The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of real data based and calculator supported statistics activities on 7th grade students&amp / #8217 / statistics performance and attitudes towards statistics when the statistics performance of the students prior to the instruction and the previous mathematics grades were controlled. A quasi-experimental design was used to investigate the research problem. The research was conducted by 84 seventh grade students. There were three groups in the study. Two of them were experimental groups and one of them was control group. The first group received instruction by the traditional method (TM), the second group received instruction by real data based and calculator supported statistical activities (RDBCSSA), and the third group was instructed by real data based statistical activities (RDBSA), the number of the subjects was 28, 27 and 29 respectively. Data were collected through three different measuring instruments: 1.Statistical Performance Test 1 (SPT1) / 2.Statistical Performance Test 2 (SPT2) / 3.Statistics Attitude Scale (SAS). The SPT1 was used as a pre-test. The SPT2 was administered as a post-test. SPT1 and SPT2 were used to determine the statistics performance of the students before and after the instruction. SAS was used to determine the attitudes of the students toward statistics. The data of this study were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The results revealed that there was no significant mean difference among the groups with respect to statistics performance. Also there was no significant mean difference among the groups with respect to attitudes towards statistics. The mean scores of the Statistics Attitude Scale items were calculated and the results revealed that the students had positive attitudes to the statements in Statistics Attitude Subscale 1 (Confidence in Learning Statistics) and they were neutral to the statements of the Statistics Attitude Subscale 2. Also the students wrote their opinions about the teaching methods and their impressions were analyzed by making a frequency table. Most of the TM students mentioned that the examples should be more attractive such that the activity sheets could contain real data based examples. However some of the students mentioned that traditional method was good and the subject was understood very well. Most of the RDBSA students mentioned that the teaching method was enjoyable. Most of the RDBCSSA students expressed that the calculators made the lessons enjoyable and the study easy.

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This study examined special education teachers' perspectives of the instructional impact of the Florida Alternate Assessment (FAA) for students with significant cognitive disabilities. Through purposeful sampling, six special education teachers who serve students with significant cognitive disabilities and had experience administering the FAA were identified. Interviews posed questions about how they used the FAA to impact their instructional decision-making, how the FAA has influenced how the development of Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals, and how the FAA impacted how they defined access to the general education curriculum. The interviews, along with IEP artifacts, and a research journal formed the research design. Results revealed 8 major themes and 18 sub-themes. Teachers reported that the FAA ignores the complex needs of their students, and highlighted the curricular tensions between academics and life skills. A third of the teachers indicated they have created and adopted curriculum to mirror the FAA, and five out of the six teachers integrated more daily assessments similar to the FAA. In addition, the study revealed varied results for utilizing FAA results on IEP development and writing goals. Finally, teachers had varied beliefs on the value of curriculum content standards called access points for students with significant cognitive disabilities. Most of the teachers stated that higher standards lead to higher expectations. The results also revealed teachers' perspectives of the instructional impact of the FAA were influenced by their teaching context: center setting versus general education setting. Implications for future research and practice are included.