Texas is booming thanks to economic opportunities that draw people to the Lone Star State. But beneath this success lies concerning trends that call into question if Texas students are ready to compete in the Lone Star economy. This report details how Texas students do not have the knowledge and skills to succeed as they move on to the next grade…

Declining academic achievement across U.S. schools, particularly in mathematics and science, has prompted several initiatives to increase the quality of teaching in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The National Science Foundation initiated the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program in…

Concerns about the negative effects of digitalization on students' reading comprehension, empirically backed by recent meta-analyses, question the efficacy of digital tools in the language arts classroom. By analyzing data from 4 and 8th grade US students from NAEP 2017, we aimed to test the generalization of the negative association between…

Improving the reading ability of young students could hardly be a more urgent priority for our elementary schools. Two thirds of American fourth and eighth graders are not able to read proficiently--and the outcomes are far worse for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2019 showed that only…

For the past three academic years, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted learning and the relationships between teachers, students, families, and communities that are at the heart of education. Even as school buildings reopened to in-person instruction, periodic quarantines, social distancing, and canceled events had a profound impact on students'…

Publicly funded adult health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has had positive effects on low-income adults. We examine whether the ACA's Medicaid expansions influenced child development and family functioning in low-income households. We use a difference-in-differences framework that exploits cross-state policy variation and focus…

Students' explanations of their mathematical thinking and conclusions have become a greater part of the assessment landscape in recent years. With a sample of 71 fourth-grade students at risk for mathematics learning disabilities, we investigated the relation between student accuracy in comparing the magnitude of fractions and the quality of…

This study examines the effectiveness of cooperative reading teaching activities and independent reading activities for English language learner (ELL) students at 4th grade level. Based on simple linear regression and correlational analyses of data collected from two large data bases, PIRLS and NAEP, the study found that cooperative reading…

Student explanations of their mathematical thinking and conclusions have become a greater part of the assessment landscape in recent years. With a sample of 71 4th-grade students at-risk for mathematics learning disabilities, we investigated the relation between student accuracy in comparing the magnitude of fractions and the quality of students'…

The goal of the present article is to synthesize findings to date from the Delaware Longitudinal Study of Fraction Learning. The study followed a large cohort of children (N = 536) between Grades 3 and 6. The findings showed that many students, especially those with diagnosed learning disabilities, made minimal growth in fraction knowledge and…

We use three data sources to build a rationale for why intensive interventions are necessary for students with pervasive reading disabilities: current data on the performance of students with disabilities on reading achievement measures over time, observation studies on students with reading disabilities in general and special education…

By the upper elementary grades, writing becomes an essential tool both for learning and for showing what you know. Students who struggle significantly with writing are at a terrible disadvantage. Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress indicate that only 25% of students can be classified as competent writers; students with…

Too often, instruction designed to improve literacy achievement for black male readers and writers focuses on skill-based learning, ignoring cultural, social, and personal development. This article calls for the use of critical literacy strategies with African American male students, which can raise expectations for academic achievement by…

Science educators have suggested that, for minority and low-income students, gaps between home and school science cultures necessitate "border crossing" for successful learning in science. Our analysis used National Assessment of Educational Progress 2000 and 2005 data to assess the impact of U.S. state-level policy regarding…

In the United States, student achievement results from mathematics and reading are always included in high-stakes accountability calculations. Because of this, it has been argued that other subjects have been minimized due to assessment and accountability policies. In this study, the accountability practices of states were differentiated into…