The growth of a STEM-focused economy has intensified the focus on developing kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) students' STEM competencies and on the STEM practices of K-12 STEM teachers. The present study utilised secondary analysis of nationally-representative STEM teacher survey data to examine the ways in which middle grades teachers'…

While early research on full-day kindergarten (FDK) extolled its benefits for children's outcomes, later research demonstrated that children in half-day kindergarten (HDK) outperformed academically in the long-term. This study examined the longitudinal changes in kindergarten demographics and child outcomes by comparing data from the Early…

This study examined the longitudinal changes in kindergarten demographics and child outcomes by comparing data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS-K) 1998 and 2011 cohorts. Results demonstrated that there were significant changes in kindergarten in general and with regard to FDK and HDK schedules between 1998 and 2011. These…

We assessed measurement invariance (MI) and cohort trends for five social and emotional learning (SEL) measures across four administrations (2013, 2016, 2019, 2022) of a statewide student survey including grades 5, 8, 9, and 11 (n = 626,082). The MI models were compared using conventional fit statistics and the root mean square error of…

Research suggests that current teachers' writing instruction does not prepare students for the demands of college and career writing, a problem that has persisted for decades. The purpose of this survey study of third- and fifth-grade teachers (N=159) across the U.S. was 1) to determine changes in teachers' frequency teaching writing using a set…

Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort (2010-2011), this study is the first to investigate predictors of kindergarten science achievement and growth across elementary school--English language proficiency (ELP), executive functioning, math and reading achievement, parent-engaged science and math activities, and classroom…

In European studies, immigrant-origin adolescents report more mental health symptoms than natives do. The school is an important developmental context for them, and more research is needed about how their school experience is related to their mental health symptoms, and whether these relations vary by group. The aim of this study was to assess the…

In this study, methodology and theory were linked to explicate the nature of education practice within schools facing exceptionally challenging circumstances (SFECC) in Trinidad and Tobago. The research design was an iterative quan>QUAL-quan>qual multi-method research programme, consisting of 3 independent projects linked together by overall…

Reading motivation is an important contributor to reading achievement. Students with higher levels of motivation tend to outperform those with lower levels. Reading motivation is a dynamic, situational, context-dependent trait that can vary in children over time and across tasks. Teachers have a valuable opportunity to support students' reading…

The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) conducts a student survey in the spring of each year to determine the level of student engagement in and out of the classroom. Students who actively participate in their learning process generally experience higher academic achievement (Wang & Hofkens, 2020). The survey contains items from the…

Higher amounts of family involvement are often positively associated with children's academic skills. There are, however, myriad ways families could be involved in their children's education, which warrant exploration to better inform practice and policy. The purpose of this study was to use a person-centered approach--latent class analysis--to…

These appendices accompany the report "Final Report of the i3 Impact Study of Making Sense of SCIENCE, 2016-17 through 2017-18." Science education has experienced a significant transition over the last decade, catalyzed by a re-envisioning of what students should know and be able to do in science. That re-envisioning culminated in the…

Spanking and parental verbal aggression are potentially toxic stressors that can negatively affect children's academic achievement by disrupting mental skills like executive function. Yet little empirical evidence has been provided for this mediating pathway. This study used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort of…

Latent class analysis (LCA) is a statistical method used to group individuals (cases, units) into classes (categories) of an unobserved (latent) variable on the basis of the responses made on a set of nominal, ordinal, or continuous observed variables. In this article, we introduce LCA in order to demonstrate its usefulness to early adolescence…

A mixed-methods study investigated the relationship between teachers within urban Title I elementary schools (e.g., high versus low performing) and their mathematics problem-solving beliefs in six constructs ("perseverance," "procedural," "conceptual," "importance," "effort," and…