The advent of No Child Left Behind led to increased teacher accountability for student performance and placed strict sanctions in place for failure to meet a certain level of performance each year. With instructional time at a premium, it is imperative that educators have brief academic assessments that accurately predict performance on…

This study was designed to identify, through mediation analysis, potential causal mechanisms by which procedures of self-regulated learning increase the efficaciousness of teaching young students strategies for writing stories. In a randomized controlled trial with 3 measurement points (pretest, posttest, maintenance), 117 fourth graders either…

The effect of student-reported teacher-student relationship quality (TSRQ) on academic motivation and achievement was investigated among a sample of 690 academically at-risk elementary students (52.8% male). Measures of TSRQ, achievement, and motivation were collected annually for 3 consecutive years, beginning when participants were in Grade 2…

The student-teacher-relationship (STR) during the early school years is formative in children's later academic, social, and behavioral functioning. Children with typical development who enter school with behavior problems and social deficits are at heightened risk for developing poor STRs. Autism is the fastest growing special education disability…

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…

This paper reports on an assessment of knowledge of SDL in primary (elementary) South Australian school students, fifty-six of whom were assessed to be high reasoning. The goals of the study were to identify the effectiveness of teaching and assessing knowledge of Self-Directed Learning (SDL) in high reasoning students, investigate whether there…

This study assessed the importance of teacher preference of individual students, relative to peer rejection and student aggression, as an independent predictor of children's emotional adjustment and grades. First, a longitudinal, cross-lagged path analysis was conducted to determine the patterns of influence among teacher preference, peer…

A reanalysis of a structural equation model of the development of intellectual abilities is presented. The original model emphasized four different constructs of intelligence; the reanalysis emphasized a general factor model. (Author/JKS)

The present study investigated the pathways between attention problems and depressive symptoms, particularly the role of academic incompetence, among a community sample of urban African American children. Results supported the hypothesized path models from inattention to depressive symptoms for girls and boys. Academic performance in the spring of…

Rated first through fifth graders' political knowledge and recall of a simulated news story. Used path analysis to determine relationships among grade level, political knowledge, recall of specific story information, and generation of inferences from the story. Results suggested that children's domain-specific knowledge is more influential in…

Path analysis shows that a year-long program integrating reading/language arts and science instruction, Concept Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI), had a positive effect on strategy use and text comprehension for students in grades 3 (N=48) and 5 (n=40) when accounting for past achievement and prior knowledge. (SLD)

The goal of this investigation was to explore the role social competence plays in peer group relations. Social competence, as based on exchange theory, was "operationalized" as including high levels of interpersonal positiveness, and accuracy in perceiving one's social status. Also explored was the extent to which satisfaction is a…

Method effects associated with item wording have been explored in a variety of instruments and found that the practice of using positively- and negatively- worded items may introduce systematic measurement errors that disrupt analyses and interpretations of the results. Therefore, the first purpose in the present study was to explore if method…

Continuing motivation has been defined as an individual's willingness to return to a task or task area at a subsequent time, in similar or varying circumstances, without visible external pressure to do so, and when other behavior alternatives are available. In the current study, path models from Weiner's theory of motivation were developed to…

Predictions from the internal/external frame of reference model of H. W. Marsh (1986) and gender differences in the structure of academic self-concept were examined through path analyses of data from 231 Norwegian sixth graders (117 males and 114 females). Implications for the study of academic self-concept are discussed. (SLD)