| Sumario: | The article focuses on the preliminary results from a ESRC project which examined National Curriculum assessment in mathematics for 10-11 and 13-14 year old children in relation to class, gender and ability. The paper examines the ways in which children from different sociocultural backgrounds approach assessment items which embed mathematics in supposedly "realistic" contexts. Early data from the Key Stage 2 sample of 10-11 year olds will be presented which shows that there does seem be a social class effect in the response of children to "realistic" items, one which leads to some working class children failing to demonstrate competencies they have. The paper uses quantitative and qualitative methods, relating its findings to Basil Bernstein's account of sociocultural codes -- in particular his theorizing of the social distribution of recognition and realization rules for reading educational contexts. Until fairly recently, in England and elsewhere, success in primary school mathematics was achieved by demonstrating a capacity to memorize, reproduce and use relatively simple algorithms. However, in recent years, there has been considerable change in primary school mathematics with an increasing stress being laid, at least rhetorically, on understanding, investigation and the application of mathematics in "realistic" settings.
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