This paper provided new evidence on three kindergarten instructional practices that may be associated with better reading and math skills, particularly for children of less educated parents: (1) full-day kindergarten; (2) more instructional time; and (3) ability grouping. The analysis used Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort…

This dissertation study explores the emergence of off-task engagement, in which three Chinese first-graders write mathematically. It seeks the solution to the conflict between the intended mathematics writing and the realized mathematics writing, which ties to the Cartesian rationality dominating mathematics classrooms--that tends to ignore…

Using data from 82 classroom observations conducted in a large urban school district, we explore how kindergartners spend their time in general and across schools serving children from lower and higher income households. Consistent with prior research, we find that kindergartners spend the majority of instructional time on reading and mathematics,…

Mathematical fluency supports maintenance of mathematical skills (Shurr et al., 2019). Multiple interventions support fluency, including the use of games. However, limited research exists exploring games as a means of increasing student fluency in mathematics. In this single case design study, researchers examined the relation between four…

This study is focused on the threat of retention associated with test-based promotion in Grade 3. Through analyzing the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 data, we found that schools having such a policy apparently increased math instructional time but not reading instructional time in Grade 3. On average, the…

This paper studies students engagement in e-learning environments in which students work independently and solve problems without external supervision. We propose a new method to infer engagement patterns of users in such self-directed environments. We view engagement as a continuous process in time, measured along chosen axes that are derived…

When performing a task in the classroom, it is essential to place the focus on learning. In the classroom, it is possible to distinguish between time spent by students on-task and off-task. The former is the time in which the student is focused on the learning task; the latter is the remaining time in which they focus on other activities.…

The Wallace Foundation is funding a multiyear demonstration project to determine whether voluntary, district summer learning programs can stem summer learning loss for low-income students. Six districts--Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Duval County (Florida), Pittsburgh, and Rochester, New York--were selected for the demonstration project and…

A within-subjects design was used to compare two instructional methods--explicit timing and interspersing--with 187 second-grade students. Students completed two mathematics word problem assignments under differing conditions. In the explicit timing condition, students were told they would be timed while working long mathematics word problems. In…