A classroom teacher capitalizes on social learning and reader response theories to challenge her accelerated first-grade readers by implementing literature circles. The aim of this action research was to identify a clear view of "how" to use literature circles with first-graders and "what" might be accomplished. Three…

Read-aloud is a technique predominantly utilized at the elementary level. This study was designed to research the effectiveness of this technique at the middle school level, specifically, students who were not receiving special education or additional reading intervention services. For the current investigation, students in two middle schools…

Data from 1,364 children and families who participated in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development were analyzed to track the early correlates and later academic outcomes of planning during middle childhood. Maternal education, through its effect on parenting quality when…

Our study examines the impact of adult mentoring on Black, under-resourced, urban, middle grade students. First, we explore impact of mentoring on grades earned in the context of a comprehensive program which included one-on-one mentoring and an array of out-of-school enrichment activities. We also examine the nature of mentor-mentee engagement…

Despite data supporting the benefits of early reading interventions, there has been little evaluation of the long-term educational impact of these interventions, with most follow-up studies lasting less than 2 years (Suggate, 2010). This study evaluated reading outcomes more than a decade after the completion of an 8-month reading intervention…

Many tests used in educational settings to identify learning difficulties endeavour to pick up only the lowest performers. Yet these tests are generally developed within a Classical Test Theory (CTT) paradigm that assumes that data do not have significant skew. Rasch analysis is more tolerant of skew and was used to validate two newly developed…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if collective student trust functions as a resource for urban elementary students. Methods: Data from 1,646 students nested in 56 elementary schools in an urban school district were used to test the hypothesized effect of collective student trust on school identification, self-regulated…

This small scale study examined gender differences in self-efficacy. 24 girls and 28 boys aged between 10 and 12 years completed self-efficacy questionnaires and attainment tests. The study was conducted in two primary school classrooms in England and the results indicated that gender differences in self-efficacy were significant with boys holding…

Despite the prevalence of charter schools in the United States, few experimental studies evaluate the impact of charter school attendance on students in the early elementary grades. Using data from a randomized lottery in which kindergarten students and their parents applied to two oversubscribed and well-established charter schools in Denver,…

Background: Most psychologists who study children's reading assume that their hypotheses are relevant to children's success at school. This assumption is rarely tested. Aims: The study's aims were to see whether two successful measures of the processes underlying children's learning to read and write are related to their…

The authors examined the impact of a supplemental reading course on 462 sixth-grade students' reading engagement and performance as compared with 389 students in a control group. They further explored students' cognitive strategy use through think aloud processes with a subset of students who participated in the intervention.…

Reading literacy is the main focus of the international comparative study of PISA 2009 (OECD, "PISA 2009 results: What students know and can do: Student performance in reading, mathematics and science," 2010a) based on the results of which 65 economies were arranged in a league table. PISA also gathers background information which…

Class size and student achievement have been debated for decades. The vast amount of research on this topic is either conflicting or inconclusive. There are large and small scale studies that support both sides of this dilemma (Achilles, Nye, Boyd-Zaharias, Fulton, & Cain, 1994; Glass & Smith, 1979; Slavin, 1989). Class size reduction is a…

Known as "the Nation's Report Card," the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the U. S. Government assessment used since the late 1960s to measure student achievement in many subject areas, including mathematics, reading, science, and United States history. Different subject areas are assessed each year, and data have…

Middle school students who struggle in reading are likely to also experience difficulty in their other subjects in school. A variety of reading intervention programs exist for schools to utilize to increase reading comprehension. The Scholastic READ 180 program is used as part of this study. This small, focused study of 160 students examined the…