Use of quantile regression, analysis at different levels of aggregation, and inclusion of covariates were used to assess how different methodologies produced varying results with contradictory implications for policy interventions regarding the relation between school funding and achievement. Results indicated that significantly different relations existed at various quantiles of the distribution of achievement, both for student and school-level outcomes. Further, significant differences were found when outcomes at the school-level were compared to outcomes for individual students. Finally, the inclusion of SES drastically altered the results of every analysis in this study, indicating the importance of controlling for confounds. Taking all of these findings into account, we find that higher levels of funding at the student-level were associated with smaller gaps in growth in achievement by SES for lower achieving students. The opposite finding was found at the school level, with higher levels of funding at the school level being associated with larger gaps in growth in achievement based on SES. We compare our findings to results of existing studies, framing our results and interpretations thereof in weighted-student funding literature. Discussion on how these findings can be translated into quasi-experimental research designs are also included.
Can genetic screening be used to personalize education for students? Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) screen an individual’s DNA for specific variations in their genome, and how said variations relate to specific traits. The variations can then be assigned a corresponding weight, and summed to produce polygenic scores (PGS) for given traits. Though first developed for disease risk1, PGS are now used to predict educational achievement. Using a novel simulation method, this paper examined if PGS could advance screening in schools, a goal of personalized education. Results showed limited potential benefit for using PGS to personalize education for individual students. However, further analysis showed PGS could be effectively used alongside progress monitoring measures to screen for learning disability risk. Altogether, PGS is not useful in personalizing education for every child but has potential utility when used simultaneously with additional screening tools to help determine which children may struggle academically.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a historic event impacting children around the globe. Prior research on the educational experiences of children during the COVID-19 pandemic focused almost exclusively on spring 2020. This paper extends this literature past the initial shock of spring 2020, capturing the first full school year (2020-2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic. This registered report study utilized a national sample of 1,666 United States twins in kindergarten through twelfth grade from 43 states to provide the current descriptive report of children’s educational experiences during this time, as reported by their parents. Specifically, we reported on school format, parents’ role in education, parent-teacher interactions, schoolwork struggles, technology access, and school services. About half of children attended in-person schooling, with many children switching from online to in-person throughout the school year. Parents saw the pandemic as a risk to their children’s education. During the 2020-2021 school year of the pandemic parents felt they had a larger role in their children’s education and were less satisfied in their interactions with teachers than what they experienced during the pre-pandemic part of the 2019-2020 school year. Children experienced more schoolwork struggles than they had in previous years, and this was similar across age groups. For most constructs, results were equivalent across age groups, but parents of younger children tended to provide more schoolwork help. Overall, this paper highlights the disruptions in their educational environments that children continued to experience though the first full school year (2020-2021) of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tier 2 interventions are designed for students who are not making sufficient progress despite receiving whole-group instruction. These interventions target a specific population, necessitating clear eligibility criteria for screening participants. While efficacy studies of Tier 2 interventions often generalize their findings to struggling readers, the eligibility criteria for selecting study samples can vary across studies. In our simulation study, we compared effect size estimates from different samples, each screened using commonly used eligibility criteria. Despite each method accurately recovering the true effect on average across 500 iterations, the range of estimates showed substantial variation, with significant under- and overestimation in individual iterations. We concluded that the perceived effectiveness of Tier 2 interventions may fluctuate based on how the sample is screened for eligibility. We propose future research to address this methodological challenge while balancing the practical demands of Tier 2 intervention studies.
Background The way in which socioeconomic status (SES) moderates the etiology of reading attainment has been explored many times, with past work often finding that genetic influences are suppressed under conditions of socioeconomic deprivation and more fully realized under conditions of socioeconomic advantage: a gene–SES interaction. Additionally, past work has pointed toward the presence of gene–location interactions, with the relative influence of genes and environment varying across geographic regions of the same country/state. Method This study investigates the extent to which SES and geographical location interact to moderate the genetic and environmental components of reading attainment. Utilizing data from 2,135 twin pairs in Florida (mean age 13.82 years, range 10.71–17.77), the study operationalized reading attainment as reading comprehension scores from a statewide test and SES as household income. We applied a spatial twin analysis procedure to investigate how twin genetic and environmental estimates vary by geographic location. We then expanded this analysis to explore how the moderating role of SES on said genetic and environmental influences also varied by geographic location. Results A gene–SES interaction was found, with heritability of reading being suppressed in lower‐ (23%) versus higher‐SES homes (78%). The magnitude of the moderating parameters were not consistent by location, however, and ranged from −0.10 to 0.10 for the moderating effect on genetic influences, and from −0.30 to 0.05 for the moderating effect on environmental influences. For smaller areas and those with less socioeconomic variability, the magnitude of the genetic moderating parameter was high, giving rise to more fully realized genetic influences on reading there. Conclusions SES significantly influences reading variability. However, a child's home location matters in both the overall etiology and how strongly SES moderates said etiologies. These results point toward the presence of multiple significant environmental factors that simultaneously, and inseparably, influence the underlying etiology of reading attainment.
In this manuscript, we discuss the importance of data sharing in educational and psychological research, emphasizing the historical context of data sharing, the current open science movement, and the so-called replication crisis. We additionally explore the barriers to data sharing, particularly the fear of incorrectly deidentifying data or accidentally including private information. We then highlight the importance of deidentifying data for data sharing. Finally, we present specific techniques for data deidentification, namely non-perturbative and perturbative methods, and make recommendations for which techniques are relevant for specific types of variables. To assist readers in implementing the material from this study, we have additionally created an interactive tutorial as a Shiny web application, which is publicly available and free to use.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a historic event impacting children around the globe. Prior research on the educational experiences of children during the COVID-19 pandemic focused almost exclusively on spring 2020. This article extends this literature past the initial shock of spring 2020, capturing the first full school year (2020-2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic. This registered report study utilized a national sample of 1,666 United States twins in kindergarten through 12th grade from 43 states to provide the current descriptive report of children's educational experiences during this time, as reported by their parents. Specifically, we reported on school format, parents' role in education, parent-teacher interactions, schoolwork struggles, technology access, and school services. About half of children attended in-person schooling, with many children switching from online to in-person throughout the school year. Parents saw the pandemic as a risk to their children's education. During the 2020-2021 school year of the pandemic, parents felt they had a larger role in their children's education and were less satisfied in their interactions with teachers than what they experienced during the prepandemic part of the 2019-2020 school year. Children experienced more schoolwork struggles than they had in previous years, and this was similar across age groups. For most constructs, results were equivalent across age group, but parents of younger children tended to provide more schoolwork help. Overall, this article highlights the disruptions in their educational environments that children continued to experience through the first full school year (2020-2021) of the COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Can genetic screening be used to personalize education for students? Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) screen an individual's DNA for specific variations in their genome, and how said variations relate to specific traits. The variations can then be assigned a corresponding weight and summed to produce polygenic scores (PGS) for given traits. Though first developed for disease risk, PGS is now used to predict educational achievement. Using a novel simulation method, this paper examines if PGS could advance screening in schools, a goal of personalized education. Results show limited potential benefits for using PGS to personalize education for individual students. However, further analysis shows PGS can be effectively used alongside progress monitoring measures to screen for learning disability risk. Altogether, PGS is not useful in personalizing education for every child but has potential utility when used simultaneously with additional screening tools to help determine which children may struggle academically.
