Do Textbooks Matter for Reading Comprehension? A Study in Flemish Primary Education.

This study assessed whether textbooks affect academic performance and engagement in reading comprehension in primary education in Flanders (Belgium). The data of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2016 and a reassessment of this study in 2018 were used to describe students' learning progress in reading comprehension and evolution in engagement between the fourth and sixth grade. The sample consisted of 3051 students in 98 schools.

Social Acceptance of High-Ability Youth: Multiple Perspectives and Contextual Influences.

Peer relationships form a key developmental context. The current study investigated differences in peer acceptance between high-ability and average-ability youth, from the perspectives of teachers, peers, and students. Relying on the person-group similarity model, we also tested whether high-ability students' acceptance would depend on the peer group's mean ability level.

Effortless or less effort? Effects of tracks on students' engagement.

Background: It is found that assigning students to a lower track during secondary education negatively affects their academic performance. As an explanation, it is often mentioned that an anti-school culture in lower tracks undermines students' effort and involvement.

Aims: This study assessed whether going to a lower track affects student engagement.

The long-term differential achievement effects of school socioeconomic composition in primary education: A propensity score matching approach.

Background: The effects of school socio-economic composition on student achievement growth trajectories have been a hot topic of discussion among politicians around the world for many years. However, the bulk of research investigating school socio-economic composition effects has been limited in important ways.

Aims: In an attempt to overcome the flaws in earlier research on school socio-economic composition effects, this study used data from a large sample, followed students throughout primary education, addressed selection bias problems, identified the grade(s) in which school socio-economic composition mattered the most, and studied the differential effects of school socio-economic composition by individual socio-economic status (SES).

Time-Varying Treatments in Observational Studies: Marginal Structural Models of the Effects of Early Grade Retention on Math Achievement.

One of the main objectives of many empirical studies in the social and behavioral sciences is to assess the causal effect of a treatment or intervention on the occurrence of a certain event. The randomized controlled trial is generally considered the gold standard to evaluate such causal effects. However, for ethical or practical reasons, social scientists are often bound to the use of nonexperimental, observational designs.

The effects of early grade retention: Effect modification by prior achievement and age.

This study examines the effects of early grade retention and different effects according to prior achievement and age. Within a population of children at risk of early retention, we compared the development throughout primary school in mathematics achievement after kindergarten retention, first-grade retention, and continuous promotion. Analyzing data from a large-scale longitudinal study using covariate balancing propensity score weighting, the findings revealed that early grade repeaters would score higher in mathematics if they were promoted each year instead.

The gender gap in student engagement: The role of teachers' autonomy support, structure, and involvement.

Background: The gender gap in education in favour of girls is a widely known phenomenon. Boys generally have higher dropout rates, obtain lower grades, and show lower engagement. Insight into factors related to these academic outcomes could help to address the gender gap.

Enjoying mathematics or feeling competent in mathematics? Reciprocal effects on mathematics achievement and perceived math effort expenditure.

Background: The multidimensionality of the academic self-concept in terms of domain specificity has been well established in previous studies, whereas its multidimensionality in terms of motivational functions (the so-called affect-competence separation) needs further examination.

Aim: This study aims at exploring differential effects of enjoyment and competence beliefs on two external validity criteria in the field of mathematics.

Sample: Data analysed in this study were part of a large-scale longitudinal research project.

Game-based learning as a vehicle to teach first aid content: a randomized experiment.

Background: Knowledge of first aid (FA), which constitutes lifesaving treatments for injuries or illnesses, is important for every individual. In this study, we have set up a group-randomized controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of a board game for learning FA.

Methods: Four class groups (120 students) were randomly assigned to 2 conditions, a board game or a traditional lecture method (control condition).

Causal ordering of academic self-concept and achievement: effects of type of achievement measure.

Background: The relation between academic self-concept and achievement has been examined in a large number of studies. The majority of these studies have found evidence for a reciprocal effects model. However, there is an ongoing debate on how students' achievement should be measured and whether the type of achievement indicator (grades, tests, teacher ratings) affects the causal pattern found in these studies.

The Consequence of Ignoring a Level of Nesting in Multilevel Analysis: A Comment.

This short contribution is a comment on M. Moerbeek's exploration of consequences of ignoring a level of clustering in a multilevel model, which was published in the first issue of the 2004 volume of Multivariate Behavioral Research. After having recapitulated the framework and extended the results of Moerbeek's study, we formulate two critical notes.