This report is intended to provide a snapshot of the children in the ECLS-K:2011 cohort who were in kindergarten for the first time in the 2010-11 school year and in fourth grade 4 years later during the spring of 2015. About 88 percent of children enrolled in kindergarten in 2010-11 were in kindergarten for the first time that school year and…

A continued lapse in reading achievement of minority and at-risk elementary school students continues to be a great concern for educators. Servant leadership theory is based on the principle of service and placing the needs of others first. Third through fifth grade elementary school teachers from one of the larger districts in central Arkansas…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of virtual literature circles (VLCs) on Chinese university English as a foreign language (EFL) students' independent English reading. The importance of independent reading for EFL students to develop critical thinking, language proficiency, and good readership was extensively discussed and…

Socio-economic status (SES) differences in parenting are often implicated in widening the SES-achievement gap. Using nationally representative data (N = 12,887), this study tests for variation across SES in the types and intensity of parenting behaviors utilized and then examines SES differences in the relationship between parenting and student…

The objective of this retrospective study was to determine if second grade Stanford 10 (SAT10) reading and/or language scale scores were predictive of AIMS reading outcomes in third grade, thereby providing a means to identify third grade students at risk of retention in accordance with Arizona's (MOWR) legislation. Early identification of…

Objectives/Background: Objectives were to (1) examine previous night's sleep in relation to next day performance on standardized academic achievement and neurocognitive assessments in adolescents, and (2) explore whether previous night's sleep is differentially associated with testing performance for adolescents with and without…

This dissertation is comprised of three studies using restricted data from the ECLS-K:1998 to address the questions who is placed in special education? and what happens after they are placed? Though these questions have been extensively studied, existing research has largely ignored the intersection of longitudinal developmental pathways and…

With the release of the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) results, concerns that reading scores of U.S. students have remained flat for the past decade have surfaced again along with suggestions about the source of this problem and how it might be remedied. The…

Research shows that Black and Latino students continue to perform significantly below their white counterparts in academic achievement. How school leaders support teachers who work with the Black and Latino students comprising this gap was the premise of this study. This study was conducted to understand the role of school leaders in supporting…

The purpose of this study was to explore how leadership approaches can inform and direct the way leadership is practiced in elementary schools. In this study, the researcher examined the impact of leadership approaches on the sustainability of the implementation of the Reading Recovery program regarding reading achievement. Early primary school…

Although numerous studies have examined if students of color benefit from having a teacher of the same race/ethnicity, all attention has been paid to students without disabilities. We examine whether the same benefits hold for students with disabilities (SWDs). Using a nationally representative data set of kindergartners, we explored whether SWDs…

The book-gifting programme, the Letterbox Club, was developed as a response to the increased interest in ways of improving the educational outcomes of children in out-of-home care. By reporting quantitative and qualitative findings from a Swedish trial, and compiling findings from previous British evaluations, the purpose of this paper is to…

The Attachment Aware Schools (AAS) project was a targeted and collaborative intervention between academics and school-based practitioners. The aim of the project was to promote practitioner awareness of attachment in relation to child behaviours and learning. It focused on using relational-based strategies and interventions to address the needs of…

Two studies were conducted of students with and without persisting Specific Learning Disabilities (SLDs-WL) in Grades 4 to 9 (M = 11 years, 11 months) that supported the hypotheses that CELF 4 parent ratings for listening (language by ear), speaking (language by mouth), reading (language by eye), and writing (language by hand) were correlated with…

In this critique, race is centralized to draw attention to the role it plays in the complex evolution of response to intervention, past and present. I use a critical race theory analytical lens to focus on how the dominant narrative serves as a framework within institutional and political structures in support of the approach. A brief overview of…