In this brief, we use a nationally representative sample of ever-English learners (ELs; N = 783) to examine relations between EL concentration within classrooms and reading growth between kindergarten and Grade 5. Piecewise growth models were used to estimate relations for four developmental periods (K-1, Grades 1-2, Grades 2-3, and Grades 3-5).…

As the United States experiences greater income inequality, more and more students experience an early science achievement gap. This study tested several competing theoretical models of early science achievement with a longitudinal sample of 14,624 children who were followed from kindergarten entry to the end of 1st grade. To understand why and…

In this brief, we use a national representative sample of ever-English learners (N = 783) to examine relations between English learner concentration within classrooms and reading growth between Kindergarten and Grade 5. Piecewise growth models were used to estimate relations for four developmental periods (K-1, Grade 1-2, Grade 2-3, and Grade…

Recent research has indicated that science-based achievement gaps open early in children's educational careers and are explained largely by malleable factors. Two potentially important variables to consider include children's executive function (EF) and learning-related behaviors exhibited in the classroom. These variables have been identified as…

Despite a 100-year-old history and the existence of schools in nearly every country in the world, Waldorf education is a little known and poorly understood educational model that was developed in Europe by Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner. For many years it existed in the United States in the form of private schools. Few of their teachers or…

Recent emphasis on effects of nonacademic skills served as a catalyst for examining Approaches to Learning (ATLs) variables from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K). Nonacademic skills play a role in academic success. A gap exists in the research highlighting and understanding the extent to which these nonacademic…

Research Findings: Parent involvement is a critical way for children to learn about the importance of education and develop reading skills. Unfortunately, not all low-income parents are able to be involved in their children's education, which can have negative implications for children's reading development. The present study tested if the…

Curriculum experts have long argued that adopting content-rich language arts curricula would help to remedy the knowledge deficit. Another approach is simply to devote more classroom time to subjects like science and social studies. It is an open question whether more time spent on such content-rich subjects in elementary school classrooms might…

We apply "value-added" models to estimate the effects of teachers on an outcome they cannot plausibly affect: student height. When fitting the relatively simple models that are widely used in educational practice to New York City data, we find the standard deviation of teacher effects on height is nearly as large as that for math and…

Concentrated pockets of under-resourced neighbourhoods and schools exist in urban areas in which there are overwhelming numbers of children labelled 'at-risk.' Structural equation modelling was used to predict the associations between family social capital in kindergarten and third-grade learning and development outcomes for low-socioeconomic…

Using the ECLS-K:2011, a nationally representative dataset, we compared measures of behavioral engagement among students with four different learning profiles: students identified with learning disabilities, students identified as gifted, students identified as both gifted and having a learning disability (twice-exceptional; 2e), and general…

We examined whether the early learning environment predicts children's 5th grade skills in 2,204 families from ethnically diverse, low-income backgrounds; tested the mediating roles of children's pre-kindergarten school-related skills and later learning environment; and asked whether lagged associations generalize across White, Black, Hispanic…

This study examines the association between class size, teacher characteristics and five non-cognitive student outcomes (i.e., self-control, interpersonal skills, approaches to learning, externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors) in grades K-3. Individual fixed-effects, that control for observed and unobserved time-invariant factors,…

Working memory is an important component of executive functioning, an area of difficulty for many autistic children. However, executive functioning and working memory are highly malleable throughout childhood, and various student-level and environmental factors play important roles in their development. This study used the Early Childhood…

This study examines how affective (student-teacher relationships) and sociological factors (race) interact in educational settings to shape differential educational experiences for diverse subgroups. Studying these factors in isolation only partially explains the mechanisms that drive outcomes for students, especially those belonging to…