Bidirectional relations among executive function, teacher–child relationships, and early reading and math achievement: A cross-lagged panel analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 152-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel D. McKinnon ◽  
Clancy Blair
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Math Achievement ◽  
Early Reading ◽  
Panel Analysis ◽  
Reading And Math ◽  
Bidirectional Relations

scholarly journals Individual differences in executive function partially explain the socioeconomic gradient in middle-school academic achievement

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dustin Albert ◽  
Jamie Lars Hanson ◽  
Ann Skinner ◽  
Ken Dodge ◽  
Laurence Steinberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Low Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Math Achievement ◽  
Verbal Ability ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Socioeconomic Gradient ◽  
Reading And Math ◽  
Math Proficiency

Children from families with low socioeconomic status (SES) earn lower grades, perform worse on achievement tests, and attain less education on average than their peers from higher-SES families. We evaluated neurocognitive mediators of SES disparities in achievement in a diverse sample of youth whose data were linked to administrative records of performance on school-administered tests of 7th grade reading and math proficiency (*N*=203). We used structural equation modeling to evaluate whether associations between SES (measured at ages 8-9) and achievement (measured at age 13) are mediated by verbal ability and executive function (measured at age 10), a suite of top-down mental processes that facilitate control of thinking and behavior. Children from relatively higher-SES families performed better than their lower-SES peers on all neurocognitive and achievement measures, and SES disparities in both reading and math achievement were partially mediated by variation in executive function, but not verbal ability. SES disparities in executive function explained approximately 37% of the SES gap in math achievement and 17% of the SES gap in reading achievement. Exploratory modeling suggests that SES-related variation in working memory may play a particularly prominent role in mediation. We discuss potential implications of these findings for research, intervention programming, and classroom practice.

scholarly journals Executive function as a mediator between SES and academic achievement throughout childhood

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwendolyn M. Lawson ◽  
Martha J. Farah
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Verbal Memory ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Math Achievement ◽  
Family Income ◽  
Normal Brain ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Reading And Math ◽  
Mri Study

Childhood socioeconomic status (SES), as measured by parental education and family income, is highly predictive of academic achievement, but little is known about how specific cognitive systems shape SES disparities in achievement outcomes. This study investigated the extent to which executive function (EF) mediated associations between parental education and family income and changes in reading and math achievement in a sample of 336 children between the ages of 6 and 15 years from the NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development. Verbal memory was simultaneously modeled as a comparison candidate mediator. SES predicted significant changes in reading and math achievement over a two-year time period. Furthermore, executive function, but not verbal memory, was found to partially mediate the relationship between SES variables and change in math achievement. Collectively, these results suggest that executive function may be an important link between childhood SES and academic achievement

Screening for Math in Early Grades: Is Reading Enough?

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-50
Author(s):  
Allyson J. Kiss ◽  
Theodore J. Christ
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Math Achievement ◽  
Early Reading ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Students At Risk ◽  
Accurate Identification ◽  
Early Reading Skills ◽  
Early Grades ◽  
Reading And Math

Difficulties in reading and math are more likely to occur simultaneously than difficulties in either area alone; however, the research on that comorbidity is relatively sparse. The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between early reading skills as predictors of math achievement. A group of 102 kindergarten and 65 first-grade students were assessed with curriculum-based measures of early reading and early math, and a measure of broad math achievement. The results of multiple regression analyses indicated that when early numeracy was controlled for, the measures of early reading did not explain unique variance in math achievement among students. Interestingly, screening with only measures of early reading skills yielded acceptable area under the curve (AUC) values but did not yield accurate identification of students at risk for math difficulties (MD) when misclassification and specificity were taken into account. Results suggest that early math measures are most accurate in identifying students at risk for MD in early grades. Findings provide further insight into the relation between math and reading skills at the start of formal schooling. Authors provide recommendations for a combination of reading and math screeners to predict broad math achievement.

Preschool Executive Function Profiles: Implications for Math Achievement in Grades 1 and 3

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Carmen Usai ◽  
Paola Viterbori ◽  
Laura Traverso
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Math Achievement

Improving Reading and Math Achievement Across a Whole District

2016 ◽  
pp. 116-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen Thurston ◽  
Peter Tymms ◽  
Christine Merrell ◽  
Nora Conlin
Keyword(s):  
Math Achievement ◽  
Reading And Math

Multilevel Models of the Relationship Between Music Achievement and Reading and Math Achievement

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 398-418
Author(s):  
Martin J. Bergee ◽  
Kevin M. Weingarten
Keyword(s):  
Latent Variables ◽  
Math Achievement ◽  
Multilevel Models ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
District Level ◽  
Achievement Scores ◽  
Music Achievement ◽  
Reading And Math ◽  
Four Levels

We used multilevel mixed modeling to test the extent to which students’ music achievement scores were related to their reading and math achievement scores. Of the four levels examined (individual students, classrooms, schools, and districts), only individuals and districts accounted for a significant portion of the total variance in achievement scores. We studied several background variables potentially affecting academic achievement among individuals: grade level, gender, educational attainment of parents/guardians, free/reduced-price lunch, ethnicity, and urbanicity. We also incorporated district-level variables of sex, ethnicity, parent/guardian education level, and free/reduced-price lunch along with principal component scores for four district-level latent variables—district achievement, district behavior, available funds, and local revenue. Fourth through eighth graders ( N = 1,081) from seven midwestern school districts participated in the study. Students sat for a representative portion of the first two of the Music Achievement Tests (MAT-1 and MAT-2). We developed separate models for reading and math achievement. No significant differences were found among the districts’ intercepts or slopes. With the aforementioned variables controlled for, both MAT-1 and MAT-2 (controlling for one another as well) demonstrated a strong relationship with reading and math achievement ( ps < .0001).

scholarly journals Comorbidity Between Math and Reading Problems: Is Phonological Processing a Mutual Factor?

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tonje Amland ◽  
Arne Lervåg ◽  
Monica Melby-Lervåg
Keyword(s):  
Indirect Effect ◽  
Phonological Processing ◽  
Early Reading ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Phoneme Awareness ◽  
Reading Problems ◽  
Math Skills ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Reading And Math

There is a relationship between reading and math skills, as well as comorbidity between reading and math disorders. A mutual foundation for this comorbidity could be that the quality of phonological representations is important for both early reading and arithmetic. In this study, we examine this hypothesis in a sample traced longitudinally from preschool to first grade (N = 259). The results show that phonological awareness does not explain development in arithmetic, but that there is an indirect effect between phoneme awareness in preschool and arithmetic in first grade via phoneme awareness in first grade. This effect is, however, weak and restricted to verbal arithmetic and not arithmetic fluency. This finding is only partly in line with other studies, and a reason could be that this study more strongly controls for confounders and previous skills than other studies.

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