School accountability and high-stakes testing often shift classroom focus from the use of engaging learning activities that promote critical thinking and creativity to simple test preparation practices. Using brain research as a guide, educators may be able to improve test scores, while still providing a balanced education that promotes critical…

The purpose of this study was to see if second grade students who were taught by teachers trained in choice theory/reality therapy (CT/RT) methods had higher achievement scores in mathematics/reading compared to students who were taught by teachers who were not trained. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model suggests that…

Literacy development is one of the most accurate predictors of academic success with motivation to read being a central component of that development. The documented decrease in reading motivation in adolescence is concerning for educators because of the strong association between reading motivation and reading performance. This motivational…

Issues related to full-time inclusive programs have been particularly controversial for elementary students with learning disabilities. The nature of this controversy has changed substantially over the last decade, given the emphasis on high stakes accountability for all students in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and IDEA 2004. In spite of…

The relationship among WMC (working memory capacity), reading performance and academic achievement is both logically and theoretically undisputable. However, what may not be as obvious is that such capacity and performance, and as a result, achievement, could be higher among ECBL (early childhood bilingual) students. To reaffirm the obvious and…

Over the past five years, both DC Public Schools (DCPS) and public charter schools (PCS) have seen significant growth in secondary reading and math scores on the state test known as the District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System (DC CAS). However, scores have not improved as much at the elementary level. Reading and math scores for DCPS…

This study developed a new survey of teachers' knowledge about early reading and examined the effects of teachers' knowledge on students' reading achievement in Grades 1 to 3 in a large sample of Michigan schools. Using statistical models that controlled for teachers' personal and professional characteristics, students' prior reading achievement,…

The development of interest in reading and its relationship to reading ability was examined longitudinally in 117 children in Grades 1-3. Interest in reading was measured by eight items from the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey. Less able readers had lower interest in reading, but their development was parallel to that of more able readers.…

The TOEFL[R] iBT has increased the length of each reading passage to better approximate academic reading at North American universities, resulting in a reduction in the number of passages on the reading section of the test. One of the concerns brought about by this change is whether the decrease in topic variety increases the likelihood that an…

The purpose of this study was to examine teacher qualification factors believed to affect reading achievement of students with disabilities in intensive reading classes after controlling for certain student and teacher demographics using ANCOVA. Results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the reading…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress statistics show that boys are underachieving in literacy compared to girls. Attempts to redress the problem in various Global North countries and particularly Australia and the United Kingdom have failed to make any impact. However, there are boys who are doing well in literacy. The aim of this…

The authors studied more than 1 million Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) and White seventh graders in a statewide California testing program between 2003 and 2008, examining their reading and math achievement. AAPI student performance is often reported as an aggregate in discussions of the success of schoolchildren and issues of racial…

The importance of the preschool period in becoming a skilled reader is highlighted by a significant body of evidence that preschool children's development in the areas of oral language, phonological awareness, and print knowledge is predictive of how well they will learn to read once they are exposed to formal reading instruction in elementary…

Thus far researchers have focused on computing average differences in student achievement between smaller and larger classes. In this study, the author focus on the distribution of the small class effects at the school level and compute the inconsistency of the small class effects across schools. The author use data from Project STAR to estimate…

A person-centered approach was used to explore the mediating role of self-regulation between learner typology at age 8 and academic achievement at age 14 while controlling for domain-specific achievement in a longitudinal sample of 113 children born to adolescent mothers. Children were classified into one of 5 learner typologies at age 8 based on…