Executive functioning and academic achievement among elementary Pacific Islander students

Abstract Reading is a lifelong skill, essential for the twenty-first-century citizen. This study assessed the relationship between Pacific Islander elementary students' academic achievement and executive functioning skills. The scores were used to extrapolate reading executive functioning skills for grades 3, 4, and 5, including functions of working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility. Data were analyzed by multiple regression analysis of academic achievement scores to explain categories of reading achievement. The findings from this study indicated that a statistically significant relationship existed between reading, working memory, reading inhibition, and reading cognitive flexibility. Besides, executive functioning categories, grade levels over time (2017, 2018, 2019), and reading standardized achievement scores were all correlated. The executive function that had the most significant impact on standardized test scores was working memory. Therefore, based on these findings, understanding learner’s deficits can help to target teacher efforts and narrow reading academic achievement score gaps.