A recent meta-analysis by Li and colleagues analyzed results from 68 studies to explore the relationship between school discipline and self-control in students ranging in age from preschool through high school.  The researchers broke the topic of school discipline into three subcategories to better understand the association of each aspect with student self-control.  The first of these components was structure, which emphasizes the clear and fair enforcement of school rules to manage student behavior.  The second component was support, which emphasizes the creation of a nurturing environment that is responsive to student needs and is designed to help students develop good behavior.  The third component was the teacher-student relationship, which emphasizes quality interactions between students and staff as a means of managing student behavior. The meta-analysis found that: There is evidence of a significant, positive association between school discipline and student self-control (r = 0.190, p < 0.001).  When comparing the...

In March 2020, most schools in the United States transitioned to distance learning in an effort to contain COVID-19. During the transition, a significant number of students did not fully engage in remote learning opportunities due to resource or other constraints. An urgent question for schools around the nation is how much the pandemic impacted student outcomes. In a recent article published by Educational Researcher, the authors used administrative panel data from six large CORE Districts in California to approximate the impact of the pandemic by analyzing how absenteeism affected student outcomes. The results showed that: There were wide variation in absenteeism impacts on academic and social-emotional outcomes by grade and subgroup, as well as the cumulative effect of different degrees of absence.Student outcomes generally suffer more from absenteeism in mathematics than in English language arts.Negative effects are larger in middle school. Absences also negatively affect social-emotional development, particularly in middle school, which...

International student assessment programs found that Chinese students had the top-tier performance and the longest learning time beyond school education. A recent article published in the International Journal of Educational Development examined the relationship between learning time and performance among secondary school students in China. The study used data from the China Education Panel Study for analysis. The study was a large-scale nationally representative survey conducted in the 2013-2014 school year as the baselines. 19,487 students in the 7th and 9th grades from 112 schools. Students’ academic achievement was standardized based on their school’s midterm exam scores in Chinese, English, and mathematics. The after-class learning time was measured in terms of the average time per weekday and weekend spent on doing homework assigned by school teachers, doing homework assigned by cram school and parents, and taking cram school courses.  The results showed that: The relationships between after-class learning time and...

There is growing consensus that student attendance is an important intermediate outcome influenced by teachers and other school inputs. However, the malleable school inputs that affect student attendance rates are poorly understood.  In an article newly published by Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Long Tran and Seth Gershenson investigated the effect of class-level inputs, including class size and observable teacher characteristics, on student attendance rates. They leveraged the random classroom assignments made by Tennessee’s Project STAR (Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio) class size experiment, and its publicly available data. The results showed that: A ten-student increase in class size raised the probability of being chronically absent by about three percentage points (21%). For Black students, random assignment to a Black teacher reduced the probability of chronic absence by three percentage points (26%). Finally, about 5% of the impact of both class-size and student-teacher race match on test scores could be explained by improved attendance.  ...

A recent meta-analysis in Educational Research Review identified 21 studies to be used in an analysis of the relationship between teacher leadership and student achievement.  In defining teacher leadership for this analysis, the authors indicate that teachers who demonstrate leadership maintain their normal classroom responsibilities while also assuming leadership responsibilities beyond the classroom.  Among the studies analyzed, five demonstrated what the researchers classify as a desired effect (r > .20) and eight demonstrated what the researchers classify as a meaningful teacher effect (.10 < r < .20).  The researchers used a random-effects model for the meta-analysis, which indicates an overall meaningful teacher effect (r = 0.187, 95% CI = [0.127, 0.246]) when analyzing the relationship between teacher leadership and student achievement.  This provides evidence that teacher leadership is positively related to student performance (p < 0.001). The authors then further investigate this relationship by looking at differences between courses and specific elements...

Students can have multiple achievement goals, which influence their development in several aspects. In an article recently published on Learning and Individual Differences, Hongrui Liu examined what achievement goal profiles were held by Chinese students and how these profiles were associated with learning-related outcomes. 1,518 students from 70 classes in five schools in Beijing completed a questionnaire that measured their achievement goals, academic burnout, learning engagement, and test anxiety. The achievement goals being measured included mastery goals, performance approach goals, and performance avoidance goals. The authors later classified these goals into five achievement goals profile, labeling them as "high all," "low all," "moderate all," “mastery-oriented,” and “approach-oriented” for comparison. The results showed that: The mastery-orientated profile was more adaptive than the low and moderate all profiles as it exhibited lower academic burnout, learning engagement, and test anxiety. The mastery-orientated profile was similar to the high all profile in terms of...

Positive psychology theories indicated that satisfying students' basic psychological needs, including satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs, can promote academic achievements. Recently in an article published in Learning and Instruction, Jianhua Zhou and colleagues conducted a longitudinal study among Chinese adolescents to understand the relationships between basic needs satisfaction at schools, positivity of the students, and academic achievements. 712 seventh graders from two public schools in the Southern China participated in the study. Students completed a survey assessing their basic needs satisfaction at schools and positivity for three consecutive semesters. Students' final exam scores of each semester in Chinese Language, English Language, and Mathematics were also obtained. The analysis showed that: Academic achievement and basic psychological needs satisfaction significantly predicted each other. Positivity significantly predicted academic achievement, but achievement did not contribute to positivity. Basic psychological needs satisfaction also indirectly predicted academic achievement through positivity. The authors suggested that...

The PHAST Reading Program is designed to support struggling readers in middle school. The program combines instruction in phonological skills and strategies to build word identification accuracy. It also incorporates motivational practices due to the low motivation associated with struggling readers. A recent study by Canadian and American researchers evaluated the effects of PHAST Reading on two groups: one addressing comprehension and one addressing fluency. The study was conducted in the US and Canada, and randomly assigned 514 struggling readers in grades 6, 7 and 8 to the PHAST Reading Comprehension (n = 217), PHAST Reading Fluency (n = 216) or the control group (n = 81). The interventions were delivered in pull-out sessions in student groups of 4 to 8. After almost one year of intervention, results comparing PHAST Reading (the two groups together) to the control group showed that: There were larger effects for foundational reading skills than for reading...

Social and motivational outcomes, Programme evaluation Breakfast In The Classroom (BIC) is a program in which all children receive breakfast in their homerooms while teachers take attendance, check homework, and prepare for the day. In a post by Child Trends’ Brandon Stratford and Michael Bradley, the authors described a study they did regarding the successes and challenges of implementing the Breakfast In The Classroom program, where they found an important and unexpected finding: BIC provided opportunities for students to develop their social-emotional learning skills. In the spring of 2018, Child Trends administered a survey that was completed by 368 individuals working in school districts in Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Texas. The survey covered topics ranging from respondents’ attitudes before starting BIC to the barriers and successes they experienced. Child Trends also conducted site visits in the spring and fall of 2018 in three school districts, visiting six schools altogether, and carrying out in-depth...