Background: Grade retention is an educational aspect that concerns teachers, families, and experts. It implies an economic cost for families, as well as a personal cost for the student, who is forced to study one more year. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of course repetition on math, science and reading competencies, and…

There is growing concern that some public service providers may be nonprofit in name but not in fact. We consider this issue in the context of nonprofit charter schools, which sometimes subcontract their daily operations to for-profit management organizations. We use unique data from Ohio to study how nonprofit charters' reliance on for-profit…

In recent years, there has been a shift back toward standardized assessment scores as an accountability metric for school districts from state policy makers. In response, Standards Based Grading has become a popular reform among school districts as a means to provide a greater predictability of student outcomes on standardized assessments.…

The purpose of this study was to compare virtual school students' learning outcomes with traditional school students' learning outcomes in Texas. The research design was a quantitative study using a retrospective causal-comparative design. The researcher used archival state assessment data to compare the learning outcomes of K-12 virtual school…

This study estimates the effect of between-class ability grouping on Chilean secondary students' academic achievement. We rely on a structural feature of the school system: A considerable number of students who complete primary school must change schools to start their secondary education. Cardinality matching was performed to account for…

The pandemic has exacerbated existing learning gaps and created new challenges for students. This Spotlight explores effective strategies to address these gaps, accelerate learning, and support students' overall well-being. From identifying which students have been disproportionately affected to implementing in-school tutoring, these articles…

Background: In recent years, data derived from international large-scale assessments have significantly influenced the discourse surrounding educational equity. However, the use of such data has often neglected the full spectrum of dimensions that equity encompasses, while being limited to exploring the relationship between achievement variations…

Running two separate two-stage randomized trials, we implement and test three variants of a small group instruction intervention aimed at improving mathematics competencies for the 20% lowest achievers in mathematics in grades 2 and 8 in Danish public schools. We calculate immediate impacts on math competencies as well as impacts in the medium…

This study explored the impact of the 95 Phonics Core Program® (95 PCP) on student literacy achievement across third graders who started the school year at different ability levels. The primary focus of this report was to investigate the relationship between changes in phonics scores with the beginning and end-of-year i-Ready® assessments and…

This two-year study examined the impact of Spalding's The Writing Road to Reading literacy program on student achievement across grades K-5 in 14 Arizona schools. Using a quasi-experimental matched design, researchers compared 687 students from three Spalding schools with 1228 students from eleven comparison schools using Fundations. Data from…

Within the framework of the revised taxonomy of educational objectives created by Anderson and Krathwohl, this study attempted to describe the design and examine the learning outcomes of an intervention focused on the development of higher order thinking at an elementary education setting. A class of 21 sixth graders participated in the project,…

In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey ravaged the Houston area, causing the homelessness of nearly 24,000 students in the Houston Independent School District (Houston ISD) alone. Additionally, nearly all Houston ISD schools sustained damage of some kind, resulting in school closures, campus relocations, and even the delaying of the start of classes for…

In low-income countries, there exists a common concern about the effect of hunger and food insecurity on educational outcomes. However, income inequalities, economic slowdown, conflict, and climate change have raised those concerns globally. Yet, little is known about how widespread the problem of hunger in schools is worldwide. This study…

Despite the appeal of promoting and forming collaborative relationships between schools, empirical evidence for an association between school-to-school collaboration and school outcomes is still somewhat lacking. This study utilized data from 76 schools nested within 56 districts in the United States to examine the association between a school's…

In 2018, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) launched a strategic competitive grant program aimed at supporting Local Education Agencies (LEA) in achieving Math Innovation Zone (MIZ) designation. This initiative's primary focus is to increase PreK - 8th grade math proficiency levels through the implementation of a blended learning model in math…