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Various factors at the individual and school levels contribute to the impairment of academic achievement. We examined whether academic class composition, measured as average class achievement and class heterogeneity (variance in achievement within class), moderates the associations of inattentiveness and hyperactivity/impulsivity with academic achievement. Data from a two-wave longitudinal study of Russian first graders (N = 2,605, 51% girls) were used. Two-level regression analysis revealed inattentiveness to be negatively associated with math and reading achievement and hyperactivity/impulsivity to be positively associated with achievement but only under control for inattentiveness. The results reveal that the associations of inattentiveness and hyperactivity/impulsivity with math achievement did not vary in classes of different academic compositions. However, the negative effect of inattentiveness on reading decreased in classes with high average achievement. The results also demonstrated that, controlled for inattentiveness, hyperactivity had a stronger positive association with reading in heterogeneous, rather than homogeneous, classes.

Background: Number line accuracy (NL accuracy) shows improvement over the course of a school education. However, there are practically no cross-country longitudinal studies of NL accuracy over the whole course of elementary school. Aims: This study investigated the developmental trajectories of NL accuracy and its types across the elementary school years in two countries--Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Sample(s): The analyses were carried out on the data collected from the sample of 508 schoolchildren at Grades 1, 2, 3 and 4 (aged 6.4-11.9 years) from Russia and Kyrgyzstan, who were surveyed as part of the 'Cross-cultural Longitudinal Analysis of Student Success' project. Methods: The participants were administered the 'Number Line' computerized test task and a paper-and-pencil 'Standard Progressive Matrices' test at the end of each academic year. Results: During the course of the elementary school education, NL accuracy increases nonlinearly in both samples from Grade 1 to Grade 4, with a pronounced increase in the rate of improvement from the first to the second year. Cross-country differences in NL accuracy were observed during each year of schooling as well as in the growth of NL accuracy. The development of NL accuracy is described by a model with two developmental types: (1) 'high start and growth' (93% of the pooled sample) and (2) 'low start and no growth' (7%). Conclusions: Both NL accuracy and the rate of its growth during elementary school depend on educational conditions. Cross-country differences in the distribution of schoolchildren by these two developmental types were statistically insignificant.

There are two lines of discussion regarding the function of the Approximate Number System (ANS). The first line focuses on the extent to which visual cues affect the estimation of numerosity. The second line investigates the extent to which ANS precision is associated with symbolic math performance. The current study combined these two lines of discussion. Data from the nonsymbolic comparison test and the math achievement of 313 first graders (mean age: 7.6 years; 51% girls) from Russia were analyzed. First, we estimated the extent to which the effect of nonnumerical visual cues on nonsymbolic numerosity estimation varied across the four formats of stimulus presentation: separated/homogenous, separated/heterogeneous, mixed/homogeneous and mixed/heterogeneous. The results revealed that in the mixed/heterogeneous format of stimulus presentation, the congruency effect was not significant with respect to accuracy and was negative with respect to reaction time (RT). The reduction in the congruency effect may indicate that in this format, the participants tended to directly estimate numerosity, ignoring visual cues. Second, we tested the association between math achievement and precision on the ANS test in each format. The results demonstrated that accuracy in the separated/homogenous format had no significant association with math performance, while accuracy in other formats had significant associations with math performance. Moreover, accuracy in the mixed/heterogeneous format had a larger association than that found in other formats. This result might indicate that ANS accuracy has a significant association with math achievement in formats that demonstrate a smaller congruency effect and greater involvement of the direct estimation of numerosity.

Reading motivation is an important factor that can predict reading performance in elementary school. The present study aimed to investigate whether reading motivation could mediate the relationship between reading skills at the beginning of school and reading performance in the middle of elementary school. Longitudinal data from 979 students (52% girls) in Russia were used. Data on early reading skills in Grade 1 and reading comprehension and reading motivation in Grade 3 were collected. The results indicated that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in Grade 3 predicted reading performance in Grade 3 after controlling for reading skills in Grade 1. A two-level multilevel mediation analysis showed that intrinsic motivation did not mediate but extrinsic motivation partly mediated the effect of reading skills in Grade 1 on subsequent reading performance. The results are discussed in light of previous studies. Suggestions for future research and practical implications are also discussed.

In recent years, there has been growing interest among researchers in exploring approximate number sense (ANS)--the ability to estimate and discriminate quantities without the use of symbols. Despite the growing number of studies on ANS, there have been no cross-cultural longitudinal studies to estimate both the development of ANS and the cross-cultural differences in ANS growth trajectories. In this study, we aimed to estimate the developmental trajectories of ANS from the beginning of formal education to the end of elementary school in two countries, Russia and Kyrgyzstan, which have similar organization of their educational systems but differences in socioeconomic status (SES) and in the results of large-scale educational assessments. To assess the developmental trajectories of ANS, we used a four-wave longitudinal study with 416 participants from two countries and applied the mixed effect growth approach and the latent class growth approach. Our analysis revealed that the rate of growth in ANS accuracy was higher for the Russian sample than for the Kyrgyz sample and that this difference remained significant even after controlling for fluid intelligence. We identified two latent classes of growth trajectories: the first class had a significant growth in ANS, whereas the second class had no growth. Comparing the distribution of latent classes within the two countries revealed that there was a significantly larger proportion of schoolchildren from the second class in Kyrgyzstan than in Russia.

Investigations into the relations between phonological processing and math performance have yielded contradictory results. These contradictions might be related to small sample sizes and/or cross-sectional designs of previous studies that limited the possibility of generalizing the findings obtained. The first goal of this study was to estimate the effect of phonological processing on number recognition and math performance during the first year of schooling, controlling for reading achievement. The second goal was to examine whether this effect varied for boys and girls. To achieve these goals, we used a large sample of first-graders (N = 3296, 49% were girls) in Russia and applied fixed effects longitudinal analysis. Participants were assessed twice, at the beginning and at the end of the first grade (mean age was 7.3 years at Time 1). The item response theory scaling procedure was used to estimate individual scores for math performance, number recognition, phonological processing and reading performance. The results revealed that phonological processing had effects on number recognition and math performance. This effect was more salient for number recognition than for math performance, probably due to the greater involvement of the retrieval strategy in number recognition tasks. The results also demonstrated that the effect of phonological processing on number recognition was stronger for girls than for boys.

Researchers have long postulated the existence of a big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) in which a student's relative academic standing in class or school affects his or her academic self-concept. Few studies, however, use causal research designs to identify whether the BFLPE exists and whether it is generalizable across a wide variety of contexts. The goal of our study is to provide causal estimates of the BFLPE and examine whether the estimates differ by gender and national context. To fulfill our goal, we analyze cross-national TIMSS 2011 data using a cross-subject student-fixed effects model. Our results provide the strongest evidence to date that a sizeable BFLPE exists in STEM subjects regardless of gender and national context.

The article presents the results of a longitudinal study of the association between number sense and success in learning mathematics in primary school. We analysed the data of 133 schoolchildren on two aspects of number sense related to the symbolic and non-symbolic magnitude estimation abilities and academic success in mathematics in third and fourth grade. The average age of schoolchildren during the first assessment was 9.82 ± 0.30; during the second assessment – 10.82 ± 0.30. For the analysis of interrelations, the cross-lagged method was used. It was shown that the reciprocal model best describes the data suggesting cross-lagged associations between number sense and the success in learning mathematics at primary school age. The results of the longitudinal analysis revealed differences in the relationship between the success in learning mathematics with the two aspects of number sense: academic success in third grade only predicted the indicator of number sense associated with the symbolic magnitude estimation ability in fourth grade. The differences in the age dynamics of the two aspects of number sense in primary school are also revealed: the indicator of number sense associated with the non-symbolic magnitude estimation ability was the most stable over time.

The article presents the results of a longitudinal study of the relationship of nonverbal intelligence with success in teaching mathematics. A cross-lag analysis showed that at primary school age the empirical data is best described with the theoretical model of indirect influence of non-verbal intelligence. According to this model, non-verbal intelligence measured at Grade 3 of schooling affects the success in mathematics by the end of Grade 3, which, in turn, influences the success in mathematics by the end of primary school.