Academic anxiety is increasingly recognised as relevant to students’ learning and emotional wellbeing. Although research has documented links between academic anxiety and academic performance, anxiety is often examined separately from academic intervention research and is not consistently considered alongside academic outcomes. Drawing on a program of research that includes two meta-analyses and studies examining relations between academic anxiety and academic outcomes, this presentation synthesises evidence on the effects of school-based academic interventions on both academic achievement and academic anxiety in primary and secondary students.

Evidence indicates that while academic interventions reliably improve achievement, they do little to reduce academic anxiety. Reviews suggest that academic anxiety may need to be addressed more directly. Research on anxiety and reading also shows that anxiety varies across different reading outcomes (e.g., reading accuracy and fluency, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension) and across students with differing reading achievement (e.g., higher vs lower achieving readers).

Implications for inclusive classroom practice and directions for future research are discussed. Overall, the findings suggest that academic anxiety should be considered alongside instruction and academic outcomes, particularly when students continue to experience difficulty despite receiving academic support. More broadly, this work highlights the complexity of relations between anxiety and learning, including variation associated with the type of anxiety and the severity of academic difficulty. By integrating evidence from intervention research and studies of anxiety–achievement relations, this presentation contributes to a more nuanced, research-informed understanding of academic anxiety within the context of effective, inclusive instruction.

Sarah Fishstrom is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education - College of Education at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She has over 15 years of experience across K–12 and university contexts, with a focus on improving reading outcomes for students with learning difficulties.

Dr Fishstrom’s research explores the intersection of anxiety and learning difficulties, with particular attention to reading difficulties and reading anxiety. A former National Board-Certified teacher in New York City Public Schools, she brings a decade of classroom experience to her academic work and is committed to advancing evidence-based reading instruction while also supporting teacher and student wellbeing.

In addition to her research, Dr Fishstrom supports pre-service and in-service teachers in building knowledge and confidence in instructional practices. Her work emphasises integrating academic instruction with social–emotional considerations, particularly anxiety, as well as culturally responsive reading practices for diverse classrooms. She recently developed well-being modules for the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa College of Education and currently collaborates with the Hawai‘i Department of Education on a train-the-trainer initiative to support adolescent students with reading difficulties.

Through her teaching, research, and professional collaborations, including international partnerships, Dr Fishstrom is committed to advancing inclusive, evidence-informed educational practices that support students in reaching their academic potential.

Jen Smith-Merry is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellow and Professor of Health and Social Policy in the Sydney School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health at The University of Sydney. From 2018-2024 she was Director of the Centre for Disability Research and Policy. Her work focuses on creating practical, research-informed policy and practice development in partnership with government and non-government organisations.

Prior to joining the School of Health Sciences in 2011 she was Research Fellow in mental health policy at the University of Edinburgh and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Menzies Centre for Health Policy.

Jen is co-editor of Palgrave Studies in Disability in Asia and the Pacific.

Learning to read is a cultural invention that is cognitively demanding and must be explicitly taught (Castles et al., 2018; Dehaene, 2009; Geary, 2008; Seidenberg, 2017). Whether children learn to read is therefore highly dependent on the quality of instruction.  While most teachers use phonics, effectiveness varies according to their instructional language and consistent verbal routines (Archer & Hughes, 2011; Roberts et al., 2019), how they direct attention to sounds, blend and segment words (Gonzalez-Frey & Ehri, 2020), and provide opportunities to respond (Becker, 1992; Sayeski et al., 2019).  A reading Daily Review is one effective strategy teachers can employ to accelerate this journey through fast-paced, structured reteaching and retrieval of essential knowledge. Student engagement is sustained with frequent choral, or partner responses ensuring participation and immediate feedback (Hollingsworth & Ybarra, 2018).  This practical session will focus on the design and delivery of an effective reading Daily Review including what to put in and when to take it out, structuring reviews, and videos illustrating exemplary practice from teachers in a range of settings.

Dr Lorraine Hammond AM is Professor of Early Years Literacy at The University of Notre Dame in Fremantle, Western Australia.  She has worked and researched in the areas of early literacy, high impact instructional strategies, including explicit teaching and learning difficulties since 1990. Awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2002, Lorraine was recognised by an Australian Government National Teaching Award (2016) for outstanding tertiary teaching and in 2017 by the Australian Council for Educational Leadership for her work in schools promoting high impact instruction. In 2019, Lorraine received an Order of Australia (AM) for her significant contribution to tertiary education and the community. Lorraine has designed tertiary units of work on structured literacy and explicit instruction, including the first post-graduate unit on the Science of Reading Instruction in Australia. Since 2017, Lorraine has developed and presented professional learning on evidence-based literacy strategies for the Kimberley Schools Project in the north of Western Australia in regional and remote community schools as well as the Catholic Archdioceses of Adelaide, Broken Bay, Canberra-Goulburn, Melbourne and Tasmania.  Lorraine has also worked extensively with the government and Independent school systems across Australia. In 2024, Lorraine was inaugurated into the Western Australian Women’s Hall of Fame for her work teaching evidence-based reading instruction in schools and universities. Her unwavering dedication continues to shape literacy education, ensuring that effective, research-backed teaching methods are accessible to all students, regardless of their background or location.

Aaron Lanou is an educational consultant supporting schools and organisations to reach all kids with inclusive, strengths-based practices. He coaches teachers and others to teach and support autistic students and all kids with a variety of academic, executive functioning, and social support needs. A member of Carol Gray’s Team Social Stories, Aaron also provides Social Stories workshops and collaborates with Carol and the team to continually update and refine the Social Stories philosophy and approach.

Through the lens of Universal Design for learning, Aaron works with educators to consider the kid in context, examining the environment, demands, and expectations as the starting point for helping students be successful in school. He specializes in helping teachers use clear and purposeful visual supports, focused graphic organisers, clarity and structure in instruction based on principles of learning and memory, and a range of executive functioning supports and other scaffolds. Committed to centering disabled perspectives, Aaron has learned from and alongside his students with disabilities and has collaborated frequently with autistic colleagues and presenters.

A former special education teacher, Aaron was previously Director of Professional Development and Executive Director of the Nest Support Project at New York University, leading the nation’s largest inclusion program for autistic students, the NYC Department of Education’s Nest Program. In his time at Nest, Aaron coordinated and provided professional development and consultation in Nest schools; oversaw the program’s expansion to more than 50 K–12 schools across New York City; developed the middle and high school model with a team of secondary educators; and led a three-year grant to adapt the Nest model in the city of Aarhus, Denmark. He went on to help develop the Path Program, an inclusion program for students with social-emotional support needs based on the Nest model, created by NYU and the NYC Department of Education.

Aaron has been adjunct faculty at Hunter College and NYU, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses on instructional methods for students with learning disabilities and teaching students with complex support needs.