A national-level dataset (n = 7770) at grade 1 of primary school is re-analyzed to study preconditions in proficiency in mathematical concepts, operations and mathematical abstractions and thinking. The focus is on those pupils whose preconditions are so low that they are below the first measurable level of proficiency in the common framework with…

While the relationship between school socioeconomic composition and student academic outcomes is well established, knowledge about differential effects is not extensive. In particular, little is known whether the relationship differs for students with varying levels of academic performance. We examined whether the school socioeconomic composition…

Measures of student disadvantage--or risk--are critical components of equity-focused education policies. However, the risk measures used in contemporary policies have significant limitations, and despite continued advances in data infrastructure and analytic capacity, there has been little innovation in these measures for decades. We develop a new…

This study analyzed the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2011 data on fourth-grade U.S. students' mathematics performance to answer four research questions: (a) How did U.S. students' geometry performance compare with their performance on the other mathematics subscales? (b) What were the patterns of student achievement among…

The study examined the relationships between reading comprehension and measures of lower level comprehension skills (vocabulary, grammar, and word processing) and a higher level comprehension skill (inference making), to determine if these measures of higher and lower level comprehension skills predicted different levels of variance in reading…

This paper aims to explore and quantify the reading achievement of primary school students from three different regions in rural China. Using survey data on 23,143 students from Shaanxi, Guizhou, and Jiangxi provinces, we find although gaps in student reading achievement exist among the three sample provinces, all sample students exhibit low…

In this paper, the authors consider how Carol Dweck's concept of growth mindset has been misconceptualised. They explore the proposition that agency is an important aspect of growth mindset and that the effects of hard work by children is reduced when agency is limited. They draw on qualitative data from 84 interviews with 23 participant children…

Background: The educational resources that parents provide at home are crucial to their children's development. In this study, we focused on home reading environment, a key contributor to success rates regarding the mastery of reading skills. We aimed to investigate students' home reading environments and examine its effect on the reading…

Does a teachable agent influence the uptake or neglect of 'critical constructive feedback' and learning within a digital environment? 285 middle-school students engaged with a history learning game in a 2x2 study design. One dimension was inclusion of a teachable agent. Orthogonal was whether critical constructive feedback was presented…

The project-based learning (PBL) paradigm is one of the most valuable student-centered approaches. In the PBL framework, novices actively participate directly in teaching and learning processes and interact with erudition areas. The setting for this qualitative study is an inner-city Title One school located in Columbia, South Carolina. The eleven…

Over recent decades, a challenge faced in public schools in the United States is the appropriate education of students with disabilities (SWDs) in inclusive classrooms. The problem this study addressed is that, despite the implementation of inclusive practices, SWDs in a small rural school district in Virginia have low achievement rates. The…

In Cambodia, just over four per cent of the population aged 6-14 and two and a half per cent of the population aged 15-24 have never attended school; in addition, dropout also remains an issue. To provide a second chance for these groups, the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) established an equivalency programme (EP), at…

This article reports on a study using data from nation-wide standardised examinations in Poland. We analysed the extent to which grade 9 student achievements have depended on the stability of their peer group over the course of middle school. We controlled for the fixed effects of schools attended by the students, as well as for individual…

In this study, the relationship between gaming, social media and internet addiction, which are within the scope of technology addiction, and school achievement and study behavior was examined. The sample of the study consisted of 240 students studying in grades 5-8 of 4 schools in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The study was designed in the comparative…

The learning crisis in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is significantly marked by a high degree of heterogeneity in student learning outcomes. Such variations, extending across student abilities, backgrounds, and learning speeds, are believed to be partly a result of teachers failing to devote sufficient attention to students who are…