Achievement results for second and third graders using the Standards-based curriculum Everyday Mathematics

Students using Everyday Mathematics (EM), developed to incorporate ideas from the NCTM Standards, were at normative U.S. levels on multidigit addition and subtraction symbolic computation on traditional, reform-based, and EM-specific test items. Heterogeneous EM 2nd graders scored higher than middle- to upper-middle-class U.S. traditional students on 2 number sense items, matched them on others, and were equivalent to a middle-class Japanese group. On a computation test, the EM 2nd graders outperformed the U.S. traditional students on 3 items involving 3-digit numbers and were outperformed on the 6 most difficult test items by the Japanese children. EM 3rd graders outscored traditional U.S. students on place value and numeration, reasoning, geometry, data, and number-story items.