While instructional time is viewed as crucial to learning, little is known about the effectiveness of reducing absences relative to increasing the number of school days. In this regard, this paper jointly estimates the effect of absences and length of the school calendar on test score performance. Using administrative data from North Carolina…

Poor academic performance during childhood predicts later adverse outcomes, and could be targeted for improvement if detected early. This study used population-based record linkage to examine the association between early life risk factors and academic achievement at two different stages of development using two different cohorts: a kindergarten…

This study aimed at investigating the actual strategic behaviors of high and low achievers in reading comprehension and their relation with respective performance. The participants were 45 individually examined third graders, 20 high and 25 low reading comprehension achievers. Cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational aspects of the participants'…

Objective: To maximize active parent consent form return rates for third-grade minority, urban students enrolled in predominantly low-income elementary schools in Chicago, Ill. Methods: Research staff used a class incentive and class visits to retrieve consent forms from students. Results: Of the 811 third-grade students, 98% returned a form and …

In this technical report, the authors describe the development alternate forms of Word and Passage Reading Fluency measures as part of a comprehensive progress monitoring literacy assessment system developed in 2006 for use with students in Kindergarten through fourth grade. They begin with a brief overview of the two conceptual frameworks…

This technical report documents the procedures followed in developing student and teacher surveys to gather information about the accommodations students are accustomed to receiving and those that might be beneficial on a mathematics test delivered on the computer. It provides documentation of the technical adequacy of the survey instruments, as…