This study is focused on the threat of retention associated with test-based promotion in Grade 3. Through analyzing the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 data, we found that schools having such a policy apparently increased math instructional time but not reading instructional time in Grade 3. On average, the…

The author used the concepts of academic intensity and sense of responsibility to examine whether children with low school readiness may be moderated by the amount of exposure to learning activities and the attitudes that teachers hold toward these children. Analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort revealed that…

This research empirically evaluates data sets from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for design effects of ignoring the sampling design in weighted two-level analyses. Currently, researchers may ignore the sampling design beyond the levels that they model which might result in incorrect inferences regarding hypotheses due to…

Policymakers view parental involvement (PI) as a crucial component of school reform efforts, but evidence of its effect on student achievement is equivocal. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort dataset, we examined the long-term impact on student- and school-level achievement of three types of school-based PI: PI to…

Educational achievement is a key determinant of future life chances, but children growing up in poverty tend to do worse by many academic measures. Family, school, and neighborhood contextual characteristics may affect academic outcomes. In an attempt to explore neighborhood and individual-level factors, we performed multilevel analyses to explain…

Family educational involvement is consistently and positively associated with child achievement, but little work has closely examined the involvement practices of families of color, particularly immigrant families. Utilizing data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort 1998-99 (ECLS-K), this study used Hierarchical Linear…