade students' knowledge of observable moon phases and patterns of change, as well as conceptual understanding of the cause of moon phases, was investigated before and after special instruction. Pretest and post-test data for 48 students were used to address the research question related to observable moon phases and patterns of change.…

The purpose of the study was twofold: (a) to examine a teacher's perceptions of attempting to implement assessments aligned with the NASPE standards and (b) to examine students' perceptions of assessment in physical education. Participants were 46 4th grade students and their physical education teacher. Data were collected through a Likert-scale…