Although writing instruction can positively impact reading for students across grades and levels of literacy, the extent to which these findings generalize to young students with literacy difficulties is unclear due to the dynamic nature of reading-writing relations. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the effects of writing…

We systematically examine the existing evidence and compute meta-analytic averages for the effects of scaled-up, publicly funded pre-kindergarten (pre-K) programmes in the United States on student mathematics and reading achievement. The analysis is restricted to experimental and quasi-experimental research designs with the highest internal…

Tutoring--defined here as one-on-one or small-group instructional programming by teachers, paraprofessionals, volunteers, or parents--is one of the most versatile and potentially transformative educational tools in use today. Within the past decade, dozens of preK-12 tutoring experiments have been conducted, varying widely in their approach,…

Research-based instruction is necessary to support students' reading development, and professional development (PD) is a critical avenue to ensuring high-quality instructional practices. To date, there has been no comprehensive review focused on the effects of teacher PD on student reading achievement. As such, the purpose of the present…

Young children have been taught simple sequences of alternating shapes and colors, referred to as "patterning", for the past half century in the hope that their understanding of pre-algebra and their mathematics achievement would be improved. The evidence that such patterning instruction actually improves children's academic achievement…

Drawing on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class 1998-1999 of the United States, this article evaluates teacher expectancy effects on achievement growth in kindergarten. We attempt to disentangle teacher expectancy effects from omitted variable bias or predictive validity by exploiting counterfactual predictions in…

Has the gap in average standardized test scores between students from high- and low-income families widened, narrowed, or remained stable over the last 3 decades? The question is important both because the achievement gap is measure of how (un)equally educational opportunities are distributed in the US, and because the disparity in educational…

As evidence becomes increasingly important in educational policy, it is essential to understand how research design might contribute to reported effect sizes in experiments evaluating educational programs. A total of 645 studies from 12 recent reviews of evaluations of preschool, reading, mathematics, and science programs were studied. Effect…

Decades of research have identified features of classrooms and teachers' talk that are associated with children's language growth. Unfortunately, much of this work has not yet translated to widespread practice in early childhood classrooms. Given the important contributions that early language development makes to later academic achievement,…

This article presents a critical review of the literature surrounding the potential impact of undiagnosed and untreated vision impairment on reading development in the early years of primary school. Despite pre-school screening programmes, it is still possible for children to enter school with undiagnosed, uncorrected vision impairments. This can…

Iowa established the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program (SVPP) in 2007. It has grown to be the largest--although not the only--public preschool program in the state. It is available without regard to family income. Iowa also supports preschool for low-income children through its Shared Visions program and Early Childhood Iowa, the…

The authors reviewed all peer-reviewed studies with participants from preschool to Grade 8 for this meta-analysis of morphological interventions. They identified 22 applicable studies. Instructional effects (Cohen's d) were averaged by linguistic outcome categories (morphological sublexical, non-morphological sublexical, lexical, and supralexical)…