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Problems to Ponder provides 28 varied, classroom-ready mathematics problems that collectively span PK–12, arranged in order of grade level. Answers to the problems are available online.

Abstract What influences K–12 educators to change practice? How does research inform these changes? What can the field of visual art education glean about research from a K–12 perspective? This paper describes the findings of the survey completed by members of the National Art Education Association (NAEA) conducted in 2015. Following the survey, we focused on how the 440 K–12 visual art educators in the study understand, use, and conduct research. Using a grounded theory approach, we interpreted the responses to the question: “What changes have you made to your professional practice on the basis of your research or the results of others?” Change is defined by how educators enrich and expand their practice using research. For this study, we defined research broadly, from reading scholarly literature in the field, conducting research studies in their educational settings, or how professional learning experiences/degrees enrich or strengthen their practice. Findings from this survey suggest that K–12 visual art teachers use research to change their professional practice in the areas of curriculum, pedagogy, student-centered approaches, and assessment. As authors, we suggest providing professional learning around research in the field of art education and the value of collaboration between K–12 educators and those working in pre-service/graduate art education programs.

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In July 2017, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) released a new mission statement that shifts the organization's primary focus to supporting and advocating for the highest quality mathematics teaching and learning for all students. A key strategy for achieving this goal is to advance “a culture of equity where each and every person has access to high quality teaching and is empowered as a learner and doer of mathematics” (NCTM, 2017, “Strategic Framework,” para. 2). Increasing equity and ensuring the highest quality mathematics teaching and learning for all students requires systemic change (National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics [NCSM] &amp; TODOS: Mathematics for ALL, 2016). As educators are called to enact NCTM's new mission, we acknowledge that such change is complex. We also acknowledge that our own experiences conducting equity work that is grounded in an asset-based approach are at different stages of development, ranging from beginning levels to lived experiences as diverse mathematics learners and mathematics education researchers. We see this change in mission as a call to both act politically (Aguirre et al., 2017) and to change story lines (i.e., “broad, culturally shared narrative[s]”; Herbel-Eisenmann et al., 2016, p. 104) that dominate the public perception of mathematics learning and teaching. We acknowledge that systemic barriers are part of a larger educational issue, but for the purposes of this commentary, we focus on mathematics.

New testing theories, concepts, and psychometric methods (e.g., item response theory, test equating, and item bank) developed during the past several decades have many advantages over previous theories and methods. In spite of their introduction to the field, they have not been fully accepted by physical educators. Further, the manner in which many assessments are developed and used in physical education has limitations, including isolated test development, weak or poor psychometric quality control, lack of evaluation frameworks, and failure to measure change or growth. To eliminate these shortcomings and meet the needs of standard-based assessment, a major national effort was undertaken to develop an item or assessment bank, called “PE Metrics,” for assessing the national content standards for physical education. After providing a brief introduction to the background of PE Metrics, this article will describe the nature of the testing theory, psychometric methods, and how they were used in the construction of PE Metrics. Constraints of developing such a system are acknowledged, and future directions in physical education assessments are outlined.

Office discipline referrals are one approach that educators could use (a) as a guide in the development and/or selection of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention programs; (b) as an outcome measure with which to assess the effectiveness of those programs; and (c) as an early screening procedure to identify children who might benefit from the secondary and tertiary programs.The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which children who met the borderline and clinical cut-off scores on the Teacher Report Form (TRF; Achenbach, 1991b) received one or more office discipline referrals (the most liberal criteria possible) to determine the levels of false negatives (failure to detect a problem when one exists) that would occur if one used office discipline referrals as an early screening device.The relatively high levels of false negatives suggest that the use of office discipline referrals as an early screening device may fail to identify relatively large numbers of young children in need of interventions and supports.This issue appears to be even more pronounced in the case of students who are experiencing internalizing-related problems. Results, limitations, and future research needs are discussed.

Functional assessment involves generating hypotheses about the purpose a behavior serves and the environmental variables maintaining it in order to develop effective and efficient interventions. Functional assessment has been used extensively with students with severe disabilities in special education settings. However, few applications of functional assessment have been reported with students with mild disabilities in general education classrooms. The purpose of this article is to address the use of functional assessment in general education classrooms with students with mild disabilities. We present the theoretical foundations of functional assessment, describe the procedures involved in conducting a functional assessment, discuss some of the obstacles to applying functional assessment in general education classrooms, and make recommendations for the future use of functional assessment in general education classrooms with students with mild disabilities.