The present study explores the validity of inferences that may be drawn from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) learner achievement data by measuring the South African curriculum-TIMSS alignment for the Grade 8 science assessments from 2007 to 2019. The Singapore curriculum--TIMSS alignment indices are a fair…

Pre-service mathematics teachers (PSTs) may hold different beliefs about school mathematics and university mathematics and different beliefs about teaching mathematics between high-achieving (HA) vs. low-achieving (LA) classes. Because of the differentiation, the beliefs relationship is complex. This quantitative study administered a questionnaire…

The COVID-19 pandemic closed schools across the country, limiting access to instruction and resulting in learning loss. In this article, we define learning loss and describe the history and complexity of its impact on students.

Mathematics, by nature, has a spiral structure. The fact that the students fail to acquire an achievement in the mathematics course negatively affects other achievements. Therefore, students' mathematics failure continues exponentially. In this context, it is important to identify and eliminate students' weaknesses, if any, with the formative…

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…

Background: Expectancy-value theory posits that higher levels of utility-value yield better achievement outcomes. Much of the existing research on utility value has focused on the individual as the unit of analysis. Person-culture fit theory, however, suggests that it is also important to consider the fit between the person and the broader society…

Reading engagement is a strong predictor of students' reading outcomes, but its consistent positive effects across diverse student groups remain unclear. Research on the reading engagement of multilingual adolescents is notably limited. We investigated the interactions of affective and cognitive dimensions of reading engagement in relation to…

There is growing evidence that investment in school facilities, and new school construction in particular, can improve K-12 student outcomes, particularly for low-income students. Funding for school infrastructure, however, is inequitably distributed. Moreover, given a lack of national data on school facilities, researchers have focused on…

We examined the efficacy of two interventions aiming to strengthen argumentative text comprehension in Greek secondary students with specific reading disability or low reading achievement of unspecified cause. The first intervention (control group, n = 29) was based on principles of systematic explicit instruction, whereas in the second one…

Previous research has indicated that attitudes influence various factors contributing to scientific achievement. Inadequate performance in science can limit career opportunities, underscoring the importance of comprehending how attitudes towards science can enhance overall scientific achievement. This study explored the mediating effect of…

The integration of various programming languages into the undergraduate engineering curriculum often occurs without adequate evaluation of their effectiveness within specific disciplines. Recently, Python and MATLAB have garnered significant attention as preferred languages for teaching subjects such as image processing and computer vision.…

Growth-to-standard models evaluate student growth against the growth needed to reach a future standard or target of interest, such as proficiency. A common growth-to-standard model involves comparing the popular Student Growth Percentile (SGP) to Adequate Growth Percentiles (AGPs). AGPs follow from an involved process based on fitting a series of…

The use of SMS messaging for education has grown in recent years, with particular attention recently during the Covid-19 pandemic. Mobile phones often have high levels of ownership in low-income contexts compared to computers, and lower connectivity requirements, which arguably make this a more equitable medium than data-heavy online instruction,…

While half of public school students in Colorado identify as students of color, 85 percent of the state's teachers are White, predominantly monolingual English-speaking women. During the 2024-25 school year, approximately 70 out of 178 school districts had no teachers of color. Sixty-two percent of Colorado school districts do not employ a single…

Background: Comparative educational research has studied inequality in educational outcomes through large-scale assessments like PISA and TIMSS, by identifying achievement gaps within social groups (e.g., gender, parental education, and immigrant gaps) to inform investment in intervention programs and educational policies. However, the focus of…