Background/Context: Both correlational and experimental evidence suggests that having access to books can be a key resource for accelerating the literacy outcomes for children. Results from a 20-year study across 27 nations by Evans, Kelley, Sikora, and Treiman (2010), suggest that children growing up in homes with many books obtain 3 years more…

Background/context: Student heterogeneity is a persistent and fundamental challenge in all school systems. In many countries, including Norway, politicians and actors within the educational sector have increased the use of additional teachers, teacher assistants, and special education teachers to respond to this challenge (Bonesrønning, Iversen…

Background/Context: Future Forward (FF) is an early elementary literacy program, administered by Education Analytics (EA), that combines one-on-one tutoring with parent engagement to promote student literacy development both at school and at home. In 2011 FF was funded by an i3 grant to develop the program and test its impact in Milwaukee. Two…

Background: Much has been made of whether the evidence supporting mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) is consistent or high-quality enough to merit their wide implementation, and numerous meta-analyses, reviews, and meta-analyses of meta-analyses have been conducted in pursuit of this question (e.g., Bockmann & Yu, 2023; Goldberg et al.,…

Background: In a randomized trial that collects text as an outcome, traditional approaches for assessing treatment impact require that each document first be manually coded for constructs of interest by human raters. An impact analysis can then be conducted to compare treatment and control groups, using the hand-coded scores as a measured outcome.…

Background: Dyslexia is a specific reading disability characterized by word recognition difficulties that can qualify a student for special education services under the "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act" (IDEA; 2004; Yudin, 2015). As of 2024, 49 US states have legislation defining dyslexia and enumerating for schools…

Background: This paper estimates the causal effects of an intervention under the UK-funded Partnership for Learning for All in Nigeria (PLANE). PLANE is a seven-year (2021-2028) early literacy and numeracy program that aims to improve student outcomes in Northwest Nigeria. In this region, fewer than 28% of children and youth. Numerous factors…

Background: Over the past two decades, national attention has emphasized the critical role of early literacy and language instruction in preventing reading difficulties and improved our understanding of how young children learn to read. The research has established that students who are not strong readers by Grade 3 are less likely to build…

Background/Context: The importance of vision care begins at an early age, with doctors recommending screenings at multiple stages prior to reaching school age and throughout adolescence (Mathers et al., 2010; Solebo et al., 2015). Addressing unaddressed vision needs at an early age is particularly important due to the strong connection between…

Background/Context: Mozambique has made progress over the past decade in improving both the nutrition and literacy of its population. Nevertheless, rates of illiteracy and malnutrition remain high, particularly in rural areas and among women. In most provinces in Mozambique, schools are overcrowded, student/teacher ratios are high, and reading and…

Background: To succeed in school, young children must acquire the domain and vocabulary knowledge needed to read complex texts. Despite the growing literacy demands in the 21 century, fewer than 5% of US school children in the early elementary grades can evaluate complex nonfiction texts and there are larger gaps based on family income and student…

Despite increasing consensus that social-emotional learning (SEL) is an important contributor to success in school and life, few tools are available for educators to assess SEL skill and to use assessment results to inform educational practice. In particular, there are no scalable, feasible, usable, and scientifically sound assessment systems that…

School districts across the United States have increasingly adopted information and communications technology (ICT) in an attempt to improve student achievement across a wide range of educational settings. This paper examines the impacts of Achieve3000, an early literacy program that differentiates non-fiction reading passages based on individual…

The purpose of this report is to present the results of a two-year randomized control trial evaluation of the SPARK literacy program. SPARK is an early grade literacy program developed by Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee. In 2010, SPARK was awarded an Investing in Innovation (i3) Department of Education grant to further develop the…

Students often memorize and apply procedures to solve mathematics problems without understanding why these procedures work. In turn, students demonstrate limited ability to transfer strategies to new problem types. Math curriculum reform standards underscore the importance of procedural flexibility and transfer, emphasizing that students need to…