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.…

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…

Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin and his administration want to raise the bar for students to pass the state's standardized tests "from the lowest in the nation to the highest in the nation" by next spring. His goal is to close the "honesty gap" between the 79 percent of Virginia students who pass the state's tests and the 39…

This study looked at any potential effect of early childhood education on future academic success for economically disadvantaged students. The early childhood education program used in this study was the pre-kindergarten program that the state of Texas uses in most of its elementary schools. This program is federally funded, and district run. This…

We study the existence of a gender gap between two methods of grading student achievement in Spain, namely teachers' assessment which measures cognitive outcomes and standardised test scores, which are consistent across Spanish schools. We use rich census information of Andalusian students attending secondary schools. Our results indicate that…

Local public institutions, such as public libraries, offer access to low-cost educational resources, potentially mitigating human capital investment disparities. However, from 2008 to 2019, 766 public library outlets closed across the US, reducing access to these critical resources. This study examines the effect of public library outlet closures…

The Improving Basic Programs effort in Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA), is designed to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and achieve, at a minimum, proficiency…

Currently 15 percent of U.S. students receive special education services, a widespread intensive intervention with variable effects on students. Spurred by changes in federal policy, many states and districts have begun adopting the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach to identifying students to receive special education services. RTI seeks to…

Traditionally, students with special educational needs, such as students with disabilities, were taught separately from students in general education. As legislation has driven the integration of these students into general education classrooms, approaches to inclusive teaching that seek to meet the individual needs of every student have come to…

The purpose of this quantitative within-groups comparative study was to determine if there was a significant difference between the 2019 (pre-COVID-19) and the 2021 (post-COVID-19) third grade Standards of Learning (SOL) reading and math scores in urban Title I elementary schools in a southeastern state. The conceptual framework for this study was…

Computer-based testing is becoming dominant for assessments in education. In New York, students take state assessments, which are now administered digitally. While this transition in technology offers advantages, there are also challenges, including insufficient digital literacy for students to adequately meet the technological demands of the…

Charter schools have been growing in the United States and worldwide over the past two decades, and there is considerable interest in how they affect students remaining in traditional public schools (TPSs). Charter schools present important policy questions, as they often compete for the same students, educators, and resources as TPSs. This brief…

We study a decade of achievement gaps for fifth-, eighth-, and 10th-grade students in Norway using administrative population data. Norway is a wealthy and egalitarian country with a homogeneous educational system, yet achievement gaps between students at the 90th and 10th percentiles of parental income and between students whose parents have at…

Physical activity can meaningfully influence educational outcomes. However, physical activity among youth remains insufficient (World Health Organization, 2018).Youth who are not physically active are more likely to encounter chronic health issues including obesity, depression, and anxiety (Bartelink et al., 2019, Bélair et al., 2018, Krebs,…

It is well-documented that academic achievement is associated with students' self-perceptions of their academic abilities, that is, their academic self-concepts. However, low-achieving students may apply self-protective strategies to maintain a favorable academic self-concept when evaluating their academic abilities. Consequently, the relation…