Fourth grade math scores stagnated for the first time in two decades on a prominent nationwide test, prompting calls for new efforts to improve teacher content knowledge and stirring discussion of the potential benefits of setting more-uniform academic standards across states. The results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress,…

Thirteen years ago, Minnesota was a state with no academic standards in mathematics and science and what some observers said was a mixed record in grounding students in crucial academic content, such as number skills and algebra. Since then, the state has set clear guidelines for schools in both subjects, and it also appears to have tuned up what…

As state and school leaders across the country push to have more students take algebra in 8th grade, a new study argues that middle schoolers struggling the most in math are being enrolled in that course despite being woefully unprepared. "The Misplaced Math Student: Lost in Eighth Grade Algebra," scheduled for release by the Brookings Institution…

Business leaders from important sectors of the American economy have been urging schools to set higher standards in math and science--and California officials, in mandating that 8th graders be tested in introductory algebra, have responded with one of the highest such standards in the land. Still, many California educators and school…

Lindsay E. Carlton has taught mathematics to students at different grades, with different ability levels. Now, the young educator's state wants to recognize her ability to work with one group in particular: 8th graders enrolled in introductory algebra. Carlton is one of many math educators across Arkansas who plan to acquire a new, unusual state…

A popular humorist and avowed mathphobe once declared that in real life, there's no such thing as algebra. Kathie Wilson knows better. Most of the students in her 8th grade class will be thrust into algebra, the definitive course that heralds the beginning of high school mathematics, next school year. The problem: Many of them are about three…

Elementary school students have a stronger grasp of U.S. history, and what it means to be a knowledgeable citizen, than they did a few years ago, new test results suggest. Part of the reason they are better informed about history and citizenship, some argue, is that they are better readers. That was the view put forward by U.S. Secretary of…

The task seemed straightforward enough: Students taking part in a recent international test were asked to review drawings of five triangles with varying angles and midpoints. Then those teenagers were to read over a paragraph describing the characteristics of a particular triangle and, finally, choose the triangle that fit the description. Of the…