Mathematics education
The Impact of Summer Programs on Student Mathematics Achievement: A Meta-Analysis
Tags: Mathematics educationWe present results from a meta-analysis of 37 contemporary experimental and quasi-experimental studies of summer programs in mathematics for children in Grades pre-K-12, examining what resources and characteristics predict stronger student achievement. Children who participated in summer programs… more →
Learning Lessons from Instruction: Descriptive Results from an Observational Study of Urban Elementary Classrooms
Background:
For nearly three decades, policy-makers and researchers in the United States have promoted more intellectually rigorous standards for mathematics teaching and learning. Yet, to date, we have limited descriptive evidence on the extent to which reform-oriented… more →Teacher Evaluation, Ambitious Mathematics Instruction, and Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching: Evidence from Early Career Teachers
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentWhile teacher evaluation policies have been central to efforts to enhance teaching quality over the past decade, little is known about how teachers change their instructional practices in response to such policies. To address this question, this paper drew on classroom observation and survey… more →
Heterogeneous Effects of Early Algebra across California Middle Schools
Topics: Student LearningHow should schools assign students to more rigorous math courses so as best to help their academic outcomes? We identify several hundred California middle schools that used 7th grade test scores to place students into 8th grade Algebra courses, and use a regression discontinuity design to… more →
Child beliefs, societal beliefs, and teacher-student identity match
Topics: Student LearningChildren routinely benefit from being assigned a teacher who shares an identity with them, such as gender or ethnicity. We study how student beliefs impact teacher-student gender match effects, and how this varies across subjects with different societal beliefs about differential ability by… more →
Strengthening STEM Instruction in Schools: Learning from Research
Topics: Student LearningMore than half of U.S. children fail to meet proficiency standards in mathematics and science in fourth grade. Teacher professional development and curriculum improvement are two of the primary levers that school leaders and policymakers use to improve children’s science, technology, engineering… more →
Developing Ambitious Mathematics Instruction Through Web-Based Coaching: A Randomized Field Trial
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentThis paper describes and evaluates a web-based coaching program designed to support teachers in implementing Common Core-aligned math instruction. Web-based coaching programs can be operated at relatively lower costs, are scalable, and make it more feasible to pair teachers with coaches who have… more →
How important are beliefs about gender differences in math ability? Transmission across generations and impacts on child outcomes
Topics: Student LearningWe study the transmission of beliefs about gender differences in math ability from adults to children and how this affects girls’ academic performance relative to boys. We exploit randomly assigned variation in the proportion of a child’s middle school classmates whose parents believe boys are… more →
Explaining the Gender Gap in STEM Attainment: Factors from Primary School to STEM Degree Completion
We investigate the determinants of high school completion and college attendance, the likelihood of taking science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) courses in the first year of college and the probability of earning a degree in a STEM field. The focus is on women, who tend to be… more →
The Formalized Processes Districts Use to Evaluate Mathematics Textbooks
Morgan Polikoff, Shauna E. Campbell, Cory Koedel, Quynh Tien Le, Tenice Hardaway, Hovanes Gasparian.Tags: Curriculum, Mathematics educationTextbooks are a widely used educational intervention that can affect student achievement, and the marginal cost of choosing a more effective textbook is typically small. However, we know little about how textbooks get from the publisher to the classroom. We use a lens of institutional theory and… more →