In this study, we examined one model of coaching, Support for the Improvement of Practices through Intensive Coaching (SIPIC), which draws from both direct and responsive models of coaching with classroom teachers. We found the model to be effective in improving the comprehension instruction of teachers and in raising the reading achievement of…

It is common to assume that worker productivity is normally distributed, but this assumption is rarely, if ever, tested. We estimate the distribution of worker productivity, where individual productivity is measured with error, using the productivity of teachers as an example. We employ a nonparametric density estimator that explicitly accounts…

The UPSTART Summer program is a federally funded i3 validation project that uses a computer-based program to maintain and develop the literacy skills of elementary school students in rural Utah during the summer months when school is out of session. Researchers used a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the impact of the program in forestalling…

Parental text messaging interventions are growing in popularity to encourage at-home reading, school-attendance, and other educational behaviors. These interventions, which often combine multiple components, frequently demonstrate varying amounts of effectiveness, and researchers often cannot determine how individual components work alone or in…

The development of beginning decoding and encoding skills is influenced by linguistic skills as well as executive functions (EFs). These higher-level cognitive processes include working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility, and individual differences in these EFs have been shown to contribute to early academic learning. The present study…

High quality teacher-student interactions are critical for the healthy social-emotional, behavioral, and academic development of middle school students. However, few studies have explored patterns of teacher-student interactions in middle school classrooms or the relation between teacher-, classroom-, and school-level factors and patterns of…

Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking en Español, or iSTART-E, is a new intelligent tutoring system (ITS) that provides reading comprehension strategy training for Spanish speakers. This paper reports on studies evaluating the efficacy of iSTART-E in real-world classrooms in two different Spanish-speaking countries. In…

Background: The importance of reading motivation has led to the development of a large number of self-report reading motivation measures; however, there is still a need for a usable measure of adolescent reading motivation that captures a large number of theoretically and empirically distinct constructs. Methods: The current paper details the…

This paper introduces a new observation system that is designed to investigate students' and teachers' talk during literacy instruction, "Creating Opportunities to Learn from Text" (COLT). Using video-recorded observations of 2nd-3rd grade literacy instruction (N=51 classrooms, 337 students, 151 observations), we found that nine types of…

"Partners Advancing Childhood Education" ("PACE") is an Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant funded by the Office of Innovation and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. "PACE" is a family engagement program that enhances family engagement skills among educators and leadership skills among parents to…

Future Forward is an early primary literacy program that pairs one-on-one tutoring with family engagement. Future Forward's approach is informed by both systems theory and a school-family-community partnership model. Future Forward understands that schools are not solely responsible for developing student literacy. Instead of viewing families and…

This study identified distinct, homogeneous latent profiles of at-risk (n = 141) and not at-risk (n = 149) first grade readers. Separate latent profile analyses were conducted with each subgroup using measures of phonological awareness, decoding, linguistic comprehension, and oral reading fluency. This study also examined which measures best…

Using nationally representative data from the Family and Child Experiences Survey 2009 Cohort (n = 2,798), this study examined patterns of absenteeism and their consequences through the transition to kindergarten. Overall, children were less likely to be absent in kindergarten than from Head Start at ages 3 and 4. Absenteeism was fairly stable…

This study examined the effectiveness of the intensive implementation of a multicomponent reading intervention (Voyager Passport) with 306 fourth grade students with severe reading difficulties. Students with reading comprehension achievement below the 15%ile in the fall of fourth grade were randomly assigned to the intensive intervention or to…

Grade retention, the practice of requiring a student to remain in the same grade the following year, disproportionately affects students with sociodemographic risk and facing academic challenges. Each year, the United States spends $20 billion on retention and two million children are retained. Extant studies examining early elementary grade…