Background: South African learners face the double disadvantage of living in low socioeconomic conditions with access to few resources and attending schools with challenging learning conditions. Mathematics performance reflects such conditions with extreme performance gaps between wealthier and poorer learners. The need for early intervention is…

The events that came to pass within the past few years have created quite a stir within the educational community. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, there was a shift from brick & mortar to virtual learning, which many academic experts and stakeholders needed to prepare for. Due to the major shutdowns, there have been many concerns about…

We examined how children (N = 448) with separate or co-occurring developmental language disorder (DLD) and dyslexia performed on school-based measures of academic functioning between second and fourth grades. Children were recruited from 1 school district in the U.S. state of South Carolina via classroom screenings and met common research criteria…

The purpose of this descriptive qualitative case study was to discover Second through Fifth Grade rural North Texas teacher perceptions focusing on reading and mathematics student achievement gaps resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown affected students not only academically but also socially…

The present study examined Latinx school readiness and 3rd grade student achievement, considering differences based on social categories of gender, race, ethnicity, and home language. The sample included 683 racially diverse children (M[subscript age] = 4.94; SD = 0.57) of Dominican- or Mexican-origin from Spanish-English or Spanish-only…

In this study, the researcher uses quantitative methods to examine the extent to which Title I funding helps public schools with large populations of economically-disadvantaged students increase student academic achievement in reading and math in grades 3-5, and whether the leaders of these schools utilize specific social justice actions…

In this brief we examine how variability in students' math and reading test scores changed across the pandemic, including whether increased dispersion was concentrated at one part of the test score distribution. Using reading and math assessment data from a sample of 8 million students in grades 3-8 in 24,000 public schools who took MAP Growth…

The purpose of this technical appendix is to share more detailed results and to describe more fully the sample and methods used in the research included in the brief, "The Widening Achievement Divide during COVID-19." The authors investigated two main research questions in this brief: (1) To what degree have students' reading and math…

In this investigation, the extent to which the mathematics performance of Texas Grade 3 students differed by their economic status (i.e., Not Poor, Moderately Poor, and Very Poor) was addressed. Three mathematics indicators (i.e., Approaches, Meets, and Masters Grade Level) from the 2015- 2016 Texas state-mandated mathematics assessment were…

Background: Students vary in their initial achievement when they enter school and their rate of academic growth as they move through school. These differences have implications for classroom instruction and educational policy. Although previous research has examined initial achievement and growth differences, a gap remains in understanding how…

Although Montessori is the most common unconventional education model, no multi-state study has compared standardized test proficiency of Montessori schools with districts. Here we report on this for the 10 states/regions with the most public Montessori schools (n = 195). In 3rd grade, Montessori schools were less proficient in math but more…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the progress being made to close the current achievement gap in Kentucky. Guiding the study is the following research question: Which districts are closing racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps at rates that exceed expectations? The authors assess districts' progress in closing racial and…

Of the many studies related to the effectiveness of National Board Certified teachers, there were none found that related to Arkansas teachers. This research study investigated the impact that Nationally Board Certified teachers (NBCTs) had on the achievement of third graders in the Pulaski County Special District (PCSSD). Achievement was…

Despite focused efforts, achievement gaps remain a problem in America's education system, especially those between students from higher and lower income families. Continued work on reducing these gaps benefits from an understanding of students' reading and math growth from typical school instruction and how growth differs based on initial…

Despite focused efforts, achievement gaps remain a problem in the America's education system, especially those between students from higher and lower income families. Continued work on reducing these gaps benefits from an understanding of students' reading and math growth from typical school instruction and how growth differs based on initial…