This Week's Education Research Report
Minority Students Receive Less Rigorous Feedback
Remember that teacher you grumbled about back in your school days, the really tough one who made you work so hard, insisted you could do better, and made you sweat for your A’s? The one you didn’t appreciate until after you graduated and realized how much you had learned? Minority students in the U.S. might have fewer of those teachers, at least compared to white students, and as a result they might be at a significant learning disadvantage. A major study, led by Rutgers-Newark psychology professor Kent D. Harber, indicates that public school teachers under-challenge minority st... more »
Educators Find Digital Games Promising Tools in the Classroom According to National Survey
The first national survey of teachers who are using digital games as part of their students' instruction, released today by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, found that digital games are becoming a consistent and valuable part of classroom activities. Fifty percent of teachers of grades K-8 reported they are using digital games with their students two or more days a week, with 18 percent using them daily. The survey, *Teacher Attitudes about Digital Games in the Classroom*,* *conducted in collaboration with and support from BrainPOP®, was released at The NewSchools Ven... more »
School Start Times Found to Affect Student Achievement
*North Carolina study suggests a one-hour later start time in middle school would reduce achievement gaps* In recent years, many parents have called for later start times in middle- and high-school, yet there has been little rigorous evidence to date directly linking school start times and academic performance. A new study finds that delaying middle-school start times by one hour, from roughly 7:30 to 8:30 a.m., would increase standardized math and reading scores by 2 to 3 percentile points. The effects are more than twice as large for students in the bottom third of test-scorers ... more »
Excessive sleepiness may be cause of learning, attention and school problems
Children who have learning, attention and behavior problems may be suffering from excessive daytime sleepiness, even though clinical tests show them sleeping long enough at night, a new study reports. Penn State researchers studied 508 children and found that those whose parents reported excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) – despite little indication of short sleep from traditional measurements – were more likely to experience learning, attention/hyperactivity and conduct problems than children without EDS. The culprits? Obesity, symptoms of inattention, depression and anxiety, ... more »
Numbers and Types of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools
This First Look, Numbers and Types of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2010–11, presents findings on the numbers and types of public elementary and secondary schools in the United States and the territories in the 2010-11 school year. Findings include: • There were 98,817 operating public elementary/secondary schools in the 2010-11 school year. Of those schools, 88,929 were regular schools. • By 2010-2011, charter schools had been established in 40 states and the District of Columbia. Charter schools enrolled about 1.8 million stude... more »
Charter schools in NYC have a positive effect on student achievement
*But enroll relatively fewer students in the highest-need categories* An unprecedented amount of data about New York City's growing public charter school sector was released today in the first-ever State of the Sector report by the New York City Charter School Center. Charter Center researchers compiled information on 35 different data points, including parental demand, test scores, demographics, survey ratings, facilities access, attendance, and teacher and student retention, among other topics. The data show that charter schools serve largely disadvantaged students, and on avera... more »
Automated Essay Scoring Systems as Effective as Human Graders
A direct comparison between human graders and software designed to score student essays achieved virtually identical levels of accuracy, with the software in some cases proving to be more reliable, a groundbreaking studyhas found. “The demonstration showed conclusively that automated essay scoring systems are fast, accurate, and cost effective,” said Tom Vander Ark, CEO of Open Education Solutions, which provides consulting serves related to digital learning, and co-director of the study. That’s important because writing essays are one important way for students to learn critical ... more »
Meeting Oregon’s New High School Math Graduation Requirements
This study was motivated by a 2005 Oregon law that requires students to take three years of mathematics courses at the algebra I level or above (advanced math), beginning with the Class of 2014. The study examines the percentage of Oregon students enrolled in high school–level math courses during 2006/07 and 2007/08 who would have been on track to graduate had the new mathematics requirements been in place. It also examines whether there would have been an adequate supply of teachers endorsed to teach advanced math in 2006/07 and 2007/08, had the new requirements been in place.
How California evaluates teachers and principals
How California's local education agencies evaluate teachers and principals,summarizes the results of a statewide survey of teacher and principal evaluation practices across school districts and direct-funded charter schools in California. Key findings include: * Sixty-one percent of responding local education agencies indicated that their teacher evaluation systems are based on the California Standards for the Teaching Profession. * For teacher evaluation, 57 percent of respondents reported using student achievement outcomes or growth data as partial or primary evidence. For princ... more »
Lasting Impacts of Effective Teachers
*Teachers who raise test scores have long-term effects on students’ college enrollment and earnings as adults* A study showing the large impacts that highly skilled teachers have on students’ academic achievement and lifetime earnings is available on the Education Next website, www.educationnext.org. Researchers Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman of Harvard University and Jonah E. Rockoff of Columbia University analyzed school-district data from grades 3–8 for 2.5 million children, and linked those data to information on student outcomes as young adults. Their study has received wid... more »
Number Line Is Learned, Not Innate Human Intuition
Tape measures. Rulers. Graphs. The gas gauge in your car, and the icon on your favorite digital device showing battery power. The number line and its cousins -- notations that map numbers onto space and often represent magnitude -- are everywhere. Most adults in industrialized societies are so fluent at using the concept, we hardly think about it. We don't stop to wonder: Is it "natural"? Is it cultural? Now, challenging a mainstream scholarly position that the number-line concept is innate, a study suggests it is learned. The study, published in PLoS ONE April 25, is based on e... more »
Using the Freshman On-Track Indicator to Predict Graduation
This report examines how well the freshman on-track indicator developed by the Consortium on Chicago School Research predicts on-time graduation in two urban districts in the Midwest Region. This indicator classifies students at the end of the first year of high school as on-track or off-track to graduate based on grade 9 course credits earned and failures. REL Midwest examined on-track and off-track rates and for recent freshman cohorts as well as 4-year graduation rates for on-track and off-track students. Key findings include: * For both districts, students who were on trac... more »
Performance on Science Tests in Minnesota
This report examines how grade 5 and grade 8 student achievement on the 2009/10 MCA–II science assessment differed by student and school characteristics (gender, eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch, special education status, race/ethnicity, and prior-year academic achievement). The study found that most of the variation in scores was associated with demographic differences among students rather than with differences between schools. Key findings include: * Student achievement on the MCA–II science assessment differed across demographic subgroups, favoring male students,... more »
School climate can affect overweight children for life
Ω Kids can be really mean – especially to other kids – and school-yard bullying can have serious immediate and long-term effects. One area of increasing concern in this regard is the possibility that overweight or obese children shoulder the brunt of bullying. With childhood obesity rates reaching unprecedented levels, this may translate into even more negative behavior being experienced by today's kids. It is also possible that children who are disliked by their peers may respond by becoming less active and more likely to overeat – compounding the issue even further. It's a vicio... more »
Achievement Among English Language Learner Students in New Jersey
Ω This report describes enrollment and achievement trends of LEP students in New Jersey public schools between 2002/03 and 2008/09. It documents achievement gaps between LEP and general education students in language arts literacy and math, as measured by statewide assessments administered in grades 3, 4, 8, and 11. The study's main findings include: * LEP students in New Jersey spoke 187 languages in 2008/09, up from 151 in 2002/03. In 2008/09, Spanish (spoken by 66.8 percent of LEP students in the state) had the most speakers, followed by Arabic (2.6 percent), Korean (2.5 perce... more »
Milieu teaching was found to have no discernible effects on communication/language competencies for preschool children with disabilities
Ω WWC Full Report Milieu teaching is a practice that involves manipulating or arranging stimuli in a preschool child’s natural environment to create a setting that encourages them to engage in a targeted behavior. For example, a teacher might place a desirable toy in a setting to encourage a student to request that toy (where requesting a toy is the desired target behavior). Typically, milieu teaching involves four strategies that a teacher will utilize to encourage a student to demonstrate a target behavior: modeling, mand-modeling, incidental teaching, and time-delay. Through ad... more »
Reading, Mathematics, and Science Achievement of Language-Minority Students In Grade 8
Ω Students who entered kindergarten as proficient in English, regardless of their home language, scored higher on the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K) eighth-grade reading, math, and science assessments than language minority students who became proficient in English after starting kindergarten. This is one finding of the analyses reported in Reading, Mathematics, and Science Achievement of Language-Minority Students In Grade 8, an Issue Brief released today by the National Center for Education Statistics. The ECLS-K tracked the education...more »
Delaware: Achievement of English Language Learner Students
Ω The number of English language learner (ELL) students in Delaware public schools rose 91.7 percent from 2002/03 to 2008/09, whereas total enrollment increased 7.7 percent. ELL student enrollment increased from 3.0 percent of total student enrollment in 2002/03 to 5.4 percent in 2008/09. These figures are of concern to educators because of the large achievement gaps nationally between ELL and non-ELL students and the need to meet the No Child Left Behind Act goal of bringing all students to proficiency by 2014. This report describes enrollment and achievement trends between 2002/... more »
Changes in Student Populations and Teacher Workforce in Low-Performing Chicago Schools Targeted for Reform
This report examines changes in student populations and teacher workforce in 31 chronically low-performing Chicago public schools. These schools were selected for district-led reform interventions following five distinct types of reform models.