Factors to Consider while Teaching Early Numeracy Skills in an Inclusive Education Setting

Developing numeracy skills from the beginning of one’s school career predicts academic achievement and correlates with life satisfaction in adulthood. For these reasons, all students should be afforded a strong early numeracy foundation. In school, teaching practices supporting diverse learners in mathematics should consider individual developmental capabilities and a growth mindset. Students should also be supported by a pedagogically knowledgeable and strengths-based collaborative team and accurate and ongoing assessment practices. With such supports, students may be afforded maximum opportunities to develop solid early numeracy skills, continue their development of conceptual and calculational knowledge in school mathematics coursework, and minimize anxieties regarding mathematics learning.

Examining Certification Requirements in Early Math and Literacy: What Do States Expect Prekindergarten Teachers to Know?

The purpose of this study was to examine preK certification requirements for literacy and mathematics coursework to understand policy trends across the United States. We were interested in examining whether teacher certification requirements in these content areas align with expectations for child outcomes in early literacy and math. We completed a content analysis of 114 documents from 50 states including preK teacher certification requirements and early learning standards from each state. We engaged in a detailed analysis of the sections of these documents related to early literacy and mathematics. Based on this state-by-state analysis, we found that most states had very little specification of preK teacher certification requirements related to literacy or mathematics. Our findings suggest that current certification policies are not well-aligned with expectations for preK children’s learning in early literacy and mathematics.

Factors Associated With Completion: Pathways Through Developmental Mathematics

This study examines two 5-year longitudinal data sets of community college students ( n = 595 and n = 593) to explore factors associated with successful outcomes in developmental mathematics. Logistic regression models consider the role of demographic factors, course format, and student support structures on the likelihood of a student completing the developmental sequence and subsequently passing a credit-level mathematics course. Additional linear regression models examine the time required to complete developmental coursework. Tutoring has a strong association with positive student outcomes, as does full-time enrollment and developmental mathematics coursework grades. Alternative course formats are also associated with increased likelihood of success for students, but some alternative formats delay a student's time line. Implications for developmental mathematics programs in community college settings are discussed.

Combining Financial Education With Mathematics Coursework: Findings From a Pilot Study

Recent research has shown that two forms of education intervention significantly improve financial outcomes: rigorous, in-depth personal finance courses and additional mathematics coursework. This suggests that a mathematics course that offered systematic, in-depth applications to personal finance could be particularly effective. In this article, we summarize the results from a pilot of such a course, and demonstrate how it is motivated by recent literature, despite being a type of course that has so far not been studied thoroughly. We then present the results of our preliminary impact assessment and show how financial knowledge and confidence improve significantly after taking the course. We discuss how this indicates that such an approach is a promising strategy for improving financial outcomes.

Young Women Face Disadvantage to Enrollment in University STEM Coursework Regardless of Prior Achievement and Attitudes

We evaluated STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) coursework selection by women and men (representative longitudinal sample, 10,370 Australians) in senior high school and university, controlling achievement and expectancy-value variables. A near-zero total effect of gender on high school STEM enrollment reflected pathways favoring boys through achievement and expectancy-value variables, but a counteracting direct effect of gender favoring girls. In contrast, subsequent university STEM enrollment favored boys. In both high school and university, enrollments favored girls in life sciences and boys in physical sciences, but at university there was a leaky pipeline in which girls who qualified to pursue physical sciences opted for non-STEM subjects. Qualitative analysis not only supported quantitative results but also highlighted alternative mechanisms of STEM engagement/disengagement, and mostly supported gender similarities rather than differences.

The Path to College Calculus: The Impact of High School Mathematics Coursework

This study addresses a longstanding question among high school mathematics teachers and college mathematics professors: Which is the best preparation for college calculus—(a) a high level of mastery of mathematics considered preparatory for calculus (algebra, geometry, precalculus) or (b) taking calculus itself in high school? We used a data set of 6,207 students of 216 professors at 133 randomly selected U.S. colleges and universities, and hierarchical models controlled for differences in demography and background. Mastery of the mathematics considered preparatory for calculus was found to have more than double the impact of taking a high school calculus course on students' later performance in college calculus, on average. However, students with weaker mathematics preparation gained the most from taking high school calculus.

Developing Preservice Teachers' Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching: Making Explicit Design Considerations for a Content Course

Research has highlighted the nature of the mathematical work in teachers' practice. However, preservice mathematics coursework often too narrowly focuses on the development of common content knowledge and not enough on the development of specialized content knowledge, a kind of mathematical knowledge that is specific to the work of teaching mathematics. We offer three design principles that have informed a mathematics content course for elementary preservice teachers, and we provide learning outcomes data that suggest the overall content course experience supports specialized content knowledge development. We provide relevant examples from our own work to illustrate how we have applied these design principles in our local context. Our aim is to begin a dialogue about principled design considerations for content courses for preservice teachers.