Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on reading performance of second grade children in Germany.

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.

Shaky Student Growth? A Comparison of Robust Bayesian Learning Progress Estimation Methods.

Monitoring the progress of student learning is an important part of teachers' data-based decision making. One such tool that can equip teachers with information about students' learning progress throughout the school year and thus facilitate monitoring and instructional decision making is learning progress assessments. In practical contexts and research, estimating learning progress has relied on approaches that seek to estimate progress either for each student separately or within overarching model frameworks, such as latent growth modeling. Two recently emerging lines of research for separately estimating student growth have examined robust estimation (to account for outliers) and Bayesian approaches (as opposed to commonly used frequentist methods). The aim of this work was to combine these approaches (i.e., robust Bayesian estimation) and extend these lines of research to the framework of linear latent growth models. In a sample of N = 4970 second-grade students who worked on the quop-L2 test battery (to assess reading comprehension) at eight measurement points, we compared three Bayesian linear latent growth models: (a) a Gaussian model, (b) a model based on Student's t-distribution (i.e., a robust model), and (c) an asymmetric Laplace model (i.e., Bayesian quantile regression and an alternative robust model). Based on leave-one-out cross-validation and posterior predictive model checking, we found that both robust models outperformed the Gaussian model, and both robust models performed comparably well. While the Student's t model performed statistically slightly better (yet not substantially so), the asymmetric Laplace model yielded somewhat more realistic posterior predictive samples and a higher degree of measurement precision (i.e., for those estimates that were either associated with the lowest or highest degree of measurement precision). The findings are discussed for the context of learning progress assessment.

Effects of Data-Based Decision-Making on Low-Performing Readers in General Education Classrooms: Cumulative Evidence From Six Intervention Studies.

In most general education classrooms in Germany, students with and without special educational needs are taught together. To support teachers in adapting instruction to these heterogeneous classrooms, we have developed learning progress assessment (LPA) and reading instructional materials, the Reading Sportsman (RS), in line with the theoretical framework of data-based decision-making, which has led to beneficial effects in several studies. However, data from these studies have not been analyzed to examine effects for low-performing readers. Data within and across six quasi-experimental studies conducted by our team in Grades 2 to 4 were reanalyzed to examine the effects of LPA on students whose reading fluency scores were at or below the 25th percentile (n = 1,346 students from 264 classes). In each study, students had been assigned to a control group (with business-as-usual instruction), an LPA group only, or an LPA-RS group (i.e., with teachers provided with LPA and the RS). Separate multilevel regression results were integrated by means of meta-analytical methods to investigate the consistency of results. Overall, findings from the single studies indicated no positive effects of LPA with or without the RS compared with the control group. The integrated analyses showed small positive effect trends on reading fluency and intrinsic reading motivation.

How Much g Is in the Distractor? Re-Thinking Item-Analysis of Multiple-Choice Items.

Distractors might display discriminatory power with respect to the construct of interest (e.g., intelligence), which was shown in recent applications of nested logit models to the short-form of Raven's progressive matrices and other reasoning tests. In this vein, a simulation study was carried out to examine two effect size measures (i.e., a variant of Cohen's ω and the canonical correlation RCC) for their potential to detect distractors with ability-related discriminatory power. The simulation design was adopted to item selection scenarios relying on rather small sample sizes (e.g., N = 100 or N = 200). Both suggested effect size measures (Cohen's ω only when based on two ability groups) yielded acceptable to conservative type-I-error rates, whereas, the canonical correlation outperformed Cohen's ω in terms of empirical power. The simulation results further suggest that an effect size threshold of 0.30 is more appropriate as compared to more lenient (0.10) or stricter thresholds (0.50). The suggested item-analysis procedure is illustrated with an analysis of twelve Raven's progressive matrices items in a sample of N = 499 participants. Finally, strategies for item selection for cognitive ability tests with the goal of scaling by means of nested logit models are discussed.

Cooperative learning in third graders' jigsaw groups for mathematics and science with and without questioning training.

BACKGROUND: There is much support for using cooperative methods, since important instructional aspects, such as elaboration of new information, can easily be realized by methods like 'jigsaw'. However, the impact of providing students with additional help like a questioning training and potential limitations of the method concerning the (minimum) age of the students have rarely been investigated. AIMS: The study investigated the effects of cooperative methods at elementary school level. Three conditions of instruction were compared: jigsaw, jigsaw with a supplementary questioning training and teacher-guided instruction. SAMPLE: Nine third grade classes from three schools with 208 students participated in the study. In each school, all the three instructional conditions were realized in three different classes. METHODS: All classes studied three units on geometry and one unit on astronomy using the assigned instructional method. Each learning unit comprised six lessons. For each unit, an achievement test was administered as pre-test, post-test and delayed test. RESULTS: In the math units, no differences between the three conditions could be detected. In the astronomy unit, students benefited more from teacher-guided instruction. Differential analyses revealed that 'experts' learned more than students in teacher-guided instruction, whereas 'novices' were outperformed by the students in the control classes. CONCLUSIONS: Even third graders used the jigsaw method with satisfactory learning results. The modest impact of the questioning training and the low learning gains of the cooperative classes in the astronomy unit as well as high discrepancies between learning outcomes of experts and novices show that explicit instruction of explaining skills in combination with well-structured material are key issues in using the jigsaw method with younger students.