Philadelphia's Preschool Program (PHLpreK) has recently concluded its seventh year, following its initiation after a 2015 referendum approving the creation of a universal pre-K program for children ages 3 and 4. NIEER has been evaluating the program since its inception, focusing on program quality, components, and children's learning and…

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a period for reexamination of how the world schools its children. Policy makers are considering how to address myriad challenges during this tenuous post-COVID era in primary and secondary education. This paper discusses potential school calendar change in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Modifying the…

The ability to read is fundamental in determining an individual's academic success and social integration, and it is also known to have an impact on other cognitive abilities. A lack of foundational pre-reading skills can accumulate later, causing reading and learning problems. Early diagnosis and development of these skills are therefore…

Background: Socio-economic status (SES) is a powerful predictor of attainment. Research has identified multiple mechanisms that underpin the effect of SES on attainment. For example, self-regulation (processes through which individuals direct and control their attention, emotion and behaviour) has been identified as one mechanism mediating the SES…

This study looks at how income differences affect children's social psychological development, which in turn shapes their academic achievement. Building on theories of social class, cultural capital, and self-concept formation, this dissertation offers a new social psychological model that connects parental SES, concerted cultivation, children's…

This quantitative study provides an in-depth look at the effectiveness of preschool participation while examining other factors that impact school readiness. The five research questions focused on preschool participation or non-participation, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and school community identity. The researcher conducted…

Research indicates that the achievement gap in reading between typical and dyslexic readers is already evident in first grade and persists through adolescence. However, it is not known whether this reading gap persists into adult life. In this report we use an epidemiologic sample of 312 children (typical readers = 246; dyslexic readers = 66),…

This study aimed to investigate the predictability of writing development and if scores on a writing test in the first weeks of first grade accurately predict students' placements into different proficiency groups. Participants were 832 first grade students in Norway. Writing proficiency was measured twice, at the start and at the end of first…

Research has often emphasised that children who experience difficulties in learning to read get poorer in their performance, and the gap between good and poor readers increases over time which describes the well-accepted phenomenon called the Mathew Effect. However, some studies have shown that the Matthew Effect has not been confirmed. In this…

The problem underpinning this study was a pronounced achievement gap between Black and White students, evident in standardized test score pass rates of third through fifth graders, in a school district in the U.S. state of Virginia. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the extent to which culturally responsive instructional…

Research examining reading abilities among Black children diverges significantly from prior literature, which either lacked focus or lacked substantial representation of Black children. Black students, particularly boys, tend to exhibit lower academic achievement compared to their peers. The problem addressed in this study is that Black boys, in…

State Early Learning Standards (ELS) are multi-function tools that inform early childhood instruction and practices. Using an established framework of early numerical development, this study assessed the prevalence of number, number relations, and number operations indicators in ELS, specifically indicators of counting, numeral knowledge,…

The population in the United States continues to become more diverse each year. Our education system is not designed to support students that do not have English as a first language. The population of multilingual learners are falling behind their English Proficient peers. Inadequate teacher training and program design are contributing factors as…

Disparities in Mathematics performance have been shown across race and gender for decades, although little research has reported the race by gender nexus in terms of disparity. In turn, research done to ameliorate these disparities have assumed that these differences are primarily among student populations who need remedial learning improvement.…

Studies examining seasonal variation in academic skills for children have focused on learning loss or stagnation during the summer, particularly for students from low-income or minoritized racial and ethnic backgrounds. In this study, we expand the literature to focus on another student population that may be susceptible to summer learning loss:…