This study investigated the impact of school closures for COVID-19 on the attainment of pupils in Key Stage 1 in reading and math, and on the gap between the attainment of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged children. It explored pupils' attainment compared with pre-pandemic samples, as well as any changes in attainment over the course of the…

This brief is a continuation of NWEA's ongoing research agenda focused on understanding how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected student reading and math outcomes. This report builds on previous findings to examine students' academic progress at the start of the third school year impacted by the pandemic. The goal of this brief is to summarize…

Over the last decade, community colleges in Tennessee have reimagined remediation. More than half of first-time students at Tennessee community colleges require remediation upon enrolling. Colleges provide these students with "learning support" in key gateway courses. To meet the needs of each student, Tennessee community colleges have…

The closure of equity gaps is a foundational component of the work of Tennessee community colleges. According to the Tennessee Board of Regents' (TBR) equity policy, this commitment means "ensuring that each student has access to a high-quality education and that each student receives what they need to be successful through the intentional…

This cluster randomized controlled trial investigated the impact of project-based learning with professional development supports on social studies and literacy achievement and motivation of second-grade students from low-socioeconomic status school districts. At random in within-school pairs, 48 teachers were assigned to the experimental or…

The Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on the legality of racial preferences, in part thanks to a lawsuit against Harvard College alleging that the school discriminates against Asian-Americans. Proving discrimination at a specific school is an arduous task, requiring access to private, detailed admissions records--as the legal documents in that…

Teachers in Nevada have faced the problem of providing consistent, effective literacy instruction to elementary students, which impacts overall student achievement; only 48.3% of students in Clark County, Nevada were proficient in English Language Arts (ELA) in the 2018-2019 school year. This problem was explored from a case study perspective…

In this paper the authors report on a literacy development intervention in a state, primary farm school in Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN), South Africa. Volunteers, who named themselves the "Reading Grannies" were invited by the principal and teachers to model reading in English to learners and teachers who were non-primary speakers of English.…

At an international level, teachers' work is increasingly circumscribed and regulated. Notions of accountability have shifted from primarily inputs to primary outcomes, and investment in strengthening teacher performance evaluation has expanded. At the same time, investment in enhancing the quality of teacher education programs is contested in…

The Reading and Me Survey (R&MS) measures reading self-perceptions and enjoyment of reading of intermediate elementary students and parallels the Math & Me Survey (M&MS). We examined its psychometric properties through content validation, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and reliability and…

Academic buoyancy is a construct relevant to the schooling lives of students, defining how they overcome or 'bounce back' from everyday academic adversity. The present study was correlational in design and examined academic buoyancy in 191 upper primary-aged students, focusing on its association with reading and mathematics performance, and the…

In an age of increased accountability and high-stakes testing, educators continuously seek to locate quality reading intervention curricula intended to improve students' reading performances. Yet, the basics-first emphasis commonly associated with reading intervention curricula may result in districts assigning reading intervention that helps…

Although research indicates that motivation influences reading development and achievement, studies examining the motivation of primary-age readers are scarce and limited. Assuming school experiences play a role in shaping motivation, it is imperative that younger children's motivation to read within the context of reading intervention programs be…

In the current study, we examined how student characteristics and cognitive skills, differing levels of text complexity (cohesion, decoding, vocabulary, and syntax), and reading comprehension question types (literal, inferential, critical analysis, and reading strategy) affected different types of reading outcomes (multiple-choice reading…

The theory of peer effect posits that students who find themselves in the company of high or low performing peers tend to exhibit better academic performance than what is solely attributable to their own individual characteristics. In this study, we investigate peer effects within literacy achievement among Trinidadian and Tobagonian youth, using…