Background: Over the last twenty years, retention has increased in popularity with policymakers who are concerned with student achievement and aim to end social promotion (i.e., the practice of advancing a student to the next grade level although they have not yet met the academic expectations of their current grade level). Despite calls to expand…

Background/Context: Spurred by changes in federal policy, Response to Intervention (RTI) has witnessed increased adoption across states and districts in the past several decades (Berkeley et al., 2020). Originating in the special education field, RTI involves a shift from a uniform instructional approach to a tiered instructional approach…

Innovation is the central driver of economic growth. Many growth models underscore the importance of actively directing more individuals to innovation (Romer, 1990; Jones, 2022). This goal can be achieved by providing early exposure to innovation to children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds (Bell et al., 2019; Akcigit et al., 2020;…

Background: Reading is a vital skill, key to school success, necessary for employment, and essential for functioning in everyday life. Many attempts to increase literacy have focused on schools, yet "out of school" factors have a substantial impact on student learning (Clabaugh, 2008). One non-instructional factor that may be part of…

Background: Malawi's primary education system made progress in increasing access to school over the last decade, but is challenged to provide quality learning in the face of expanding enrollment (World Bank 2021). By Standard 4, 19 percent of students still score zero on Standard 1 math items and only 22 percent are able to comprehend a short…

Background: The past half-century has resulted in a substantial expansion of early childhood center-based care in the United States. Today, over 74% of American children aged 3-5 attend center-based care (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2021). Although public pre-k is considered socially favorable,…

Background/Context: In 2010, Reading Recovery was awarded a $55 million Investing in Innovation (i3) grant from the U.S. Department of Education. This five-year grant supported the expansion of Reading Recovery in more than 1,400 schools in over 30 states, and provided intervention to over 80,000 students. Although a multi-site randomized…

Background/Context: Despite increasing school enrollment, significant literacy gaps persist in developing countries, with many children unable to read by age 10. This paper evaluates "M'ap Li Net Ale," a comprehensive intervention aimed at improving early-grade reading skills in Haiti, a context characterized by limited government…

Background/Context: Well-documented achievement gaps persist between members of disadvantaged social groups and their more advantaged peers (Domina et al., 2018; Harackiewicz et al., 2014; Musu-Gillette et al., 2017; Stoet & Geary, 2013). Certainly, systemic and structural factors explain most of these gaps; yet, there is another contributor…

Background/Context: In the early elementary grades, many students do not achieve literacy proficiency due to inadequate personalized literacy instruction (Taylor et al., 2010). Despite increasing evidence that differentiated instruction informed by assessments of students' reading abilities can improve learning more effectively than…

Background/Context: Students classified as Long-Term English Learners (LTELs) are those who have not gained fluency in the English language, even after being enrolled in the U.S. K-12 educational system for five to seven years (Olsen, 2014). Although LTELs are not consistently tracked across states, we know they constitute a sizeable portion of…

Background: Performance with fractions has been a weak point in U.S. education for decades and has not improved in recent years (Siegler, 2017). High School math teachers frequently rate their students' knowledge of fractions as "poor" and see this lack of foundational knowledge as one of the top barriers to students mastering algebra…

Background: Early math knowledge is the strongest predictor of later academic achievement (Duncan et al., 2007), but math achievement gaps that are present during preschool prior to kindergarten entry (Starkey & Klein, 2008) persist in elementary school. This is especially true for young children who are very low-performing in math relative to…

Background: In 2019, Arkansas had the nation's fourth-lowest reading scores (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2019). Grounded in evidence that parents and guardians can play a pivotal role in developing their children's reading proficiency (Carnegie Council on Advancing Adolescent Literacy, 2010), the Arkansas Department of Education…

Background: Some education programs' early positive effects disappear over time. Other programs have unanticipated positive long-term effects. Foundations have warned of the dangers of putting too much weight on in-program effects, which "often fade over time." The U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) even…