The purpose of this research is to identify the current situation regarding equality of educational opportunity after the implementation of 12-year compulsory education which serves as a reform in Turkey on the basis of key indicators and to suggest policy recommendations to provide equality of educational opportunity. The research, aiming to…

Australia and New Zealand have participated in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment since 2000. Reading literacy was the main focus of the Programme for International Student Assessment in 2000, and at that time both countries' students generally performed well above the…

This study finds that, breaking with decades of slow improvement, U.S. reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and other assessments have seen historic declines since most states implemented national Common Core English and math curriculum standards six years ago. This descriptive analysis is designed to…

The current study examines the effects of the sociocultural context of primary school reading among Arabic- and English-speaking students in the UAE. Using a sample of 16,391 fourth graders (English: n = 10,507; Arabic: n = 5,884) from the 2016 Process in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), results revealed that while early language…

Based on the Lexile® Framework, a scientific approach to reading and text measurement backed by more than two decades of ongoing research, Achieve3000®, a web-based differentiated reading program used by HISD, is designed to improve student reading ability and comprehension of increasingly complex texts by initially meeting students where they are…

The Republic of Ireland has a history of high reading scores in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Analysis from PISA 2018 shows that although the country has many cultural similarities to the four UK nations (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), 15-year-old pupils in the Republic of Ireland achieved…

This study examined the relationship between two reading curriculum based measures (oral reading fluency and MAZE) and the reading and mathematics subsections of a high stakes test administered at the 5th and 6th grades. Bivariate correlations were conducted between each curriculum based measure and each subsection of the test. Results indicated…

Despite considerable reform activity surrounding K-12 education over the past 20 years, racial and socioeconomic disparities among students who achieve at advanced levels have received little attention. This study examined how excellence gaps, defined as differences in performance at the 90th percentile of subgroups, change over time and their…

Construct-irrelevant cognitive complexity of some items in the statewide grade-level assessments may impose performance barriers for students with disabilities who are ineligible for alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards. This has spurred research into whether items can be modified to reduce complexity without affecting…

This study investigated the associations among reading strategy instruction, student motivational factors (i.e., attitudes toward reading, reading self-concept, and motivation to read), gender, and reading achievement. The analyses were conducted using the Hong Kong sample (students at Level 1, n = 3,875 and teachers at Level 2, n = 133) from the…

Gender differences in reading seem to increase throughout schooling and then decrease or even disappear with age, but the reasons for this are unclear. In this study, we explore whether differences in the way "reading literacy" is operationalised can add to our understanding of varying gender differences in international large-scale…

A comprehensive, statistical review of gender differences in verbal performance has not been conducted in several decades and the majority of previous work on this topic used published studies that often include small, non-representative samples. The introduction of national legislation in US public schools required schools to assess and publicly…

Hong Kong attained the top place in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2011, an international study of reading achievement, which arouses keen interest in understanding the reasons behind this remarkable achievement. Although factors associated with reading achievement in English have been widely studied, similar studies…

Children with stronger self-regulation skills generally demonstrate greater overall success in school both academically and socially. However, there are few valid and reliable measures of self-regulation in middle elementary school. Such a measure could help identify whether a child is truly having difficulties. Thus, the Remembering Rules and…

This study investigates the impact of Catholic schooling on academic achievement of native Belgian and Muslim immigrant pupils. The distinctive characteristics of Catholic schools in Belgium (Flanders) form an exceptionally suitable context to study this. Multilevel latent growth curve analyses are conducted with data from approximately 5,000…