Student Work and Teacher Practices in Mathematics

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is mandated by the United States Congress to survey the educational accomplishments of U.S. students and monitor changes in those accomplishments. For more than 25 years, NAEP has assessed the educational achievement of 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students in selected subject areas, making it the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what U.S. students know and can do. NAEP assessments are based on content frameworks and specifications developed through a national consensus process involving teachers, curriculum experts, parents, and members of the general public. The frameworks are designed to reflect a balance among the emphases suggested by current instructional efforts, curriculum reform, contemporary research, and desirable levels of achievement. In 1996, NAEP assessed the abilities of students in grades 4, 8, and 12 in the subjects of mathematics and science. The first release of results from the mathematics assessment appeared in the "NAEP 1996 Mathematics Report Card", a report designed to provide policymakers and the public with a broad view of student achievement. The current report, which provides a more detailed perspective on mathematics achievement and practices in 1996, is primarily for teachers, curriculum specialists, and school administrators. To illustrate what students know and can do, the report presents examples of student work in five different content strands of mathematics. Information on current instruction in mathematics classes, as reported by students and teachers, is also included. This report presents three types of information derived from the NAEP 1996 mathematics assessment: (1) information on what students know and can do in mathematics; (2) information on course-taking patterns and current classroom practices in this subject area; and (3) information on student attitudes toward mathematics. The first portion of this information is derived from an analysis of student performance on the actual assessment exercises. The latter two portions draw upon the questionnaires completed by the students who participated in the assessment and their mathematics teachers. The chapters on student work are organized around the five content strands assessed by NAEP: (1) Number Sense, Properties, and Operations; (2) Measurement; (3) Geometry and Spatial Sense; (4) Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability; and (5) Algebra and Functions. Discussion within these chap