How a school is organized--or, more specifically, the extent to which teachers work together and treat one another as professionals--can influence elementary school students' mathematics achievement. So suggest the authors of a recent study on the impact of school organization on longitudinal student achievement (Moller, Stephanie, Roslyn A.…

Fourteen fifth-grade students gather at the front of the classroom as their summer school instructor introduces Jonathan Bostic as the mathematics teacher for the week. Before examining any math problems, Bostic sits at eye level with the students and informs them that they will solve problems over the next four days by working individually as…