Policies that require the use of information about student achievement to evaluate teacher performance are becoming increasingly common across the United States, but there is some question as to how or whether to use student test-based teacher evaluations when student assessments change. We bring empirical evidence to bear on this issue.…

This study examines differential effects of the Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) program on behavioral and academic outcomes of middle school students. Researchers administered screenings to grade 6 students to assess traumatic stress and then randomized those with elevated levels to the CBITS treatment (n = 150; 47%…

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized by persistently high levels of inattention, hyperactivity, and/or impulsivity that interfere with functioning. Inattention is significantly related to lower reading outcomes, whereas hyperactivity/impulsivity alone is not. Strategies to Read Information Texts and Vocabulary…

Given the growing number of Latino English learners and the lack of evidence-based educational opportunities they are provided, we investigated the impact of one potentially effective literacy intervention that targets struggling first-grade Spanish-speaking students: Descubriendo La Lectura (DLL). DLL provides first-grade Spanish-speaking…

Recent research work in school leadership highlighting the importance of principals' organizational management skills has prompted scholars to consider their importance in relation to instructional leadership skills. However, there is limited empirical work that directly compares these leadership skills and their importance for school outcomes. In…

Using a cluster-randomized controlled trial research design, this study investigates the effect of the first year of a three-year teacher professional development program on grades 1 and 2 student achievement in mathematics. Although the findings reported in the present report do not meet the standard cutoff for statistical significance (e.g., 95%…

How students do homework has been under-researched relative to classroom learning because it is more difficult to collect data on students' homework behaviors. Presumably, such data would have implications for students' achievement. To understand how students do homework and how homework performance and behaviors relate to end-of-year standardized…

The Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI) was a statewide policy requiring college readiness testing and participation in college readiness courses for high school students. We used regression discontinuity to compare outcomes for students scoring just above and below test score cutoffs for assignment to FCCRI. We also examined…

Data-driven decision making (DDDM) helps educators identify children not responding to intervention, individualize instruction, and monitor response to intervention in multitiered systems of support (MTSS). More prevalent in K-12 special education, MTSS practices are emerging in early childhood. In previous reports, we described the Making Online…

This study examines the impact of grade retention on behavioral outcomes under a comprehensive assessment-based student promotion policy in New York City. To isolate the causal effect of grade retention, we implement a fuzzy regression discontinuity (RD) design that exploits that grade retention is largely determined by whether a student scores…

Recent research suggests that drawing activities can help students learn concepts in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. In particular, drawing activities, which mimic the practices of STEM professionals, can help students engage with visual-spatial content. However, prior work has also shown that students…

English learners' (ELs) day-to-day experiences in school change when reclassified as fully English proficient. Prior research, however, is mixed on how reclassification influences outcomes. Many studies also do not or cannot explore key long-term outcomes or identify impacts over time. In this study I leverage longitudinal student data in a…

Objectives/Background: Objectives were to (1) examine previous night's sleep in relation to next day performance on standardized academic achievement and neurocognitive assessments in adolescents, and (2) explore whether previous night's sleep is differentially associated with testing performance for adolescents with and without…

Main idea and summary are essential elements of reading comprehension. We report results from Grades 4 and 5 student performance on two years of state-mandated standardized reading testing which indicate that students perform statistically significantly lower on main idea and summary questions on the tests than any other question category. In this…

This demonstration introduces and presents an innovative online cognitive diagnostic assessment, developed to identify the types of cognitive processes that readers use during comprehension; specifically, processes that distinguish between subtypes of struggling comprehenders. Cognitive diagnostic assessments are designed to provide valuable…