Research on learning to teach mathematics reveals that mathematics teaching is a complex process (Lerman, 2000) and classroom teaching and learning is a “multifaceted, extraordinarily complex phenomenon” (O’Connor, 1998, p. 43). Moreover, research reveals that the mathematics reform agenda has had an impact on what happens in the mathematics classroom, however, the impact has been superficial (Kazemi & Stipek, 2001) with teachers often retaining their pre-reform habits and attitudes in regards to mathematics teaching and learning (O’Connor, 1998). This study examined the reform discourse practices that three novice teachers, who had been enrolled in a reform based methods course during their preservice teacher education program, adopted, adapted, or ignored as they attempted to engage students in mathematical conversations. Data sources included interviews, field notes, artifacts, and transcripts of videotaped classroom lessons. The primary research questions guiding this study included: (1) What reform-oriented discourses practices do novice teachers, who participated in a reform-based mathematics methods course adopt? What practices do they adapt? What practices do they ignore as they engage students in mathematics conversations? and (2) What issues and challenges surface as novice teachers begin to enact reform-oriented discourse practices? Results indicated that despite holding beliefs that reflect the basic tenets of mathematics reform, theses novice teachers represent a continuum of practices ranging from traditional to reform. Evidence suggests that adopting the reform-oriented practice of eliciting different solutions was critical in the development of social norms that reflect mathematics reform. Eliciting different solutions served to focus classroom conversations on meaningful student generated explanations and justifications. Moreover, evidence suggests that enacting the practice of eliciting different solutions was instrumental in enacting other reform-orientated practices associated with the development of reform-oriented socialmathematical norms. Lastly, results indicate that the pressures of teaching in an underperforming school, as defined by state standardized high stakes tests, can impact a novice teacher’s ability and willingness to adopt mathematics reform practices.

Elementary school teachers serve a key role in the use and interpretation of standardized achievement test batteries (SATBs). If this role is to be properly exercised, teachers must be willing and able to use score information from such tests. Evidence suggests that teachers may not be skilled in making the interpretations that psychometricians intend from SATB score reports. To learn what purposes teachers believe SATB score reports appropriately serve, and what contents and formats teachers find useful in these reports, a survey research study was conducted. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 671 elementary school teachers from Texas, Illinois, and Massachusetts, focusing on the purposes of SATB score reports in general, the purposes of specific formats and types of score reports presented in the questionnaire, and interpretations of the sample score reports. Background information about the respondents was gathered. Of particular interest was the amount of testing-related training they had experienced. A relationship between amount of testing-related training and teachers' opinions and interpretations of test score reports was hypothesized. Respondents generally approved of the use of SATB score reports for certain purposes, especially those that had no permanent consequences for students and no external evaluative implications for the classroom. Teachers disapproved of the use of SATB score reports for student grading, promotion/retention decisions, and teacher evaluation. Other proposed uses were moderately approved. Respondents were equally supportive of numerical and graphical formats for a class-level report, but strongly preferred a numerical/pictorial version of an individual student score report (i.e., displaying subscores as sets of confidence bands) to a narrative version. Teachers' interpretations of score reports generally did not agree with strict psychometric interpretations. This lack of a psychometric perspective was found regardless of the amount of training in testing issues the respondents had experienced. The author concludes with recommendations for action regarding the design of score reports to meet teachers' needs and psychometricians' intentions more effectively, the training of teachers to match their professional demands, and further exploration of this topic through qualitative research methods.