Describes a study which explored the effects of a program to help low-achieving fourth and fifth grade students increase their mathematics achievement. Students and teachers organized into a community of learners; the curriculum, organized around units of study with major concepts, skills, and operations, was effective for all achievers. (SM)

After 10 years of teaching rule-driven, procedure-based, algorithm-oriented mathematics, an elementary teacher describes how she began to rethink her teaching style after returning to school for a graduate degree. Her rethinking is based on the first of four student teaching events that spanned an entire school year in which she used the…

The call for educational reform has caused mathematics curriculum, instruction, and assessment to come under both professional and public scrutiny. The three elements contesting for leadership in assessment reform are the conventional testing agencies, reformers led by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), and political agencies…

This publication is designed to provide teachers with Grade 4 activities in mathematics that match the requirements of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. The Grade 4 Mathematics Standard and related competency goals and objectives from the North Carolina Standard Course of Study and Mathematics Teacher Handbook are reproduced in the…

The Education Resources Center (ERC) is a community-based organization that serves students from various elementary schools united by the Phoenix Coalition for Youth and Families (PCYF). The PCYF Project was authorized to organize agencies and schools in the lower socio-economic areas of inner-city Phoenix into one collaborative arrangement. This…

This is one of a series of 20 booklets designed for participants in an in-service course for teachers of elementary mathematics. The course, developed by the University of Illinois Arithmetic Project, is designed to be conducted by local school personnel. In addition to these booklets, a course package includes films showing mathematics being…

A study involving 28 fourth-graders in a reform mathematics classroom, 3 with learning disabilities, investigated changes in teacher and student discourse over nine-weeks. Clear patterns of change in teacher and student discourse occurred. Nonetheless, intentional efforts to include target students in whole-class discussions yielded instructional…

Describes a teaching experiment that evaluated published supplemental materials used to aid preparation of lessons at the fourth grade level involving nonroutine word problems. Lists 12 insights gained that can be useful to teachers using commercially produced problem-solving materials. (MDH)

The purpose of this article is two-fold. First, it reports on a study of the distribution of reform-oriented instructional practices among Black, White and Hispanic students, and the relationship between those practices and student achievement. The study identified many similarities in instruction across student groups, but there were some…

Fourth grade elementary school children exhibiting high and low mathematics anxiety were trained on multiplication facts using the Math Builder Program, a computer program designed to bring their performance to the automaticity level. Mathematics anxiety, measured by the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale--Elementary version (MARS-E), was assessed…

This book contains two case studies of teachers telling epic oral stories to teach math to elementary and middle school students. The book also includes theoretical discussions of essential elements of oral storytelling, multicultural education, how oral storytelling can help children who have difficulty learning mathematics, and mathematical…

The evaluation of an elementary classroom self-regulated learning program aimed at the central causes of academic underachievement is recounted. The participants of the study were 36 Fourth Grade gifted underachievers in mathematics, who were identified in a sample of 1200 students. The training program developed by Zimmerman, Bonner and Kovach…

Universal interventions are designed to systematically teach and reinforce consistent behavioral expectations. The purpose of this study was to provide an example of a group contingency classwide intervention called "Anchor the Boat" that operationally defined behavioral expectations, taught those expectations using teacher-directed…

The contents of the Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) of 76 students with mild disabilities in grades 4 and 8 were compared to nationally and locally defined standards for mathematics. The contents of the National Assessment of Educational Progress proficiency levels, local standards, and IEPs were categorized using a taxonomy with the…

This study attempted to replicate and extend previous aptitude-treatment interaction (ATI) findings for students' learning in large-group and small-group teaching approaches. Two elementary teachers each taught a two-week geometry unit to two classes of fourth- and fifth-grade students. One teacher used a small-group teaching approach and the…