Components Of Academic Achievement Research Articles

Academic Language Instruction for Students in Grades 4 Through 8: A Literature Synthesis

Academic language, which is characterized by the words and structure of the language of schooling, is an important teachable component of academic achievement. When compared to other strong predictors of academic achievement (e.g., decoding, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension), academic language is not as well understood or explicitly taught in schools. The purpose of this literature synthesis is to identify the instructional practices that currently have the best evidence to improve academic language and broader academic achievement outcomes. The most prolific study of academic language instruction occurs with English learner samples. In the current study, we sought high-quality empirical intervention studies conducted with English learners. We describe the components of instruction that explicitly address academic language skills, and we describe the impact on outcomes for English learner students as well as their English-only peers.

Exploring the Relations between Cattell–Horn–Carroll (CHC) Cognitive Abilities and Mathematics Achievement

SummaryAs standardized measures of cognitive abilities and academic achievement continue to evolve, so do the relations between the constructs represented in these measures. A large, nationally representative sample of school‐aged children and youth between 6 and 19 years of age (N = 4,194) was used to systematically evaluate the relations between cognitive abilities and components of academic achievement in mathematics. The cognitive abilities of interest were those identified from the Cattell–Horn–Carroll model of intelligence. Specific areas of mathematics achievement included math calculation skills and math problem solving. Results suggest that fluid reasoning (Gf), comprehension‐knowledge (Gc), and processing speed (Gs) have the strongest and most consistent relations with mathematics achievement throughout the school years.Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.