This policy brief presents evidence demonstrating a positive association between parental involvement in school activities and student performance in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2011. This association, which was evident in most of the 54 education systems analyzed, indicates that students enrolled in schools with…

For the 2013 study, "Evaluation of the i3 Scale-up of Reading Recovery Year One Report, 2011-12," researchers examined the Year 1 impacts of the Investing in Innovation (i3) scale-up of "Reading Recovery"®, a short-term intervention for struggling readers, on the reading achievement of first-grade students. The analytic sample…

The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative study was to explore the effects of teachers' certification on the achievement of African American students. The impetus for this exploration resided in the reading achievement disparities between African American and Caucasian students in the study district. Guided by the principles of total…

Achieve 3000 was implemented during the 2013-2014 school year. This program was designed to increase student Lexile levels. Specifically, Achieve 3000 was targeted at students in the tenth grade in selected schools. There were 5,023 tenth-grade students from 17 participating high schools who utilized the web-based program. Of these 5,023 students,…

Background/Context: The effects of class size on student achievement have gained considerable attention in education research and policy, especially over the last 30 years. Perhaps the best evidence about the effects of class size thus far has been produced from analyses of Project STAR data, a large-scale experiment where students and teachers…

Background: In a previous study, the total, direct and indirect effects of parental education on reading, mathematics and science achievement have been estimated for Grade 4 pupils of 37 countries that participated in PIRLS and TIMSS 2011 studies (Gustafsson et al. in "TIMSS and PIRLS 2011: Relationships among reading, mathematics, and…

In spite of Tea Party criticism, union skepticism, and anti-testing outcries, the campaign to implement Common Core State Standards (otherwise known as Common Core) has achieved phenomenal success in statehouses across the country. Since 2011, 45 states have raised their standards for student proficiency in reading and math, with the greatest…

This article is aimed to study the problems of reading and improve reading culture of students-bachelors of elementary education in modern high institutions and development of the most effective methods and techniques for improving of reading culture of students in the study of Humanities disciplines. The leading method to the study of this…

In this paper, we investigated whether student reading comprehension could be improved with help of a teacher Professional Development (PD) program targeting goals, data use, and instruction. The effect of this PD program on 2nd- and 3rd-grade student achievement was examined using a pretest-posttest control group design. Applying propensity score…

The literature reveals that no adequate instrument exists to measure college students' attitudes toward academic reading even though such attitudes are crucial for reading compliance and learning from text. To remedy this, the authors created and refined an attitude survey, administering it to 855 university students across four iterations. The…

This article contributes to the field of reading assessment in English as a second language (L2). Few reading studies have been carried out at the upper secondary school level, and the present study provides insight into upper secondary school students' L2 reading proficiency. It examines whether such proficiency can be explained by reading…

School-based improvement programs represent a core strategy in improving education because they can leverage pre-existing social and organizational structures to promote coordinated and comprehensive change across multiple facets of schooling. School-based programs are generally designed to be implemented by intact schools/districts, frequently…

In this study, we explored the influence of kindergarten children's perspectives of school on their literacy and self-regulation outcomes. Children's early perspectives were captured in a three-question, finger-puppet interview. Responses to the interview questions were coded thematically as being academic and/or social in nature, and were…

The ability to read print to help maintain independence and quality of life is a primary concern of people with visual impairments. One option for reading is a CCTV (closed-circuit television) or, using a more specific term, electronic magnifier. An electronic magnifier uses a camera to enlarge images onto a screen. The aim of this study was to…

This study examined the achievement trends of advanced learners and the relationship between Illinois' school district characteristics and student performance using Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) scores. The 3rd grade students scoring in the Exceeds category in ISAT reading and math within 707 Illinois school districts during the…