Search

Seventy secondary mathematics pre-service teachers from two universities were assessed on their content knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, and their perceived confidence in teaching the content addressed on the eleventh grade state assessment. The results indicate the pre-service teachers had significant content weakness in data analysis, algebra, and pre-calculus concepts. Correlation analyses revealed strong associations between their content knowledge and vocabulary knowledge, and between their content knowledge and their perceived comfort with teaching the content. The study supports the need for mathematics education programs to include a strong emphasis on making connections between the college-level content courses, secondary methods courses, and secondary mathematics content across the curriculum. (Contains 5 figures.)

Objective: To determine whether school-level participation in the federal Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which provides free school lunch to all students, is associated with school meal participation rates. Participation in school meals is important for decreasing food insecurity and improving child health and well-being.Design: Quasi-experimental evaluation using negative binomial regression to predict meal count rates per student-year overall and by reimbursement level adjusted for proportion eligible for free and reduced-price lunch (FR eligibility) and operating days.Setting: Schools (grades kindergarten to 12th) participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) in Maryland and Pennsylvania, USA, from the 2013-2015 (n 1762) and 2016-2017 (n 2379) school years.Participants: Administrative, school-level data on school lunch counts and student enrolment.Results: CEP was associated with a non-significant 6 % higher total NSLP meal count adjusting for FR eligibility, enrolment and operating days (rate ratio = 1·06, 95 % CI 0·98, 1·14). After controlling for participation rates in the year prior to CEP implementation, the programme was associated with a significant 8 % increase in meal counts (rate ratio = 1·08, 95 % CI 1·03, 1·12). In both analyses, CEP was associated with lower FR meal participation and substantial increases in paid meal participation.Conclusions: School-level implementation of CEP is associated with increases in total school meal participation. Current funding structures may prevent broader adoption of the programme by schools with fewer students eligible for FR meals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]