KEY TO SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT: READING, WRITING, ARITHMETIC……. AND CHARACTER?
Ω A study of 20 elementary schools in Hawaii has found that a focused program to build social, emotional and character skills resulted in significantly improved overall quality of education, as evaluated by teachers, parents and students. The concept includes organized activities to build character that go beyond more traditional rules or policies to control or punish problem behaviors. But it still takes only about an hour a week away from traditional education, and previous research has documented much lower numbers of suspensions, lower absenteeism, and better reading and math s... more »
Physical Activity and Performance at School
Ω A Systematic Review of the Literature Including a Methodological Quality Assessment Amika Singh, PhD; Léonie Uijtdewilligen, MSc; Jos W. R. Twisk, PhD; Willem van Mechelen, PhD, MD; Mai J. M. Chinapaw, PhD Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2012;166(1):49-55. doi:10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.716 A systematic review of previous studies suggests that there may be a positive relationship between physical activity and the academic performance of children, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Amika Singh... more »
Young children understand the benefits of positive thinking
Ω Even kindergarteners know that thinking positively will make you feel better. And parents' own feelings of optimism may play a role in whether their children understand how thoughts influence emotions. Those are the findings of a new study by researchers at Jacksonville University and the University of California, Davis. The study appears in the journal Child Development. In the study, researchers looked at 90 mostly White children ages 5 to 10. The children listened to six illustrated stories in which two characters feel the same emotion after experiencing something positive (ge... more »
School absenteeism, mental health problems linked
Ω School absenteeism is a significant problem, and students who are frequently absent from school more often have symptoms of psychiatric disorders. A new longitudinal study of more than 17,000 youths has found that frequently missing school is associated with a higher prevalence of mental health problems later on in adolescence, and that mental health problems during one year also predict missing additional school days in the following year for students in middle and high school. The study, published in the journal Child Development, was conducted by researchers at the University ... more »
Striving for Student Success: Shared Accountability
Ω The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act ushered in a new era of accountability in American education: for the first time, schools were held responsible for improving student achievement across all demographic groups. Yet there has always been a concern about holding only the schools themselves accountable for student success — especially given the profound impact of poverty on student achievement. Instead of putting the entire achievement burden on schools, what would it look like to hold a whole community responsible for long-range student outcomes? How can accountability for youth ... more »
A Plan for Transforming Indianapolis Public Schools
Ω The Mind Trust has released what it calls “a bold plan for transforming Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) ” The plan would dramatically shrink and restructure the central administration, send about $200 million more a year to schools without raising taxes, provide universal prekindergarten to all 4-year-olds, give teachers and principals more autonomy in exchange for more accountability, and provide parents with more quality school choices. It is the boldest urban reform plan in the United States. In developing its plan, The Mind Trust engaged local and national experts to analy... more »
CT Early Care/Education: Poor Coordination & Inadequate Funding Limit Access
Ω Connecticut Early Care and Education Progress Report, 2011 Appendix Following Connecticut’s loss in the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge funding competition and the Governor’s call this week for education reform legislation, a report on the state’s early care and education system finds that a lack of central coordination of early childhood programs and stagnant or declining funding levels are leaving many children in need of early care unserved. The organization called on state legislators and Governor Malloy, who has identified increasing access to preschool as a priorit... more »
Abnormality in auditory processing underlies dyslexia
Ω People with dyslexia often struggle with the ability to accurately decode and identify what they read. Although disrupted processing of speech sounds has been implicated in the underlying pathology of dyslexia, the basis of this disruption and how it interferes with reading comprehension has not been fully explained. Now, new research published by Cell Press in the December 22 issue of the journal Neuron finds that a specific abnormality in the processing of auditory signals accounts for the main symptoms of dyslexia. "It is widely agreed that for a majority of dyslexic children,... more »
Degrees of Failure: The Unprepared High School Graduate
Ω A significant number of American teenagers graduate from high school unprepared to take their next big steps toward adulthood, according to a study by researchers at The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education. More than 40 percent of high schoolers do not follow a college preparatory track or take adequate career and technical education courses, and these missed opportunities can leave young people at a disadvantage after graduation when they enroll in college or look for a job, according to Stefanie DeLuca, an associate ...more »
Between 30% and 40% of youths arrested by age 23
Ω Cumulative Prevalence of Arrest From Ages 8 to 23 in a National Sample OBJECTIVE: To estimate the cumulative proportion of youth who self-report having been arrested or taken into custody for illegal or delinquent offenses (excluding arrests for minor traffic violations) from ages 8 to 23 years. METHODS: Self-reported arrest history data (excluding arrests for minor traffic violations) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (N = 7335) were examined from 1997 to 2008. RESULTS: By age 18, the in-sample cumulative arrest prevalence rate lies between 15.9% and 26.8%; a... more »
Very Few Youths Invovled in Sexting
Ω Prevalence and Characteristics of Youth Sexting: A National Study published in Pediatrics OBJECTIVES: To obtain national estimates of youth involved in sexting in the past year (the transmission via cell phone, the Internet, and other electronic media of sexual images), as well as provide details of the youth involved and the nature of the sexual images. METHODS: The study was based on a cross-sectional national telephone survey of 1560 youth Internet users, ages 10 through 17. RESULTS: Estimates varied considerably depending on the nature of the images or videos and the role of...more »
America’s Youth: Transitions to Adulthood
Ω America’s Youth: Transitions to Adulthood compares the current generation of youth and young adults in the United States to youth and young adults in 2000, 1990, and 1980. Data for the report came from NCES and other federal surveys. According to this new NCES report, the youth of 2011 are different than their peers in 1980, 1990, and 2000 in many aspects – they have greater education and less labor force participation, they have delayed the establishment of their own families, and they have higher expectations for their future. Other findings include: • In 2010, there were 47.... more »
Does Practice-Based Teacher Preparation Increase Student Achievement?
Ω Early Evidence from the Boston Teacher Residency The Boston Teacher Residency is an innovative practice-based preparation program in which candidates work alongside a mentor teacher for a year before becoming a teacher of record in Boston Public Schools. The authors find find that BTR graduates are more racially diverse than other BPS novices, more likely to teach math and science, and more likely to remain teaching in the district through year five. Initially, BTR graduates for whom value-added performance data are available are no more effective at raising student test sco... more »
Bullying in Schools
Ω The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has released Peer Victimization in Schools: A Set of Quantitative and Qualitative Studies of the Connections Among Peer Victimization, School Engagement, Truancy, School Achievement and Other Outcomes, Conducted by the National Center for School Engagement in 2007, the OJJDP-funded study focused on the connection between bullying, truancy and low academic achievement and examined whether engaging students in academics or extracurricular activities mediates these factors. Bullying does not directly cause truancy, ... more »
Unwanted Online Sexual Exposures Decline For Youth
Ω A new study from the University of New Hampshire Crimes against Children Research Center finds declines in two kinds of youth Internet sexual encounters of great concern to parents: unwanted sexual solicitations and unwanted exposure to pornography. The researchers suspect that greater public awareness may have been, in part, what has helped. The study found that the percentage of youth receiving unwanted online sexual requests declined from 13 percent in 2005 to 9 percent in 2010. Youth experiencing unwanted pornography exposure declined from 34 percent to 23 percent over the sa... more »
AYP Results for 2010-11
Ω This report updates previous Center on Education Policy research with data from the 2010-11 school year on the number of schools not making adequate yearly progress (AYP) under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The estimated percentage of all U.S. schools not making AYP was 48% in 2011, an all-time high and an increase from 39% in 2010. The report also provides six years of trends in the percentage of schools in all 50 states, D.C., and the nation not making AYP, using official numbers from the State Consolidated Performance Reports submitted to the U.S. Department of Educatio...more »
State High School Tests: Changes in State Policies
Ω This 10th installment of the Center on Education Policy's annual study of high school exit exams and other assessments finds that fewer states are requiring students to pass a high school exit exam, though testing in other areas has increased. The report, based on a survey of all 50 state departments of education, discusses state policies associated with high school exit exams, college entrance exams (such as the ACT or SAT), and college and career readiness assessments. State Profiles for Assessment Policies Through 2010-11 Ω
NCLB: "The Accountability Plateau"
Ω This new analysis of NAEP scores—focusing on Texas and on the entire nation—by former NCES commissioner Mark Schneider finds that solid gains in math achievement coincided with the advent of "consequential accountability," first in the trailblazing Lone Star State and a few other pioneer states, then across the land with the implementation of NCLB. But Schneider warns that the recent plateau in Texas math scores may foreshadow a coming stagnation in the country’s performance. Has the testing-and-accountability movement as we know it run out of steam? How else might we rekindle ou... more »
More On In School Arrests
Ω From the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog, today!: The Justice Department, stepping up its oversight of the juvenile justice system, has launched an investigation into whether school and law enforcement officials are targeting black students in Meridian, Miss., for unfair treatment. The Civil Rights Division chief, Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez, disclosed the investigation in letters to local officials earlier this month. The department is investigating whether city and county authorities have a “pattern or practice” of violating the youths’ constitutional rights, specifica... more »
Restorative practices found to be effective alternative to zero tolerance in schools
Ω Restorative practices appear to be an effective alternative to exclusionary and punitive zero-tolerance behavior policies mandated in many schools today. So reports Laura Mirsky in an article in the December 2011 issue of The Prevention Researcher, a quarterly journal that focuses on successful adolescent development and serves professionals who work with young people. Mirsky interviewed educators and students at schools using restorative practices. She concludes that "although formal research is just beginning in this area, early indications and anecdotal evidence suggest that ... more »