We examined dynamic assessment's (DA's) added value over traditional assessments for identifying Spanish-speaking English learners' (ELs') risk for developing mathematics disabilities, as a function of the language of test administration (English vs. Spanish), type of math outcome, and EL's language dominance. At the start of 1st grade, ELs (N =…

Kindergarten teachers face the challenge of integrating contemporary assessment practices with play-based pedagogy. The current study addresses this challenge by presenting a kindergarten assessment framework rooted in theory and current classroom practices, based on teacher interview and observational data collected in 20 kindergarten classrooms.…

Kindergarten teachers are confronted with an evolving context for teaching and assessment. Recent reforms throughout the world have resulted in two fundamental shifts: (a) a growing emphasis on academic learning and increased use of assessment to support and monitor students' academic and developmental progress and (b) the use of play as a…

Kindergarten teachers are confronted with an evolving context for teaching and assessment. Recent reforms throughout the world have resulted in two fundamental shifts: (a) a growing emphasis on academic learning and increased use of assessment to support and monitor students' academic and developmental progress and (b) the use of play as a…

Teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) often struggle with simultaneously meeting students' writing and behavioral needs. Building on existing Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) literature, this study investigated the collateral effects of SRSD with social skills prompts on the writing outcomes and problem…

This dissertation investigates how embodied learning within a Mixed Reality (MR) environment supports young children's science learning, focusing on a honeybee system. To do so, I designed three types of activities within an MR environment to enable young children to assume different perspectives as they create embodied models of honeybees as…

Foundation and Year 1/2 teachers at Saint Martin de Porres Primary School, a Catholic School in Laverton, Melbourne have been collaborating with a team of researchers from Monash University on a four-year project led by Professor Peter Sullivan and colleagues. The teachers have been trialling and implementing a series of lesson sequences as part…

Chronic absenteeism is a critical issue that has been linked to many adverse student outcomes. The current study focuses on improving a key system already in place in many school districts--early warning systems (EWSs)--in order to decrease chronic absenteeism in students' earliest schooling years. Using a demographically diverse population of…

Background: Test-to-stay (TTS) is a strategy to limit school exclusion following an exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We evaluated the use of TTS within universally masked kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) school settings following household SARS-CoV-2 exposure. Methods: Three hundred twenty-two…

School discipline policies are broadly intended to foster a high-quality learning environment by maintaining safety in the classroom; however, far too often, schools adopt measures that harm a student's social, emotional, academic, and in some cases, physical health and well-being. To create physically safe and emotionally supportive environments…

Jung and Won's (2018) review of elementary school ER found a lack of understanding of instructional practices for ER with young children. Other researchers have called for further studies into what effective classroom orchestration and interaction look like within ER classrooms (Ioannou & Makridou, 2018; Xia & Zhong, 2019). This study was…

Research has shown that teacher evaluation feedback has not positively impacted teachers' practice or instruction. An average of 53% of U.S. Virgin Island teachers disagreed or strongly disagreed on the value of the feedback they received from administrators on the evaluation system. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the…

Teacher decision-making has been widely studied; however, teacher decision-making specifically with students who have been identified as aggressive has not. This qualitative case study investigated teacher decision-making with three traditional public-school K-12 teachers through case study methodology. Data were gathered through a semi-structured…

Background/Context: The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the way we conduct research. For some modes of data collection, such as interviews, there was a ready (if not perfect) analog: face-to-face became phone-based; paper and pen surveys moved online. Others, such as direct assessments of child development, proved more challenging. Despite the…

Little research has been conducted on Arabic letter knowledge. This study investigates the nature of Arabic letter knowledge, its dimensionality, and the relative difficulty of letter knowledge items, all within an item response theory (IRT) framework. Three letter knowledge tests were administered to 142 native Arabic-speaking kindergarteners…