This study examined the cost effectiveness of a 50 lesson mathematics intervention program focused on whole number concepts for at-risk kindergarten students, ROOTS. The study utilized a randomized block design with 1,251 at-risk students within 138 classrooms randomly assigned to one of two active treatment conditions (small groups of either two…

Children's relationships with teachers in kindergarten are crucial for academic and social success. Research shows that teacher-child relationships are predicated, in part, on children's temperament. The "INSIGHTS into Children's Temperament" intervention was intended to improve children's and teachers' understanding of their and others'…

Fluency with skills that operate below the word level (i.e., sublexical), such as phonemic awareness and alphabetic knowledge, may ease the acquisition of decoding skills (Ritchey & Speece, 2006). Measures of sublexical fluency such as phoneme segmentation fluency (PSF), letter naming fluency (LNF), and letter sound fluency (LSF) are widely…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd-grade predictors of reading comprehension in bilingual children. Specifically, we evaluated the role that Spanish and English skills play in predicting English reading comprehension in 3rd grade. Method: As part of a longitudinal study, 248 bilingual children were…

The primary goal of this study was to assess the treatment sensitivity of four newly developed Direct Behavior Rating--Multi-Item Scales (DBR-MIS) that assess the domains of academic engagement, disruptive behavior, organizational skills, and oppositional behavior in the context of a Daily Report Card (DRC) intervention. To achieve this goal, we…

Media use could be detrimental to children's language and literacy skills because it may displace other language-enhancing activities like shared reading and caregiver-child interactions. Furthermore, the extent to which children use media with adults (joint media engagement), the extent to which they use interactive media (apps/games), and the…

Research findings: Using a sample of 568 students from 61 kindergarten classrooms whose primary caregivers completed a questionnaire describing their child's early childhood education and care (ECEC) by year from birth to pre-kindergarten, we identified seven pathways characterizing children's ECEC experiences using a latent class analysis. Once…

Research Findings: The amount of time and type of program that children experience in early childhood settings may be associated with children's kindergarten-entry skills, or kindergarten readiness. Taking a person-centered perspective, in the present study, we examined the extent to which reliable and unique profiles of early childhood…

A quasi-experimental design in six kindergarten classrooms (n = 123 students) was used to study the effects of the KinderTEK iPad-based math program on the math achievement of students in general education classrooms. Student math outcomes in three treatment ("early start") classrooms were compared to math outcomes for students in three…

Drawing from the developmental and cognitive mathematics literature, the purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability, validity, and diagnostic utility of a widely-researched number line task in kindergarten. Specifically, the Number Line Assessment 0-100 (NLA 0-100) as compared to an established kindergarten screening measure was…

The present study examined differences in school readiness skills in the fall of kindergarten between pre-K attendees and non-attenders (n = 2,581) among children in a large, diverse county. Also considered was the extent to which skills associated with pre-K enrollment varied as a function of children's background characteristics and features of…

The present investigation examined the benefits of pre-K through the end of kindergarten for children from low-income homes who lived in a large and diverse county (n = 2,581) as well as factors associated with a reduction in benefits during the kindergarten year. Results revealed that pre-K graduates outperformed non-attenders in the areas of…

The entry into kindergarten is a key transition children experience and has lasting consequences for their academic development. In light of this, many schools have implemented transition practices designed to foster positive development for children during this time. This study uses qualitative interview data to examine the policies, practices,…

Although mathematics development research has become more prominent in the school psychology literature in recent years, a large research gap in this area exists regarding English language learners (ELLs). Significant research in education, cognitive science, and psychology has been devoted to understanding the links between language and…

This manuscript presents the results from a study to investigate the technical characteristics of two versions of a number line assessment (NLA 0-20 and NLA 0-100). The sample consisted of 60 kindergarten and 46 first grade students. Both number line versions had sufficient alternate form and test-retest reliability. The NLA 0-20 had low and the…