Minority administrators, school personnel key to engaging immigrant parents
Ω Minority principals and other administrative personnel at elementary and high schools play a key role in implementing policies and practices aimed at engaging immigrant parents of students, according to new research, Study: Parent Involvement Policy in Established and New Immigrant Destinations The researchers examined how schools in districts with immigrant populations are addressing low levels of parent involvement in their children’s education and providing opportunities for engagement and support. The study, which will be published in the March edition of Social Science Quar...more »
Recruiting Effective Math Teachers: Evidence From New York City
Ω For well over a decade school districts across the United States have struggled to recruit and retain effective mathematics teachers. In response to the need for qualified math teachers and the difficulty of directly recruiting individuals who have already completed the math content required for qualification, some districts, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York City, have developed alternative certification programs with a math immersion component to recruit otherwise well-qualified candidates who do not have undergraduate majors in math. This arti... more »
SEX EDUCATION LINKED TO DELAY IN FIRST SEX
Ω * Teens Getting Information About Both Abstinence and Contraception Have Healthier Outcomes Than Those Who Receive No Sex Education* Teens who receive formal sex education prior to their first sexual experience demonstrate a range of healthier behaviors at first intercourse than those who receive no sex education at all. This is particularly so when the instruction they receive includes information about both waiting to have sex and methods of birth control. These findings come from a new study, “Consequences of Sex Education on Teen and Young Adult Sexual Behaviors and Outcomes,”...more »
Income and Education as Predictors of Children's School Readiness
Ω This study uses data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- Birth (ECLS-B) Cohort to estimate associations between two important indicators of family socioeconomic status—family income and maternal education—and children’s school readiness measured by academic skills, behavior, and physical health at school entry. The authors find large gaps in our measures of school readiness across groups of children defined by family income and maternal education. Such differences are much smaller, however, when potential confounds are included as controls in regressions. In multivariat...more »
Teacher Incentive Program in Chicago: No Overall Impact on Student Achievement
Ω *Final Report Shows Teacher Retention Boost, However * The final report from Mathematica Policy Research on the Chicago Teacher Advancement Program (Chicago TAP) found that the program increased teacher retention in some schools. For example, teachers in Chicago TAP schools at the start of the program in fall 2007 were about 20 percent more likely than teachers in comparison schools to be in those same schools three years later (67 percent retention rate versus 56 percent). However, the program did not have an impact on student achievement overall within the four-year rollout per...more »
Low Family Income Not a Major Reason For Poor Student Achievement
Ω Family income is associated with student achievement, but careful studies show little causal connection. School factors – teacher quality, school accountability, school choice – have bigger causal impacts than family income per se, according to a new analysis, Neither Broad Nor Bold: A narrow-minded approach to school reform, by Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG). The analysis, prepared by PEPG director Paul E. Peterson, calls into question the Broader, Bolder Approach (BBA) to educational reform that has been advanced by a group of education scholars, te... more »
Better Schools, Less Crime?
Ω What is the study about? This study examined the effect of public school choice on adult crime and school-based outcomes. Prior to the 2002–03 school year, the Charlotte–Mecklenberg school district switched from forced desegregation to a district-wide open enrollment lottery. This study focuses on more than 2,000 male students in grades 6–11 who participated in the subset of these admission lotteries in which the assignment process was random. What did the study report? By comparing the crime records of students who won a middle school lottery to those of students who did not, ...more »
Charter-Schools: no statistically significant effects on middle school youths
Ω What is the study about? Charter-School Management Organizations: Diverse Strategies and Diverse Student Impacts examined the effect of non-profit charter-school management organizations (CMOs) on middle school academic achievement, rates of high school graduation, and post-secondary enrollment. Within eight geographically diverse states, the authors matched each charter school student with similar students attending conventional public schools. The sample included nearly 14,000 students attending 68 middle schools operated by 22 CMOs and nearly 3,000 students who attended 13 hig... more »
Survey of the American Teacher Finds Decreased Teacher Satisfaction
Ω Teachers are less satisfied with their jobs than they have been in decades, but parent engagement with schools has increased, according to the MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Teachers, Parents and the Economy, the 28th in an annual series commissioned by MetLife and conducted by Harris Interactive. The report, based on a survey of public school teachers, parents and students during the current school year1, is the first large-scale national survey to fully reflect the effects of the economy on the teaching profession. Teacher job satisfaction has fallen by 15 percentage p... more »
Smaller School Classes Leads to Better Student Outcomes and Higher Wages
Ω Students who were in a small class in grades 4 to 6 had better school achievement and higher wages as adults than those who were in large classes. This is shown in research done at IFAU, the Institute for Evaluation of Labor Market and Education Policy, in Sweden. Smaller classes are also found to be profitable to society. Whether a large or small class size plays any role in student learning is heatedly debated. Previous (primarily American) research has shown that small classes improve school outcomes in the short term; students learn more in school. But it has remained unclear... more »
Summer reading program: no statistically significant impact on reading comprehension.
Ω To successfully engage in today’s global market, students need advanced literacy skills (Snow, Burns, and Griffin 1998). A lack of proficiency in reading is more widely found in children from economically disadvantaged families (Alexander, Entwisle, and Olson 2007; Lee, Grigg, and Donahue 2007); in fact, by grade 4, only 46 percent of students from economically disadvantaged families achieve reading proficiency above the basic level (Perie, Grigg, & Donahue, 2005). One reason that these students tend to have lower reading proficiency is that they experience a decline in reading ... more »
Educational Inequities Around Teacher Experience, Discipline and High School Rigor
Minority students across America face harsher discipline, have less access to rigorous high school curricula, and are more often taught by lower-paid and less experienced teachers, according to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR). In an event at Howard University attended by civil rights and education reform groups, federal education officials today released new data from a national survey of more than 72,000 schools serving 85% of the nation’s students. The self-reported data, Part II of the 2009-10 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), covers a range ... more »
Infant/Toddler caregiver training intervention: no significant effect
Ω The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) West at WestEd conducted a rigorous study of the impact of an on-site caregiver training intervention, the Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC), on child development and childcare program quality. The study was conducted in Southern California and Arizona. The PITC intervention approach combines direct caregiver training and on-site coaching or other tailored assistance. This study tested a specific implementation model of PITC, with delivery of 64 hours of training and 40 hours of on-site coaching and support, requiring an average of 1... more »
Efficacy of Schoolwide Programs to Promote Social and Character Development and Reduce Problem Behavior in Elementary School Children
Ω A variety of universal school-based programs designed to help elementary schools foster positive student behaviors, reduce negative behaviors, and ultimately, improve academic performance are available; however, more evidence from rigorous evaluations is needed to better understand their effects. The need for such information is important because the development of social competencies during middle childhood has been linked to adjustment to schooling and academic success while the failure to develop them can lead to problem behavior that interferes with success in school. In resp...more »
Younger children in the classroom likely overdiagnosed with ADHD
Ω * Immaturity may lead to diagnosis of disorder* The youngest children in the classroom are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) — and prescribed medication — than their peers in the same grade, according to a study just published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). ADHD, which is often treated with prescription medication, is the most commonly diagnosed behavioural disorder in children. Two recent studies have shown a link between the relative age of children and diagnosis of ADHD and prescription of medication... more »
Green schools and students' science scores are related
Ω A nationwide survey shows a positive correlation between Green School practices and student achievement in science. The study was conducted by the University of Colorado Denver's Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences. And presented Wednesday at the Green Schools National Network conference in Denver. Schools that took part in the survey observe GreenPrint core practices as defined by the Green Schools National Network (GSNN). The core practices are: - Curriculum that advances environmental literacy and sustainability - Stewardship and service learning - Sustainable f...more »
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programs - The Academic Impact
Ω This study examines whether students' enrollment in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program improves their ACT scores, probability of high school graduation and probability of college enrollment. Using data on the IB enrollment status of 20,422 students attending thirteen CPS high schools from 2002-2008, it estimates that IB enrollment increases students' ACT scores by as much as 0.5 standard deviations and their probability of high school graduation and college enrollment by as much as 17 and 22 percentage points respectively. All of th... more »
The Academic Effects of Summer Instruction and Retention in New York City
Ω This paper examines the impacts of summer instruction and test-based grade retention under New York City's 5th grade promotion policy. The autors use a fuzzy regression discontinuity research design that involves comparing students with test scores that barely miss and barely make the treatment-assignment cutoffs. They find modest positive effects of summer instruction on 6th grade English Language Arts (ELA) achievement for students assigned to summer instruction because of poor ELA performance, but find little evidence of positive effects of summer instruction on math outcomes...more »
Student Achievement Lower when Teachers Take Education Courses
Ω Traditionally, states have required individuals complete a program of study in a university-based teacher preparation program in order to be licensed to teach. In recent years, however, various “alternative certification” programs have been developed and the number of teachers obtaining teaching certificates through routes other than completing a traditional teacher preparation program has skyrocketed. In this paper, Certification Requirements and Teacher Quality: A Comparison of Alternative Routes to Teaching, the author used a rich longitudinal data base from Florida to comp... more »
STUDY ESTIMATES COST OF TRANSITION TO NATIONAL EDUCATION STANDARDS AT $16 BILLION
Ω Aligning state and local educational systems to the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and math will cost the 45 states plus the District of Columbia that have adopted them nearly $16 billion over seven years according to a new study, *National Cost of Aligning States and Localities to the Common Core Standards*, published by Pioneer Institute, the American Principles Project, and the Pacific Research Institute of California. This does not include additional spending for reforms to help students meet the new standards. The study, which only calculates expenses d... more »