This report summarizes Austin Independent School District's English language learner students' 2015 state academic test (STAAR) reading, writing, and science results (grades 3-5) and state English language proficiency test (TELPAS) results (kindergarten through grade 5).

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of progressive sentence development activities on 5th graders' description skills. The study was conducted based on the pretest-posttest quasi-experimental model with a control group. A total of 58 students participated in the study; 29 in the control group, and 29 in the experimental group. The…

Individual writing and collaborative writing skills are important for academic success, yet are poorly taught in K-12 classrooms. This study examines how sixth-grade students (n = 257) taught by two teachers used Google Docs to write and exchange feedback. We used longitudinal growth models to analyze a large number of student writing samples…

In this experimental study, 151 middle school students explored 3 historical controversies, first reading and discussing primary source documents in groups, then writing arguments on their own. Students were either randomly assigned to an experimental condition, using argumentative schemes and critical questions as guides during discussions, or to…

A random sample of 482 teachers in grades 3 through 8 from across the United States were surveyed about (a) their perceptions of the version of the Common Core writing and language standards adopted by their state and their state's writing assessment, (b) their preparation to teach writing, and (c) their self-efficacy beliefs for teaching writing.…

This study examined whether or not fourth-graders could fully demonstrate their writing skills on the computer and factors associated with their performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) computer-based writing assessment. The results suggest that high-performing fourth-graders (those who scored in the upper 20 percent…

Problem: The problem of this study was to determine the difference in Bible comprehension scores among gender-based groups of older children using selected passages from three Bible translations: the Children's Bible, the Easy Bible, and the New Revised Korean Bible. Procedures: A total of 288 older children in three churches (Beautiful Baptist…

The Berge et al. article in this volume presents the functional construct of writing that underlies summative and formative assessment of writing as a key competency in Norway. A functional construct implies that specific acts of writing and their purposes constrain what is a relevant selection among the semiotic resources that writing generally…

A process-writing approach (BW) with novel concepts was developed by the authors to teach writing to elementary-level students. They believed the BW approach was effective but was particularly effective for special-needs students. Consequently, they decided to quantitatively test these assertions. Instead of testing students taught using the BW…

Students with emotional and/or behavioral disabilities (E/BD), including students with emotional disturbance and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, receiving special education services perform significantly worse on academic performance measures than same age peers. Researchers have focused on reading and math performance while less is…

This report focuses on the initial development of the predicted score paths for ACT Aspire reporting. The paths provide predicted score ranges for the next two years--as well as predicted ACT score ranges for tests administered at grades 9 and 10. Longitudinal ACT Aspire data for students tested in spring 2013 and spring 2014, as well as…

To determine whether formative writing assessments that are directly tied to everyday classroom teaching and learning enhance students' writing performance, we conducted a meta-analysis of true and quasi-experiments conducted with students in grades 1 to 8. We found that feedback to students about writing from adults, peers, self, and computers…

This qualitative study examined the amount of time that fourth and fifth grade teachers devoted to literacy instruction within the time allotted to them within the daily literacy block. Prior research of the literacy block focused largely on primary grades (Allington, McGill-Franzen et a1.,2010; Cunningham & Allington, 2003; Morrow, 1992);…

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of alternative approaches to administering and scoring curriculum-based measurement for written expression. Specifically, three response durations (3, 5, and 7 minutes) and six score types (total words written, words spelled correctly, percent of words spelled correctly,…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate whether or not informational writing in the science curriculum would impact fifth grade students' science achievement and conceptual understanding. The population of this study came from a metropolitan school district in the state of Georgia for school year 2012-2013. The quantitative data…