Purpose: Having a clear understanding of the types and amounts of classroom literacy learning opportunities is important for contextualizing children's early literacy performance. In this study, we examine the content, context, and management of literacy learning opportunities in a large, geographically diverse sample in the United States. We also…

There are large gaps in reading skills by family income among school-aged children in the United States. Correlational evidence suggests that reading skills are strongly related to the amount of reading students do outside of school. Experimental evidence testing whether this relationship is causal is lacking. We report the results from a…

This study analyzed the relationship between benchmark scores from the newly published Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Math (i.e., Acadience™) math probes and student performance on math and reading sections of a state-mandated high-stakes test. Participants were 420 students enrolled in third, fourth, and fifth grades in a rural…

Background: Over 15% of kindergarten and first grade students in U.S. public schools are English learners (ELs) (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2021). Many classroom teachers, however, have not had specialized training in providing instruction for ELs. The BELLA (Bridging English Language Learning and Academics) professional…

Book retelling has been frequently used as an indicator of children's reading proficiency. However, how children's performance varies across retelling narrative and expository texts and whether that has different implications for reading proficiency remains understudied. The present study examined 85 high-poverty second- and third-graders'…

North Carolina policymakers are interested in which screening and monitoring assessment scores in grades K-3 best predict reading proficiency at the end of grade 3 in order to help educators identify at-risk students, place them in interventions, and monitor their progress. Since 2013, the state has routinely administered screening and monitoring…

More than half of North Carolina's grade 3 students struggle with reading. The percentage of students scoring below proficient in reading at the end of grade 3 was 55 percent in 2017/18. That percentage has remained largely unchanged, at above 50 percent, since 2013/14, when North Carolina passed its K-3 Read to Achieve literacy act. Read to…

More than half of North Carolina's grade 3 students struggle with reading. The percentage of students scoring below proficient in reading at the end of grade 3 was 55 percent in 2017/18. That percentage has remained largely unchanged, at above 50 percent, since 2013/14, when North Carolina passed its K-3 Read to Achieve literacy act. Read to…

Teacher knowledge of reading is an important aspect of teacher quality, though limited research has investigated its associations with how classroom teachers report using instructional strategies to engage students in reading. Factor analysis of 28 instructional strategy items led to five self-reported instructional foci among 66 kindergarten and…

"Achieve3000®" is a supplemental online literacy program that provides nonfiction reading content to students in grades preK-12 and focuses on building phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills. "Achieve3000®" is designed to help students advance their nonfiction reading skills…

Grounded in the simple view of reading, this study tracked the development of print-processing skill in high-, average-, and low-achieving readers at six time points across grades 1-3. Results showed large between-group differences in sight vocabulary, oral reading accuracy, and oral reading rate that remained stable from beginning of first grade…

The purpose of the 2015-2016 NC Pre-Kindergarten (NC Pre-K) Evaluation study was to examine the long-term effects of participation in NC Pre-K at the end of kindergarten. Two groups of children were compared--those who attended NC Pre-K (treatment) and those who had not attended NC Pre-K (comparison). Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to…

"Achieve3000®" is a supplemental online literacy program that provides nonfiction reading content to students in grades preK-12 and focuses on building phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills. "Achieve3000®" is designed to help students advance their nonfiction reading skills…

The purpose of the 2015-2016 NC Pre-Kindergarten (NC Pre-K) Evaluation study was to examine the long-term effects of participation in NC Pre-K at the end of kindergarten. Two groups of children were compared--those who attended NC Pre-K (treatment) and those who had not attended NC Pre-K (comparison). Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to…

Third grade is a critical checkpoint in a child's educational journey. By the end of third grade, children need literacy skills that prepare them for increasing curriculum demands in fourth grade and beyond. Students who are not reading on grade level by this point are significantly more likely to drop out of high school or fail to graduate on…