Background: The past half-century has resulted in a substantial expansion of early childhood center-based care in the United States. Today, over 74% of American children aged 3-5 attend center-based care (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2021). Although public pre-k is considered socially favorable,…

The Vortex School District (VSD) utilized CASE benchmark assessments as their accountability tool to measure students' progress on Tennessee's standardized testing. The researchers sought to determine the predictive relationship between math scores on CASE benchmark assessments and math scores on state-mandated standardized tests within the VSD.…

The Vortex School District (VSD) utilized CASE benchmark assessments as their accountability tool to measure students' progress on Tennessee's standardized testing. The researchers sought to determine the predictive relationship between math scores on CASE benchmark assessments and math scores on state-mandated standardized tests within the VSD.…

The Vortex School District (VSD) utilized CASE benchmark assessments as their accountability tool to measure students' progress on Tennessee's standardized testing. The researchers sought to determine the predictive relationship between math scores on CASE benchmark assessments and math scores on state-mandated standardized tests within the VSD.…

This quantitative correlational study examined the relationship between the overall and sub-component scores (operations and algebraic thinking, measurement and data, and geometry) of the i-Ready and TNReady assessments for fourth-grade students in a Title 1 elementary school in Middle Tennessee. The study included 109 students with complete data…

To better understand Tennessee's new standardized science assessments, this quantitative study utilized a nonexperimental, descriptive-comparative design to compare the readability of the long-used science TCAP assessment with the newly created science TNReady assessment in grades three, four, and five. As new standards in the state boast higher…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if there was a significant relationship between school-wide academic outcomes and the instructional modalities utilized by public schools during the 2019-2022 school years. This study also determined if there was a significant difference in assessment scores earned by public school students…

Educators have been faced with increasing demands to not only achieve, but also improve reading scores across the nation. Educational research of literacy abilities and reading achievement performance on state assessments have been researched and documented for decades. However, there has been little research on middle school literacy and state…

While fluency in second language speaking can be a challenging construct to measure, it is important to identify the discourse features that contribute to it. This small-scale classroom research project examined the effect of formulaic language sequences on fluency as measured by computer-based speaking tasks of young English learners. Thirty-six…

A quantitative ex post facto causal comparative research method was used to investigate and analyze the reading comprehension achievement of middle school Black male students in two middle schools. Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) reading scores of students in grades five, six, seven, and eight from school years 2006-2007,…

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in the writing assessment scores for each of the four traits--development, focus and organization, language, and conventions--as measured by the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) of students who had a formal keyboarding course compared to those who did not. A…

High-stakes testing can be a major hurdle for individuals who know the material well, but have trouble understanding the language of the test. Many people have difficulty understanding test questions when the wording of the question is different from the language variation typically used by the test-taker. This research builds on prior research…

Student persistence in online learning environments has typically been studied at the macro-level (e.g., completion of an online course, number of academic terms completed, etc.). The current examines student persistence in an adaptive learning environment, ALEKS (Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces). Specifically, the study explores the…

The purpose of this ex post facto study was to compare the effect the Read Well and the Reading Street curriculums had on achievement test scores. Data from the "Stanford Achievement Test, 10th ed." (SAT10) were examined using total reading scale scores for males and females at the kindergarten and first- and second-grade levels. Three…

We estimate the effects of relative age in kindergarten using data from an experiment where children of the same age were randomly assigned to different kindergarten classmates. We exploit the resulting experimental variation in relative age in conjunction with variation in expected kindergarten entry age based on birth date to account for…