This dissertation examined K-12 mathematics content standards for states and countries to determine the degree of alignment among high-performing, low-performing, and other data sets of interest. The assessment frameworks for the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) were also examined. In addition, the dissertation examined the cognitive demand level, or student expectation, in the standards.
At the elementary level, the researcher found that Minnesota, Georgia, the District of Columbia (DC), Massachusetts, Achieve, Florida, and New York had the strongest alignment to high-performing countries. At the middle school level, Georgia, Minnesota, DC, Achieve, and Florida had the strongest alignment to high-performing countries. At the secondary level, Minnesota, Georgia, Massachusetts, and New York had the strongest alignment to high-performing countries.
Examining the states against the high-performing countries grade level by grade level demonstrated the wide variability in the states' standards and the lack of focus and curriculum coherence in the majority of the standards in the United States. Most of the standards in the United States cover a wide variety of topics that were repeated year after year, as evidenced in the grade-level by grade-level sequence alignment analysis to high-performing countries.
Massachusetts, Achieve, and Minnesota were the data sets with the strongest alignment to TIMSS. Ohio, Massachusetts, Kansas, and Kentucky were the states with the strongest alignment to NAEP. The data sets with the strongest alignment to PISA were Kentucky, New Mexico, Vermont, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas, Kansas, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
Overall, the alignment results demonstrate that high levels of alignment to high-performing countries and to assessments do not absolutely equate to high performance.
The cognitive demand analysis revealed that high-performing countries had stronger emphasis on <italic>memorize</italic> than other data sets. Low-performing states emphasized <italic>perform procedures</italic> rather than <italic>demonstrate understanding</italic> or <italic>memorize</italic>. Low-performers appeared to emphasize <italic>conjecture/generalize/prove</italic> and <italic>solve non-routine problems</italic> at the expense of the cognitive demand skills of <italic>memorize<italic>, <italic>perform procedures</italic>, and <italic>demonstrate understanding</italic>.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TCU/oai:etd.tcu.edu:etd-10162009-153350 |
| Date | 16 October 2009 |
| Creators | Landry, Shawntel Delcambre |
| Contributors | D. Mike Sacken |
| Publisher | Texas Christian University |
| Source Sets | Texas Christian University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf, application/octet-stream |
| Source | http://etd.tcu.edu/etdfiles/available/etd-10162009-153350/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to TCU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0186 seconds