School or academic achievement is a relevant topic of study, as it is evidence of the learning achieved by the student. This study aims to explore a model explaining academic achievement while testing the mediator role of learning strategies, study habits and study attitudes. Research design was correlational. 1712 Dominican students from 12 to 20 years old (52.75% female) were sampled through cluster sampling. Data was recruited with a set of validated questionnaires, including measures of academic achievement (marks), learning strategies, study habits, and attitudes toward studies, school engagement, and academic support. Structural Equation Modeling was used to establish and test the mediational model. Main results show that learning strategies and study habits and attitudes play a mediator role between background variables as age, gender, cognitive or behavioral engagement, and students' academic achievement. Learning strategies and study habits play a central role in achieving a good academic performance, by mediating the effects of academic support and school engagement.

The influence of academic support on students’ academic and personal development has been previously demonstrated. The objective of this study was to present a validation of the Perceived Academic Support Questionnaire (PASQ). This scale has three dimensions: academic support from (1) teachers, (2) family, and (3) peers. For the reliability analysis, we estimated the Cronbach alpha and Composite Reliability Indices (CRIs). Factorial validity was assessed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and external validity was tested via a structural equation model in which the dimensions of academic support predicted academic motivation. The CFA fit indices showed very good fit to the data, supporting the theoretically proposed three-factor structure. The reliability indices, considering Cronbach alpha and CRI, were adequate for all dimensions and the predictive model fit was satisfactory. Teacher and parental academic support had a positive impact on academic motivation. On the contrary, a negative relationship between peer support and academic motivation was found. The evidence provided supports for the use of the PASQ as a brief academic support scale in future research.

In a low-reading-achievement context, this study examines the applicability of the Simple View of Reading in the Dominican Republic, a Spanish-speaking country, assessing elementary students across the first seven years of formal schooling, and it investigates the contribution of key psycholinguistic precursors to decoding fluency and reading comprehension across public and private schools. Structural equation models were estimated for a sample of 1168 Dominican students across three grade-level clusters and for each educational subsystem (public vs. private). Model fit indices support the adequacy of the proposed latent structure. Our findings reveal that decoding emerges as the primary predictor of reading comprehension in the early grades, whereas language comprehension becomes increasingly influential in later grades—although this shift appears to occur later than reported in other contexts, particularly within public schools. Moreover, phonological awareness contributes persistently to decoding (even in 6th–7th), supporting the hypothesis of delayed decoding automatization, which could account for the reading-comprehension difficulties identified in international assessments. Socioeconomic position exhibits a decreasing effect on reading comprehension as students’ progress through school, although it remains significant at all grades. These findings highlight the need for educational policy approaches that accelerate decoding automatization to free cognitive resources for comprehension processes, emphasizing effective phonological-awareness training and explicit, systematic literacy instruction.

In order to understand the adequate development of students, direct measures such as their grades, but also indirect measures such as their satisfaction with school, must be taken into account. It is also important to determine which variables promote it and how. This study aims to explore if the mediating effect of school engagement between academic support (from teachers, parents, and peers) and school outcomes (satisfaction with school, and grades) is gender invariant. The sample was 1712 students with a mean age of 14.73 (52.7% female). The model was tested using Structural Equation Modeling and an invariance routine was carried out to test gender moderation. The model satisfactorily fitted the data, with the school engagement mediating the effect of parents, teachers, and peer support on satisfaction with school and grades. Teacher support was the dimension of academic support with the highest impact. The model explained 46% of the variance of satisfaction and 7.8% of grades. The invariance routine revealed no moderation effects due to gender. The proposed model is invariant across boys and girls, being the academic support equally relevant for both correct involvement and performance in school. Implications are discussed.

El logro de aprendizajes continúa preocupando a los actores del sistema educativo dominicano, debido a las limitaciones en el desarrollo de competencias de los estudiantes. Las estrategias de aprendizaje y el compromiso escolar son variables de amplia relevancia para acercarse a la comprensión de los procesos de aprendizaje y el logro académico. La presente investigación, en procura de aportar a la comprensión de cómo aprenden y se involucran los estudiantes de secundaria con el proceso educativo, se ha planteado como objetivos: identificar los niveles de apropiación de estrategias cognitivas y metacognitivas de aprendizaje y el nivel de compromiso académico, así como la relación entre estos constructos. El diseño de este estudio fue transversal, con metodología correlacional y de enfoque cuantitativo. Participaron 628 estudiantes de secundaria del Distrito Educativo 11-01 de Puerto Plata, siendo 316 hombres y 312 mujeres. Para la recolección de información se utilizó la Escala de Estrategias de Aprendizaje-abreviada (ACRA) y el cuestionario de compromiso escolar de Veiga. Los hallazgos evidencian un uso moderadamente bajo de estrategias de aprendizaje e ineficaces hábitos de estudio, lo cual limita los procesos de construcción de conocimientos, pues no se puede hacer un procesamiento oportuno de las informaciones escolares a nivel cognitivo, ni se cuenta con estrategias efectivas de organización del estudio. Asimismo, se identificó un compromiso escolar limitado con los procesos educativos, generando riesgos importantes respecto al éxito académico y la permanencia en la escuela. La relación entre estrategias de aprendizaje y compromiso escolar fue estadísticamente significativa, evidenciado que quienes presentan mayor compromiso escolar utilizan estrategias de aprendizaje de forma sistemática.

This study examined differences in reading performance between public and private school students in the Dominican Republic—a country with historically low reading achievement in international assessments—and explored the influence of socioeconomic factors on these outcomes. A total of 1,168 students from second grade to the beginning of secondary school were assessed using standardized instruments to evaluate psycholinguistic precursors of reading (phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, short-term verbal memory, and alphabetic knowledge), oral language skills (vocabulary, grammatical comprehension, and oral comprehension), and reading performance (fluency and comprehension). Results revealed significant performance differences between public and private school students across nearly all variables, with medium to large effect sizes favoring the private system, particularly in reading fluency. Linear regression analyses identified family income as the most consistent predictor of reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, while parental education also showed specific effects by grade level. Controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) substantially reduced or eliminated most differences between systems, especially in comprehension and linguistic skills, suggesting that SES explains much of the educational gap linked to structural inequalities. However, medium effect sizes persisted in decoding fluency, indicating a possible residual impact of the educational system. Findings underscore the urgent need to strengthen early reading instruction and to ensure universal access to high-quality pre-primary education, as 40% of public-school students lack functional reading ability by the end of 2nd grade. These results highlight the importance of educational policies aimed at mitigating structural inequities and promoting equitable literacy development in the Dominican Republic.