If children fail to understand test instructions, measurements of their competence may be unfair and invalid. This is especially relevant for students with special educational needs (SEN) because they face greater challenges in comprehending instructions. Two interventions were designed to facilitate the comprehension of test requirements by…

Research on the acquisition of foreign languages by at-risk students has primarily focused on the Linguistic Coding Deficit Hypothesis (Horwitz, 2000). Recently, there has been a growing discussion regarding the effects of learning style rigidity (Castro, 2006; Castro and Peck, 2005; Corbitt, 2011; Sparks, 2006) and metacognitive awareness…

The authors examined the predictive nature of attentional biases and initial grade point average of ninth graders dropping out of high school. Attentional biases are cognitive shifts in focus that are linked in both time and context toward stimuli perceived by an individual as threatening. Data were collected from 68 high school freshmen (45.6%…

Seventy-five percent of third grade students who are at-risk will continue to struggle with reading through the years into adulthood, never to recover their potential reading development. Once less-skilled third grade readers reach ninth grade, one in six students are four times more likely to leave high school before receiving a diploma than…

In response to stagnant undergraduate completion rates and growing demands for post-secondary accountability, institutions are actively pursuing effective, broadly applicable methods for promoting student success. One notable scarcity in existing research is found in the tailoring of broad academic interventions to better meet the specific needs…

Mounting public concern about a school-to-prison pipeline has put schools and districts under increasing pressure to reduce their use of suspensions, expulsions and arrests. Many are turning to restorative justice practices (RJP) as a promising alternative for addressing school discipline and improving school climate. However, implementing RJP in…

Homelessness is an increasing epidemic afflicting the United States. Of the millions of homeless in the United States, over two million are children (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2009; Slesnick, Dashora, Letcher, Erden, & Serocivh, 2009). It is reported that over 1.2 million of homeless students are enrolled in public schools…

On May 4, 2017, the United States House of Representatives narrowly passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA) as a repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Independent analyses of the AHCA show that it would leave 23 million more people uninsured by 2026, and make coverage less comprehensive and affordable for millions more. Many…

This report describes preliminary work in support of an early childhood needs assessment for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children prenatal to age five. The report presents the process and findings from implementing Design One--describing the population of AI/AN children and families and their participation in early childhood services…

This report compared the academic achievement of prekindergarten students who were enrolled in Houston Independent School District (HISD) early childhood centers (ECC) during the 2015-2016 school year to their peers who attended school-based programs. Academic achievement was measured on the HISD CIRCLE English and Spanish language, literacy, and…

This evaluation compared mean scores and proficiency levels on the 2016--2017 CIRCLE English and Spanish language, literacy, and mathematics assessments between students enrolled in Early Childhood Centers (EECs) with their School-based Program (SBP) peers. The evaluation helped to determine whether there were observable differences in academic…

"TNTP Teaching Fellows" is a highly selective route to teacher certification that aims to prepare people to teach in high-need public schools. The program recruits professionals seeking to change careers and recent college graduates who are not certified teachers. "TNTP Teaching Fellows" expects its participants to teach for…

Facilitating the learning and engagement of students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in any classroom can be challenging. In this study, we examined the use of online daily behaviour report card (DBRC) to decrease off-task behaviour in students with ADHD who were studying at a public school for at-risk youths in Singapore.…

While most early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs taken to scale in the United States have served socially disadvantaged 3- to 5-years-olds, Norway scaled up universal ECEC from age 1. We investigated the consequences of Norway's universal ECEC scale-up for children's early language skills, exploiting variation in ECEC coverage across…

Adopting an asset-based and resilience-building framework, the present study examines the effects of out-of-school activities on advancing the academic achievement, leadership skills, and service orientation of youth of color placed at risk who attended one of over 60 independent urban middle schools that follow the NativityMiguel model of…