Learning from the best school systems in East Asia
Ω As the economic centre of the world is shifting from West to East, so is the centre of high performance in school education. Four of the world’s five highest-performing systems are Hong Kong, Korea, Shanghai and Singapore, according to OECD’s 2009 PISA assessments of students. In Shanghai, the average 15-year old mathematics student is performing at a level two to three years above his or her counterpart in Australia, the USA and Europe. In recent years, Australia and many OECD countries have substantially increased education expenditure, often with disappointing results. Grattan... more »
Gender difference does not mean genetic difference: Externalizing improves performance in ment
Ω Research reported in *Learning and Individual Differences, Volume 22, Issue 1, February 2012, Pages 20-24: * The fear of underperforming owing to stereotype threat affects women's performance in tasks such as mathematics, chess, and spatial reasoning. This research considered mental rotation and explored effects on performance and on regulatory focus of instructions pointing to different explanations for gender differences. Two hundred and one participants were asked to perform the Mental Rotation Test (MRT) and were told that men perform better than women. Then they were divide... more »
Beyond The #Classroom: Drexel University Study Looks at Teachers on Twitter
Ω Teachers are stretching Twitter’s reach to more than just 140 character quips according to a new study by The iSchool at Drexel University researchers. The study, entitled “Grassroots Professional Development: How Teachers Use Twitter” suggests that teachers are molding Twitter from its common perception as a social medium for sharing personal information and observations, to a conduit for disseminating educational resources and connecting with distant colleagues. The research notes that while 80 percent of Twitter users are “meformers,” people who include personal information and... more »
ELL Students Who Complete Language Acquisition Classes within Three Years Fare Better Academically
Ω English Language Learner (ELL) public school students who successfully complete English as a Second Language (ESL) or bilingual education programs within three years appear to fare better in meeting basic math and reading proficiency standards than their peers who remain enrolled in language acquisition courses for five years or more, according to a new studypublished by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI). The report analyzes a unique longitudinal dataset compiled by the state of Texas that tracks all students – including the state’s large ELL population – from first grade thro... more »
Harrison (CO) School District's Pay-for-Performance Plan
Ω There is no effort in the country further ahead in designing and implementing a workable teacher evaluation system than Harrison (CO) School District's Pay-for-Performance Plan. Harrison is a high-poverty school district of about 10,000 students near Colorado Springs. It has confronted the dual challenges of defining an effective teacher and identifying all the things that demonstrate her effectiveness. Exceptional teachers in Harrison are rewarded for their students’ quantifiable success and their own documented professionalism. Excellent teachers earn substantially more—and ear... more »
What Works Clearinghouse: First Step to Success Studies
Two studies have found First Step to Success to have positive effects on external behavior, potentially positive effects on emotional/internal behavior, social outcomes, and other academic performance, and no discernible effects on reading achievement/literacy for children classified with an emotional disturbance. 19 other studies failed to meet WWC criteria. First Step to Success is an early intervention program designed to help children who are at risk for developing aggressive or antisocial behavioral patterns. The program uses a trained behavior coach who works with each student... more »
Reducing academic pressure may help children succeed
Ω * Telling children learning is difficult could reduce fear of failure, research finds * Children may perform better in school and feel more confident about themselves if they are told that failure is a normal part of learning, rather than being pressured to succeed at all costs, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. "We focused on a widespread cultural belief that equates academic success with a high level of competence and failure with intellectual inferiority," said Frederique Autin, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of P... more »
Tools of the Mind: few to no benefits
Ω *from Inside School Research - Education Week by Sarah D. Sparks* Tools of the Mind Shows Lackluster Results in Experimental Trials Tools of the Mind, an early- childhood education curriculum, has drawn a lot of attention in recent years for its potential to increase young students' ability to self-regulate. Yet new research suggests the play-based program may be no better than traditional early education at improving self-control or later school readiness. ...Tools is certainly an intriguing concept: Children role play in different scenarios based on their own written "play plan... more »
Core Knowledge Language Arts: NYC 2nd graders scored significantly higher on reading comprehension tests
Ω Starting in the 2008-2009 school year, kindergarten students in ten (10) New York City public schools began learning to read with the Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) program, a comprehensive literacy program emphasizing phonics, content knowledge, and language development across many subjects, while students in ten demographically similar control schools received more traditional reading instruction. The formal pilot program continued for three years, monitored by the NYC Department of Education’s Research and Policy Support Group, which followed a cohort of New York City stud... more »
Gaps Between Desirable and Actual P–12 Math Achievement Trajectories for College
Ω This study addresses missing links in “college for all” debates by investigating gaps between actual and desirable math achievement trajectories for students’ college readiness. Linking multiple national data sets across P–16 education levels, the study estimates college readiness benchmarks separately for two-year and four-year college entrance and completion. The goals of the study are to compare performance standards, benchmarks, and norms for college readiness and to assess college readiness gaps among all students as well as gaps among racial and social subgroups. The resu... more »
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 »