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Reading and literacy education
School-based language, math, and reading interventions for executive functions in children and adolescents: A systematic review
Jens Dietrichson, Julie Kaas Seerup, Sofie Elgaard Iisager Jensen, Johan Klejs, Elizabeth Bengtsen, Martin Williams Strandby, Morten Kjær Thomsen.Topics: Student LearningExecutive functions are a set of cognitive skills and processes used when directing behaviour towards the attainment of a certain goal. A large literature has documented positive associations between executive functions and a variety of desirable outcomes throughout life, including academic… more →
Separation of Church and State Curricula? Examining Public and Religious Private School Textbooks
Tags: Belonging, Culturally responsive schooling, Curriculum, Elementary schools, Human capital, Instructional design, Instructional practices, Instructional technology, Race, ethnicity, and education, Reading and literacy education, Science education, Social studies educationCurricula impart knowledge, instill values, and shape collective memory. Despite growing public funding for religious schools through U.S. school choice programs, little is known about what they teach. We examine textbooks from public schools, religious private schools, and home schools,… more →
From Sentence-Corrections to Deeper Dialogue: Qualitative Insights from LLM and Teacher Feedback on Student Writing
Topics: MethodsEffective writing feedback is a powerful tool for enhancing student learning, encouraging revision, and increasing motivation and agency. Yet, teachers face many challenges that prevent them from consistently providing effective writing feedback. Recent advances in generative artificial… more →
The Impacts of Grade Retention Policy With Minimal Retention
Topics: Student LearningState laws that mandate in-grade retention for struggling readers are widespread in the U.S., covering 34% of public-school third graders in 2023-24. This study investigates the impacts of Michigan’s third-grade reading law on subsequent test scores and school progress outcomes for the 2020-21… more →
Experimental Evidence on the Impact of Tutoring Format and Tutors: Findings from an Early Literacy Tutoring Program
Topics: Student LearningThis study presents the first within-program, within-tutor experimental evidence comparing the impact of in-person versus remote tutoring. Based on results from an early literacy tutoring initiative delivered by university students over Summer 2023, we find no statistically significant… more →
Closing the Gender Gap in STEM: Role of Performance Feedback and Advice
The gender gap in STEM careers is shaped in part by educational choices. This study investigates two interventions—absolute performance feedback and personalized advice— aiming at narrowing the gender disparities in investments in math skills. Using an online lab experiment, participants chose… more →
SEEDS of Early Learning: A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Early Literacy Teacher Professional Development Program
Topics: Teacher and Leader DevelopmentNORC at the University of Chicago designed and implemented an impact evaluation of the SEEDS of Learning (SEEDS) professional development (PD) program on behalf of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, in collaboration with Kidango. SEEDS of Learning is an evidence-based PD program that prepares early… more →
The Peer Effects of Grade Retention
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceWe study the peer effects of grade retention in the context of Indiana’s statewide third-grade retention policy. When a retention occurs, it changes the peer group for two cohorts: rising fourth graders who lose a peer and rising third graders who gain a peer. We identify peer effects in both… more →
Combining Early Grade Assessments to Study Literacy Skills: Addressing the Variability in Tests Taken across Schools and Students
Topics: MethodsThere is considerable variability in the literacy assessments taken in Kindergarten through second grade, across schools and between multilingual learners and other students, and within students over time. This makes it difficult to study changes in students’ acquisition of ELA skills in these… more →
GenAI-101: What Undergraduate Students Need to Know and Actually Know About Generative AI
In November 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a groundbreaking generative AI chatbot backed by large language models (LLMs). Since then, these models have seen various applications in education, from Socratic tutoring and writing assistance to teacher training and essay scoring. Despite their… more →
Mechanisms of Effect Size Differences Between Researcher Developed and Independently Developed Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis of Item-Level Data
Topics: MethodsDifferences in effect sizes between researcher developed (RD) and independently developed (ID) outcome measures are widely documented but poorly understood in education research. We conduct a meta-analysis using item-level outcome data to test potential mechanisms that explain differences in… more →
Effectiveness of Structured Teacher Adaptations to an Online Content Literacy Intervention for Third Graders: A Randomized Controlled Trial During COVID-19
Jackie E. Relyea, Joshua B. Gilbert, Mary A. Burkhauser, Ethan Scherer, Douglas M. Mosher, Zhongyu Wei, Johanna N. Tvedt, James S. Kim.Topics: Student LearningScaling up evidence-based educational interventions to improve student outcomes presents challenges, especially when adapting to new contexts while maintaining fidelity. Structured teacher adaptations that integrate the strengths of experimental science (high fidelity) and improvement science (… more →
The Effects of In-School Virtual Tutoring on Student Reading Development: Evidence from a Short-Cycle Randomized Controlled Trial
Topics: MethodsThis paper describes a 12-week cluster randomized controlled trial that examined the efficacy of BookNook, a virtual tutoring platform focused on reading. Cohorts of first- through fourth-grade students attending six Rocketship public charter schools in Northern California were randomly assigned… more →
Can Computer-Assisted Instruction Help Schools to Close the Achievement Gap: Evaluation of a District-Wide Reading Intervention
Topics: Student LearningA concerning number of middle and high school students lack fundamental reading skills in the United States. One common way schools address this issue is by supporting those students with computer-assisted instruction. This study evaluates the causal effect of one such computer-assisted… more →
The Achievement Effects of Scaling Early Literacy Reforms
Topics: Student LearningWhile legislators have implemented many “science of reading” initiatives in the last two decades, the evidence on the impact of these reforms at scale is limited. In this pre-registered, quasi-experimental study, we examine California’s recent initiative to improve early literacy across the… more →
Disentangling Person-Dependent and Item-Dependent Causal Effects: Applications of Item Response Theory to the Estimation of Treatment Effect Heterogeneity
Topics: MethodsAnalyzing heterogeneous treatment effects (HTE) plays a crucial role in understanding the impacts of educational interventions.
Leveraging Item Parameter Drift to Assess Transfer Effects in Vocabulary Learning
Topics: MethodsLongitudinal models of individual growth typically emphasize between-person predictors of change but ignore how growth may vary within persons because each person contributes only one point at each time to the model. In contrast, modeling growth with multi-item assessments allows evaluation of… more →
Improving elementary school students’ reading comprehension through content-rich literacy curriculum: The effect of structured read-aloud supplements on measures of reading comprehension transfer
Topics: Student LearningThis study contributes to the science of teaching reading by illustrating how a ubiquitous classroom practice – read alouds – can be enhanced by fostering teacher language practices that support students’ ability to read for understanding. This experimental study examines whether and to what… more →
The Effects of Early Literacy Policies on Student Achievement
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceGiven the importance of early literacy to long-term student success, by 2021, 41 states and the District of Columbia adopted early literacy policies to improve student literacy by the end of third grade. We use an event-study approach to examine the impact of these policies on high- and low-… more →
Instructional Alignment is Associated with Sustained Benefits of PreK
Meghan P. McCormick, Cullen MacDowell, Christina Weiland, JoAnn Hsueh, Michelle Maier, Mirjana Pralica, Samuel Maves, Catherine Snow, Jason Sachs.This study uses implementation fidelity data from PreK to 1st grade in the Boston Public Schools (BPS) to measure instructional alignment and examine whether stronger alignment is associated with sustained benefits of BPS PreK on children’s language, literacy, and math skills through first grade… more →