While global enrollment in primary education has increased significantly particularly since it became a target of the United Nations "Education for All" initiative and one of the Millennium Development Goals, primary completion rates have remained virtually unchanged since 1999. Evidence from studies of individual programs in a range of…

There is a strong and politically bipartisan push to increase access to government-funded pre-K. This is based on a premise that free and available pre-K is the surest way to provide the opportunity for all children to succeed in school and life, and that it has predictable and cost-effective positive impacts on children's academic success. The…

Insofar as urban school systems that are often identified as ineffective include such a large segment of U.S. P-12 students, it is vital to improve academic success. To provide context, the article first discusses key challenges facing urban schools. Second, the article identifies and briefly reviews a variety of approaches to reform models often…

The purpose of this study was to explore the under researched area of parents' attitudes towards inclusion in inclusive mainstream early years settings in Thailand. The sample consisted of 71 parents: those with typically developing children (TDC) (50 parents) and children with special educational needs (SEN) (21 parents), residing in Bangkok,…

Recurrent catastrophic weather events on the Texas Gulf Coast led to the need to explore how Hurricane Harvey affected PK-12 education in the geographical area. Consequently, changes in student demographic characteristics and academic outcomes were correlated with 2018-2019 NERD$ finance data for Houston ISD and surrounding school districts. The…

Little is known about differences between traditional, university-based certification programs and alternative certification programs in terms of outcomes for students and teachers. Across all preparation pathways, however, too many early career teachers leave the field (over 40% within first five years). This attrition problem is likely to grow…

The purpose of this study was to explore factors influencing middle school students' academic achievement. In this regard, the study investigated the impact of demographic factors and students' attitudes towards STEM on their achievement. The research sample was drawn from a city located in southeastern Turkey. Multiple regression analysis was…

It is expected that all students in the United States learn to read English well. This task is more complex for emergent bilinguals (EBs), the majority of whom speak Spanish, who are simultaneously developing their English language proficiency. Although several syntheses have documented the positive effects of shared book reading (SBR) in school…

The purpose of the study is to investigate what early childhood teachers in the United States of America believe are the essential characteristics young children and dual language learners (DLL) require to be ready for school. Participants identified the three top characteristics all young children and DLL need for school success. The findings…

Governments around the world are increasing investments in early childhood education as a way to promote children's learning and development. As research grows on the longer-term effects of early educational programs, some have hypothesized that sustained impacts may depend on the quality of children's subsequent classroom environments and may be…

Connecticut is one of 29 states that require beginning teachers to complete an induction program to mitigate high turnover and lower efficacy among early-career teachers. Its two-year Teacher Education and Mentoring (TEAM) Program provides guidance to beginning teachers through several mechanisms, including five instructional modules and ongoing…

Research Findings: Children's readiness to handle the expectations of elementary school depends heavily on their self-regulation skills. Self-regulation includes both cognitive and behavioral elements; however, past studies have typically looked at cognitive and behavioral self-regulation in isolation or as a composite score rather than examining…

Over the years, the nation's large urban school districts have consistently learned from the progress of their peer districts across the country. Great City School districts that have embraced the challenge of educating America's urban children have recognized the value of benchmarking their performance and growth against the progress of others.…

Experiencing large differences between pre-k and kindergarten classroom contexts may affect children's academic development as they start school. This study examined differences between classroom contexts in pre-k and kindergarten (teacher-child interactions, time on academic content, and academic rigor) and associations with literacy, language,…

Great City School districts that have embraced the challenge of educating America's urban children have recognized the value of benchmarking their performance and growth against the progress of others. This report presents a number of different ways that member districts can analyze the data themselves by disaggregating results, showing trends,…