In education, among the most anticipated consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are that student performance will stagnate or decline and that existing inequities will increase. Although some studies suggest a decline in student performance and widening learning gaps, the picture is less clear than expected. In this study, we add to the existing…

Gender differences in reading and math have been reported for many years. Girls outperform boys in reading (representing a school domain stereotyped as female); boys often perform slightly better in math (a stereotypical male domain). Research has so far investigated the contribution of domain-specific academic self-concepts and interests as well…

Intersectional approaches have become increasingly important for explaining educational inequalities because they help to improve our understanding of how individual experiences are shaped by simultaneous membership in multiple social categories that are associated with interconnected systems of power, privilege, and oppression. For years, there…

Background: Researchers often report and discuss gender differences. However, recent research has drawn attention to interaction effects between gender and other social categories. Aims: This study analysed the development of disparities in students' reading-related self-concept, intrinsic motivation, and behaviour, as they relate to differences…

Principals (policy makers) have debated the progress in U.S. student performance for a half century or more. Informing these conversations, survey agents have administered seven million psychometrically linked tests in math and reading in 160 waves to national probability samples of selected cohorts born between 1954 and 2007. This study is the…

Regarding research on inclusive education, it is unknown whether differences in classroom composition provide unequal opportunities for educational outcomes of students with special educational needs (SEN). We investigated effects of student characteristics and classroom composition on reading achievement and social participation of SEN students.…

This study examined the role of teacher expectations in the emerging gender gaps in reading and mathematics in the first year of schooling. Therefore, we first investigated whether boys and girls differ in their vulnerability to teacher expectancy effects. Second, we analysed whether gender-specific effects of teacher expectations contribute to…

The authors examined the extent to which classroom-specific relationships between students' gender and their reading achievement and enjoyment of reading are associated with student-perceived teaching quality. Based on a sample of 10,543 ninth-grade students from 427 classrooms, multilevel analyses revealed that effective classroom management,…

Research provides evidence that gender, immigrant background and socio-economic characteristics present multiple disadvantaging characteristics that change their relative importance and configurations over time. When evaluating inequalities researchers tend to focus on one particular aspect and often use composite measures when evaluating…

Background: Numerous studies have investigated the relationships between various student, home and contextual factors and reading achievement. However, the relationship between such factors and reading attitudes has been investigated far less, despite the fact that theoretical frameworks of large-scale assessments and school effectiveness research…

The importance of reading competence for both individuals and society underlines the strong need to understand the gender gap in reading achievement. Beyond mean differences in reading comprehension, research has indicated that girls possess specific advantages on constructed-response items compared with boys of the same reading ability. Moreover,…

To understand the relationship between social background and sex in schooling, we use Bourdieu's theory of social reproduction and a feminist perspective of gender as practice. We pose two questions: (1) What is the relationship between economic and cultural capital and achievement for 4th-grade females versus males studying in Germany? (2) Is the…

According to expectancy-value theory, the gender stereotypes of significant others such as parents, peers, or teachers affect students' competence beliefs, values, and achievement-related behavior. Stereotypically, gender beliefs about reading favor girls. The aim of this study was to investigate whether teachers' gender stereotypes in relation to…

The present longitudinal study aimed to investigate the influence of ADHD symptoms on reading development in elementary schoolchildren. To this end, repeated assessments of ADHD symptoms (teacher ratings of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity) and reading achievement (standardized tests of decoding speed and text comprehension) were…

This paper explores the PISA [Programme for International Student Assessment] achievement of twenty countries in light of some of their demographic differences. SES [student socioeconomic status], nuclear family, gender, home language, and native status were predictive of achievement for every country. Demographics accounted for as little as 8…