This study explores the effects of direct kindness instruction on second-grade students' social and emotional well-being. Amidst the growing integration of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) into educational curricula, this research specifically focuses on the aspect of kindness, a vital yet often under-explored component of SEL. Conducted in a…

The purpose of this study was to empirically examine the dimensionality of language ability for young children (4-8 years) from prekindergarten to third grade (n = 915), theorizing that measures of vocabulary and grammar ability will represent a unitary trait across these ages, and to determine whether discourse skills represent an additional…

Reading First has been implemented in Nebraska since the 2004-5 academic year. In two rounds of funding and participation, schools have transformed the way they trained their teachers, measured student progress, and taught. This transformation is one of the hardest tasks in education and it has taken the considerable dedication of school personnel…

This report outlines the results from the Nebraska's Reading First initiative. Three thousand six hundred students from Kindergarten to Third grade were included in the project. Results indicated significant growth across all demographic groups. Student performance in the earlier grades has shown great promise for the following years. Growth in…