Incorporating Student Self-assessment and Remediation into Classroom
Instruction Greatly Improves Educational Performance in High School
Reading Students

Janat Bajwa , John Leddo; Maria Verdu

doi:10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i03.016

Title: Incorporating Student Self-assessment and Remediation into Classroom Instruction Greatly Improves Educational Performance in High School Reading Students
Authors: Janat Bajwa , John Leddo and Maria Verdu
Journal: International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research (IJSSER) ISSN: 2455-8834 Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Publication Date: March 2026 DOI: 10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i03.016
\|\| \|\|
Janat Bajwa1 , John Leddo1,2,3 and Maria Verdu4 1. MyEdMaster, LLC, Virginia, USA 2. METY Technology, Inc., Virginia, USA 3. METY Foundation, Virginia, USA 4. IES Laurona, Spain
MLA 8 Bajwa, Janat, et al. "Incorporating Student Self-assessment and Remediation into Classroom Instruction Greatly Improves Educational Performance in High School Reading Students." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, vol. 11, no. 3, Mar. 2026, pp. 1073-1084, doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i03.016. Accessed Mar. 2026. APA 6 Bajwa, J., Leddo, J., & Verdu, M. (2026, March). Incorporating Student Self-assessment and Remediation into Classroom Instruction Greatly Improves Educational Performance in High School Reading Students. Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, 11(3), 1073-1084. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i03.016 Chicago Bajwa, Janat, John Leddo, and Maria Verdu. "Incorporating Student Self-assessment and Remediation into Classroom Instruction Greatly Improves Educational Performance in High School Reading Students." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research 11, no. 3 (March 2026), 1073-1084. Accessed March, 2026. https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i03.016.
References [1] . Ahmad, M. and Leddo, J. (2023). The Effectiveness of Cognitive Structure Analysis in Assessing Students’ Knowledge of the Scientific Method. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 8(8), 2397-2410. [2] . Chaoui, F. (2011). The efficacy of multiple-choice tests in large classrooms. Educational Research Review, 6(3), 103-115. [3] . Challagulla, M. and Leddo, J. (2025). Assessing and Remediating Knowledge Improves Problem-solving Performance in Middle School Math Compared to Remediating Problem-solving Steps. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 10(8), 3574-3586. [4] . Chen, Y. and Leddo, J. (2025a). Using Self-Assessment and Remediation to Raise Chinese Middle School Achievement in Physics. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 10(9), 4473-4482. [5] . Chen, Y. and Leddo, J. (2025b). Using Self-Assessment and Remediation to Raise Chinese Primary School Achievement in Reading. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 10(10), 5576-5585. [6] . Cynkin, C. and Leddo, J. (2023). Teaching students to self-assess using Cognitive Structure Analysis: Helping students determine what they do and do not know. International Journal of Social Science & Economic Research, 08(09), 3009-3020. [7] . Dandemraju, A., Dandemraju, R., & Leddo, J. (2024). Teaching students to self-assess their knowledge of chemistry using cognitive structure analysis. International Journal of Social Science & Economic Research, 09(02), 541–549. [8] . de Ayala, R. J. (2009). The reliability and validity of standardized tests in education. Educational Measurement, 18(4), 35-50. [9] . de Kleer, J. and Brown, J.S. (1981). Mental models of physical mechanisms and their acquisition. In J.R. Anderson (Ed.), Cognitive skills and their acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. [10] . Elbrink, H., and Waits, B. (1970). The reliability of multiple-choice testing methods in educational assessments. Testing and Evaluation, 14(1), 54-67. [11] . Frary, R. (1985). Constructive response tests and their impact on academic learning. Educational Measurement, 22(3), 119-132. [12] . Gagula, A. and Leddo, J. (2026). Incorporating Student Self-assessment and Remediation into Classroom Instruction Greatly Improves Educational Performance in Elementary School Math Students. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 11(2), 803-814. [13] . Herman, J. L., Klein, D. C., Heath, T. M., & Wakai, S. T. (1994). A first look: Are claims for alternative assessment holding up? (CSE Tech. Rep. No. 391). Los Angeles: University of California, Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. [14] . Leddo, J. and Ahmad, M. (2024). Do You Want to Raise Student Achievement? Then, Assess and Remediate Knowledge, Not Problem-solving Performance. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 9(1), 249-261. [15] . Leddo, J., Clark, E. and Clark, A. (2025). Using self-assessment and remediation to raise middle school student achievement in math. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 10(3), 1083-1092. [16] . Leddo, J., Cohen, M.S., O'Connor, M.F., Bresnick, T.A., and Marvin, F.F. (1990). Integrated knowledge elicitation and representation framework (Technical Report 90?3). Reston, VA: Decision Science Consortium, Inc. [17] . Leddo, J., Li, S. & Zhang, Y. (2022). Cognitive Structure Analysis: A technique for assessing what students know, not just how they perform. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 7(11), 3716-3726. [18] . Nehra, P., & Leddo, J. (2024). The effects of Cognitive Structure Analysis in self-assessing and remediating knowledge gaps in introductory Spanish. Journal of Educational Psychology, 45(3), 78-89. [19] . Newell, A., & Simon, H. (1972). Human Problem Solving. Prentice-Hall. [20] . O’Neil, H. F., & Brown, D. S. (1997). The impact of self-assessment on student performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 12(1), 89-102. [21] . Quillian, M. R. (1966). Semantic memory. In M. Minsky (Ed.), Semantic Information Processing (pp. 227-270). MIT Press. [22] . Prakash, P. & Leddo, J. (2025a). Using Self-Assessment and Remediation to Raise Student Achievement in Reading Comprehension. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 10(1), 277-286. [23] . Prakash, P. & Leddo, J. (2025b). Using Self-Assessment and Remediation to Raise Student Achievement in Mathematics. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 10(1), 447-456. [24] . Prakash, P. & Leddo, J. (2025c). Using Self-Assessment and Remediation to Raise Student Achievement in History. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 10(3), 650-659. [25] . Prakash, P. & Leddo, J. (2025d). Using Self-Assessment and Remediation to Raise Middle School Student Achievement in Reading Comprehension. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 10(3), 1130-1140. [26] . Prakash, P. & Leddo, J. (2025e). Using Self-Assessment and Remediation to Raise Middle School Student Achievement in Science. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 10(4), 1471-1482. [27] . Prakash, P. & Leddo, J. (2025f). Using Self-Assessment and Remediation to Raise Middle School Student Achievement in History. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 10(6), 2429-2440. [28] . Prakash, P. & Leddo, J. (2025g). Using Self-Assessment and Remediation to Raise Elementary School Student Achievement in Mathematics. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 10(9), 4058-4068. [29] . Prakash, P. & Leddo, J. (2025h). Using Self-Assessment and Remediation to Raise Elementary School Student Achievement in Reading. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 10(10), 5532-5541. [30] . Ravi, D., & Leddo, J. (2024). Improving Student Performance by Having Students: Assess and Remediate Their Own Knowledge Deficiencies. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 9(10), 4717-4724. [31] . Sathiyamoorthy, S.S. & Leddo, J. (2025). Using Self-Assessment and Remediation to Raise College Student Achievement in Psychology. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 10(5), 1859-1869. [32] . Schank, R. C., & Abelson, R. P. (1977). Scripts, plans, goals, and understanding. Lawrence Erlbaum. [33] . Zhou, L.N. & Leddo, J. (2023). Cognitive Structure Analysis: Assessing Students’ Knowledge of Precalculus. International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research, 8(9), 2826-2836.
ABSTRACT: In previous papers, we have shown that students can be taught to self-assess their own knowledge and knowledge gaps and, by relearning the subject matter with an eye to filling in those knowledge gaps, can improve their performance on tests by an average of 15 to 25 percentage points. These previous studies involved the researchers in the self-assessment interventions, either by managing the instructional process or assisting with the creation of the instructional materials and/or post-tests. In order for an educational intervention to be scalable, it needs to be administered solely by the educators without outside help. Additionally, for the intervention to be attractive to the educational community, it should be free/low cost and minimally disruptive to how teachers conduct their classes. To address this, Gajula and Leddo (2026) report a study involving 4th grade math students learning arithmetic operations over a 3- week period. They found that those using self-assessment scored 18.5 percentage points higher on the unit test than those who did not, while those performing self-assessment increased their performance by an average of 16.5 percentage points over the three-week period, and those who did not showed no improvement. The present study investigates the use of self-assessment and remediation in 11th grade reading in Spain. A teacher taught a unit in adapting to workplace changes, culminating in the class’s reading “Who Moved My Cheese?”, followed by a post-test on the reading assignment. 12 students engaged in self-assessment and 11 students did not. Selfassessment students, on average, scored 96% on the post-test, while no self-assessment students scored, on average, 82%. Moreover, self-assessment students on average improved 29 percentage points from their prior scores, while no self-assessment students showed no improvement. Results suggest that self-assessment continues to be a reliable way to improve performance in classroom students and may offer much more benefits than additional instruction alone.

IJSSER is Member of