Pandemic and literacy study

 Experts say the pandemic may be interfering with young learners' ability to acquire reading skills, especially those who spend time at home doing other things instead of reading.  An analysis of data found that second- and third-grade students' reading fluency fell approximately 30% from 2019 to 2020. The pandemic also deepened inequities. 

Domingue, B. et al. (2021). Changing patterns of growth in oral reading fluency during the COVID-10 pandemic. PACE. 

https://edpolicyinca.org/sites/default/files/2021-03/wp_domingue_mar21-0.pdf

https://edsource.org/2021/what-impact-will-the-pandemic-have-on-early-literacy/659758

Executive Function Deficits in Kindergartners Predict Later Academic Difficulties

This study investigated whether and to what extent deficits in executive functions (EF) increase kindergarten children’s risk for repeated academic difficulties across elementary school. Findings showed that deficits in EF, particularly in working memory, increased kindergarten children’s risk of experiencing repeated mathematics, reading, and science difficulties across elementary school. These predictive relations replicated across three academic domains following statistical control for domain-specific and -general autoregressors as well as socio-demographic characteristics.

Morgan, P. L., Farkas, G., Wang, Y., Hillemeier, M., Oh, Y., & Maczuga, S. (2018). Executive function deficits in kindergarten predict repeated academic difficulties across elementary school. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 46(1^st Quarter 2019), 20-32. http://dx./doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2018.06.009

 

Time4CS Modules and Student Achievement

This study sought to bring more CS to elementary students and to explore the relationship between implementing the Time4CS modules and grade 3-5 students’ CS attitudes and academic achievement. 

Key findings in this analysis were:

1. Teacher completion of a higher percentage of “extra” Code.org CS lessons was significantly associated with higher scores on the FSA ELA and mathematics assessments under the condition where the teachers reported themselves as higher in “resourcefulness and coping;” and
2. Teacher completion of a higher percentage of “extra” Code.org CS lessons was significantly associated with higher scores on the FSA science assessment under the condition where the teacher also reported high levels of resourcefulness and coping.

Century, J., Ferris, K., & Zuo, Huifang (2018). Finding time for computer science in the elementary day: Preliminary findings of an exploratory study. https://s3.amazonaws.com/cemse/time-for-cs/docs/TimeforCS_Preliminary_Findings.pdf