When one effectively employs the strategies of exploratory-learning, wait-time, intervention, guided reading, meaning, and phonological-morphological-syntactical awareness-for infants and on up-to 3rd grade students-all-in a Montessori-like-learning-literacy-setting replete with semantical interactions with phonology, syllabology, morphology, and…

Using data from the 1998-99 ECLS-K cohort, we show that the grades awarded by teachers are not aligned with test scores. Girls in every racial category outperform boys on reading tests, while boys score at least as well on math and science tests as girls. However, boys in all racial categories across all subject areas are not represented in…

Significant attention is currently focused on ensuring that children are enrolled in preschool. However, regular attendance is also critically important. Children with better preschool attendance have higher kindergarten readiness scores, this is especially true for students entering with low skills. Unfortunately, many preschool-aged children are…

Most studies of educational organizations have focused on structural features of schools, such as size, resources, and infrastructure. Research on schools' organizational culture is more sparse. Yet, these studies have suggested that the organizational culture of schools can have important implications for teaching practices and student outcomes.…

The low achievement of students from non-English-speaking households living in low socioeconomic contexts is associated with academic skill gaps evident at kindergarten entry. Yet, few cost-effective, valid instruments are available to assess these students' school readiness. To examine this topic, this longitudinal study followed 1,069 primarily…

On September 23, 2008, Latino state legislators from throughout the United States participated in a Legislative Hearing on Pre-K and the Early Grades on Capitol Hill. The nation's leading experts on Latinos and early childhood education presented new research and information on programs and policies that work. Their testimony provided an in-depth…

Sociological research focuses on how poverty, family, and neighborhood dynamics shape children's problems, but knowledge about how school is related to children's mental health is underdeveloped, despite its central presence in children's lives. Using a social structure and personality-stress contagion perspective, the authors use a nationally…

The purpose of this study was to examine ethnic and gender differences in using DISCOVER, a performance-based assessment, for identifying gifted students from diverse ethnicities. DISCOVER is an acronym which stands for Discovering Intellectual Strength and Capabilities while Observing Varied Ethnic Responses. The sample consisted of 941 boys and…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of PALS (Peer Assisted Learning Strategies) for students who struggle with reading in first grade. Two groups of children were compared in terms of their reading fluency. The groups included English language learners (ELL) well as native English speakers. One group was instructed using the…

A latent growth model was used to investigate the longer term efficacy of phonics and integrated language arts instruction as well as amount of such instruction on children's reading development, using the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study data set (kindergarten through fifth grade). Type and amount of instruction were…

The authors reported findings from 3 studies examining the efficacy of Five Standards pedagogy in raising student achievement. Studies 1 and 2 were randomized designs; Study 3 was a quasi-experimental design. Samples included 53 teachers and 622 predominantly low-income Latino students in Grades 1-4. Studies assessed model fidelity with the…

Reading First has been implemented in Nebraska since the 2004-5 academic year. In two rounds of funding and participation, schools have transformed the way they trained their teachers, measured student progress, and taught. This transformation is one of the hardest tasks in education and it has taken the considerable dedication of school personnel…

This study surveyed the literacy practices of 45 English-speaking parents of Latino kindergarten through second graders using English questionnaires. The results of the survey were similar in many respects to other studies of English-speaking Latinos and unlike studies of Spanish-speaking Latinos. Respondents reported numbers of children's books…

Success for All (SFA) is a comprehensive reading, writing, and oral language development program for students in pre-K through eighth grade. Its underlying premise is that all children, including those with limited English proficiency, can and should be reading in English at grade level by the end of third grade. (SFA can impact Spanish literacy…

The author examined the long-term effects of teacher instructional grouping practices on the early mathematical achievement of language minority students from various ethnic groups. The study used 3 longitudinal models. In the 1st model, English language learners (ELLs) displayed lower math performance than did English-only students in the…