In recent years, stronger literacy development has emerged as a critically important issue in Arabic speaking nations. Results of international assessments indicate that most of the participating Arab countries are near the bottom of achievement levels. Additionally, recent studies indicate the prevalence rate of reading disability ranges from…

In this volume prominent scholars, experts in their respective fields and highly skilled in the research they conduct, address educational and reading research from varied perspectives and address what it will take to close the achievement gap--with specific attention to reading. The achievement gap is redefined as a level at which all groups can…

Reading scores exist for a continuum of purposes, from informal assessment to formal standardized tests. This brief aims to answer the question: What matters most for elementary-grade teachers when thinking about reading scores, and what could policymakers do to help teachers? Three positions worth pursuing in this regard are shared: (1) every…

The Texas Afterschool Centers on Education (ACE) is the program administered through the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for the federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) grants. The Texas ACE Foundation Communities Cycle 9 program is composed of a compilation of activities at 3 AISD campuses that provide a comprehensive range of…

The purpose of this technical appendix is to share more detailed results and to describe more fully the sample and methods used in the research included in the brief, "The Widening Achievement Divide during COVID-19." The authors investigated two main research questions in this brief: (1) To what degree have students' reading and math…

Chronic absence is a nationwide problem, even among young students. Those with poor attendance are more likely to face challenges later in school and in life. This study tested four versions of an adaptive text messaging strategy to see which, if any, would reduce chronic absence. The study compared two approaches to basic messaging and two…

Reading levels and levelled reading have been tried and true teaching tools used for assessment and to guide the teaching of reading in classrooms for decades. However, identifying students' reading levels does not necessarily lead to success in reading for students. In strictly adhering to an instructional routine based on reading levels and…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducted a special administration of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) long-term trend (LTT) reading and mathematics assessments for age 9 students in 2022 to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning. This brief document highlights the score declines…

Recognizing the critical importance of early literacy, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) have both worked intensively with states on birth through third grade improvement strategies across literacy and other learning domains. Third grade reading laws are one strategy that…

Few elementary students in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) are scoring at grade level or higher on the ACT Aspire reading assessment. This study examined data on students who enrolled in grade 3 in a CNMI public school from 2014/15 to 2018/19 to understand their grade 3 reading performance. The study used administrative…

Recent stories raising the alarm about students' poor reading skills and calling for greater attention to the "science of reading" represent the latest round in the ongoing "reading wars." Going back at least as far as the 1950s, scholars, pundits and policy makers have debated which teaching strategies are most successful at…

Region 14 Comprehensive Center and the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) are collaboratively implementing projects to address high leverage problems such as student access to effective educators, supporting schools serving specific student populations, and building school district capacity to design school models aligned to parent choice.…

Middle grade students with disabilities that impact reading, including learning disabilities (LD) in reading, high functioning autism (ASD), and emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), and students atrisk for reading failure due to the effects of poverty often struggle to make knowledge-based inferences while reading informational texts. As a…

This report highlights the results of Austin ISD 4th- and 8th-grade students on the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation's Report Card.

E3 Alliance is a regional, data-driven education collaborative based in Austin, Texas. They are helping to build the strongest educational pipeline in the country to drive regional economic prosperity. They are focused on educational systems change, and use data to inform those efforts. Given that their approach to supporting educational…