This article asserts that a carefully administered informal reading inventory (IRI) provides important information on low-achieving readers that is "not" provided by an end-of-grade standardized reading test. Using case studies of students' IRI performance, we address the concept of instructional level and the necessity of teaching low…

This study investigates how young elementary children engage with conceptions of gender in connection to video gameplay in the language arts classroom. During a three-week unit on video game literacies in a multiage lab school, children learned about, played, discussed, and wrote about video games. Student writing, game reviews, and literature…

In 2013, a school district located in the northeastern region of the US implemented the Reading Street Common Core Program (RS), a highly structured and scripted reading program. The problem was that the program had an uneven effect on elementary level student reading achievement at Title 1 schools in the district. This qualitative case study…

Integrating biology and mathematics can potentially solve problems associated with students' inability to solve quantitative biology problems. To face this issue, we embarked on a project to develop biological and mathematical content-based comics for elementary school students. It would assist them in gaining early comfort with transdisciplinary…

In this paper, we present a computerized tool developed specifically for a study that examined the development of creative thinking among third and fourth graders, following multidisciplinary instruction that combined mathematics and music. The computerized tool included closed and open questions. The closed questions allowed the students to…

The purpose of this article is to share a family literacy activity geared particularly for the K-6 level in which parents share with teachers valuable knowledge about their children's cultural backgrounds. This multicultural bookmaking activity, a family literacy approach, builds critical cultural understandings between parents, teachers, and…

Children ages 6-7 and 9-10 and emerging adults (n = 115) judged whether a character should approach a group of peers when they had a gender-neutral, gender-norm-consistent, or gender-norm-inconsistent activity. They also provided justifications and judgments about whether the character would be teased. Approaching peers with a…

Science scores among US fourth-grade students have declined compared to their international counterparts in recent years. Recent results show that teachers are the most impactful influence on student success and accountability. Teacher preparedness and professional development are two key areas that serve as indicators of providing relevant and…

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of IXL Math in an elementary school context, using a randomized-control trial (RCT). This study examined mathematics achievement trajectories of 545 Grades 3-5 students across four elementary schools in a small Michigan school district during the 2022-23 school year. Teachers were randomly…

Context: As schools themselves became held accountable for absences, researchers and policymakers have consequently focused on what at school might be driving absenteeism and what are the consequences. Yet overall, research on classrooms and absenteeism remains sparse. What has been established is that absent students negatively affect their…

Conceptual replications are part and parcel of education science. Methodologically rigorous conceptual replication studies permit researchers to test and strengthen the generalizability of a study's initial findings. The current conceptual replication sought to replicate the efficacy of a small-group, first-grade mathematics intervention with 240…

This paper discusses a class of phenomena called a "responsible decision", a type of decision making in which the choice between behavioural capabilities is determined by the alternative values that lie behind them. Using Vygotksy's theory of cultural and historical development, this paper posits that the process of a child's…

Although teacher-student relationships are assumed to in part reflect early caregiving quality, their social provisions also undergo notable normative change over the course of primary school, shifting from a secure base for social exploration to an instrumental relationship centered on achieving academic goals. This report leveraged prospective,…

This paper describes elementary students' awareness and representation of the aggregate properties and variability of data sets when engaged in predictive reasoning. In a design study, 46 third-graders interpreted a table of historical temperature data to predict and represent future monthly maximum temperatures. The task enabled students to…

Creativity is an understudied topic in elementary school mathematics research. Nevertheless, we argue that creativity plays an important role in mathematics, but that more research is needed to understand this relation. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate this relation, specifically between domain-general creativity, domain-specific…