Participating Schools and Teachers
Four high schools participated in the study, but one school is excluded from this discussion due to irregularities with the implementation and assessment procedures. The remaining schools (and CPS teachers at those schools) will be referred to as A, B, and C. The teachers who agreed to use the CPS approach met with researchers during the summer prior to implementation to discuss key aspects of the approach and receive imple-mentation guidelines. At every school the CPS approach was compared to ‘‘traditional'' problem solving practices that emphasize equations and mathematical procedures. At School A this comparison was made between a single teacher's classes over multiple years, at School B there were multiple classes taught by the same teacher, and at School C there were two different teachers (a CPS teacher and a control teacher). To ensure flexibility, only non-Advanced Placement physics courses were used in this study