Behavioral and emotional disorders in childhood can have lasting impacts in areas such as education and future employment, often extending into adulthood. Identifying the potential disorders in children's early grades is beneficial to provide proactive assistance. In this study, we employed a well-validated scale - the Strengths and Difficulties…

Children's math performance is strongly correlated with later life outcomes, but early gaps in math skills are stubbornly difficult to close. It is therefore important to identify student math needs early. Using Grade 1-3 student records from Kentucky public schools, the study finds that typically recommended cut scores for widely used early grade…

Studies of errors in mathematics are essential for mathematics educators to design and contextualize a whole new instruction accordingly. Nonetheless, less attention has been given to the mathematical writing errors when compared to the mathematical conceptual and procedural errors. It is mainly because the former mistakes usually do not affect…

Detecting mental health concerns in youth accurately and promptly may prevent poor school outcomes, long-term mental illness, and adverse lifelong outcomes. Practitioners often use universal behavioral risk screeners to identify students at-risk on indicators related to mental health concerns. However, research is needed to inform the stability of…

Early childhood traumatic experiences place children at-risk for social, emotional, and behavioral impairments that contribute to poor educational outcomes. There is an increasing awareness that children with early traumatic exposure may need supplemental supports for academic success. These supports may be presented in the form of…

A strong foundation in early literacy supports children's academic pursuits and impacts personal, social, and economic outcomes. Therefore, examining the adequacy of early literacy assessments as predictors of future performance on important outcomes is critical for identifying students at risk of reading problems. This study explored the…

This study reports achievement and growth from kindergarten to fourth grade for three groups of English Learners (ELs): (a) ever-ELs; (b) ELs consistently eligible for service; and (c) EL and Special Education dually-identified students. All three EL groups had lower test scores than never-ELs throughout K-4. In math, ELs grew more than never-ELs…

An empirical investigation of elementary school teacher candidates on classification activities dealing with animate and inanimate objects in terms of being living or non-living demonstrates that as the size of the objects increases, subjects are more likely to classify them correctly as either being an animal or having living characteristics.…

English learner (EL) education is widely conceived as services for immigrant-origin students, however nearly one in ten American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students are classified in school as ELs. Title III of the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) defines EL eligibility differently for Indigenous, compared to non-Indigenous,…

Background/Context: Chronic absenteeism is a serious problem that has been linked to lower academic achievement, diminished socioemotional skills, and an increased likelihood of high school dropout (Allensworth et al., 2021; Gottfried, 2014). As a result, many schools have begun to embrace early warning systems (EWS) as a tool to identify and flag…

The assessment of screening accuracy and setting of cut points for a universal screener have traditionally been evaluated using logistic regression analysis. This analytic technique has been frequently used to evaluate the trade-offs in correct classification with misidentification of individuals who are at risk of performing poorly on a later…

Purpose: Educators often use results from static norm-referenced vocabulary assessments to aid in the diagnosis of school-age children with a language disorder. However, research has indicated that many of these vocabulary assessments yield inaccurate, biased results, especially with culturally and linguistically diverse children. This study…

The main purpose of this study was to validate the curriculum-based measure "Indicadores de Progreso de Aprendizaje en Matemáticas" (IPAM [Indicators of Basic Early Math Skills]) in a local, Spanish-speaking context. This tool has been designed to identify first-grade students at risk for mathematics learning disabilities. The IPAM…

Federal law defines eligibility for English learner (EL) classification differently for Indigenous students compared to non-Indigenous students. Indigenous students, unlike non-Indigenous students, are not required to have a non-English home or primary language. A critical question, therefore, is how EL classification impacts Indigenous students'…

This study investigated the presence of word reading difficulties in a sample of students in Grades 1-4 (n = 357) identified with language and reading comprehension difficulties. This study also examined whether distinct word reading and listening comprehension profiles emerged within this sample and the extent to which these groups varied in…