The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) student questionnaire, despite being designed for low cognitive demand, may induce test burden due to its 306-item length, resulting in increased item nonresponse toward the questionnaire's end. Using the PISA 2018 response data from 80 countries and a cross-classified mixed effects model,…

Reviews of social comparison processes in school contexts have concluded that individual differences in propensity to compare with others are likely to be important in the classroom, but that there is a paucity of evidence testing this key proposition. To address this gap, we developed and validated a new measure of propensity to engage in…

In this investigation, the reading performance of Texas Grade 4 Emergent Bilingual and non-Emergent Bilingual students was compared by their enrollment in Title I, Part A schools. Data were obtained from the Texas Education Agency Public Education Information Management System for all Grade 4 Emergent Bilingual and non-Emergent Bilingual students…

In school settings, students' mindset about intelligence (i.e., fixed versus growth mindset) and their sense of belonging to school (SBS) have both been shown to predict academic attainment. However, these constructs have rarely been examined together although both were found to be impacted by students' socioeconomic status (SES). Across the…

Purpose: Using data from 1,868 children from the US, Australia, and Sweden who took a 10-word spelling test in kindergarten and a standardized spelling test in Grades 1, 2, and (except for the Australian children) Grade 4, we examined two questions. First, does the quality of a child's errors on the kindergarten test help predict later spelling…

Modest correlations between teacher-assigned grades and external assessments of academic achievement (r = 0.40-0.60) have led many educational stakeholders to deem grades subjective and unreliable. However, theoretical and methodological challenges, such as construct misalignment, data unavailability and sample unrepresentativeness, limit the…

This paper investigates the relationship between secondary school students' reading metacognition and summary writing skills--which represent a part of their academic language skills--within a network of psychological and sociocultural factors consisting of positivity, tolerance and respect, resilience, and culture and cooperation. We used data…

This study investigated developmental trajectories of reading and math using latent-growth-curve analyses across multiple academic skills, measures, and multiple time periods within a single sample. Reading-related growth was marked by significant individual differences during the early elementary-school period and nonsignificant individual…

While teacher preparation in the United States continues a long period of decline, the largest-producing state, Texas, is experiencing substantial changes in how it prepares teachers. The number of teachers prepared by traditional university pathways continues to decline, and the number from alternative pathways is rising. Using extensive da ta…

To investigate the neural basis of a common statistical learning mechanism involved in motor sequence learning and decoding, we recorded brain activation from participants during a serial reaction time (SRT) task and a word reading task using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In the SRT task, a manual response was made depending on the…

Maths anxiety has been of great concern for many educators and educational policymakers because of its adverse effects on students' maths performance and career path. Various empirical studies have been conducted to explore the factors predicting maths anxiety, and they have typically been based on a limited set of pre-specified variables, such as…

The paper uses data from the combined TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) and PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) assessment in 2011 to explore the subject-specific strengths and weaknesses among fourth grade students worldwide. Previous research came to the conclusion that students only differed in…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether components of the Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, and Successive (PASS) processing theory of intelligence predict reading and mathematics proficiency in a group of intellectually gifted children. One hundred forty-two intellectually gifted children (70 females, 72 males; M[subscript…

Past studies have supported the view that parent background and family socioeconomic status determine the post-secondary educational expectations of adolescents. They build on Pierre Bourdieu's social reproduction theory, but do not fully explain why some adolescents aspire to post-secondary education and some do not. The capability approach…

We used multilevel analysis to examine the predictive validity of scores from the Framework for Teaching (FFT), the observation measure used most often to evaluate teachers' instruction. We investigated how well 81 kindergarten teachers' FFT scores for eight reading and eight mathematics lessons observed throughout the year predicted students'…