There is a burgeoning body of evidence on the average impacts of educational programs. Yet, for many local decision makers, because impacts can vary across sites, the question of whether a certain program will work in their particular district or school remains. This article addresses the question of the generalizability of large-scale average…

Math fact fluency--the ability to quickly and accurately recall basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts--is a foundational mathematical skill. "Zaner-Bloser Building Fact Fluency (BFF)" was designed to build students' conceptual understanding of arithmetic operations and increase procedural fluency among…

Foundational literacy is a crucial step in a child's development. The shift from "learning to read" to "reading to learn" marks a critical turning point, opening the door to all subsequent steps of their education. Yet in Egypt, nearly six in ten children are unable to read or write a simple story by the age of 10. This…

Student absenteeism is a barrier to learning and an issue that requires policy intervention. Students with disabilities are of particular concern, as they miss school more often than students in any other demographic group. Affecting a key attribute of school structures, policies promoting full-day kindergarten began as an effort to improve…

Transition to kindergarten is an important developmental milestone for children and families. This study explored factors associated with kindergarten readiness focusing on the impact of a summer kindergarten transition program. A mixed-method design was employed, and the qualitative data from interviews with 16 randomly selected kindergarten…

As the number of immigrant students continues to grow nationwide, so does the population in Lindenwold Public Schools. As an elementary school in the district, School Five is no exception to the experience of the ELL student boom. With the population growing, at the various grade levels, it is essential that instructional practices meet the needs…

The Boston Public Schools (BPS) district is the first large school system in the United States to design and implement a curriculum and professional model--called "Focus on Early Learning"--to align instruction across its well-known, high-quality public school pre-K program and early elementary school grades. Schools opt in and can…

Scale-up of universal social-emotional learning (SEL) programs has become a priority in schools to promote positive social outcomes for all students. Although studies have examined student outcomes associated with school-based SEL when extensive training and support are provided, research on teacher SEL implementation practices under typical…

Scale-up of universal social-emotional learning (SEL) programs has become a priority in schools to promote positive social outcomes for all students. Although studies have examined student outcomes associated with school-based SEL when extensive training and support are provided, research on teacher SEL implementation practices under typical…

Mandatory grade retention for poor-performing readers has been a disputed practice for decades. Since the early-2000s, state-level mandatory grade retention policies have proliferated. In 18 states and Washington, D.C. mandatory grade retention exists for students in the third-grade who fail an end-of-year standardized reading exam. These policies…

Background/Context: Students designated as English Learners (ELs) account for 10.4 percent of all students nationwide but have historically been provided unequal access to educational resources (Gándara et al., 2003; National Center for Education Statistics, 2023). Further, education policies are often blind to ELs' strengths and challenges,…

Background/Context: Despite increasing school enrollment, significant literacy gaps persist in developing countries, with many children unable to read by age 10. This paper evaluates "M'ap Li Net Ale," a comprehensive intervention aimed at improving early-grade reading skills in Haiti, a context characterized by limited government…

Greater utilization of certain Literacy by 3 classroom practices is associated with the increased likelihood of a campus exceeding district average growth in reading. Though the Literacy by 3 program has been in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) since the 2014-2015 school year, this study is the first to examine the relationship…

"Castañeda v. Pickard" mandated that educational programs for emergent bilinguals be tested for program efficacy. As English language development (ELD) curricular materials are one part of an instructional program, we assess this mandate by examining the effectiveness of ELD materials in Texas, a large, diverse U.S. state with large…

Access to community cultural institutions such as museums, zoos, and theaters has the potential to improve students' educational experiences. This article estimates the impact of School in the Park, a museum-based educational program for low-income students that takes place within the cultural institutions and museums of San Diego's Balboa Park.…