More than half of North Carolina's grade 3 students struggle with reading. The percentage of students scoring below proficient in reading at the end of grade 3 was 55 percent in 2017/18. That percentage has remained largely unchanged, at above 50 percent, since 2013/14, when North Carolina passed its K-3 Read to Achieve literacy act. Read to…

This study examined children's trajectories of mathematics and reading achievements from kindergarten to eighth grade along with the gender differences in these trajectories. A total of 8503 participants drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K) formed the sample of the study. The results of the latent growth…

Achievement disparities between American Indian students and non-American Indian peers are persistent and well documented. Student engagement is a promising target for intervention given its relation to academic achievement. This study investigated the relation between specific teacher practices (opportunities to respond [OTRs], praise, and…

This study utilized latent class analysis (LCA) to identify 5 discernible profiles of Latino children's (N = 1,253) social-emotional, physical, and cognitive school readiness at the time of kindergarten entry. In addition, a growth mixture modeling (GMM) approach was used to identify 3 unique literacy achievement trajectories, across Grades 2-5,…

The researchers in this study investigated the impact of mathematics-focused parental involvement on Kindergarten to Grade 8 children and parents as well as factors prompting that impact. Qualitative analysis consisting of parent, child, and teacher interviews and 3-year quantitative testing showed significant improvements in students' mathematics…

Data from a large suburban school district in Tennessee (N = 910) were used to examine the effects of the Kindergarten Readiness program as measured by third grade End of Year (EOY) benchmark performance assessments in reading and math. The groups of students studied included kindergarteners with summer birthdays ("SK"), kindergarteners…

For children with the most serious and persistent academic and behavior problems, parent involvement in education, particularly teacher perceptions of involvement, is essential to avert their expected long-term negative outcomes. Despite the widespread interest in and perceived importance of parent involvement in education, however, few…

Children who exhibit early behavioral and academic difficulties are at increased risk of later negative outcomes (U.S. Department of Human and Health Services 2009). Within the school setting, conceptualization of family risk, culture, and demographic factors is needed to effectively identify at-risk families to improve child educational outcomes.…

In a previous study, Mix et al. (2016) reported that spatial skill and mathematics were composed of 2 highly correlated, domain-specific factors, with a few cross-domain loadings. The overall structure was consistent across grade (kindergarten, 3rd grade, 6th grade), but the cross-domain loadings varied with age. The present study sought to…

As applications of multilevel modelling in educational research increase, researchers realize that multilevel data collected in many educational settings are often not purely nested. The most common multilevel non-nested data structure is one that involves student mobility in longitudinal studies. This article provides a methodological review of…

The contributions of domain-general abilities and domain-specific knowledge to subsequent mathematics achievement were longitudinally assessed (n = 167) through 8th grade. First grade intelligence and working memory and prior grade reading achievement indexed domain-general effects, and domain-specific effects were indexed by prior grade…

Writing down spoken number words (transcoding) is an ability that is predictive of math performance and related to working memory ability. We analysed these relationships in a large sample of over 25,000 children, from kindergarten to the end of primary school, who solved transcoding items with a computer adaptive system. Furthermore, we…

Policymakers view parental involvement (PI) as a crucial component of school reform efforts, but evidence of its effect on student achievement is equivocal. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort dataset, we examined the long-term impact on student- and school-level achievement of three types of school-based PI: PI to…

The present study investigated the effects of "Primarily Math", an inservice elementary mathematics specialist program. "Primarily Math" sought to augment the mathematical knowledge for teaching of kindergarten through third-grade teachers using a longitudinal multiple cohort design. Two sets of analyses were conducted. The…

Children's narrative skills have been widely studied in North America, but there is a paucity of African research. Within South Africa's diverse socio-cultural context, this study of mixed-race children explored the development of narrative production and the influence of home background variables. Using the Bear Story picture prompt, this…