This study was to evaluate weight status and sociodemographic disparities in physical activity (PA) intensities (i.e., vigorous PA [VPA], moderate PA [MPA], and light PA [LPA]) during different segments of the school day, including physical education (PE), recess, and lunchtime. Participants were 287 third-grade students (Mage = 8.38, SD = 0.50).…

The importance of mathematics in early grades has been well established. Two variables that are associated with mathematics achievement are student-teacher relationships (STR) and student type (students identified with a disability and students not identified with a disability). The current study investigated the interaction between perceived STR…

Boys and girls sit together in most classrooms, but do they interact? Based on 40-year-old evidence, coeducational classes may not be coeducational but instead segregated by gender, which may undermine student success. Our goal is to answer this question in today's classrooms. We used longitudinal data to assess gender segregation in 26 classes in…

This study examined the literacy trajectories of 185 Head Start-eligible Black children from preschool to first grade enrolled in a high-quality early learning program physically connected to an elementary school where they attended kindergarten and first grade. Social emotional, language, and literacy skills were assessed in the fall and spring…

Nearly 30 years ago, Chall, Jacobs, and Baldwin introduced the fourth-grade slump to describe the unexpected deceleration of reading skills between first and fourth grades among children growing up in poverty and low-income households. Advances in our understanding of reading development and how race, racism, or other forms of discrimination are…

Various factors at the individual and school levels contribute to the impairment of academic achievement. We examined whether academic class composition, measured as average class achievement and class heterogeneity (variance in achievement within class), moderates the associations of inattentiveness and hyperactivity/impulsivity with academic…

Small-group instruction has the potential to support students' reading growth. Teachers can use knowledge of students' skill profiles to inform the types and amounts of instruction they provide; however, the extent to which teachers do this is largely unknown. Among first (n = 661) and third graders (n = 364), we investigated whether (1) teacher…

There is an apparent need to identify resource- and time-efficient approaches to supporting teacher implementers of behavioral interventions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief training and intermittent performance feedback coaching model on teacher implementation of a multicomponent behavioral intervention.…

This study explores how three widely used US kindergarten mathematics textbooks, each written to align with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM), vary in terms of content coverage, instructional grouping, and use of representational strategies. Results show that all textbooks (i) primarily emphasize math practices related to…

Studies examining seasonal variation in academic skills for children have focused on learning loss or stagnation during the summer, particularly for students from low-income or minoritized racial and ethnic backgrounds. In this study, we expand the literature to focus on another student population that may be susceptible to summer learning loss:…

Texts classified according to guided reading levels (GRL) are ubiquitous in US beginning reading classrooms. This study examined features of texts across three grade bands (kindergarten, early first grade, final first grade) and the 10 GRLs within these bands. The 510 texts came from three programs with different functions in beginning reading…

This study aimed to examine verbal behaviors within communicative interactions at the teacher/classroom level among second-grade classrooms that differ in socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. Investigators recorded and examined language use across instructional periods for 38 second-grade classrooms. Teachers' communication behaviors were…

Using data from a Midwest project, this study examines malleable factors associated with the reduction of language, achievement, and social-emotional development gaps among Black, Latine, and White children at the end of kindergarten. Gaps at the end of kindergarten between Latine and White children in expressive language, and between Black and…

The present study employed a difference-in-difference approach to determine the impact of a technologically enhanced diagnostic and formative assessment system implemented in one US state in kindergarten through third grade on school-level end-of-year third-grade reading test scores and percentage of students receiving special education services.…

This article describes the challenges and triumphs in introducing music in the primary division of a private elementary school in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Data sources included classroom observations, field notes, lesson plans, professional development materials, photographs, audio-recordings, videos, surveys, and interviews. Data were analyzed using…