Background: Early-grade reading proficiency is well documented as in important factor for later academic success. Researchers and educators consider the achievement of reading proficiency by the end of grade three to be crucial to future academic success and financial independence (Hein et al., 2013; La Paro & Pianta, 2000; Singh, 2013). As…

This study examined whether there was a significant difference between the End-of-Course Examination scores (EOC) across multiple academic disciplines between students who participated in sports and those who did not participate in athletics at all in three rural high schools in South Carolina. The theoretical foundation for this study was based…

In most mathematics textbooks, each lesson is followed by a set of homework problems in one of two ways -- blocked practice and mixed practice. Additionally, most mathematics textbooks rely on a common learning strategy called overlearning, that is, mastering a skill and continuing to practice this same skill. This study investigated the effects…

In response to COVID-19, educators rapidly pivoted to new and innovative ways of delivering lecture material. The ability to host synchronous lectures on platforms like Zoom gave students continued access to classroom material in the face of an ongoing pandemic. The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in exam scores between…

Reading comprehension is one of the most valuable academic skills taught in school. Selecting the appropriate assessment instrument to ensure early identification and intervention is important as there is an amalgam of cognitive abilities and academic skills involved in reading comprehension. The GORT-5 is the most recent edition of a test that…

This paper extends existing work on teacher weighting in student-centered surveys by looking into aspects of practical implementation of deriving and using weights for teacher-centered analysis in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). The formal…

The charter school movement encompasses many school models. In Massachusetts in the 2010's, the site of our study, urban charter schools primarily used "No Excuses" practices, whereas nonurban charters had greater model variety. Using randomized admissions lotteries, we estimate the impact of charter schools by locality on college…

Children's math performance is strongly correlated with later life outcomes, but early gaps in math skills are stubbornly difficult to close. It is therefore important to identify student math needs early. Using Grade 1-3 student records from Kentucky public schools, the study finds that typically recommended cut scores for widely used early grade…

Recent advancements in computer graphics and hardware have driven the resurgence of virtual reality (VR). Past literature has reported the use of VR in education, especially for teaching spatially complex concepts. However, there are limited data available on the precise role of VR game design elements. In this study, we introduce a new VR game,…

Local item dependency (LID) occurs when test-takers' responses to one test item are affected by their responses to another. It can be problematic if it causes inflated reliability estimates or distorted person and item measures. The cued-recall reading comprehension test in Hu and Nation's (2000) well-known and influential coverage--comprehension…

In 2022, Advanced Education Research and Development Fund's (AERDF) Reading Reimagined launched the Equitable Foundational Literacy Research (EFLR) cohort, a group of four independently designed and researched instructional pilots aiming to support the foundational literacy skills of students from traditionally underserved populations in Grades…

There is much public concern over the poor math performances of U.S. students compared to other developed countries. In this paper, we consider the role of instruction style in student performance on the math literacy portion of the OECD's PISA exam, specifically looking at the increasingly-popular student-oriented style of classroom instruction…

Computer science, cybersecurity education, and microcredentials are becoming more pervasive in all levels of the educational system. The purpose of this study was partnering with precollegiate teachers: (1) to investigate the self-efficacy of 30 precollegiate teacher participants towards computer science before, during, and after three iterations…

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two types of historical problem-solving instruction with advanced urban high school students' (N = 231) ability to reason with and contextualize historical evidence. Contextualization is a critical heuristic in the process of disciplinary thinking among historians. Yet, prior research…

Counselling practicum is essential to hone the skills and competencies needed. One competency to be had by the prospective counsellors is mind skills, which are metacognition skills to manage their thoughts to give adaptive responses and performance. This study aims to identify the effect of mind skills training on prospective counsellors'…