In a recent study published in School Psychology International, Lei and colleagues conducted a three-level meta-analysis to investigate the relationship between teacher-student relationships (TSR) and student academic achievement (SAA) in China. The authors believed the positive link between TSR and student academic achievement is higher in hierarchical, collective China than egalitarian, individualistic western society as teachers have greater authority in China than in Western societies, and teachers are often the centre of TSR. With the greater respect of authority among Chinese students, the link between TSR-SAA could be higher compared to Western countries. The study included 74 studies (90 effect sizes) that examined the TSR-SAA correlation in the Chinese context published between 2002 and 2020 which involved both primary school and secondary school students. The results found Overall, significant positive correlation between teacher-student relation and student academic achievement (r = 0.26) was found among Chinese studies, which is larger than...

“Evidence-based,” a currently popular concept, assumes that identifying the high-quality interventions with valid positive results will enhance educational outcomes on a widespread scale. Clearinghouses (CHs) push this process forward by setting their chosen scientific criteria, evaluating studies of the required quality, synthesizing the study results, and proposing recommendations. To probe into the consistency of the meanings of “evidence-based” in different CHs, Cook and colleagues recently examined 12 educational clearinghouses to (1) compare their effectiveness criteria, (2) estimate how consistently they evaluate the same program, and (3) analyze why their evaluations differ. How variable are CHs in their effectiveness criteria? All the CHs value randomized control trials (RCT) as the preferred experimental design, but they vary in how they test whether an RCT is well-implemented enough to deserve the highest study-quality ranking. Quasi-experimental designs were treated more variably than RCTs based on separate standards for different categories. Additionally, different CHs place...

Differences in achievement levels among subgroups of students are referred to as “excellence gaps,” which primarily concern the highest-performing students. While certain students may struggle to attain the minimum expected levels of academic achievement, there are others who are already performing at levels beyond their current grade before the beginning of the school year. Excellence gaps are connected to equitable school systems. Often students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds have less access to advanced learning opportunities than their peers. A recent systematic review included qualitative and quantitative studies to determine what kind of research has been conducted on strategies to reduce excellence gaps in K-12. The review included 80 studies categorized by strategy, such as school accountability system support, teacher professional learning, and universal screening with local norms. The review highlighted the role of each strategy in reducing excellence gaps. Overall, results suggested considering four key points: Prepare, Place, Evaluate, and...

Researchers from Scotland have added to the body of existing research on the negative effects of student absenteeism by exploring whether the reasons for absences have differing impacts on achievement. The study used linear regression to analyze longitudinal data from a representative sample of 4,419 students. Schools in Scotland are required to note the reason for student absences. Researchers compared this data with results from two high-stakes tests that students take in secondary school. Their study found: Overall absences, as well as absences due to vacations, were associated with a 0.03 standard deviation decrease in achievement (SE= 0.00, p< .01). Truancy- or sickness-related absences were associated with a 0.04 standard deviation decrease in achievement (SE= 0.00, p< .001). Family emergency-related absences were associated with a 0.02 standard deviation decrease in achievement (SE= 0.00, p< .01). Although this may not sound like a big effect, this actually represents more than a...

Literacy is foundational to academic success and social participation of students. However, many studies have indicated that teenage boys have poorer literacy grades than teenage girls. A recent study by Borgonovi compared two low-stakes international large-scale assessments to identify if similar gender gaps existed between them and what factors were related to these gaps. The study compared a widely-used low-stakes school-based assessment, Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), with another low-stakes household-based assessment, Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). In the two assessments, individual-level data from 15- to 17-year-old teens in the countries that administered both assessments were examined to investigate and compare the literacy gender gap. The study found that the two assessments showed different estimates of literacy gender gaps. In PISA, boys significantly underperformed compared with girls, but in PIAAC, no gender gap was identified. The differences in the gaps were associated with differences in...

Strategies that teach self-regulated learning in the context of other academic domains have been found to support academic achievement. In response to these findings, Nuñez and colleagues conducted an experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of the paired reading and writing activities for “Yellow’s Trials and Tribulations,” a story from The Rainbow Program. The intervention consisted of guiding students to work through activities about characters who must use self-regulated learning strategies to progress through the story and meet their goals. Study participants were children in grades 3 and 4 in state-funded and charter schools in Spain. Eighteen classes were assigned to the treatment (N=403), and 16 were assigned to a business-as-usual control condition (N=355). Treatment teachers attended four 3-hour professional development sessions focused on embedding self-regulated learning strategies in reading comprehension instruction. Researchers randomly audited lessons to evaluate the implementation fidelity and found that teachers implemented the intervention according to...

Friendships play an important role in shaping children’s developmental outcomes. For instance, research has shown that children who have friends and those have no friend differ in various aspects, such as peer group status and academic performance. Chen, along with collaborators, conducted a one-year longitudinal study using an action-partner interdependence model (APIM) to explore the role of friendship in the development of academic achievement and depression for same-domain as well as cross-domain effects, i.e., the associations between academic performance and depression in one member of a friendship dyad and later the academic performance and level of depression of the partner member. Academic achievement and depression are considered as two domains, thus, an association between antecedent academic results and later academic achievement indicates same-domain effect, while cross-domain refers to an association between academic achievement and depression. The effect within the same individual from Time 1 (T1) to Time 2 (T2) is...

Although many studies have shown short term benefits to early childhood education, the long-term benefits have been less explored. A new study by William Gormley Jr. and colleagues found that children who had participated in the Tulsa universal Pre-K program in 2006 were 12% more likely to enroll in a 2-year or 4-year college. In particular, Black and Hispanic children who had attended the Pre-K program were more likely to enroll in 4-year institutions. Children who had participated in the Tulsa Head Start program were 7% more likely to enroll in any college or university, but these results were only slightly statistically significant. The research team calculated propensity scores to compare the groups of children who did and did not attend the Pre-K program to account for other factors that may have influenced likelihood to enroll in college. Tulsa’s universal Pre-K program is one of the oldest in the US....

A study posted on preprint archive by Kramer and colleagues examined whether 9th grade students’ academic performance and motivation in mathematics improved by using a formative grading system called PARLO (Proficiency-based Assessment and Re-assessment of Learning Outcomes), and compared it to the traditional summative-grading system. The PARLO system aims to increase academic engagement and achievement by centering instruction, formative feedback, and grading around 10-15 Learning Outcomes per semester and employing a grading system that encourages reassessment and full credit for mastery of content at each learning outcome. A student’s final grade is calculated from the number of “proficient” or “high performance” scores taken from their best assessment at each learning outcome. This differs from traditional grading, which is often based on one-time assessments and summary judgments of student performance. The mixed-methods, cluster randomized study assigned a diverse set of schools to implement PARLO for two years in their 9th grade...