An understanding of cross-cultural differences in narratives, particularly in children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, can help clinicians and other professionals distinguish narrative differences from impaired narratives. This study describes similarities and differences in micro-and-macrostructural components in the…

Early onset of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems is associated with persistent and more severe academic, social, and mental health challenges later in life. Understanding the factors that increase children's risk of developing these behavior problems prior to the start of formal school is important for preventing their emergence…

Diverse children's literature can support understandings of our world as culturally, linguistically, and socially rich. It can cultivate empathy and understanding, and open a dialogic space of possibilities. In this article, we examine how "purposefully selected" children's literature prepares needed conditions for dialogic space:…

Children's ability to monitor subjective feelings of uncertainty (i.e., engage in uncertainty monitoring) is a central metacognitive skill. In the current study, we examined the development of uncertainty monitoring as well as its relations with vocabulary and executive function development in children (N = 137, 52% female) from predominately…

The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruption in education across the United States. Prior to the pandemic, students in third grade struggled with low reading proficiency, a difficulty that predicts persistent academic struggles, school dropout, and even delinquency. Districts in South Carolina and around the United States adapted to the…

Children's ability to monitor subjective feelings of uncertainty (i.e., engage in uncertainty monitoring) is a central metacognitive skill. The study examines the development of uncertainty monitoring as well as its relations with vocabulary and executive function development in children (N = 137, 52% female) from predominately White and…

The reading achievement gap between Black and White students was 29 points in Florida, depicting an alarming eight-point increase over that of the United States. Within School District A, the reading achievement gap was over 40% for over 4 years resulting in a district-wide plan for reconciliation and to determine the contributing factors of the…

Federal accountability policy mandates that states administer standardized tests beginning in third grade. In turn, third-grade test scores are often viewed as a key indicator in policy and practice. Yet literacy struggles begin well before third grade, as do racial and socioeconomic disparities in children's literacy skills. Kindergarten…

Using data from a Midwest project, this study examines malleable factors associated with the reduction of language, achievement, and social-emotional development gaps among Black, Latine, and White children at the end of kindergarten. Gaps at the end of kindergarten between Latine and White children in expressive language, and between Black and…

In public schools in Pennsylvania and across the nation an academic achievement gap exists between African American students and their White peers as African American students have consistently performed lower than White students on standardized tests in reading and mathematics (NCES, 2019). Since the achievement gap has persisted for decades,…

This study leverages six years of public prekindergarten (pre-K) and kindergarten data (N = 22,469) from the Boston Public Schools (BPS) to examine enrollment in BPS pre-K from 2012-2017 for students from different racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and linguistic groups. The largest differences in enrollment emerged with respect to race and…

Teachers frequently rate boys as more hyperactive/impulsive than girls and Black children more than White children (DuPaul et al., 2016; Miller et al., 2009). Do these ratings reflect true differences in their behavior? Researchers have compared parent and teacher reports (Miller et al., 2009), but is hard to draw conclusions from such comparisons…

This study investigated associations of three teacher-reported health indicators--hunger, tiredness, and sickness--with kindergarten readiness skills in San Francisco Unified School District (N = 12,423; female = 48%; M[subscript age] = 5.47, SD[subscript age] = 0.30, range[subscript age] = 4.67--7.00; Asian American = 26%, Black = 5%, Latinx =…

The enduring misperception that rural places are homogeneously White may contribute to the underrepresentation of Black students in rural gifted education programs. In this study, we sought to understand this relationship by examining the underrepresentation of Black students in rural gifted education programs through a theoretical framework of…

This qualitative case study investigated how an early childhood teacher and young children in a public White-predominant kindergarten classroom engaged in critical discussions of anti-bias issues including racism, White privilege, gender stereotypes, gender nonconformity, sexism, and homophobia. Through the use of interactive read-alouds using…