The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of the reading platform Actively Learn affected the reading engagement, reading comprehension, and vocabulary achievement of secondary students. The area of secondary reading achievement has seen no significant improvement over the past four decades (National Center for Educational Statistics,…

Accurate understanding of environmental moderation of genetic influences is vital to advancing the science of cognitive development as well as for designing interventions. One widely-reported idea is increasing genetic influence on cognition for children raised in higher socioeconomic status families, including recent proposals that the pattern is…

In May 2016, an invitational symposium on the Reading for Understanding (RfU) initiative was held in Alexandria, Virginia. Co-hosted by ETS and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the symposium brought together some 160 state and local education leaders to examine the results of the Reading for Understanding Initiative. The goal of…

The purpose of this qualitative, case study was to understand how the four-day school week influenced a school district in Northern Arizona, over five years. Research Questions 1 through 3 addressed district performance including teacher/staff and student attendance, achievement on the state assessment in reading and math, and costs on utilities.…

Decades of research have noted the importance of parent involvement in students' academic success. Less is known about parent engagement models that aim to increase Latino students' reading achievement. This project study examined the effectiveness of a 2-year parent engagement program implemented to address poor reading achievement of Latino…

Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is a large-scale comparison of the reading performance of Year 4 students in 50 countries, and Year 4 was chosen because it is the point in schooling where most students transition from 'learning to read' to 'reading to learn'. As the essential nature of their relationship with reading…

The purpose of this quantitative casual-comparative research was to provide educators data pertaining to reading and the influence of classroom instructional setting on reading test scores. This study investigated if learning in a departmentalized instructional setting had a subsequent positive effect on fifth grade students' reading achievement…

Over the past 35 years, the public education system in the United States has undergone large-scale changes to improve student achievement, yet students' scores on standardized assessments have remained relatively flat (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2013). The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between teachers'…

The purpose of this study was to examine if a relationship existed between two schools with regard to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and the growth scores from the Northwest Evaluation Assessment (NWEA). The research questions that guided this study were: (a) To what extent, if any, will students that have STEM intervention one…

School mobility increases the likelihood that students will experience low academic achievement, more discipline infractions, absenteeism, grade retention, and a higher propensity to drop out of high school compared to students who are nonmobile. The purpose of this quantitative ex post facto study was to examine the cognitive and behavioral…

Reading Recovery is an example of a widely used early literacy intervention for struggling first-grade readers, with a research base demonstrating evidence of impact. With funding from the U.S. Department of Education's i3 program, researchers conducted a 4-year evaluation of the national scale-up of Reading Recovery. The evaluation included an…

Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking en Español, or iSTART-E, is a new intelligent tutoring system (ITS) that provides reading comprehension strategy training for Spanish speakers. This paper reports on studies evaluating the efficacy of iSTART-E in real-world classrooms in two different Spanish-speaking countries. In…

The 35th edition of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's "KIDS COUNT"® Data Book examines the unprecedented declines in student math and reading proficiency brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on education. The latest data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress reveals that between 2019 and 2022, fourth-grade reading…

Significant racial and ethnic achievement gaps exist between students in the U.S. by elementary school, although the underlying causes for these achievement gaps differ. One factor for racial/ethnic achievement gaps is between-group differences in socioeconomic status (SES), particularly exposure to poverty. Moreover, other factors contributing to…

This annual report highlights information on school performance and improvement in Hawaii's public schools. The report profiles academic events, trends, and outcomes. Featured are tables and figures related to demographic, financial, and educational performance. Also, comparisons to other states with relevant characteristics similar to Hawaii are…