The ability to read is fundamental in determining an individual's academic success and social integration, and it is also known to have an impact on other cognitive abilities. A lack of foundational pre-reading skills can accumulate later, causing reading and learning problems. Early diagnosis and development of these skills are therefore…

Research indicates that the achievement gap in reading between typical and dyslexic readers is already evident in first grade and persists through adolescence. However, it is not known whether this reading gap persists into adult life. In this report we use an epidemiologic sample of 312 children (typical readers = 246; dyslexic readers = 66),…

This study aimed to investigate the predictability of writing development and if scores on a writing test in the first weeks of first grade accurately predict students' placements into different proficiency groups. Participants were 832 first grade students in Norway. Writing proficiency was measured twice, at the start and at the end of first…

Research has often emphasised that children who experience difficulties in learning to read get poorer in their performance, and the gap between good and poor readers increases over time which describes the well-accepted phenomenon called the Mathew Effect. However, some studies have shown that the Matthew Effect has not been confirmed. In this…

Studies have demonstrated significant associations between executive function (EF) and reading ability. Many of these studies have evaluated this association through composite EF skills. In this study, we evaluated the indirect effects of working memory (WM) and cognitive flexibility (CF) in the relation between kindergarten socioeconomic status…

Public school board members are charged with the responsibility and accountability to provide governance-level advocacy for equity and excellence in public education. This qualitative study examined the perceptions of school board members in three K--8 school districts in the midwestern part of the United States regarding the 50+ year Race-Based…

Although research related to the Science of Reading has documented the positive effects of explicit, systematic reading instruction for all students, students from historically marginalized groups often experience differential opportunities to learn and are likely to perform lower than their peers on large scale measures of reading achievement.…

This article is based on a team ethnographic study in the province of Yauyos in the Peruvian Andes. It focuses on rural education and the inequalities surrounding it. Teachers and parents exchange mutual recriminations as they seek to explain why some children have greater difficulties than others and why urban schools achieve superior results as…

Despite focused efforts, achievement gaps remain a problem in America's education system, especially those between students from higher and lower income families. Continued work on reducing these gaps benefits from an understanding of students' reading and math growth from typical school instruction and how growth differs based on initial…

In this paper we explore how participation in a constructivist-oriented, classroom aligned mathematics intervention program advanced the learning and positive dispositions of Grade 1 students who were failing to thrive when learning mathematics. Intervention programs are an approach to differentiated instruction that some schools adopt, but there…

Prior research into computer-assisted instruction (CAI) has demonstrated that the use of technology in the classroom has the potential to help underperforming young learners. The literature has also stressed that thorough evidence-based testing is needed to ensure that effective instruction is provided to students and that accurate information is…

In times of climate change, worldwide diseases, and the question of sustainable energy, scientific literacy has never been more important. The acquisition of scientific literacy starts in early childhood and depends on children's experiences in learning environments such as the parental home and kindergarten. The Starting Cohort 2 of the German…

The main purpose of this study was to test the effects of word-problem (WP) intervention, with versus without embedded language comprehension (LC) instruction, on at-risk 1st graders' WP performance. We also isolated the need for a structured approach to WP intervention and tested the efficacy of schema-based instruction at 1st grade. Children (n…

Ethnic and racial disparities in educational outcomes, such as test scores, are a core issue of educational research. While the role of student and family factors in the formation of such disparities is well established, existing studies fail to draw a similarly clear picture of how teachers contribute to ethnic and racial achievement gaps. In…

Scholars have argued that schools are "equalizers" because inequalities in test scores by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) grow faster over summer vacation than over the school year. In this study, we use nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Kindergarten Classes of 1998-1999 and…