Most students below benchmark at the beginning of the year remained below at the end, with persistence highest for historically marginalized student groups (67–80 percent)¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2023 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2028: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Sixty percent of students below benchmark at the beginning of the year were still below benchmark at the end; persistence ranged from 67 to 80 percent for economically disadvantaged, English learner, special education, Black, and Hispanic students. → Lemke 2023

Evidence¶

Lemke 2023¶

Lemke, M., Murphy, D., Soo Ping Chow, A., Spencer, H., & Zhang, A. (2023). Opportunity Gaps: Findings From Initial Analysis of Student Performance in Early Literacy in Massachusetts. WestEd. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED638519

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Descriptive analysis of within-year benchmark trajectories in 2020/21 and 2021/22 district screening data. The brief reports that group-specific persistence percentages "range from 67 percent to 80 percent" for the historically marginalized groups, with Asian students less likely to stay below benchmark.

"Across grade levels and years, 60 percent of students below benchmark at the beginning of the year also did not meet the benchmark at the end of the year."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Students from low income, English learner, special education, and several racial/ethnic groups are more likely to be repeatedly identified as significantly below benchmark, with low income students 2.5 times as likely — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• K–3 students in Massachusetts grantee schools with the highest percentages of historically marginalized student groups were more likely to be below literacy benchmark at least once and to stay below across the year — related
• Most students identified as significantly below benchmark on early literacy screeners remain significantly below benchmark 1 and 2 years later — related
• Economically disadvantaged, English learner, special education, Black, and Hispanic students were more likely than peers to be ever below benchmark — related
• Special education service concentration showed divergent patterns: similar ever-below-benchmark rates across quartiles but much higher persistence below benchmark in high-concentration schools — related
• Students at later grade levels were more likely to remain at risk across school years than students at earlier grade levels — related
• Risk status tends to persist: 75 percent of students significantly below benchmark at BOY remained so at EOY, and earlier grades showed lower year-to-year persistence — related
• About 60 percent of students significantly below benchmark at BOY remained so at EOY, and improving to benchmark by MOY predicted meeting benchmark at EOY — related
• Low income, English learner, special education, Black, and Hispanic students were more likely to be classified significantly below benchmark at each time period and more than once — related
• Across beginning, middle, and end of year time periods, 52 percent of Massachusetts K–3 grantees' students were ever classified as at any level of reading risk, about 27 percent at the highest risk levels, and 12 to 18 percent as potentially at risk of dyslexia — related