The purpose of this study was to (a) examine the underlying assessment structure of the Derivational Morphology Task (DMORPH) and (b) investigate the relation of the DMORPH to vocabulary and reading comprehension outcomes with a sample of struggling adult readers. Specifically, participants included 218 struggling adult readers enrolled in adult literacy classes. We used item-level analyses to evaluate the underlying structure of the DMORPH. Items with phonological (e.g., "music" to "musician") and non-phonological transformations ("teach" to "teacher") were examined in relation to adult literacy students' vocabulary and reading comprehension skills. A bifactor model was the best fit to the data, suggesting that the DMORPH measured a single factor of derivational morphological awareness with some variation due to phonological and non-phonological change items. Follow-up analyses revealed that the DMORPH can essentially be considered unidimensional, which justified the use of a single scoring system for the DMORPH with adult literacy students. However, after controlling for word reading and phonological awareness, the phonological change items uniquely predicted vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, whereas the non-phonological change items were not significant. The results support the structural validity of the DMORPH and the need to use both phonological and non-phonological change items with adult literacy students. The present findings also provide insight into potential intervention targets for instructors in adult literacy programs who are interested in improving students' vocabulary and reading comprehension skills.

This study examined the heterogeneity of early literacy profiles of English learners and non-English learners. Utilizing a latent profile analysis, the degree to which distinct learner profiles emerged was examined using code-based and language-based measures administered in the beginning of first grade. Participants included 11,803 English learners and 34,129 non-English learners. Three early literacy profiles emerged for English learners while four profiles emerged for non-English learners. Both sets of profiles can be identified based on the severity of students' difficulties with component skills rather than the specificity of their difficulties. Resulting profiles in both samples were then utilized to predict performance on a measure of broad reading comprehension administered at the end of first and second grade. Results indicated that the profile that was associated with the greatest success on the later measures of reading comprehension for both samples included the strongest performance on measures of both code-related and language-related skills. Results highlight the heterogeneity of early literacy skills within the English learner and non-English learner populations and demonstrate the importance of designing instruction that addresses the severity of a student's skill deficit.

We examined the cognitive, language, and instructional predictors of early word-reading ability in a sample of children with Williams syndrome longitudinally. At Time 1, sixty-nine 6-7-year-olds (mean age = 6.53 years) completed standardized measures of phonological awareness, visual-spatial perception, vocabulary, and overall intellectual ability. Word-reading instruction type was classified as (systematic) Phonics ( = 35) or Other ( = 34). At Time 2, approximately three years later (mean age = 9.47 years), children completed a standardized assessment of single-word reading ability. Reading ability at Time 2 varied considerably, from inability to read any words to word-reading ability slightly above the level expected for age. The results of a multiple regression indicated that Time 1 word-reading instruction type, phonological awareness, and visual-spatial perception (as assessed by a matching letter-like forms measure) each explained significant unique variance in word reading at Time 2. A systematic phonics approach was associated with significantly better performance than other reading-instruction approaches. Exploratory analyses suggested that the relations between these factors were complex. Considered together, these findings strongly suggest that, in line with the Cumulative Risk and Resilience Model of reading disability, word-reading (dis)ability in Williams syndrome is probabilistic in nature, resulting from the interaction of multiple individual and environmental risk and protective factors. The results also have educational implications: Early word-reading instruction for children with Williams syndrome should combine systematic phonics and phonological awareness training while also incorporating letter discrimination instruction highlighting the visual-spatial differences between similar-appearing letters.

The current study examined the effectiveness of a approach with young developing writers in Norway. This method is based on the premise that writing competence is acquired naturally through real use in meaningful contexts. Our longitudinal randomized control trial study tested this proposition by examining if increasing first grade students' opportunities to write in various genres for different purposes and for a range of audiences over a two-year time period improved the quality of their writing, handwriting fluency, and attitude towards writing. The study included data from 942 students (50.1% girls) in 26 schools randomly assigned to the experimental treatment, and 743 students (50.6% girls) in 25 schools randomly assigned to the business-as-usual (BAU) control condition. Across Grades 1 and 2, experimental teachers were asked to supplement their typical writing instruction by implementing 40 writing activities designed to increase students' purposeful writing. Increasing experimental students' writing over the two-year period did not result in statistically detectable differences in the writing quality, handwriting fluency, and attitude towards writing of students in the experimental and BAU control conditions. These findings did not provide support for the effectiveness of the approach. Implications for theory, research, and practiced are discussed.

Incorporating argument writing as a learning activity has been found to increase students' mathematics performance. However, teachers report receiving little to no preservice or inservice preparation to use writing to support students' learning. This is especially concerning for special education teachers who provide highly specialized mathematics instruction (i.e., Tier 3) to students with mathematics disabilities (MLD). The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of teachers providing content-focused open-ended questioning strategies, which included both argument writing and foundational fraction content, using Practice-Based Professional Development (PBPD) and Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) for implementing a writing-to-learn strategy called FACT-RC. We report the relative number of higher-order mathematical content questions that teachers asked during instruction, from among three different-level question types: Level 1: yes/no questions focused on the mathematics content; Level 2: one-word responses focused on the mathematics content; and Level 3: higher-order open-ended responses centered around four mathematical practices from the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Within a well-controlled single-case multiple-baseline design, seven special education teachers were randomly assigned to each PBPD + FACT-RC intervention tier. Results indicated that: (1) teachers' relative use of Level 3 questions increased following the introduction of the FACT intervention; (2) this increase was apart from the professional development training that the teachers had initially received; and (3) students' writing quality improved to some extent with the increase in teachers' relative use of Level 3 questions. Implications and future directions are discussed.

This paper has investigated the importance of explicit instruction and collaborative writing on (a) argumentative writing performance and (b) self-efficacy for writing of secondary school students. This intervention study additionally aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of alternating between individual and collaborative writing throughout the writing process (planning collaboratively, writing individually, revising collaboratively, and rewriting individually). A cluster randomized control trial (CRT) design was opted for. To investigate the effect of the intervention on secondary school students' writing performance and self-efficacy for writing, multilevel analyses were performed. It was found that the presence of explicit instruction in combination with collaborative writing is positively related to argumentative writing performance and self-efficacy for writing. Alternating between individual and collaborative writing was not significantly different from collaborating throughout all phases of the writing process. More in-depth research into the quality of collaboration is, however, needed to gain insight into the interaction processes and writing processes that take place during collaborative writing.

Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children may experience difficulties in word decoding development.

There is widespread concern about declining literacy skills in recent young Japanese. The present study investigated how higher-level reading and writing proficiencies are underpinned by basic literacy skills in Japanese adolescents. From a large database of the most popular literacy exams in Japan, we retrospectively analyzed word- and text-level data for middle and high school students who had taken the exams during the same period in the 2019 academic year using structural equation modeling. We extracted main data for 161 students as well as six independent datasets for validation. Our results validated the three-dimensional view of word-level literacy (reading accuracy, writing accuracy, and semantic comprehension) and demonstrated that writing and semantic skills underpinned text writing and reading, respectively. The semantic comprehension of words affected text writing indirectly via text reading; however, it could not replace the direct effect of word writing accuracy. These findings, which were robustly replicated with multiple independent datasets, provided new evidence of dimension-specific relationships between word- and text-level literacy skills and confirmed the unique contribution of word handwriting acquisition to text literacy proficiency. The replacement of handwriting by digital writing (e.g., typing) is a global trend. However, the dual-pathway model of literacy development identified in this study suggests there are advantages in sustaining early literacy education by handwriting for the growth of higher-level language skills in future generations.

There is significant overlap between reading and writing, but no known standardized measure assesses these jointly. The goal of the present study is to evaluate the properties of a novel measure, the Assessment of Writing, Self-Monitoring, and Reading (AWSM Reader), that simultaneously evaluates both reading comprehension and writing. In doing so, we evaluate reliability (Cronbach's alpha) and various aspects of construct-related validity, including separate criterion measures of reading and writing, and the AWSM Reader's relations with other variables, including language and executive function (EF), both of which are implicated for both reading and writing. Participants were 377 3, 4, and 5 graders with or at-risk for reading and writing difficulties. Reliability was low for the AWSM Reader reading comprehension (α = .58), but good for writing (α = .75-.80). Criterion-related validity indices revealed moderate correlations with other standardized and commonly used reading and writing measures, = .47 to .50 (all s < .001). Additionally, validity data supported the relations of both language and EF to AWSM Reader reading and writing, with EF showing unique prediction in both reading and writing domains. Results provide initial support for the measure per se but stress the difficulty in constructing combined reading and writing measures; directions are given for future work. Results also add to data on the contributions of language and EF to both reading and writing.

An estimated one-fifth of adults in the United States possess low literacy skills, which includes minimal proficiency in reading and difficulty processing contextual information. One way to study reading behavior of adults with low literacy is through eye movement studies; however, these investigations have been generally limited. Thus, the present study collected eye movement data (e.g., gaze duration, total time, regressions) from adult literacy learners while they read sentences to investigate online reading behavior. We manipulated the lexical ambiguity of the target words, context strength, and context location in the sentences. The role of vocabulary depth, which refers to the deeper understanding of a word in one's vocabulary, was also examined. Results show that adult literacy learners spent more total time reading ambiguous words compared to control words and vocabulary depth was significantly correlated with processing of lexically ambiguous words. Participants with higher depth scores were more sensitive to the complexity of ambiguous words and more effective at utilizing context compared to those with lower depth scores, which is reflected by more total time reading ambiguous words when more informative context was available and more regressions made to the target word by participants with higher depth scores. Overall, there is evidence to demonstrate the benefits of context use in lexical processing, as well as adult learners' sensitivity to changes in lexical ambiguity.

By April 2020 public schools throughout the country closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the brink of these turbulent times, we concluded a larger survey study describing first grade literacy instruction in February 2020. Having documented a year of pre-pandemic literacy instruction, we then reached out to the same participants to report on their experiences teaching first grade during the 2020-2021 academic year impacted by COVID-19. In this exploratory study we surveyed first grade teachers (n = 36) to better understand the context, the amount of time allocated, and the materials and resources used by teachers for and during literacy instruction and how these variables differed before and during the COVID 19 pandemic. Our data indicated teachers had increased responsibility as they had reduced access to collaborative planning (t35 = - 2.092,  = .004, d = - 0.507), and the support of paraprofessionals (t35 = - 2.256,  = .030, d = 0.457). This increase in responsibility was amplified by the challenges of virtual and hybrid instruction, and the changes in instructional formats experienced by teachers. Concurrently, students experienced less instructional time (Z35 = - 3.704,  < .001, r = - 0.437), particularly in the areas of writing, vocabulary, and fluency. The consequences of these tumultuous experiences for teachers and students are likely to be long-lasting and complex to reconcile.

Word reading fluency is crucial for early L2 development. Moreover, the practice of digital reading has become increasingly common for both children and adults. Therefore, the current study investigated factors that explain digital word reading fluency in English (L2) among Chinese children from Hong Kong. Eighty-six children (age: M = 9.78, SD = 1.42) participated in a digital silent word reading test using a mobile phone, a computer, or a tablet. This is a 10-minute timed test of English word reading. Overall, children's digital word reading fluency was highly correlated with print word reading fluency, even when measured a year apart. A hierarchical regression model revealed that socio-economic status ( β = .333), grade ( β = .455), and English reading motivation ( β = .375) were positively and uniquely associated with performance in digital reading. These predictors explained 48.6% of the total variance in task performance. Two additional variables, i.e., the type of reading device and extraneous cognitive load, were included as well. Digital word reading fluency was significantly poorer when done using a phone as compared to a computer ( β = -.187). No significant difference was found between reading on a tablet and a computer. Extraneous cognitive load ( β = -.255) negatively and uniquely explained digital word reading fluency as well. Overall, the model explained 58.8% of the total variance. The present study represents the first attempt to highlight a comprehensive set of predictors of digital word reading fluency.

Recent research has focused on evaluating the relation between mindset and reading achievement. We used exploratory factor mixture models (E-FMMs) to examine the heterogeneity in reading achievement and mindset of 650 fourth graders with reading difficulties. To build E-FMMs, we conducted confirmatory factor analyses to examine the factor structure of scores of (a) mindset, (b) reading, and (c) mindset/reading combined. Our results indicated (a) a 2-factor model for mindset ( vs. ), (b) a 2-factor model for reading ( vs. ; four covariances), and (c) a combined model with significant correlations across mindset and reading factors. We ran E-FMMs on the combined model. Overall, we found three classes of students. We situate these results within the existing literature and discuss implications for practice and research.

Literacy skills are important for children's development. The present study explored the effectiveness of a parent coaching approach on the reading and spelling skills and compared cognitive-linguistic skills performances between Chinese children with and without dyslexia. Participants were 33 children with dyslexia and 77 children without dyslexia, as well as their parent, in Hong Kong. Children were divided into three groups: dyslexia with training, non-dyslexia with training, and non-dyslexia without training. Parents in both training groups were instructed to facilitate children's literacy skills. A series of cognitive-linguistic skills were tested on children at pretest. Children received measures of character reading, word reading, and word spelling before and after the parent coaching. Results showed that, compared to children without dyslexia, children with dyslexia performed significantly more poorly on all cognitive-linguistic skills. Analyses of the training effect demonstrated that the dyslexia with training group significantly improved their performances on word reading and word spelling following the intervention. In addition, those without dyslexia who experienced training performed significantly better on character reading and word spelling at posttest than pretest. These results suggest that parent coaching can be one potentially effective method of promoting literacy skills among children both with and without dyslexia.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education around the world, resulting in the implementation of different forms of remote instruction. The present study provided a description of one interesting and unique approach to providing such instruction by analyzing 144 language arts lessons designed and implemented by 61 distinguished and experienced teachers in Xiangzhou, China. The lessons were used to teach first and second grade students the pronunciation, meaning, recognition, and writing of simplified Chinese characters. These lessons provide a possible model for teaching Chinese characters in the future. The 144 lessons were delivered synchronously through live video interactions with two to four students, while other students were able to access them simultaneously at home via an internet device or on TV (the lessons were accessed 2.1 million times). Lessons were taught four to seven times a week, and teachers devoted 58% of lesson time to teaching characters: 69% and 46% of lesson time was spent teaching characters in grades one and two, respectively. A large number of recommended behaviors for teaching characters (77 out of 80 behaviors assessed) were applied across the 144 lessons, but a relatively small number of teaching behaviors (14) were used in each lesson. This typically included two behaviors for teaching character recognition and four behaviors each for teaching pronunciation, meaning, and writing of characters. Congruently, 6.32, 5.83, 5.49, and 3.78 min per lessons were used to teach character pronunciation, writing, meaning, and recognition, respectively. Character instruction in these lessons was coherently and logically designed, but all live interactions between teachers and students were teacher directed. Directions for future research are presented and implications for practice discussed.

Historians often present their interpretation of the past in written accounts. In order to gain deeper knowledge of the discipline of history, students must learn how to read and write historical accounts. In this experimental pretest-posttest study, we investigated the impact of a domain-specific reading instruction followed by domain-specific writing-strategy instruction as well as a repeated domain-specific reading instruction on the quality of written texts and on procedural knowledge regarding reading, reasoning, and writing of 142 10th grade students. Results indicated that both instructions had a positive impact on the quality of written texts and on the amount of procedural knowledge (reading, reasoning, and writing). However, students who received a domain-specific writing instruction after the reading instruction wrote better texts compared to students who only received a domain-specific reading-to-write instruction. In addition, we found positive correlations between procedural knowledge and the quality of written texts in both conditions.

Empirical research has systematically demonstrated the predictive role of reading, linguistic and metacognitive skills on reading comprehension performance. The study of the directionality of these relations and their relative contribution in the more advanced grades of primary school is an important aim for reading research, with practical implications for educational contexts. These issues are of particular relevance in semitransparent orthographies such as European Portuguese, as there is empirical evidence that these relations change over time. The goal of this study was to examine the longitudinal relations between oral reading fluency, listening comprehension, vocabulary, reading strategy use and reading comprehension in Portuguese students across grades 4 to 6. For this purpose, reciprocal-causation models with cross-lagged paths were tested using Mplus. The sample included 110 students who completed at least two assessment time points. The results indicated that there is a reciprocal relation between listening comprehension and reading comprehension, as well as between vocabulary and reading comprehension, in every grade. Oral reading fluency was a significant predictor of reading comprehension across grades 4-6, but the opposite relation was not verified. Reading strategy use in grade 5 was predicted by reading comprehension in grade 4. The results are discussed considering previous studies and their potential impact on psychoeducational practice and research. Limitations of the study and guidelines for future research are pointed out.

The purpose of the current study was to examine whether morphological awareness measured before children are taught to read (Kindergarten in Israel) predicts reading accuracy and fluency in the middle of first grade, at the very beginning of the process of learning to read pointed Hebrew - a highly transparent orthography, and whether this contribution remains after controlling for phonemic awareness. In a longitudinal design, 680 Hebrew-speaking children were administered morphological and phonemic awareness measures at the end of the preschool year (before they were taught to read) then followed up into first grade when reading was tested in mid-year. The results indicated that even at this early point in learning to read a transparent orthography, preschool morphological awareness contributes significantly to both reading accuracy and reading fluency, even after partialling out age, non-verbal general ability, and phonemic awareness. The current results extend the Functional Opacity argument (Share, 2008) which proposes that at the initial stages of reading acquisition, when children still have incomplete mastery of some aspects of the spelling-sound system, non-phonological sources of information about word identity such as morphology can assist in the decoding process. The practical implications of these results with regard to early reading instruction are discussed.

This study aimed to determine how Chinese children adapt to Chinese orthography-phonology correspondence by acquiring phonetic radical awareness (PRA). This study used two important Chinese encoding approaches (rote and orthographic approaches) as the developmental trajectory, in which the present study hypothesized that phonological awareness (PA) exerts not only a direct influence on PRA but also an indirect influence through paired- associate learning (PAL). We also explored whether the association between PA and PAL is affected by the complexity of visual stimuli embedded in PAL. This study recruited 70 s-grade students to participate in various tests, which assessed (a) PA (measured by onset and rhyme awareness), (b) PRA (measured by regularity and consistency of phonetic radicals), (c) PAL (measured by learning performance on strokes; pattern-object and strokes pattern-syllable mapping), and (d) Chinese character recognition ability. Path analyses indicated that (1) character size had a significant positive correlation with PRA but not with PAL, (2) PAL fully mediated the association between PA and PRA, and (3) compared with PAL with a low stroke count, PA had a stronger relationship with PAL with a high stroke count. The results of this study were consistent with previous studies and suggest that PRA is the most important literacy skill for children in the middle of their learning-to-read stage. The results also augment existing literature by revealing that PRA acquisition is increased by PAL supported by PA, rather than by PA alone. Moreover, when the visual complexity of PAL increases, the support of PA to PAL would increase to make up for the working memory shortage.

It is important to understand the nature of the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic had upon student learning, especially those at risk such as deaf students. The limited communication that many deaf students have at home may mean less support is available for learning remotely. Reading may be one of the areas where progress was diminished. We collected Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) scores in reading from deaf students in a residential school for the deaf in grades 3 to 12 every fall and spring from 2016 to 2021. A cohort-sequential approach yielded growth data (2570 observations), with 546 students measured up to 10 times each. As is typical of MAP reading achievement in grades 3 to 12, growth was steep in early grades, slowing in later grades. Students in the Alternative Curriculum performed lower and grew slower. Cohorts differed, with more recent cohorts typically having higher performance than older cohorts. Tenure had a substantial effect, suggesting that students who had been in the school for the deaf longer had higher performance compared to students who joined the school as older students. The pandemic appeared to have a strong, but diminishing effect in each semester, but this effect differed widely across demographic groups. This suggests that effects of the pandemic are neither clear nor simple for deaf students even within the same school. These findings have implications for understanding how the impact of pandemic may vary as a function of deaf students' educational experiences and other demographic factors.

In the current study, the development in reading comprehension performance of students in lower-SES versus higher-SES schools during and after school closures due to Covid-19 lockdowns was examined, and compared to a normed reference group. Furthermore, we explored protective factors against negative effects at the time of school closures, by pinpointing successful practices in a sub sample of resilient lower-SES schools. The total sample consisted of 2202 students followed from grade 2-4. Overall, we found that students in lower-SES schools made less progress over time than students in higher-SES schools. On average, students made less progress during the lockdowns, but here, the interaction with SES was not significant. Students' reading comprehension levels partially recovered after the lockdowns. Questionnaire-data revealed that schools were better prepared during the second lockdown, with teachers making more use of digital means, and providing more online reading instruction. In addition, collaboration with the parents seemed to have improved. The in depth interviews with resilient lower-SES schools revealed that the introduction of online education and investing in educational partnerships with parents may have helped to minimize the negative impact of lockdowns. We conclude that lockdowns have a negative effect on the development of reading education, but that students are resilient. Digital means and partnership with parents may be seen as protective factors to attenuate the negative effects of emergency remote teaching.

We examined whether different parent- and teacher-related factors had an effect on at-risk children's reading development during the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic. Seventy Grade 1 English-speaking Canadian children (28 females, 42 males; = 6.60,  = 0.46) who were at-risk for reading difficulties were administered word and pseudoword reading, nonverbal IQ, and phonological awareness tasks before the school closures (February 2020; Time 1). Reading tasks were administered again when they returned to school in September 2020 (Time 2). In April-May 2020, their parents ( = 70) and teachers ( = 40) filled out a questionnaire on the home literacy environment and the frequency of teaching reading and providing reading materials, respectively. Results of multilevel regression analyses showed that children's reading enjoyment and home learning activities predicted both word and pseudoword reading at Time 2. Differentiation of instruction for struggling readers also predicted children's pseudoword reading at Time 2. These findings reinforce the important role of parents in their children's early reading development particularly when the typical agents of instruction (i.e., teachers) have less time and opportunities to interact with their students because of the pandemic.

The current study aimed to explore the COVID-19 impact on reading achievement growth by Grade 3-5 students in a large urban school district in the U.S. and whether the impact differed by students' demographic characteristics and instructional modality. Specifically, using administrative data from the school district, we investigated to what extent students made gains in reading during the 2020-2021 school year relative to the pre-COVID-19 typical school year in 2018-2019. We further examined whether the effects of students' instructional modality on reading growth varied by demographic characteristics. Overall, students had lower average reading achievement gains over the 9-month 2020-2021 school year than the 2018-2019 school year with a learning loss effect size of 0.54, 0.27, and 0.28 standard deviation unit for Grade 3, 4, and 5, respectively. Substantially reduced reading gains were observed from Grade 3 students, students from high-poverty backgrounds, English learners, and students with disabilities. Additionally, findings indicate that among students with similar demographic characteristics, higher-achieving students tended to choose the fully remote instruction option, while lower-achieving students appeared to opt for in-person instruction at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year. However, students who received in-person instruction most likely demonstrated continuous growth in reading over the school year, whereas initially higher-achieving students who received remote instruction showed stagnation or decline, particularly in the spring 2021 semester. Our findings support the notion that in-person schooling during the pandemic may serve as an equalizer for lower-achieving students, particularly from historically marginalized or vulnerable student populations.

Students with language-based learning disabilities (LBLD) can face elevated socio-emotional well-being challenges in addition to literacy challenges. We examined the prevalence of risk and resilience factors among adolescents with LBLD ( = 93), ages 16-18, and the association with reading performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected at the start and end of the first fully remote academic year of COVID-19 (2020-2021). Participants completed standardized word and text reading measures, as well as self-report surveys of executive functions (EF), and socio-emotional skills associated with resilience (grit, growth mindset, self-management, self-efficacy, and social awareness) or risk (anxiety, depression, COVID-19 related PTSD, and perceived COVID-19 impact). Survey data at the start of the school year (Time 1) captured three underlying factors associated with socioemotional risk, socioemotional resilience, and regulation (i.e., EF). Path analyses revealed that students' Time 2 oral reading scores were significantly and uniquely predicted by socioemotional resilience, even when controlling for word-level reading at Time 1. Socioemotional risk, EF, and perceived COVID-19 impact were not directly related to Time 2 oral reading scores; however, students' resilience mediated the associations between risk and reading outcomes. These results demonstrate that adolescents' mental health concerns, self-regulatory ability, and socioemotional resilience were all associated with their experiences of the COVID-19-related stress. However, despite the high-risk context of the pandemic, and socio-emotional challenges faced by students with LBLD, our findings indicate that resilience directly predicts end-of-year reading outcomes and mediates the impact of socioemotional risk on achievement.

In education, among the most anticipated consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are that student performance will stagnate or decline and that existing inequities will increase. Although some studies suggest a decline in student performance and widening learning gaps, the picture is less clear than expected. In this study, we add to the existing literature on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on student achievement. Specifically, we provide an analysis of the short- and mid-term effects of the pandemic on second grade reading performance in Germany using longitudinal assessments from over 19,500 students with eight measurement points in each school year. Interestingly, the effects of the pandemic established over time. Students in the first pandemic cohort even outperformed students from the pre-pandemic cohorts and showed a tendency towards decreased variances during the first lockdown. The second pandemic cohort showed no systematic mean differences, but generally had larger interindividual differences as compared to the pre-pandemic cohorts. While the gender achievement gap seemed unaffected by the pandemic, the gap between students with and without a migration background widened over time-though even before the pandemic. These results underline the importance of considering effects of the pandemic across cohorts, large samples, and fine-grained assessments. We discuss our findings considering the context-specific educational challenges and in terms of practical implications for teachers' professional development.

Children who speak one language at home and a different language at school may be at higher risk of falling behind in their academic achievement when schooling is disrupted. The present study examined the effects of COVID-19-related school disruptions on English language and literacy development among monolingual and bilingual children in the US. All children attended English-only schools that implemented varied forms of virtual and hybrid schooling during the pandemic. Pre-COVID-19 and during-COVID-19 examinations were conducted with 237 children (()  = 7.78 (1.54) at Time 1) from relatively high SES homes, including 95 monolinguals, 75 Spanish-English and 67 Chinese-English bilinguals. The findings revealed different impacts of COVID-19 school disruptions on the present bilingual and monolingual participants. Specifically, between Time 1 and Time 2, monolingual children made age-appropriate improvements in all literacy measurements. Relative to monolinguals, both bilingual groups showed greater gains in vocabulary but lower gains in reading comprehension. Moreover, across groups, children's independent reading practices during COVID-19 were positively associated with children's literacy growth during the pandemic-related schooling disruptions. Taken together, these findings inform theoretical perspectives on learning to read in linguistically diverse children experiencing COVID-19-related schooling disruptions.

This study quantified the possible learning losses in reading and math skills among a sample of Finnish Grade 3 children ( = 198) who spent 8 weeks in distance learning during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020. We compared their reading and math skill development trajectories across Grades 1, 2, and 4 to a pre-COVID sample ( = 378). We also examined if gender, parental education, maternal homework involvement, and child's task-avoidant behavior predict children's academic skills at Grade 4 differently in the pre-COVID sample compared with the COVID sample. Children's reading and math skills were tested, mothers reported their education and homework involvement, and teachers rated children's task-avoidant behavior. The results showed, on average, lower reading skills in the COVID sample than in the pre-COVID sample but there were no differences in math skills. Although the COVID sample had lower levels in reading, their developmental trajectories in reading and math skills were not different from the pre-COVID sample before the pandemic in Grades 1 and 2. From Grade 2 to 4, however, the development was slower in reading fluency and comprehension in the COVID sample, but not in math. The predictors of change from Grade 2 to 4 in reading and math skills were not different in the samples. The results showed that the development of reading skills in particular may have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the role of the Early Language Comprehension Individualized Instruction (ELCII) program in supporting kindergarteners' learning of inference-making during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two different cohorts of pre- and in-pandemic students completed the ELCII program, which was designed to teach them how to make inferences. Results suggest that kindergarteners during COVID-19 made slower growth over the course of the intervention compared to their counterparts who completed the intervention before the pandemic. However, when growth rates between the two cohorts were compared accounting for the scaffolding and feedback provided by the ELCII program, the growth rates were similar. These findings suggest that the individualized scaffolding and feedback component of ELCII may have supported kindergarteners' learning of inference-making during the pandemic.