A jurisdiction-wide zero-stakes Foundational Skills Assessment administered in grade 4 in British Columbia, Canada, used a three-point scale to publicly disseminate aggregate school/district-level results, and a five-point scale to convey results to students/parents. For a variety of long-term outcomes, a regression discontinuity analysis shows a…

Both school and district administrators use the results of standardized, large-scale tests to inform decisions about the need for, or success of, educational programs and interventions. However, test results at the school level are subject to random fluctuations due to changes in cohort, test items, and other factors outside of the school's…

Purpose: The value of shared reading as an opportunity for learning word meanings, or semantics, is well established; it is less clear whether children learn about the orthography, or word spellings, in this context. We tested whether children can learn the spellings and meanings of new words at the same time during a tightly controlled shared…

Parent engagement is often promoted as a remedy for reducing achievement gaps between students from high socio-economic and low socio-economic backgrounds. However, researchers have found mixed results when examining parent engagement and student outcomes. Drawing on a study investigating the effectiveness of summer literacy camps offered by…

Increasing linguistic diversity in classrooms has led researchers to examine the validity and fairness of standardized achievement tests, specifically concerning whether test score interpretations are free of bias and score use is fair for all students. This study examined whether mathematics achievement test items that contain complex language…

Downward trends in Ontario's math achievement have raised concerns about the need for effective identification of students struggling to meet math achievement standards. This study identified latent profiles from math achievement patterns of students from Grades 3 to 6, examining how specific language and literacy characteristics predicted profile…

Current quantitative gender and mathematics research exists as separate ability and postsecondary access studies, each drawing different conclusions. But if gender, achievement and enrollment (measurable proxies) are modeled together it will be possible to investigate possible associations. Using 106,473 standardized Grades 3, 6 and 9 Ontario…

This case study of a grade six classroom literacy curriculum in Ontario, Canada was designed to produce new knowledge of how curricula can promote multimodal literacy learning opportunities for students. With a focus on constraints and enablers, the study found few opportunities for multimodal literacy learning due to standardised assessments, an…

In 2010, the province of Ontario introduced a new universal two-year play-based full-day kindergarten program. The authors exploited the phasing-in of this program over five years, allowing a natural experiment in which children from full-day kindergarten could be compared with those from half-day kindergarten in matched neighborhoods. Children (N…

This study examined the performance of Mandarin-speaking students in a K-Grade 4 50/50 Chinese/English bilingual program. The program was intended to facilitate students' learning of English and their adjustment to English-medium instruction within the school context. The bilingual-program students were compared to students from Mandarin-speaking…

The pilot research presented here explores the classroom use of Emerging Literacy in Mathematics (ELM) software, a research-based bilingual interactive multimedia instructional tool, and its potential to develop emerging numeracy skills. At the time of the study, a central theme of early mathematics curricula, "Number Concept," was fully…

We tested the criterion-related validity and potential bias of two measures of pupils' academic achievement: the Teacher Rating Scale (TRS) and the Mathematics and Literacy Achievement Tests (MLTs). These measures are representative of assessment methods largely used in the elementary school. The aims were: (1) to verify the extent to which TRS…

This study investigated the effects of immigration and home language on academic achievement over time. Using data from Ontario's Assessments of Reading, Writing and Mathematics administered to the same students in Grades 3 and 6, logistic regression was used to predict if students achieved proficiency in Grade 6 if they were not proficient in…

The British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) seeks to foster a constructive discussion on the issue of standardized testing. To that end, the Federation urges the BC Ministry of Education to adopt a two-year moratorium on all standardized tests, including the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) and the Grade 10, 11, and 12 provincial…

This paper describes and theorizes principals' support for teacher professional development ("PD") during a time of strong provincial pressure for an increased focus upon literacy, numeracy, and improvements in standardized test scores in elementary schools in Ontario, Canada. The paper draws upon semi-structured interviews with 12…