Florida, from 1971 to 2014 has used the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) as a yearly accountability tool throughout the education system in the state (Bureau of K-12 Assessment, 2005). Schools use their own assessments to determine if students are making progress throughout the year. In one school district within Florida, Performance…

Reading skill is important to improve children's higher-order thinking skills. But PISA reading results show that children in Turkey are not sufficient for this skill. That's why this study aimed to investigate the cognitive levels of reading outcomes included in the Turkish course curriculum in terms of The Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes…

Recently, the use of information and communications technology (ICT) at school has been extensively increased in Finland. This study investigated whether the use of ICT at school is linked to students 'learning outcomes in Finland. We used the Finnish PISA 2015 data (N=5037). Cognitive learning outcomes (i.e. science, mathematics, reading,…

Low levels of mathematics and reading skills are associated with a range of negative outcomes in life, including reduced employment and earnings, and poor health. This review examines the impact of a broad range of school-based interventions that specifically target students with or at risk of academic difficulties in Grades K-6. The students in…

Why do certain students thrive when facing adversity while others languish? In the mindset theory, growth mindset is opposed to fixed mindset, and could explain why some people fulfil their potential and others do not. With the COVID pandemic dragging on, having a growth mindset may be even more critical. For students who are able to set their own…

Although the majority of elementary school teachers are in self-contained classrooms and teach all major subjects, a growing number of teachers specialize in teaching fewer subjects to higher numbers of students. We use administrative data from Indiana to estimate the effect of teacher specialization on teacher and school effectiveness in…

The purpose of this convergent mixed methods research study was to determine if teacher instructional practices implemented after receiving job-embedded professional development through instructional coaching impact student reading achievement scores in an urban elementary school setting in which the school district faces the impact of poverty. In…

Early literacy skills are key indicators of later reading success. Without the development of these prerequisite skills during early childhood, children are at risk for reading difficulties in elementary grades and beyond. By third grade, the gap between expected reading performance and actual reading proficiency is extensive and remains into…

Background: Little is known about how fine motor skills (FMS) relate to early literacy skills, especially over and above cognitive variables. Moreover, a lack of distinction between FMS, grapho-motor and writing skills may have hampered previous work. Method: In Germany, kindergartners (n = 144, aged 6;1) were recruited before beginning formal…

Background/Context: Increased interest in the correlates of media devices available to children has led to research indicating that access to and use of technology are positively associated with children's academic achievement. However, the digital divide remains; not all children have access to digital technologies, and not all children can…

The primary aim of this study was to assess the relations between concurrent, cumulative, and contextual intradistrict school mobility and early reading achievement. Longitudinal administrative school records were used for an entire cohort of students in a large urban district from first through third grade. Findings indicated that students with a…

Recent simulations suggest that trend line decision rules applied to curriculum-based measurement of reading progress monitoring data may lead to inaccurate interpretations unless data are collected for upward of 3 months. The authors of those studies did not manipulate goal line slope or account for a student's level of initial performance when…

This paper is part of a wider survey in which we identify groups of readers aged 10 to 11. The paper presents the findings on the observed affective variables (attitude and motivational) of different groups of readers. The results show that individual's attitude towards reading has the impact on reading comprehension and vice versa, better reading…

Interventions can enhance students' motivation for reading, but few researchers have assessed the effects of the specific motivation-enhancing practices that comprise these interventions. Even fewer have evaluated how students' perceptions of different intervention practices impact their later motivation and academic outcomes. In this study, we…

Many disadvantaged students with refractive errors, such as myopia (nearsightedness) and hyperopia (farsightedness), do not have eyeglasses, and their reduced vision may impact reading proficiency. Providing eyeglasses may increase their reading success. This article reports the findings of a study in Baltimore City in which disadvantaged second…