Education leaders in Virginia use early access to Algebra I as one method to provide students more time to take college preparatory courses in high school, thereby increasing students' likelihood of graduating prepared for college and careers. Yet, little data are available for these leaders to examine whether their approach is warranted. Members…

This document provides the two appendixes that accompany the full report, "Algebra I and College Preparatory Diploma Outcomes among Virginia Students Who Completed Algebra I in Grades 7-9." Appendix A, "Methods," details the data sources, study population, and analysis methods used in the study. Appendix B, "Supporting…

We know from previous survey research that teachers who hold high expectations for all of their students significantly increase the odds that those young people will go on to complete high school and college. One indicator of teachers' expectations is their approach to grading--specifically, whether they subject students to more or less rigorous…

This study examined if and how thinking time, defined as the time from the start of the problem to the students' first action to solve, influences their problem-solving efficiency, defined as the number of steps taken to solve the problem, using Graspable Math, a web-based mathematical tool. We found that: (1) students who took longer to think…

Latent classes of effective and non-effective Algebra I teachers were established using measurements of teacher promoted engagement, teacher promoted understanding, and classroom management from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project (MET Project) database. Historically, robust measures of effective teaching exist in the literature; however,…

We describe results of a long-term design experiment focused on promoting mathematics learning among multilingual ninth graders classified as English Learners. The intervention at a linguistically diverse public high school in the US focused on a unit introducing concepts related to linear rates of change. We analyze results from a…

Facilitating productive mathematical argumentation is challenging; it is critical to develop a specific guiding vision of practices to help teachers learn to teach argumentation. However, what counts as acceptable classroom-based mathematical argumentation remains an open question. In this study, building on Habermas' theory of communicative…

In 2007 Georgia instituted a flexibility policy through which school districts enter into performance contracts with the state, receiving waivers from state rules, provisions, and guidelines in exchange for agreeing to meet annual accountability targets. The performance contracts are intended to incentivize innovations that increase achievement…

These are the appendixes for the report, "District Changes in Student Achievement and Local Practice under Georgia's District and School Flexibility Policy." Five appendixes are included in the document: (1) About the study; (2) Data and methods; (3) Supporting analysis; (4) Survey instrument; and (5) Interview protocol. [For the full…