There exist passionate debates about the best way to teach children to read. Since the Bush administration, school districts receiving federal funds have been required to have research evidence justifying their methods of teaching reading, and in recent years the need for evidence-based practices have intensified with the "Science of…

Striving to remain a global leader in innovation, the United States continues prioritizing broadening participation in engineering and other STEM fields. For this reason, STEM outreach programs are increasingly popular and vital. However, few programs offer such outreach experiences at a large, national scale and intentionally situate those…

Up until 2020, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading scores had increased only slightly since the early 1990s with large achievement gaps for students of color and students living in poverty. Modest gains in fourth grade reading proficiency since 1992 were erased during the pandemic. The insufficient progress in reading even…

Drawing on the spring 2023 American Instructional Resources Survey, the authors examine teachers' use of foundational reading activities in their instruction. These activities correspond to the four foundational reading skill domains for kindergarten-through-grade-5 students that are set forth in the Common Score of State Standards: print…

This investigation explores the relationship between the use of digital pencil and mathematical problem-solving accuracy among 1,530 students with learning disabilities (LD) and 25,400 general education (GE) peers from the 2017 digital National Assessment of Educational Progress mathematics assessment. The term "digital pencil" in this…

This investigation explores the relationship between the use of digital pencil and mathematical problem-solving accuracy among 1,530 students with learning disabilities (LD) and 25,400 general education (GE) peers from the 2017 digital National Assessment of Educational Progress mathematics assessment. The term "digital pencil" in this…

New data and analysis from the National Council on Teacher Quality finds significant progress on the science of reading instruction in teacher preparation. For the first time since NCTQ began publishing program ratings in its 2013 Teacher Prep Review, the number of programs in the nation to embrace reading science has crossed the halfway mark,…

This study examines the relationships between three accommodation strategies--Extended Time (ET) only, breaks only, and breaks bundled with ET--and academic performance, test-taking behavior, and attitudes among eighth-grade students with disabilities who participated in the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics…

Background: Although prior research has explored students' affective experiences in mathematics and its demographic correlatives, additional studies are needed that: (1) use large national data sets; (2) incorporate a broad range of affective constructs; (3) consider trends in student affect over time; and (4) include younger children and…

Background/Context: Observational studies often employ regression discontinuity (RD) designs and multiple control-group designs to explore the causal quantities of interest. RD designs assess policy and program effectiveness by assigning subjects to treatment based on whether they exceed a pre-defined cutoff. RD designs are classified into two…

Determining what elementary teacher candidates need to know to effectively teach reading will aid in how preparation programs prepare future teachers. To understand state legislation targeting early reading instruction, this study compared the tenets of structured literacy, the reading method used in dyslexia programs, to scientific reading…

The vast majority of American students are neither prepared nor sufficiently engaged to become science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-literate citizens or innovative STEM professionals (National Research Council, 2007; Carnegie Corporation and the Institute for Advanced Study, 2009; National Science Board [NSB], 2010; President's…

The purpose of this study is to estimate the impact of Race to the Top (RTTT) on test scores, both overall and in terms of narrowing demographic achievement gaps--a central focus in the original RTTT applications. We draw on student-level NAEP data in reading and mathematics for fourth and eighth graders from 1996 to 2019. An event-study…

The four-day school week (4dsw) is growing in popularity, especially in rural areas across the western United States. RAND Corporation researchers addressed knowledge gaps about the 4dsw by conducting a large-scale study of the implementation and outcomes of the 4dsw that involved the collection of original data in numerous districts across Idaho,…

Background/Context: Some observational studies involve multiple layers of treatment selection, specifically in the context of the extended time accommodation (ETA) for English language learners (ELLs). In ETA settings, the first selection occurs due to the eligibility rule, where students whose ELL English proficiency is below a certain threshold…