This study examined the factors that determined the science achievement of fourth-grade students on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 in the USA. The data were retrieved from the TIMSS international database and imported to the R program for manipulation. The EdSurvey package was used to conduct multilevel…

What causes the literacy gap and can schools compensate for it? The authors investigated 3 drivers of the gap: preliteracy knowledge, schooling, and the summer vacation. Longitudinal literacy data over 5 time points were collected on 126 five-year-olds attending higher or lower socioeconomic status (SES) schools during their first 15 months of…

In this article, we explore the relationship between parental literacy activities with the child, socio-economic status (SES) and reading literacy. We draw upon the Bourdieusian theory of habitus development to explore this relationship. Multilevel analyses of a survey of 43,870 pupils (with an average age of 10 years) in 10 Western European…

We evaluated two experimenter-delivered, small-group word reading programs among at-risk poor readers in Grade 1 classes of regular elementary schools using a two-arm, dual-site-matched control trial intervention. At-risk poor word readers (n = 201) were allocated to either (a) Direct Mapping and Set-for-Variability (DMSfV) or (b) Current or…

This study investigated the performance of U.S. eighth-grade female and minority students' achievement in learning statistics concepts using the Data and Chance content domain from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2007 (TIMSS 2007). Using variables that have been linked to mathematics and statistics achievement in the…

Grouping similar students together within schools ("streaming") or classrooms ("tracking") based on past literacy skills (reported by parents), family socioeconomic status (SES) or reading attitudes might affect their reading achievement. Our multilevel analysis of the reading tests of 208,057 fourth-grade students across 40…

Social psychologists have suggested that language-based ideologies related to "stereotype threat" (i.e. variations in performance-based on ability perceptions of language groups) may affect students' academic achievement regardless of school language support. However, it is unclear whether efforts to support students' first language…