Date of Award

Spring 5-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in School Leadership

Department

Center for Leadership & Learning

College

College of Education

Committee Chair

Dr. Sarah Gordon

Second Committee Member

Dr. Wayne Williams

Third Committee Member

Dr. Marc Sherrell

Program Director

Dr. John Freeman

Dean of Graduate College

Dr. Richard Schoephoerster

Abstract

Over the last 62 years, mathematics reform has occurred due to a political push after results from a major survey or report were released stating that the United States scored lower than other countries. With each reform effort, teaching methods were changed to match the new initiative. Math curriculum was a key point in each of these reform efforts. In 2015, Arkansas adopted ACT Aspire as the statewide assessment, and in 2017 Arkansas adopted Arkansas State Standards. Although Arkansas adopted ACT Aspire and Arkansas State Standards, Arkansas does not require school districts to adopt a curriculum. The purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative study was to explore the relationship between math curriculums, ACT Aspire Scores, and student demographics in Arkansas among students in grades three and four. The findings of this study found that there was a significant difference between math curricula and ACT Aspire math scores for students in third and fourth grade. Further, this study also found a significant difference between student grade level mean scores based on ACT Aspire math scores for students in third and fourth grade.

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