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Executive functions remain one of the most investigated variables in both cognitive science and in education given its high correlation with numerous academic outcomes. Differences in executive function skills between children from higher socioeconomic and lower socioeconomic homes, as well as children from different racial/ethnic backgrounds, are often attributed to the quality of their environment and family resources. The goal of this essay is to highlight commonly held beliefs about executive functions in the field and provide alternative explanations for existing research findings for minoritized children and their families. We provide a summary of the literature on executive functions, how it’s often measured, how it develops, and how we might view research findings differently with greater knowledge of the groups we are studying.

Executive functions remain one of the most investigated variables in both cognitive science and in education given its high correlation with numerous academic outcomes. Differences in executive function skills between children from higher socioeconomic and lower socioeconomic homes, as well as children from different racial/ethnic backgrounds, are often attributed to the quality of their environment and family resources. The goal of this essay is to highlight commonly held beliefs about executive functions in the field and provide alternative explanations for existing research findings for minoritized children and their families. We provide a summary of the literature on executive functions, how it’s often measured, how it develops, and how we might view research findings differently with greater knowledge of the groups we are studying.

The Opportunity-Propensity (O-P) model was created to explain individual and group differences in achievement and cognitive development. In this paper, we continued to revise and expand the comprehensiveness and accuracy of the O-P model to better meet this goal. In a secondary analysis of the ECLS-K 2011 dataset (n = 15,595), path analyses showed that children’s propensities (i.e., prior knowledge, self-regulation, and executive function) largely mediate the role of family and classroom factors in promoting cognitive development in the areas of literacy and mathematics. These findings suggest that whereas family factors and exposure to academic content are necessary for promoting knowledge growth, they are not sufficient. Rather, children with more advanced knowledge and abilities (e.g., prior knowledge and working memory capacity) are more likely to process new information effectively than their less advanced peers. However, these propensities can increase through certain types of opportunities. Implications for theories and practice are discussed.

As the United States experiences greater income inequality, more and more students experience an early science achievement gap. This study tested several competing theoretical models of early scien...

We examined how empirically and theoretically important predictors help explain the development of kindergarten working memory, an understudied predictor of school readiness and adjustment to schooling in early childhood. Our specific aim was to examine the extent to which antecedents, opportunity, and propensity variables directly and indirectly predict working memory development.We conducted structural equation modeling on a nationally representative and longitudinal sample of 14,000 kindergarten students. Predictors of end-of-kindergarten working memory include parent reports of antecedent variables such as socioeconomic status, mother's marital status, breastfeeding, child's age, and perception of child learning skills; teacher reports of opportunity variables including the frequency children read aloud and counted in their kindergarten class and classroom climate; and direct assessments of child propensity variables including earlier working memory, cognitive fluidity, teacher reports of child self-regulation, and math and reading knowledge.Together, childhood antecedents, opportunity, and propensity latent factors contributed to 41% of the variance of kindergarten working memory. Child propensity had a significant direct effect on child working memory, whereas antecedent and opportunity factors had significant indirect effects on working memory through child propensity.In this study, we identify several modifiable variables that directly and indirectly predict child working memory skills using a large population-based sample. Better understanding of how child-, family-, and school-level variables contribute to the development of working memory in young children can be seen as an important step in the creation of preventive interventions designed to improve these important skills.

Research Findings: The early childhood years are critical in developing early mathematics skills, but the opportunities one has to learn mathematics tend to be limited, preventing the development of significant mathematics learning. By conducting a meta-analysis of 29 experimental and quasi-experimental studies that have been published since 2000, this study extends beyond prior evaluations of early mathematics programs for prekindergarten and kindergarten environments by quantifying program effectiveness in terms of effect sizes and examining 6 aspects of these programs. We found an overall moderate to large effect size. There was a tendency for programs to produce larger effects when they (a) targeted a single content strand, (b) presented content 120 to 150 min per week, (c) designed programs for the prekindergarten environment, (d) presented content individually to children, and (e) used researcher-made mathematics assessments. Practice or Policy: Early mathematics programs can be designed to ...

In this chapter, we discussed how the Opportunity-Propensity (O-P) framework could be used to conceptualize and test the effects that children’s (0–8 years) background, mathematics learning opportunities, self-regulation, and prior achievement have on mathematics learning. In prior studies of the O-P framework, we identified and verified the predictive role of antecedent factors such as family socioeconomic status, parent educational expectations for their children, age, birth weight, gender, and ethnicity. With respect to opportunity factors, we identified and confirmed the predictive role of several aspects of instruction. With respect to propensity factors, we have identified and confirmed the role of prior knowledge, motivation, and self-regulation. We encourage our international researchers to build on this work in order to create the most accurate predictive model of early children mathematics achievement. This way, we can collaborate in guiding early mathematics policymakers, practitioners, and professional and advocacy organizations by providing them with a framework on early mathematics achievement to scaffold understanding, generate and test hypotheses, and adapt targeted interventions to address context- and cultural-specific problems.

Prior studies have shown that the variables described in the Opportunity–Propensity (O–P) Framework have successfully accounted for the mathematics and science achievement of students in grades 1–3 and 8–12. The two goals of the present study were to (1) determine whether the O–P Framework could also account for individual differences in the early mathematics skills of low-income, pre-kindergarten children and (2) determine whether latent variables constructed from measured variables would account for performance in the manner specified in the O–P model. The O–P Framework assumes that high achievement in mathematics is a function of three categories of factors: (a) antecedent factors, variables that operate early in a child’s life and explain the emergence of opportunities and propensities, (b) opportunity factors, variables that measure a child’s opportunity to learn mathematics content at home and school, and (c) propensity factors, variables that capture a child’s propensity for learning in terms of self-regulation, motivation, and prior cognitive skills. To test the fit of this model for low-income children during the year before they attend kindergarten, the authors conducted a secondary analysis of achievement and background data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth (ECLS-B) Cohort data set. Structural equation modeling indicated significant associations between the antecedent factor, opportunity factor, and propensity factor, and between the opportunity factor and pre-kindergarten mathematics achievement. The results confirmed the fit of the model and identified the kinds of learning experiences that could promote the acquisition of mathematics skills in low-income children and improve their readiness to learn in first grade and beyond.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical comparison of two measures of school success – a value‐added assessment system and the federally‐mandated system of adequate yearly progress (AYP) – to identify highly effective urban schools in the USA and to explore the predictive relationship between evidence‐based decision‐making and school improvement.Design/methodology/approachA total of 204 urban schools with 6,684 teachers and 149,665 students in grades 1 through 10 participated in the study. Data included teacher survey and students’ standardized reading and math scores from 2002 through 2005. Analyses included factor analysis, growth modeling, and multiple logistic regression analyses.FindingsAYP status was strongly predicted by student and school demographics rather than by organizational climate and instructional practices. In contrast, school growth as measured by the district's value‐added assessment system was unrelated to the demographics of the student population and related strongly to specific school practices. Specifically, high growth schools exhibited strong evidence‐based decision‐making practice where teachers used the district's benchmark assessment to reflect on instructional practice, used the core curriculum to guide instruction, and received frequent and high quality professional development on reading and math instruction.Practical implicationsAs states gravitate away from relying on AYP status as a measure of school success, districts will benefit from integrating measures of growth and using school data management systems that integrate benchmark assessment capabilities and provide teachers with the training and tools needed to use the information in their daily practice.Originality/valueThis study provides a direct comparison of evaluation models using a variety of current methods within a single district that has played a central and highly‐visible role in the education reform movement in the USA.

Both the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the National Association for the Education of Young Children recognize that well-designed opportunity to learn mathematics can help improve mathematics achievement of students from low-income families and from minority backgrounds. Using data from a nationally representative sample, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten cohort, this study empirically examined a subset of children from low-income families to determine whether African American and Caucasian students have differential opportunity to learn mathematics and the extent to which opportunities to learn predict gains in mathematics achievement at kindergarten. Results indicated African American kindergartners have differential opportunity to learn mathematics than their Caucasian peers from low-income families. African American students were found to have received, on average, more reported instructional time spent on mathematics, higher use of math manipulatives, worksheets, textbooks and chalkboard work than their Caucasian peers. Moreover, greater opportunity to learn mathematics predicted higher mathematics achievement for both African American and Caucasian students from low-income families, specifically, opportunity to learn skills such as telling time, using measurement tools accurately, estimating quantities, and knowing the value of coins and cash.

A longstanding issue in American education is the gap in academic achievement between majority and minority students. The goal of this study is to accumulate and evaluate evidence on the relationship between state education policies and changes in the Black-White achievement gap, while addressing some of the methodological issues that have led to differences in interpretations of earlier findings. To that end, we consider the experiences of ten states that together enroll more than forty percent of the nation's Black students. We estimate the trajectories of Black student and White student achievement on the NAEP 8th grade mathematics assessment over the period 1992 to 2000, and examine the achievement gap at three levels of aggregation: the state as a whole, groups of schools (strata) within a state defined by the SES level of the student population, and within schools within a stratum within a state. From 1992 to 2000, at every level of aggregation, mean achievement rose for both Black students and White students. However, for most states the achievement gaps were large and changed very little at every level of aggregation. The gaps are pervasive, profound and persistent. There is substantial heterogeneity among states in the types of policies they pursued, as well as the coherence and consistency of those policies during the period 1988-1998. We find that states' overall policy rankings (based on our review of the data) correlate moderately with their record in improving Black student achievement but are somewhat less useful in predicting their record with respect to reducing the achievement gaps. States' rankings on commitment to teacher quality correlate almost as well as did the overall policy ranking. Thus, state reform efforts are a blunt tool, but a tool nonetheless. Our findings are consistent with the following recommendations: states' reform efforts should be built on broad-based support and buffered as much as possible from changes in budgets and politics; states should employ the full set of policy levers at their disposal; and policies should directly support local reform efforts with proven effectiveness in addressing the experiences of students of different races attending the same schools.

This study developed a framework for evaluating beginning teacher induction policies and programs. This framework consists of three main categories: 1) Legislation and Funding, 2) State, District, and Union Roles, and 3) Program Components. Comparison of these three categories reveals 1) the differences in priority states currently place on beginning teacher induction, 2) the extent of shared responsibilities between state and school districts on overseeing and evaluating the beginning teacher induction program, and 3) the extent of alignment between the beginning teacher induction program and state standards, between eligibility criteria and compensation for beginning teachers, and between the incentives used to attract qualified mentor teachers and the specified qualifications of these mentor teachers. Application of this framework to the current policy guidelines of sixteen heterogeneous states in terms of state activities in educational initiatives found that funded mandatory policies on beginning teacher induction: a) are less fragmented, b) have a stronger state role, c) are heterogeneous in their program features, d) have a narrower definition of what constitutes a beginning teacher, and e) generally provide stronger incentives for mentor teachers to participate.