The effect of school closures on standardised student test outcomes

The school closures owing to the 2020 COVID-19 crisis resulted in a significant disruption of education provision, leading to fears of learning losses and of an increase in educational inequality. This article evaluates the effects of school closures based on standardised tests in the last year of primary school in the Dutch-speaking Flemish region of Belgium. Using a 6-year panel, we find that students of the 2020 cohort experienced significant learning losses in three out of five tested subjects, with a decrease in school averages of mathematics scores of 0.17 standard deviations and Dutch scores (reading, writing, language) of 0.19 standard deviations as compared to previous cohorts. This finding holds when accounting for school characteristics, standardised tests in Grade 4 and school fixed effects. Given the large observed effect sizes, the effect of school closures appears to be a combination of lost learning progress and learning loss. Moreover, we observe that inequality both within schools and across schools rises by 7% for mathematics and 8% for Dutch. The learning losses are correlated with observed school characteristics, as schools with a more disadvantaged student population experience larger learning losses.     

School closures and effective in-person learning during COVID-19

We document large temporal and geographical discrepancies among prominent trackers that measure in-person, hybrid, and remote schooling in the U.S. during COVID-19. We then propose a new measure of effective in-person learning (EIPL) that combines information on schooling modes with cell phone data on school visits and estimate it for a large, representative sample of U.S. public and private schools. The EIPL measure, which we make publicly available, resolves the discrepancies across trackers and is more suitable for many quantitative questions. Consistent with other studies, we find that a school’s share of non-white students and pre-pandemic grades and size are associated with less in-person learning during the 2020–21 school year. Notably, we also find that EIPL was lower for schools in more affluent and educated localities with higher pre-pandemic spending and more emergency funding per student. These results are in large part accounted for by systematic regional differences, in particular political preferences.     

Grade retention among students with learning disabilities

This study explored the rates of grade retention among children with undiagnosed learning disabilities. During the 1990–91 school year, data were collected on 344 Michigan students who were referred for special-education evaluation due to learning problems. Of the 201 students determined to possess a learning disability (LD), 71.6% had been retained at least once before they were referred for special-education evaluation. Minority and urban LD students were more apt to be retained before being referred for evaluation. Retained LD students were usually one year older than nonretained LD students at the time of special-education referral. Although retention among LD students did not appear to be related to gender or grade placement, retained LD students generally exhibited lower levels of intelligence and weaker skills in reading comprehension, writing, and math at the time of their referral. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The heterogeneity of Covid-19 learning loss across Italian primary and middle schools

This paper investigates the heterogeneous impact of school closures during Covid-19 pandemic in Italy on academic performance across different schools, grades, subjects and groups of students. Our analysis utilises an innovative dataset that combines administrative data on standardised tests in grades 5 and 8 with a specifically-designed survey that collects information about teachers’ practices between February and June 2020. Firstly, by employing a multilevel (mixed-effects) model, we estimate the extent of learning loss and examine its variability across schools, for students in primary and middle levels during the school year 2020/21. The findings confirm that learning loss has been considerable (between 0.05 and 0.27 SD) although heterogeneity across disciplines and grades exists – higher in English in grade 5, and in mathematics and reading in grade 8. Secondly, as a main contribution of the paper, we explore the mechanisms behind the substantial differences observed across schools, which can be explained by the ability of teachers in using digital tools and evaluating their students, as well as by the leadership role exerted by school principals.     

Three-Year Longitudinal Study: Impact of a Blended Learning Program—Lexia® Core5® Reading—on Reading Gains in Low-SES Kindergarteners

This three-year longitudinal study tracked the reading performance of 68 kindergarten students from low SES backgrounds. These students received instruction with a blended learning program ——Lexia® Core5® Reading—from the start of kindergarten through second grade. During each school year the students made significant gains on a standardized reading test. However, performance on the test declined significantly from the spring of one school year to the fall of the next, indicative of a substantial summer slide. Yet, further comparisons revealed that performance from the fall of one school year to the fall of the next showed significant improvement, pointing to the benefits of school-based instruction to help overcome the summer slide. More than 90% of low performers who started kindergarten scoring below average on the standardized test finished second grade scoring average or better. Benefits of Lexia Core5® Reading to support reading growth in elementary school students from low SES backgrounds are discussed.     

The role of vocabulary depth in predicting reading comprehension among English monolingual and Spanish–English bilingual children in elementary school

The present study investigated the role of vocabulary depth in reading comprehension among a diverse sample of monolingual and bilingual children in grades 2?C4. Vocabulary depth was defined as including morphological awareness, awareness of semantic relations, and syntactic awareness. Two hundred ninety-four children from 3 schools in a Mid-Atlantic district and 3 schools in a Northeastern school district participated in the study and were assessed at the beginning and end of one school year on a wide variety of language and literacy measures. Bilingual children were assessed in English and Spanish. A latent difference score model that assessed change in a latent indicator of English reading comprehension from Time 1 (Fall) to Time 2 (Spring) was tested with results showing that vocabulary depth measures made significant contributions to initial status, but not change, in reading comprehension over and above between-subjects factors (grade, ethnicity, language status) and baseline control within-subject factors (word identification and vocabulary breadth). There was no added contribution of Spanish language measures to English reading comprehension among the bilingual students.     

Perceptions of Learning: Interviews with First and Second Graders in a Hungarian Primary School

The paper discusses children’ attitudes towards school and learning soon after entering primary school in Hungary. First and second grade primary school students (N?=?33) were interviewed. The interviews explored the following questions: What are the teachers’ and the children’s roles in the classroom? What is learning? Where do children learn? What kind of learning strategies do students use in arithmetic and reading? How are students evaluated in the school? What do students like best about school? The data suggest that the children quickly adapt to the school environment and, on the whole, have a positive attitude towards school and learning but—with a few exceptions—their views on the role of schooling in life reflect traditional, school subject centred goals and values and little awareness of the learning process.     

Vocational education and training and transitions into the labour market of persons with intellectual disabilities

The aim of the study is to deepen the understanding of teacher’s perspective on how to promote all children’s learning in reading and writing in grade 1 of primary school. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in a Swedish context with 18 primary school teachers, representing a large collective experience from working as teachers in grade 1. The result shows there is a lack of sharing information and experiences, between preschool class and grade 1, concerning reading and writing activities and instructions. The teachers’ perspectives on reading and writing instruction can be described as pluralistic, in the sense that each teacher refers to several strategies and approaches to promote learning and development related to reading and writing. The variation of children appears to give meaning to the work of the teachers in the study, though it also is associated with challenges e.g. the experience of being alone and not sufficient to support children’s different abilities, experiences and needs. According to teachers in the study, the additional support in schools is more remedial than preventive since the resources are mainly invested in older students.     

Domain‐General Learning and Memory Substrates of Reading Acquisition

Prior research has demonstrated that linguistic skills and knowledge contribute to successful reading acquisition. In contrast, little is known about the influence of domain‐general learning abilities on reading. To investigate associations between general memory functions and reading during the early stages of learning to read, performance measures of word‐level reading and of declarative and procedural learning were obtained in a cohort of 140 children, annually during their first 4 years of school. We hypothesized that differences in learning task performance would relate to reading ability in the early years, when children are first learning to read. We employed a series of linear mixed effects models to test the relationships between learning abilities and reading across time. Declarative learning performance predicted reading ability in first grade, while procedural learning performance predicted reading ability in second grade. Our findings suggest that reading acquisition may depend in part on general capacities for learning.     

Effects of tutoring in phonological and early reading skills on students at risk for reading disabilities

This study examined the effectiveness of nonprofessional tutors in a phonologically based reading treatment similar to those in which successful reading outcomes have been demonstrated. Participants were 23 first graders at risk for learning disability who received intensive one-to-one tutoring from noncertified tutors for 30 minutes, 4 days a week, for one school year. Tutoring included instruction in phonological skills, letter-sound correspondence, explicit decoding, rime analysis, writing, spelling, and reading phonetically controlled text. At year end, tutored students significantly outperformed untutored control students on measures of reading, spelling, and decoding. Effect sizes ranged from .42 to 1.24. Treatment effects diminished at follow-up at the end of second grade, although tutored students continued to significantly outperform untutored students in decoding and spelling. Findings suggest that phonologically based reading instruction for first graders at risk for learning disability can be delivered by nonteacher tutors. Our discussion addresses the character of reading outcomes associated with tutoring, individual differences in response to treatment, and the infrastructure required for nonprofessional tutoring programs.     

‘Reading drop‐outs’: Can they be predicted?

Abstract

In the Netherlands many pupils in grade one have difficulties in beginning reading. Approximately 7.5% of all children do not succeed in learning to read well enough to be able to proceed to the following school‐year together with the other pupils. These children either have to repeat a year or have to go back to kindergarten; alternatively, they are referred to special education. These children are called ‘reading drop‐outs’.     

The Effects of the Functional Use of Certain Skills in Seventh-Grade Social Studies

Abstract

This study examined the causal relationships between three measures of reading achievement: phonics, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. Measures were obtained from 504 second-grade students at the beginning and end of the school year. A causal relationship was indicated if change in one of the three variables measured at the beginning of the year tended to precede change in the other variables measured at the end of the year. A cross-lagged panel analysis was used to test for such a pattern between the three variables. The findings indicate that phonics knowledge has a causal impact on both reading comprehension and vocabulary gains; reading comprehension has a causal effect on vocabulary gains. Further analysis of the data, using a path analysis model, verified these causal relationships. A second set of data obtained from 1,585 second-grade students at the beginning and end of another school year were used to examine these causal relationships once more. Path analysis findings again verified the relationships found in the first set of data. We concluded that phonics instruction designed to help students recognize the consistent graphophonic patterns in the English language should be emphasized in early elementary-grade reading instruction. We also determined that children’s early reading experiences should be “comprehension focused”; that is, children should be encouraged to make sense out of what they read. Additional research is suggested on the causal relationship between these variables using other assessment instruments, on the causal relationship between other reading variables, and on the relationship of these variables at higher grade levels.     

Interactive Influences of Perceived Social Contexts on the Reading Achievement of Urban Middle Schoolers with Learning Disabilities

This study examined the effects of social influences in the lives of an ethnically diverse sample of fifth through eighth grade students with and without learning disabilities (LD) using survey data and academic achievement scores collected in 19 Chicago public schools from 1993–1997. Similarities and differences in student perceptions of school, family, and peer group contexts were examined. In addition, longitudinal data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to identify contextual influences on changes in student reading achievement over time. Comparisons of student responses confirm and extend existing findings in the literature concerning the perceptions of students with LD of their social environments. In particular, having a learning disability was associated with consistent, mostly negative, effects on social relations across the contexts of students’ lives, regardless of gender, race, grade, and socioeconomic status. In addition, student perceptions of their friendship groups were found to have small, but significant, effects on their growth in reading achievement over the course of middle school. While students with and without LD had somewhat different views of their social contexts, the processes working within these environments appeared to affect their reading achievement in similar ways. The results suggest that careful attention should be paid to the social contexts of students’ lives when planning academic interventions.     

Mathematical and Reading Difficulties as Predictors of School Achievement and Transition to Secondary Education

This study investigated whether mathematical and reading difficulties and self-reported learning problems predicted school achievement in the ninth grade, at the age of 16, and how these difficulties further explained the transition either to upper secondary academic education or to vocational education. The sample of the present study comprised one age group of ninth-grade adolescents (n?=?592; 300 girls, 292 boys) in a middle-sized Finnish city. These students completed tests of mathematics, reading comprehension and decoding. Participants were also asked to assess their learning problems in school work. Results demonstrated that mathematical and reading difficulties strongly predicted school achievement in the ninth grade and, through school achievement, also predicted the transition to different tracks in secondary education. The role of self-reported learning difficulties in this prediction was significant, but less significant than that of mathematical and reading difficulties. Parents' education did not play a major role in this prediction.     

Special Education in a 4‐Year Response to Intervention (RtI) Environment: Characteristics of Students with Learning Disability and Grade of Identification

This 4‐year longitudinal research was designed to study special education determinations of students who participated in Tier 2 intervention in a Response to Intervention (RtI) model focused on reading across Grades 1–4. We compared identification rates for learning disabilities (LD) and student characteristics of 381 students the year prior to implementation with 377 students in the RtI environment. Across schools, 38–60 percent of students were English language learners (ELL). Key outcomes by Grade 4 for students with LD who had participated in a model of RtI were relatively greater reading impairment with effect sizes ranging from 0.64 to 0.82, and more equitable representation across ELL and native English speakers than in the cohort prior to RtI implementation. Notably, one‐third of the students identified for special services as LD in these schools were not identified until 4th grade.     

How fast can we read in the mind? Developmental trajectories of silent reading fluency

The silent reading fluency is not an observable behaviour and, therefore, its evaluation is perceived as more challenging and less reliable than oral reading fluency. The present research is aimed to measure the silent reading speed in a sample of proficient students, assessed by an original silent reading fluency task, based on behavioural indicators of the silent reading speed. A total of 325 high school and university skilled students (age range 14–23 years) have been assessed using 3 tasks aimed to evaluate the oral reading speed (lists of words, lists of pseudowords and narrative text) and one task aimed to measure the silent reading speed. The average silent reading speed in our sample was around 12.5 syll/sec, almost double than the oral reading speed rate. The silent reading speed had an increase from 9.13 to 12.38 syll/sec from the first year of high school (ninth grade) to the fifth year of University. Conversely, the oral reading speed remained substantially unchanged for the entire academic course. Our results showed that the reading fluency in silent mode tends to increase up to the last years of University and it may be considered the most rapid and efficient reading mode. This study highlights the importance of including both silent and oral reading modes in the assessment of the older students and young adults, since silent reading is the main reading mode for proficient readers.     

Short- and long-term effects of COVID-related kindergarten and school closures on first- to eighth-grade students’ school readiness skills and mathematics,reading and science learning

Remote learning during the COVID pandemic has led to short- and long-term consequences for students' learning. So far, data on learning loss in early schooling have been limited. In this paper, we evaluate the effect of remote learning on 1st graders' school readiness skills and 2nd–8th graders’ performance in mathematics, reading and science using rich data collected in Hungary before and during the pandemic (n ≈ 55,000). The results show that kindergarten children and 1st–4th-grade students were significantly negatively affected by COVID restrictions compared to their older peers. This difference was extremely large in schools with a high share of disadvantaged students. More specifically, 1st–4th-grade low-SES students made little or no progress while learning from home.     

小学高年级儿童元认知发展特点及干预

以自编修订的《儿童元认知问卷》,对420名儿童（其中学习不良儿童96人）进行测试,结果发现：该阶段非学习不良儿童元认知发展上六年级显著高于四、五年级,不存在性别差异;学习不良儿童元认知发展不存在年级差异,他们在元认知整体水平以及六个维度上均显著落后于一般儿童和成绩优秀儿童;此外,以小学四年级学生为被试,考察了开展元认知训练的意义。研究发现,元认知训练可以较好地促进该阶段儿童元认知水平的提高,元认知训练对学生学业成就有着积极影响。     

Evaluation of Broward County Alliance of Quality Schools Project

This article examines the evaluation of the Alliance of Quality Schools project, a 5-year project focusing on at-risk students in Broward County, Florida. The purpose of the evaluation was to determine the effect that the project had on selected academic and behavioral student indicators after its 5th year of implementation. This article focuses only on the findings related to the effect that the project has had on reading performance. Findings related to mathematics performance and student behavior can be found by reviewing the 5th-year evaluation report (Ligas, 1999). The project's mission, based on the philosophy that all children can learn, is to help the greatest number of at-risk students achieve at their highest performance level. In addition to a strong emphasis on Direct Instruction (DI), the Alliance of Quality Schools (AQS) initiative utilizes Accelerated Reader and Computer Assisted Instruction. The project has been evaluated yearly, from the 1994-1995 school year to the 1998-1999 school year. Fifth-year evaluation findings related to student achievement indicated that the effect of the project on academic achievement for elementary and middle school students enrolled at the Alliance schools has varied by grade level and year. The highest increases in student performance occurred at the 4th-grade level for reading and at the 5th-grade level for mathematics. These increases seem to be closely aligned to the grade levels targeted for school accountability by the state of Florida.     

Do vocabulary,syntactic awareness,and reading comprehension in second language facilitate the development of each other in young children?

This study explored whether children's second language (L2) vocabulary, syntactic awareness, and reading comprehension contributed to the growth of each other. A total of 184 Chinese primary school children (91 girls) aged 8–10 years old in Hong Kong participated in the pre-test of this study. Among them, 88 were in Grade 3 and 96 were in Grade 4. One year later, 178 of these children also participated in the post-test. These children learned English as an L2 at school. They completed a series of English language tasks. The results from a cross-lagged panel model show that vocabulary predicted the growth of syntactic awareness and reading comprehension. Syntactic awareness predicted the growth of vocabulary and reading comprehension. Reading comprehension facilitated the growth of vocabulary, and it also predicted the growth of syntactic awareness in Grade 4 students but not in Grade 3 students. Implications for teaching children an L2 are discussed.