Evidence has suggested that preschool and kindergarten experiences affect the cognitive and social-emotion development of language-minority students (LMS). This quantitative study aims to illustrate the LMS' preschool and kindergarten experience by investigating the preschool and kindergarten experience, family environment, and school environment.…

Individual characteristics of neighborhood context, like concentrated socioeconomic disadvantage, are associated with children's cognitive development, including their academic skill development and executive functions. However, questions remain regarding how neighborhood structural, process, and physical features uniquely predict children's…

This paper used a nationally representative sample of children from the United States to examine the extent to which physical activity and sports participation may promote growth in children's executive functions (EFs), attention, and social self-control over time. Using data from the ECLS-K:2011 (N = 18,174), findings indicated that regular…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions of experienced STEM teachers regarding STEM preparedness and implementation at a South Texas elementary school for grades kindergarten-five (K-5). This qualitative study used a phenomenological framework. The site for this study was a South Texas elementary school currently…

There is now wide consensus that the quality of family relationships is involved in the development of child executive functioning (EF), a set of cognitive skills that bear critical importance for social and academic adjustment at school. This body of research has, however, focused almost exclusively on dyadic parent-child interactions and failed…

Nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 2011 (n = 14,370) were used to examine the grade-level and cumulative outcomes of school absenteeism between kindergarten and fifth grade for students' school performance in the United States. Students who were more frequently absent in any year of…

Immigrant and refugee children and adolescents form a growing socially, culturally, and economically diverse group with the potential for wide-ranging adaptation outcomes. The goal of the study was to examine whether developmental competencies (social-emotional and academic) and sociodemographic disparities (e.g., SES and migration class)…

This study reports achievement and growth from kindergarten to 4th grade for three groups of English Learners (ELs): (a) ever-ELs; (b) ELs consistently eligible for service; and (c) EL and Special Education dually-identified students. All three EL groups had lower test scores than never-ELs throughout K-4. In math, ELs grew more than never-ELs…

Many Grade K-5 teachers in the United States do not receive the mathematics support they need from the professional development (PD) activities offered by their school districts. The purpose of this qualitative research was to explore the perceptions of Grade K-5 teachers on the PD activities they received from their school district to support…

The first year of teaching has and continues to be fraught with challenges for early educators in public school contexts across the United States. A persistent problem that has been documented across the globe is the ability of novice teachers to engage in developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) with their students. We examine this issue…

The purpose of this two-phase, sequential explanatory mixed-methods research study was to examine the correlation between kindergarten through fifth-grade teachers' self-efficacy and the impact on literacy achievement to determine how professional development (PD) positively impacted teachers with high self-efficacy. The study was conducted in a…

This study was aimed to calculate teachers' effective use of time in scientific inquiry lessons. The research was designed as a case study. The study group of the research consists of 5 pre-school teachers determined by the convenient sampling method. Before the study, the participants were taken in-service training program on scientific inquiry.…

The early prediction of math difficulties (MD) is important as it facilitates timely support. MD are multifaceted, and several factors are involved in their manifestation. This makes the accurate early prediction of MD particularly challenging. In the present study, we aim to predict MD in Grade 6 with kindergarten-age (age 6) measures by applying…

With large-scale wicked problems threatening our world, the integration of sustainability into teacher professional learning is systemically lacking in the United States. The purpose of this case study was to understand the impact of a multi-session, sustainability-related professional learning program on twelve PreKindergarten-8th grade educators…

Dynamic Measurement Modeling (DMM) is a recently-developed measurement framework for gauging developing constructs (e.g., learning capacity) that conventional single-timepoint tests cannot assess. The current project developed a person-specific DMM Trajectory Deviance Index (TDI) that captures the aberrance of an individual's growth from the…