Despite focused efforts, achievement gaps remain a problem in America's education system, especially those between students from higher and lower income families. Continued work on reducing these gaps benefits from an understanding of students' reading and math growth from typical school instruction and how growth differs based on initial…

Despite focused efforts, achievement gaps remain a problem in the America's education system, especially those between students from higher and lower income families. Continued work on reducing these gaps benefits from an understanding of students' reading and math growth from typical school instruction and how growth differs based on initial…

In this paper we explore how participation in a constructivist-oriented, classroom aligned mathematics intervention program advanced the learning and positive dispositions of Grade 1 students who were failing to thrive when learning mathematics. Intervention programs are an approach to differentiated instruction that some schools adopt, but there…

The main purpose of this study was to test the effects of word-problem (WP) intervention, with versus without embedded language comprehension (LC) instruction, on at-risk 1st graders' WP performance. We also isolated the need for a structured approach to WP intervention and tested the efficacy of schema-based instruction at 1st grade. Children (n…

Ethnic and racial disparities in educational outcomes, such as test scores, are a core issue of educational research. While the role of student and family factors in the formation of such disparities is well established, existing studies fail to draw a similarly clear picture of how teachers contribute to ethnic and racial achievement gaps. In…

Growing evidence suggests that contrary to popular belief, schools mostly do not generate achievement gaps in cognitive skills but, rather, reflect the inequalities that already exist. In the case of socioeconomic status, exposure to school often reduces gaps. Surprisingly little is known, however, about whether this pattern extends to gender gaps…

In the face of rising economic and social inequality, American parents increasingly seek to promote their children's academic achievement through provision of enriching learning opportunities. In this study, we hypothesized that parental investments in both home and out-of-home learning resources may partially explain socioeconomic disparities in…

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…

This study found that as early as the beginning of kindergarten and before any formal schooling began for most students, the achievement gap already existed. It was mostly related to students' poverty, ELL status, and SWD status, as well as to schools' having larger proportions of economically disadvantaged students. Students from poor families…

The present study examines cross-lagged associations among executive function, visuomotor skills, and math and reading achievement from kindergarten to second grade. Both executive function and visuomotor integration tend to be delayed in socioeconomically disadvantaged children and can explain nearly half the achievement gap at kindergarten…

This Policy Guide draws on work with five states to provide context and guidance for policymakers looking to strengthen the pre-K to K-3 continuum and create opportunities to close the achievement gap. It includes a tear-out page of guiding questions at the end.

Theory and limited research indicate that race and socioeconomic status (SES) interact dynamically to shape children's developmental contexts and academic achievement, but little scholarship examines how race and SES intersect to shape Black-White achievement gaps across development. We used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study,…

When do children become unequal in reading and math skills? Some research claims that inequality grows mainly before school begins. Some research claims that schools cause inequality to grow. And some research--including the 2004 study ''Are Schools the Great Equalizer?''--claims that inequality grows mainly during summer vacations. Unfortunately,…

This brief leverages the first ever nationally representative data set with a direct assessment of elementary school-aged children's executive function skills to examine racial and socioeconomic gaps in performance. The analysis reveals large gaps in measures of working memory and cognitive flexibility, the two components of executive function…

Background: An enduring question about achievement gaps is, which aspects of schools contribute most? At the early grade levels, when children spend the vast majority of their school day in a single classroom with a single teacher, school inequities that correlate with achievement gaps likely originate within the classroom. This study examined the…