Education Research Report:
This Week's Education Research Report
This Week's Education Research Report
Student Motivation: School Reform’s Missing Ingredient
*CEP Report Summarizes Research on Understanding, Spurring Motivation* A series of papers by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) underscores the need for teachers, schools, parents and communities to pay more attention to the role of student motivation in school reform. While there is no single strategy that works to motivate all students, or even the same student in all contexts, the many different sources reviewed by CEP suggest various approaches that can help improve student motivation, the report finds. For example, programs that tailor support to individual students who are ... more »
School Improvement Grants Schools Face Challenges: 3 Reports
For many low-performing schools in Idaho, Maryland, and Michigan that were awarded federal school improvement grants (SIGs), replacing teachers and principals has proven to be the greatest challenge to implementation. Some SIG schools have also struggled to increase learning time for students, although others report fewer problems with this strategy. But one bright spot for several SIG schools in these states is that school climates appear to be getting better. These are among the findings in a series of special reports by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) at The George Washing... more »
Federal Stimulus Funds Saved Education Jobs
Education stimulus funds largely met the goal of saving or creating jobs for K-12 teachers and other education personnel, according to a summary of three years of survey research by the Center on Education Policy at the George Washington University (CEP). However, ongoing state budget shortfalls have slowed state implementation of education reforms tied to the receipt of stimulus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). “Federal stimulus funds appear to have blunted the effects of the economic downturn on the K-12 education sector,” said Maria Ferguson, CEP’s... more »
Technology in Early Education
Touch-screen technologies, on-demand multimedia, and mobile devices are prompting a rethinking of education. In a world of increasing fiscal constraints, state leaders are under pressure to capitalize on these new technologies to improve productivity and help students excel. The task is daunting across the education spectrum, but for those in early education (birth through 3rd grade), it is harder still. Until recently, most educators envisioned early learning as story time and hands-on activities with no technology in sight. Yet electronic media use among young children is growing... more »
Starting Early With English Language Learners
English Language Learners are a large and growing population in America’s public school system, but schools often fall short in preparing these students for success in college and the workforce. One state, Illinois, has tried to reverse that trend by starting services for young English Language Learners before they arrive in kindergarten. Illinois is in the process of expanding its services for English Language Learners into state-funded pre-K, so that students begin receiving ELL support when they first arrive in school, whether that is at age 3, 4, or 5. A new paper, Starting... more »
Students Attending K12 Inc. Cyber Schools Fall Behind
A new report released today by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) at the University of Colorado shows that students at K12 Inc., the nation’s largest virtual school company, are falling further behind in reading and math scores than students in brick-and-mortar schools. These virtual schools students are also less likely to remain at their schools for the full year, and the schools have low graduation rates. “Our in-depth look into K12 Inc. raises enormous red flags,” said NEPC Director Kevin Welner. The report’s findings will be presented in Washington today to a nation... more »
Students From Improving Schools Score Lower on ACT
For more than half a century concerns about the ability of American students to compete in a global workplace focused policymakers' attention on improving school performance generally, and student achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) specifically. In its most recent form—No Child Left Behind—there is evidence this focus led to a repurposing of instructional time to dedicate more attention to tested subjects. While this meant a narrowing of the curriculum to focus on English and mathematics at the elementary level, the effects on high school curric... more »
Instructional intervention on middle school english learners' science and english reading achievement
This study examined the effect of a quasi-experimental project on fifth grade English learners' achievement in state-mandated standards-based science and English reading assessment. A total of 166 treatment students and 80 comparison students from four randomized intermediate schools participated in the current project. The intervention consisted of on-going professional development and specific instructional science lessons with inquiry-based learning, direct and explicit vocabulary instruction, integration of reading and writing, and enrichment components including integration o... more »
Americans support local control of schools
Despite criticism that local school boards are “dinosaurs” that need to be replaced, Americans support local control of their schools, Michigan State University education scholars argue in a new paper. The public believes that all three levels of government – local, state and federal – should be involved in education policy and that local officials should be in charge of day-to-day operations of the schools, said Rebecca Jacobsen, lead researcher on the project. Jacobsen, assistant professor of education, and doctoral student Andrew Saultz analyzed some 40 years of public surveys... more »
Drug shown to improve memory in those with Down syndrome
Researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have found a drug that boosts memory function in those with Down syndrome, a major milestone in the treatment of this genetic disorder that could significantly improve quality of life. "Before now there had never been any positive results in attempts to improve cognitive abilities in persons with Down syndrome through medication," said Alberto Costa, MD, Ph.D., who led the four- year study at the CU School of Medicine. "This is the first time we have been able to move the needle at all and that means improvement is possi... more »
WWC Looks at Reading Mastery for Special Needs Students
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) reviewed research to find what works in the classroom, including programs and methods for students with special needs. The newest report from the WWC focuses on Reading Mastery, a direct instruction curriculum designed to provide explicit reading instruction to students in grades pre-K–5. The WWC reviewed 17 studies that investigated the effects of Reading Mastery on students with learning disabilities. Two studies are randomized controlled trials that meet WWC evidence standards without reservations. The studies included 113 students with learni...more »
Trends Among Young Adults Over Three Decades, 1974-2006
This report describes patterns of continuity and change over time in four areas of the transition to adulthood among young adults as measured 2 years after their senior year of high school. The four areas are postsecondary enrollment, labor force roles, family formation, and civic engagement. The analysis population is spring-term high school seniors in 1972, 1980, 1992, and 2004. The data come from four separate NCES-sponsored studies: the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS:72), High School and Beyond (HS&B), the National Education Longitudinal Study ... more »
New Americans in Postsecondary Education
In 2007–08, about 23 percent of all undergraduates were first-generation immigrants (10 percent) or second-generation Americans (with an immigrant parent) (13 percent). New Americans in Postsecondary Education: A Profile of Immigrant and Second-Generation American Undergraduates, a Statistics in Brief, presents the demographic and enrollment characteristics of undergraduates who are immigrants or the children of immigrants and compares them with undergraduates whose parents were born in the United States. The results are based on nationally representative data collected through ...more »
Student Achievement Gains in U.S. Fail to Close International Achievement Gap
*U.S. ranks 25th out of 49 countries in student test-score gains over 14-year period, report 3 scholars at Harvard, Stanford and the University of Munich* CA new study of international and U.S. state trends in student achievement growth shows that the United States is squarely in the middle of a group of 49 nations in 4th and 8th grade test score gains in math, reading, and science over the period 1995-2009. Students in three countries – Latvia, Chile, and Brazil – are improving at a rate of 4 percent of a standard deviation annually, roughly two years’ worth of learning or nearl... more »
Counseling program reduces youth violence, improves school engagement
Study estimates program's benefits to society at 3 to 31 times its cost A new study by the University of Chicago Crime Lab, in partnership with the Chicago Public Schools and local nonprofits Youth Guidance and World Sport Chicago, provides rigorous scientific evidence that a violence reduction program succeeded in creating a sizable decline in violent crime arrests among youth who participated in group counseling and mentoring. The Crime Lab study—by far the largest of its kind ever conducted—is unique in that it was structured like a randomized clinical trial of the sort regula... more »