This article examines the impact of within-class age differences on educational outcomes, using students' birth months in Madrid's primary schools as a natural experiment. Employing a regression discontinuity design, we analyze third-grade students to investigate these age-related effects. Additionally, we explore whether early childhood education…

Transitional Kindergarten (TK) is a relatively new model of early childhood education, with little evidence on whether and how it affects children's development. This study provides new evidence using data from Michigan, which has the nation's second-largest TK program. Using survey data (N=171) from administrators in 2021-2022, the paper…

The "Examining Implementation and Outcomes of the Project On-Track High-Dosage Literacy Tutoring Program" study describes the characteristics of students who participated in a full year of Project On-Track, a high-dosage, small-group literacy tutoring program for students in grade 1-3. Its online adaptive program, Amplify Reading, groups…

Early literacy skills are critical to the educational outcomes of young students. Accordingly, 19 states have early literacy policies that require grade retention for underperforming readers at the end of third grade. However, there is mixed evidence about retention's effectiveness and concerns that retention may disproportionately impact…

We present two types of validity evidence to support inferences and decisions about use of easyCBMs in relation to state testing programs. The first type involves the use of Benchmarks in reading to use in making predictions of performance on the Smarter Balanced (SB) test. These predictions can be made both well in advance (several months) or…

The current study aimed to explore the COVID-19 impact on the reading achievement growth of Grade 3-5 students in a large urban school district in the U.S. and whether the impact differed by students' demographic characteristics and instructional modality. Specifically, using administrative data from the school district, we investigated to what…

This document are the appendixes for the report, "The Reliability and Consequential Validity of Two Teacher-Administered Student Mathematics Diagnostic Assessments." Rather than relying on occasional testimonials from the field, decisions about using diagnostic assessments across the state should be based on psychometric data from an…

Over the past eight years, through examinations of school-administered reading assessments, Springboard has demonstrated internally that the average Springboard Summer scholar improves in reading during the program. Several partner school districts have compared Springboard scholars to their non-participating counterparts and found that, on…

Few elementary students on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) are scoring at grade level or higher on the ACT Aspire reading assessment. To better understand factors associated with the reading proficiency of CNMI grade 3 students, stakeholders there asked the Regional Educational Laboratory Pacific to examine the demographic…

The early years from birth to age 8 are a crucial period for children's learning and development. High-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) and continuity from ECEC into school provide children with a strong foundation for lifelong learning. Understanding how language and cognition skills develop during this period of a child's life…

The purpose of this technical appendix is to share detailed results and more fully describe the sample and methods used to produce the research brief, "COVID's Impact on Science Achievement: Trends from 2019 through 2024. We investigated three main research questions in this brief: 1) How did science achievement in 2021 and 2024 compare to…

The "Effects of Reclassifying English Learner Students on Student Achievement in New Mexico" study examined being reclassified as fluent English proficient and achievement in English language arts and math in the first year after student reclassification. The study focused on achievement among English learner students in 2014/15-2018/19…

In this paper we analyze the extent to which a mandated kindergarten assessment predicts 3rd grade outcomes, and the academic progression for students from 3rd grade to high school. We find that the kindergarten assessment strongly predicts 3rd grade outcomes, with the math skills assessment being especially predictive of 3rd grade academic…

Education has faced unprecedented disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic; evidence about the subsequent effect on children is of crucial importance. We use data from an oral reading fluency (ORF) assessment--a rapid assessment taking only a few minutes that measures a fundamental reading skill--to examine COVID's effects on children's reading…

This is the technical index for the research brief "Education's Long COVID: 2022-23 Achievement Data Reveal Stalled Progress toward Pandemic Recovery." Using data from 6.7 million U.S. public school students currently in grades 3-8, the study examined academic gains in the 2022-23 school year relative to pre-pandemic years. It also…