Low-achieving Children Research Articles

Impact of Discussion on Peer Evaluations: Perceptions of Low Achievement and Effort

The authors placed 5th-grade students into small groups of 3 in order to examine the impact of group discussion and displayed effort on children's evaluations of a low-achieving peer. Low effort by a target peer resulted in negative evaluations across attributional, affective, help-giving, and social response dimensions. Children who participated in group discussion before making individual evaluations exhibited a polarizing effect in which more extreme evaluations were made than when children did not participate in group discussion. Although all children were affected by both effort level and discussion conditions, gender differences were observed. These findings (a) highlight the importance of addressing the role of the peer group when working with low-achieving children and (b) underscore the impact of effort attributions and low achievement on peer perceptions among elementary-age children.

Kept back to get ahead? Kindergarten retention and academic performance

While most existing research concludes that grade retention generates no benefits for the retainees’ academic performance, holding low-achieving children back has been a popular practice for decades. Drawing on a recently collected nationally representative dataset in the US, this paper estimates the causal effect of repeating kindergarten on the retained children's academic performance. Since we observe children being held back only when they enroll in schools that permit kindergarten retention, this paper jointly models the choice of enrolling in a school that allows kindergarten retention, the decision of repeating kindergarten, and children's academic performance in higher grades. A control function approach is developed to estimate the resulting double-hurdle treatment model, which accounts for unobserved heterogeneity in the retention effect. A nearest-neighbor matching estimator is also implemented. Holding children back in kindergarten is found to have positive but diminishing effects on their academic performance up to third grade.

Early development of quantity to number-word linkage as a precursor of mathematical school achievement and mathematical difficulties: Findings from a four-year longitudinal study

This article reports results of a four-year longitudinal study that investigated the impact of specific and non-specific precursors on mathematical school achievement. Preschool quantity-number competencies (QNC) predicted mathematical achievement in primary school. Furthermore, basic arithmetic fact retrieval in Grade 1 had an impact on early mathematics school achievement. The influence of socioeconomic status and number naming speed, assessed in kindergarten, became especially important at the end of Grade 4. Particularly, a subgroup of mathematically low-achieving children in Grade 4 had already performed more poorly than normal children in tasks assessing preschool QNC, number naming speed, and basic arithmetic fact retrieval, as well as nonverbal intelligence and socioeconomic status.

Kindergarten skills and fifth-grade achievement: Evidence from the ECLS-K

Children enter kindergarten with disparate rudimentary reading and mathematics skills; capabilities for paying attention, sitting still and making friends; mental health; and inclinations for aggressive behavior. The role of these characteristics in producing fifth-grade school achievement is the subject of this paper. We find considerable impacts for school-entry academic skills but, with the exception of a kindergartener's capacity to pay attention, virtually no impacts for the collection of socioemotional skills. This finding holds both for the overall sample and for subgroups defined by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. The most powerful pre-school avenue for boosting fifth-grade achievement appears to be improving the basic academic skills of low-achieving children prior to kindergarten entry.

Field-Based Evaluation of Two-Tiered Instruction for Enhancing Kindergarten Phonological Awareness

Research Findings: This study reports on the outcomes of a multisite, two-tiered, response-to-intervention instructional model for delivering phonological awareness instruction and intervention to kindergartners. Fifty-seven kindergartners from 3 classrooms participated in a supplemental phonological awareness program, and 56 kindergartners from 3 classrooms received the prevailing school-adopted literacy curriculum. All children in the supplemental condition received supplemental classroom-based phonological awareness instruction in addition to the adopted literacy curriculum. At mid-year, 6 low literacy achievers were identified in each supplemental classroom (n = 18) to participate in an additional 12-week small-group intervention. The classroom-based supplemental curriculum did not produce statistically significant gains for typically achieving children on measures of letter–sound knowledge, word recognition, or developmental spelling. However, an add-on tier of supplemental instruction exerted a substantial advantage for low-achieving children on a measure of developmental spelling. Practice or Policy: Results suggest that a 2-tiered intervention model provides an effective means for improving the literacy outcomes of low-achieving kindergarten children.

Evaluating Kindergarten Retention Policy

This article considers the policy of retaining low-achieving children in kindergarten rather than promoting them to first grade. Under the stable unit treatment value assumption (SUTVA) as articulated by Rubin, each child at risk of retention has two potential outcomes: Y(1) if retained and Y(0) if promoted. But SUTVA is questionable, because a child's potential outcomes will plausibly depend on which school that child attends and also on treatment assignments of other children. We develop a causal model that allows school assignment and peer treatments to affect potential outcomes. We impose an identifying assumption that peer effects can be summarized through a scalar function of the vector of treatment assignments in a school. Using a large, nationally representative sample, we then estimate (1) the effect of being retained in kindergarten rather than being promoted to the first grade in schools having a low retention rate, (2) the retention effect in schools having a high retention rate, and (3) the effect of being promoted in a low-retention school as compared to being promoted in a high-retention school. This third effect is not definable under SUTVA. We use multilevel propensity score stratification to approximate a two-stage experiment. At the first stage, intact schools are blocked on covariates and then, within blocks, randomly assigned to a policy of retaining comparatively more or fewer children in kindergarten. At the second stage, “at-risk” students within schools are blocked on covariates and then assigned at random to be retained. We find evidence that retainees learned less on average than did similar children who were promoted, a result found in both high-retention and low-retention schools. We do not detect a peer treatment effect on low-risk students.

Class composition influences on pupils' cognitive development1

The proportion of low-achieving children in a class can affect the progress of individual pupils in that class. Having a large proportion of low achievers in a class could slow down growth in cognitive achievement but, might also boost such growth, due to the effects of specialist teaching geared to low achievers' needs. In a longitudinal study of 8,684 pupils aged 9 – 12, cognitive and social-emotional development were analysed. In classes with a comparatively large number of pupils with migrant parents, the increase in pupils' mathematics achievement was smaller. In classes with a comparatively large number of pupils with parents with a low level of education, the increase in pupils' achievement in Dutch language proficiency was smaller. No relationship was found between class composition and either well-being at school or academic self-concept. The effects of class composition appeared to be differential for different groups of pupils.

Peer assessments of normative and individual teacher–student support predict social acceptance and engagement among low-achieving children

This study used hierarchical linear modeling to predict first grade students' peer acceptance, classroom engagement, and sense of school belonging from measures of normative classroom teacher–student support and individual teacher–student support. Participants were 509 (54.4% male) ethnically diverse, first grade children attending one of three Texas School districts (1 urban, 2 small city) who scored below their school district median on a measure of literacy administered at the beginning of first grade. Peer nominations from 5147 classmates were used to assess both normative and individual levels of teacher support. Normative classroom teacher–student support predicted children's peer acceptance and classroom engagement, above the effects of child gender, ethnic minority status, and individual teacher–student support. Results are discussed in terms of implications for teacher preparation and professional development.

Children's achievement moderates the effects of mothers' use of control and autonomy support.

Two studies investigated the effects of parents' control and autonomy support on low- and high-achieving children. In Study 1, mothers' (N=110) involvement with children (7 to 10 years old) in the context of a challenging task was observed. During this interaction, mothers' control predicted diminished engagement and their autonomy support predicted enhanced performance for low-achieving children more than for high-achieving children. In Study 2, mothers' (N=121) responses to children's (9 to 12 years old) failure were assessed with a daily checklist. Children's grades were obtained at this time and 6 months later. Mothers' controlling responses predicted decreased performance and their autonomy-supportive responses predicted increased performance over time for low achievers more than for high achievers.

Growth in Standardized Ability and Achievement Test Scores From 3rd to 10th Grade.

Growth in Test of Cognitive Skills (TCS) scores and Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) reading, math, and total achievement scores from 3rd to 10th grade was studied in 328 public school students in a middle-class suburban community. Surprisingly, groups differing in ability and achievement in 3rd grade made parallel progress over time, and some “fan-close” effects were found. With growth curve analysis of individual students using hierarchical linear models, initial status on cognitive ability predicted initial achievement scores but did not affect the rate of growth. Similarly, initial status in achievement predicted the intercept but not the slope in cognitive ability scores over time. Although replication is needed, this study illustrates how districts could use standardized test data to document growth of academic skills over time in high-, middle-, and low-achieving children; in racial or socioeconomic status subgroups; or in different classrooms, schools, or districts. On January 8, 2002, President Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which dictates that any state obtaining federal funds must show that it has adopted a program of high-quality, annual student assessments that can be used to determine the annual performance of every school and local educational agency (No Child Left Behind Act, 2002). Although the rhetoric surrounding passage of this bill suggested that regular standardized testing is a novel idea, in fact most school districts have well-established testing programs using both commercial tests and state-based assessments. Surprisingly, however, there is little research on such test data. In the present study, we analyzed standardized test data from one school district for three cohorts of children, each tested in 3rd, 5th, 8th, and 10th grades. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) were used to analyze performance over time as a function of initial status on ability and achievement measures. Particularly because the results of our study were surprising, replication in other school districts should be a high priority for future research.

Parental Beliefs about School Learning and Children's Educational Attainment: Evidence from Rural China

This study investigated Chinese parents' beliefs about school learning and how they were reflected in rural family settings. Participants were 13 families, with eight high‐ and five low‐achieving children enrolled in Primary 3. Home observations and interviews were conducted on three separate occasions. Findings indicated that all parents focused on the pragmatic value of school learning and equated schooling with language and literacy acquisition. They believed that effort was important for explaining children's academic performance but recognized the limits placed by innate ability and environmental conditions. There were no consistent differences in parental beliefs based on children's level of attainment, but parents of high‐achieving children tended to be better educated and more knowledgeable about their children's performance and provided more educationally supportive home environments than other parents. Parents had different expectations of boys and girls, reflecting traditional gender stereotypes. Contextual influences on parental beliefs about education are discussed.

Low-achieving (learning disabled) pupils in year 2 of the primary school in Hungary

We selected 60 low-achieving children from a sample of 263 pupils in Year 2 of the primary school in order to analyse the problems of learning disabilities. We explored two questions: whether teachers evaluate the pupils' school performances correctly; and what kind of relationship exists between the low-achieving pupils' cognitive abilities and their school performance. Methods used were questionnaires, pedagogical tests and traditional psychological tests. We obtained the following results: the teachers generally evaluate the pupils' school performance fairly well, but they are inclined to assume a close correlation between the achievements in different subjects, and the teachers' knowledge of the low-achieving children is more reliable regarding the group of pupils as a whole rather than each pupil individually; and the low-achieving pupils' cognitive learning abilities prove to be significantly weaker than their general intellectual abilities.

Perceived control and academic performance: A comparison of high- and low-performing children on within-person change patterns

Children with high expectations of control do better in school than their peers with low perceived control. This finding is based largely on cross-sectional research and longitudinal research with long time intervals. Little attention has been paid to short-term, within-child variability in this important construct. Information about intraindividual change in perceived control, behaviour, and performance is critical to determining the processes by which the link between perception and outcome is affected. In this study, short-term variability in children’s perceived control, perception of task demands, and school performance was assessed and the concurrent and lagged relationships among these variables were considered. High-achieving and low-achieving children were compared. Results of dynamic factor models suggested that both the concurrent and lagged relationships among these variables are stronger and better organised for the high-achieving children. Implications for perceived control theory are discussed.

Trust Your Own Observations: Assessment of reader and tutor behaviour in learning to read in English and M # ori

In our previous article, we reported on a research project designed to improve the attending, reading, and writing behaviour of nine older low-achieving children in a special class in an urban primary school. We attempted operational definitions of important reader and tutor behaviours that occur during one-to-one oral reading, and we applied direct observational principles to coding and recording their occurrence from transcribed tapes of children's regular reading with their teacher. This provided data that served to monitor short-term and long-term change in both child and tutor (teacher) behaviour during oral reading interactions. In the present paper, we describe how these direct observational principles have contributed to the development of assessment and tutoring strategies for both adults and peers in the English language Pause Prompt Praise and the M # ori language Tatari Tautoko Tauawhi reading tutoring programs. The assessment strategies generated from observations of reader and tutor interaction around written texts have provided strong support for students learning to read in both English medium and M # ori medium contexts. They have also served as powerful components of successful professional development programs for teachers.

Preschool Cognitive Education: Why, How, With What Effects?

The authors make the case for the application of cognitive education with low-achieving children in preschool education. Their principal argument is that it is not sufficient to modify the curriculum contents and to present rich and varied activities in order to help the children to confront the basic learning tasks of the primary grades under good conditions. One must also help them to put into practice an effective cognitive functioning in these activities. Building upon a constructivist view of learning and development, the authors propose and illustrate a group of psychopedagogical conditions for presenting tasks that can help to induce and sustain modes of effective functioning that lead to conceptual abstraction. The authors illustrate the application of their concepts with empirical data obtained with a program of cognitive education for young children, Bright Start, as a vehicle for implementing these conditions.

Children With Adequate Academic Achievement Scores Referred for Evaluation of School Difficulties: Information Processing Deficiencies

Children (7-11 years old) with standardized academic achievement test scores in the normal range referred for evaluation of learning problems were compared to low-achieving children matched for age, sex, and nonverbal cognitive ability, and to children with no known history of learning difficulty matched for age, sex, and reading (all N = 65) on a battery of computerized tasks of nonverbal information processing. The normally achieving referred children performed similarly to the low-achieving group but worse than reading-matched nonreferred counterparts. These findings suggest that children who struggle in school yet perform adequately on standardized achievement measures can have heightened neurodevelopmental vulnerability. Implications are discussed with respect to the underlying substrate of learning disabilities, as well as their diagnosis, classification, and remediation.

Maternal intrusive support in the academic context: transactional socialization processes.

Although transactional models of socialization have received support, there has been little investigation of the processes involved. The goal of this research was to move in this direction in the context of the socialization of achievement. Mothers and their elementary school children (N = 166) took part in an 18-month longitudinal study including a 2-week daily checklist. The results suggested that children's low achievement elicits intrusive support from mothers through 2 mechanisms. Mothers worried over their children's performance, and this was associated with heightened intrusive support. Children's low achievement manifested itself in uncertainty, which was linked to heightened intrusive support. The achievement of children whose mothers frequently used intrusive support improved over time but did not exceed that of children whose mothers infrequently used intrusive support. Day-to-day analyses suggested that although intrusive support promotes success, it also fosters failure for low-achieving children.

Children’s Perceptions of Indebtedness: The Help-seeker’s Perspective

The present study examined age and ability differences in children’s evaluations of indebtedness in help-seeking. Second-, fourth-, and sixth-graders were separated into high-, medium-, and low-achievement groups. Children responded to two high-cost and two low-cost vignettes describing a hypothetical classroom help exchange between two peers. Second- and fourth-graders experienced difficulty in determining the extent of their indebtedness. Sixth-graders offered evaluations of indebtedness that varied systematically with helper cost. With the exception of the second-graders, low-achieving children did not differentiate their ratings across the cost conditions. In contrast, low-achieving second-graders and high-achieving sixth-graders rated the importance of reciprocation higher in the high-cost than in the low-cost condition. Children’s understanding of the norms guiding help-seeking interactions between peers is discussed.

Brief group therapy with low-achieving elementary school children.

Brief group therapy with low-achieving elementary school children.

Utilization of the Reitan-Indiana Aphasia Screening Test in identifying learning disabled and low-achieving children

Utilization of the Reitan-Indiana Aphasia Screening Test in identifying learning disabled and low-achieving children