The aim of this paper was to understand whether and to what extent parenting behaviors mediated the association between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and 8-year old children's reading performance. The study used video recordings of parent-child interactions in Danish public schools while the child was assigned a difficult reading task (N =…

Two-way dual language (DL) classrooms enroll students of two different language backgrounds and teach curriculum in both languages. I estimate the effect of attending a DL school on student achievement using school choice lotteries from Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District in North Carolina, finding local average treatment effects of 0.04 and…

Instructional coaches may assist teachers in their continued learning by providing embedded professional development in areas of need. In this study, most sub-groups in the school district realized increases in proficiency levels in math and reading after the implementation of instructional coaches. Some sub-groups evidenced significant rates of…

This study's aim was to determine the factors affecting Turkish children's reading-writing achievements in the first grade in the preschool period. The prediction level of attention, visual perception (VP), rapid automatic naming (RAN), writing development (WD), and phonological awareness (PA) of the children in the preschool on their success in…

This paper assesses two approaches to the measurement of educational inequality in international comparisons between countries and over time. We analyse reading literacy performance of 15-year-old students using data from PISA 2009 and 2015 for 37 EU and OECD countries. We show that inequality of outcome and inequality of opportunity do not…

The learning gap between urban and rural areas is a persistent problem in many sub-Saharan African countries. Previous studies have found that the urban-rural learning gap is attributed to the fact that student characteristics and school resources are different in urban and rural areas. Our study updates this finding by using the latest dataset…

Modern large-scale studies such as the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) do not only report reading competence of students on a global reading scale but also report reading on the level of reading subskills. However, the number of and the dependencies between the subskills are frequently discussed. In this study, different…

Equipping elementary (i.e., grades K-5) teachers with adequate content and pedagogical knowledge to promote effective reading instruction based on the science of reading is a crucial piece of the reading education puzzle. We reviewed 20 empirical studies to examine the impact of teacher preparation and training programs on elementary teachers'…

To assess education progress in the early grades and identify achievement gaps, this study examined reading achievement data for kindergarten and grade 1 students in two districts in Illinois: District U-46 (Elgin Area Schools) and District 186 (Springfield Public Schools). Drawing on a different reading assessment in each district, the study team…

Success in reading is essential throughout a student's school career and into adulthood. Recent data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment shows that approximately one-third of all fourth-grade students are not meeting basic reading standards. When results are broken out by racial and student subgroups, the…

Education is often depicted as one of the best ways out of poverty. At the same time, research over many decades finds that most educational outcomes are strongly correlated to poverty. It is not likely that these two themes are true at the same time. Either schools are windows of opportunity and help overcome or mitigate poverty and other…

There is a persistent stereotype that gifted students feel ostracized and have less sense of belonging than their normative peers. To explore this stereotype, data from 9251 15-year-old students in the U.S. were used to explore differences in the sense of belonging across achievement levels in various domains (i.e., mathematics, science, and…

This brief describes the findings of a study into the effects of a project-based learning (PBL) social studies curriculum, Project PLACE, on social studies and literacy achievement among second graders in low-income communities. The study by University of Michigan and Michigan State researchers found the PBL curriculum led to gains in social…

During the Great Recession, national public school per-pupil spend-ing fell by roughly 7 percent and persisted beyond the recovery. The impact of such large and sustained education funding cuts is not well understood. To examine this, first, we document that the recessionary drop in spending coincided with the end of decades-long national growth…

One of the most significant reasons children struggle with primary literacy skills is due to poor phonemic knowledge and understanding. This study was designed to identify foundational strategies necessary, needed, and used to help decrease struggles in reading performance and academic growth while addressing long term guidance for higher reading…