The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) Office of Federal Programs conducted a routine monitoring of Upshur County in December of 2022. This resulted in a report of findings which was completed February 10, 2023. Per Federal Program protocols, counties are provided 60 days to respond to findings; establishing Upshur County's deadline for…

A systematic review of the literature (1965-2022) and meta-analysis were undertaken to compare the school readiness skills of children participating in public pre-kindergarten (pre-K) or Head Start. Seven quasi-experimental studies met the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis and 38 effect sizes were analyzed. Results indicated no reliable…

Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) programs uniquely support the frequent transitions, including the transition to kindergarten, that children in migrant and seasonal families may experience. Lessons learned from how MSHS programs support transitions may have implications for MSHS and other federally funded early care and education (ECE)…

In March 2018, metal construction kits were distributed to all elementary schools in Rhineland-Palatinate as part of the project called "Technikkiste" [translation from German: technology box] to promote STEM education. At the end of the year 2018, three more expansion sets followed. So far, no requests have been made to schools, even…

Public preschool boosts academic skills in kindergarten, but little is known about whether that boost lasts to third grade because many studies stop directly assessing children after kindergarten. The current study tests for sustained associations between preschool attendance and an array of repeatedly measured, directly assessed language and math…

This statutory report presents the activities and accomplishments of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General (OIG) from October 1, 2023, through March, 2024. The audits, investigations, and related work highlighted in the report are products of OIG's mission to identify and stop fraud, waste, and abuse; and promote…

Children learn more effectively when parent-teacher engagement is high and homeschool communication and collaboration are optimal. The problem addressed in this study was a lack of parent-teacher engagement in two Title I primary schools within a charter school system located in a rural area of the Southeast. The purpose of this basic qualitative…

The analyses presented here are part of a larger project, "Understanding Children's Transitions from Head Start to Kindergarten" (HS2K), a joint research venture between NORC at the University of Chicago, Child Trends, and the National P-3 Center at University of Colorado Denver, with funding from the U.S. Administration for Children and…

Food insecurity poses a serious threat to children's development, but the mechanisms through which food insecurity undermines child development are far less clear. Specifically, food insecurity may influence children through its effect on parents' psychological well-being and parent--child interactions as a result, but past research on the role of…

This is a qualitative study of teachers in high-poverty elementary schools in an urban school district. Participants who have been employed for at least 5 years in a high-needs school responded to surveys tracking their perceptions of their school environment. Follow-up interviews were conducted to provide a more in-depth study to gain further…

This quantitative study was conducted to determine if (a) there was a significant difference in the percentage of student office discipline referrals before and after Social- Emotional Learning (SEL) implementation in 3rd through 5th grade, (b) there was a significant difference in the percentage of student in-house mental health referrals before…

This qualitative case study examined teachers' perceptions of fourth-grade departmentalized science instruction at Title I schools. Three theoretical frameworks were used as a lens for the study: Model of School Learning (Carroll, 1963), Theory of Mastery Learning (Bloom, 1968) and Curriculum Ideologies (Schiro, 1992). The three theories were used…

This document describes plans for the analysis of the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation (MIHOPE) follow-up data collected when participating children were in kindergarten or first grade. The overarching goal of MIHOPE is to provide information about whether families and children benefit from Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood…

Background: The long-term effectiveness of Head Start remains a topic of debate. Previous research with families of children enrolling in Head Start at three years of age has shown patterns of familial risk moderate the short-term effects of Head Start suggesting some children benefit more than others. However, we know little about patterns of…

Multilingual learners (MLs) often struggle with science conceptual learning partly due to the abstractness of the concepts and the complexity of scientific texts. This study presents a case of a Virtual Reality (VR) enhanced science learning unit to support middle-school students' science conceptual learning. Using a transformative mixed methods…