Background and context: Despite the growing importance of computer science (CS) education, high-quality CS curricula for students in kindergarten to lower elementary grades are lacking. It is also unclear how students from underrepresented groups such as female students, students from low socioeconomic status, and students with disability respond…

Researchers in educational measurement use Differential Item Functioning (DIF) to examine whether test items are functioning uniquely across subgroups of test participants while taking into account their ability level. DIF is essential for test validity arguments, thus making it a necessary part of validity studies. This study examines DIF across…

Beginning in the fall of 2017, Maryland severely restricted the use of out-of-school suspensions in grades PK-2. The policy presented a valuable opportunity to examine the effects of state-level discipline policies. This study researched the effects of the suspension ban on student discipline outcomes (e.g., number and frequency of different…

We examined the associations of cognitive skills, math-related emotions and beliefs, and gender with responses to an arithmetic fluency intervention. Elementary school children with dysfluent arithmetic skills (N=69) participated in an arithmetic fluency intervention (with and without self-efficacy support) implemented in small groups in schools…

This research uses the implementation of a school suspension ban in Maryland to test whether a top-down state-initiated ban on suspensions in early primary grades can influence school behavior regarding school discipline. Beginning in the fall of 2017, the State of Maryland banned the use of out-of-school suspensions for grades PK-2, unless a…

It is important for teachers to be able to accurately assess students' performance. Such judgments can be influenced by characteristics of the student Südkamp et al. (J Educ Psychol 104:743-762, 2012. 10.1037/a0027627). Besides students' actual performance, students' group characteristics (e.g., gender or immigration background) may effect…

Background: Attitudes of classmates has been considered as one of the major problems in inclusive education, negatively influencing the participation of students with disability in school contexts. The goal of this study was to examine Italian typically developing children's attitudes towards their peers with disabilities. Method: In a sample of…

The purpose of this study is to develop tests for monitoring the number sense skills of primary school students based on proficiency definitions and to compare their number sense skills according to gender, school type, and mother's educational level. The first stage addressed to test development in which anchor items were used for vertical…

We examine separate and combined effects of children's body size and gender on school bullying victimization in the United States. Second-grade data for the 2012/13 school year from the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort, 2011 were analyzed, hierarchical generalized logistic modeling was used, and three forms of school…

All but seven U.S. states have laws that govern some aspects of dyslexia screening, intervention, or teacher training in public schools. However, in the three states that mandate child-level reporting, data indicate lower than expected rates of dyslexia identification when compared with commonly accepted dyslexia prevalence rates. To better…

The Pediatric Symptom Checklist-17 was originally used in primary care settings with parents to identify their children's behavioral and emotional problems, but there has been some research supporting use of this scale in school settings. This study examined: (a) the factor structure and measurement invariance of the teacher-rated Pediatric…

We investigated the associations between teacher-rated and direct assessments of early elementary students' speech and language skills to explore whether using teachers as primary screeners yielded assessment data that reliably identified young students with language difficulties who many need a more comprehensive evaluation. We assessed first-…

In this paper we use data from students who participated in the oversubscribed Boston Public Schools (BPS) prekindergarten program as a window into variation in the program's medium-term effects. We first examine whether, for the sample of students who applied to oversubscribed BPS prekindergarten programs, there is variation in the effects of the…

The purpose of this study was to identify an indicator that the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) could use to measure the percentage of entering kindergarteners who are on-track to read on grade level by the end of grade 3. To develop the indicator, this study examined relationships between student scores on SDP's different assessments that…

Many children with behavior problems perform poorly academically and can disrupt regular classroom instruction. Although good classroom management strategies can benefit children with behavior problems, it is not clear whether these students need consistently good classroom management across the early elementary school years to improve their…