Educational assessments, from kindergarden to 12th grade (K-12) to licensure, have a long, well-documented history of oppression and marginalization. In this paper, we (the authors) ask the field of educational assessment/measurement to actively disrupt the White supremacist and racist logics that fuel this marginalization and re-orient itself…

Social studies educators who applaud discourse-based approaches may benefit by adding research on argumentation to their conceptual toolkit. We make the case here for its value, in particular emphasizing that argumentation skill needs to develop, suggesting an apprenticeship model of this development and highlighting evidence supporting it.

The goal of a Comprehensive K-3 Reading Policy is to ensure all students read on grade level by the end of third grade. This document shows why a K-3 reading policy is necessary, discusses evidence and research, and explains the fundamental principles of a comprehensive early literacy policy.

Before the 2020-2021 school year, policymakers and parents confronted the uncertain trade-offs implied by the health, educational, and economic consequences of offering instruction remotely, in person, or through a hybrid of the two. Most public schools in the United States chose remote-only instruction, and enrollment fell dramatically (i.e., a…

Design-based learning (DBL) offers opportunities to support students' content understanding. Previous DBL studies reported different effect sizes by using the data from one participant group. The goal of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis that would give a comprehensive picture of how DBL is connected to student achievement in different…

Before the 2020-21 school year, educators, policymakers, and parents confronted the stark and uncertain trade-offs implied by the health, educational, and economic consequences of offering instruction remotely, in person, or through a hybrid of the two. Most public schools in the U.S. chose remote-only instruction and enrollment fell dramatically…

Many public and private initiatives have focused on improving prekindergarten (PK) through Grade 12 mathematics education, given that the mathematics content learned before college is foundational for later learning and college success across STEM subjects. Although decades of educational research have studied PK-12 mathematics interventions, the…

This study examines the impacts of two distinct types of school spending on student outcomes. State-imposed revenue limits cap the total amount of revenue that a school district in Wisconsin can raise unless the district holds a referendum asking voters to exceed the cap. Importantly, Wisconsin law requires districts to hold separate referenda for…

Developmental science demonstrates that younger children (ages 4 to 8) are capable of making meaning of their contexts and the self. Yet, younger children's meaning making is largely absent from intervention and implementation research on early childhood policies. This absence is notable given the rise in investment in early childhood policies and…

This protocol guides the What Works Clearinghouse's (WWC) systematic reviews of evidence on interventions designed to improve the English language and literacy skills of students in kindergarten to grade 12. To conduct the systematic review, this protocol is used in conjunction with version 4.1 of the WWC Standards and Procedures Handbooks and the…

Background: Observation Studies, Unmeasured Confounding, and Sensitivity Analysis: An important part of educational research is identifying important, potentially causal, factors that influence children's learning from observational studies. However, it is well-known that discovering such factors from observational studies can be biased due to…

This article examines kindergarten children's (5-6 years old) engagement in scientific practices, with a focus on generating and using evidence to support claims, during a 5-month project about snails. The research questions are as follows: (1) what meanings do kindergarteners construct for what constitutes evidence? How are those meanings…

Background: Value-added modeling (VAM) has been used to rank teachers and assess teacher and school quality. The apparent relationship between value-added teacher rankings and gains in student performance provide a foundation for the view that the contribution of teachers to student performance is the largest factor influencing student…

"Energy" is a term often used in everyday language. Even young children associate energy with the food they eat, feeling tired after playing soccer, or when asked to turn the lights off to save light energy. However, they may not have the scientific conceptual understanding of energy at this age. Teaching energy and matter could be…

Children have a natural interest in math, and the "Teaching Math to Young Children" practice guide (ED544376) aims to help teachers capitalize on that interest to make children's preschool and school experience more engaging and beneficial. In this practice guide summary, readers will find: (1) An overview of the…