The COVID-19 pandemic has been a seismic and on-going disruption to K-12 schooling. Using test scores from 5.4 million U.S. students in grades 3-8, we tracked changes in math and reading achievement across the first two years of the pandemic. Average fall 2021 math test scores in grades 3-8 were 0.20-27 standard deviations (SDs) lower relative to…

As students are exposed to extreme temperatures with ever-increasing frequency, it is important to understand how such exposure affects student learning. In this paper we draw upon detailed student achievement data, combined with high-resolution weather records, to paint a clear portrait of the effect of temperature on student learning across a…

Education reform in the United States is heavily regulated and has undergone various iterations in the past several decades. With each passing legislation, government mandates and educational initiatives become the focus of reform. School districts must constantly find ways to keep up with increasing state and federal accountability standards.…

State and national school accountability policies situate preventing chronic absenteeism on par with meeting state standardized test benchmarks. We question relying on school attendance as both a component of accountability policies and a means of enhancing equity in schools. Our research suggests out-of-school factors unrelated to missed…

With growing demand for online courses, it is important to assess the efficacy of quality online virtual instruction. This study investigates the impact of Edmentum's Courseware Algebra I on student achievement using data on 1,205 ninth-grade students from a large urban school district in the Midwest during the 2020-2021 school year. Utilizing a…

The problem addressed through this study was the potential effects of the lack of parent participation at individualized education plan (IEP) meetings on students' achievement. The research question in this study examined the relationship between parents of high school students with disabilities (SWD) attendance at annual IEP meetings and…

In this quasi-experimental study, we examined STEMscopes program impacts on science achievement in Longhorn ISD. The report specifically analyzed STEMscopes impacts on STAAR and MAP Growth scores. The present study used a school-level quasi-experimental design, where 8 STEMscopes schools were selected for inclusion and 8 comparison schools (using…

Within the last 100 years, the number of school districts in America has dropped by as much as 90% (Murdock, 2012), from 117,108 in 1939 to 13,452 in 2019 (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2020). Funding and how to provide educational equity, equality, and justice for all is a critical conversation. According to the North Dakota…

Educational research is ubiquitous; however, agreement on best practices is not. Although parents, teachers, students, and communities have a vested interest in students' success, varying practices of what is taught, how it is taught, and to whom it is taught are still debated. This study expands upon work done by Dr. Scott Wurdinger and Dr. Ron…

Like most other states, Missouri uses assessments intended to measure whether students are on a pathway to "college and career readiness." The state longitudinal data system now has the capacity to directly test that claim. We make use of 8th-grade assessment (MAP) scores in Math, Science, and Communication Arts for roughly 260,000…

This quantitative, correlational-predictive study examined the predictive relationship of the NWEA's Map Growth projected proficiency report data with students' STAAR scores in the area of mathematics, using archival data from the 2021-2022 school year. The theoretical foundation for this study was provided by Vygotsky's zone of proximal…

This quantitative study investigates the influence of teachers' emotional intelligence on student achievement in an American curriculum international school setting in Bangkok, Thailand. Amidst concerns over student proficiency levels in the United States and Thailand, the study aimed to identify whether teachers' emotional intelligence is linked…

Edmentum offers a personalized learning platform called Exact Path. This quasi-experimental study, designed to meet ESSA Tier 2 evidence and What Works Clearinghouse standards with reservations, aimed to assess the efficacy of Exact Path in a district from the Midwestern United States. The goal was to provide specific recommendations to educators…

Underachievement in education and the exploration of its factors have been in constant interest in educational research for years. According to McFarland et al., 2017) previously conducted research has found a relationship between family risk factors and negative educational outcomes which include low academic achievement, student retention, and…

State legislators recognized that students in the United States continue to struggle with reading and have begun implementing laws requiring schools to use science of reading-aligned curriculum when teaching reading (Schwartz, 2022). Many students lack the foundational skills to even begin learning how to read in grades K-3 (Kuhfeld et al., 2022).…