Writing is an essential skill that students need in order to become successful in school and beyond. Within a school district in the southwestern United States, student writing scores were not at proficient levels, and students were not prepared for graduation or employment. The purpose of this quasi-experimental research study was to compare the…

Literacy activities in which children invest in and understand literacy creates spaces for them to construct their identity as readers/writers and build their personal theories of literacy. This study presents the identity construction of second grade students who identified as successful, average or struggling in their first time engagement with…

In 2012, the Ministry of Education, Afghanistan, engaged the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) as a partner to support the development of a national learning assessment program in Afghanistan. To achieve this goal, the Learning Assessment unit of the Ministry of Education and ACER have collaborated to design and implement the…

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of multimedia writing support software on the quality and quantity of writing productivity and self-perception for students who have mild to moderate developmental delays. Participants in this study included 22 special education students in grades kindergarten through 6. Methodology included a…

Some evidence suggests that teachers may have a negative bias against and be less accurate in academic judgments of students with behavioral characteristics of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Thus, examining the accuracy of their judgments is an important area of investigation. The current study examined the accuracy of teachers'…

A quasi-experimental study examined some effects of cross-age tutoring on fourth grade tutors' and second grade tutees' ability to spell accurately and correct errors on their own rough drafts. Half of the participating tutors were trained in tutoring skills; half were not. All participants were given pre- and post-assessments. On dictated writing…

Although assessment of student progress in word reading skills is common, students' knowledge and skills for comprehending informational text are rarely assessed. Despite research indicating the need for instruction in this area and a growing national understanding of its importance that is reflected in the Common Core State Standards, few…

In this paper we report trends over time of performance of non-Indigenous and Indigenous students on the Numeracy component of the NAPLAN tests. Possible links between student performance on the NAPLAN Numeracy test and the four components--Reading, Writing, Spelling, and Grammar--of the NAPLAN Literacy test were also explored. While the…

Early literacy interventions have demonstrated that pedagogically sound programmes can boost reading achievement for students who do not succeed in early literacy learning. However, there is less evidence as to what extent gains are maintained in subsequent years or the factors which may contribute to sustained progress. The research reported in…

In an "ex post facto" causal-comparative research design, this study investigated the effectiveness of a formative writing assessment program, Write Score, on increasing student writing achievement. Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) reading language arts and writing scores from 2012 were utilized for this study. The…

We investigated the relationship between 28 teachers' theoretical orientations to writing instruction and self-reported instructional practices and student writing performance. First-, second-, and third-grade teachers completed the Teacher Writing Orientation Scale developed by Graham, Harris, MacArthur, and Fink (2002) and reported the frequency…

The present study explores the development and promotion of reading comprehension in primary school students, in the context of the implementation of an educational programme called "Learning Together" (LT). The programme, which centred on collaborative learning activities, was designed to promote oral and written communication in…

The Young Writers Program (YWP) is the latest writing workshop to be developed for the classroom. It challenges students to choose a topic and write a novel-length piece based on that topic, without worrying about spelling or grammar. While the foundation of this philosophy is solid, the support and structure of the Young Writers Program website…

Writing is a fundamental part of engaging in professional, social, community, and civic activities. Nearly 70 percent of salaried employees have at least some responsibility for writing, and the ability to write "well" is a critical component of being able to communicate effectively to a variety of audiences. Because writing is a…

In early 2001, to support an internal evaluation of the impact of changing exclusion rates on reports of statistically significant gains across states, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) sponsored research on imputation procedures of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores for the excluded students and provided…