Education Research Report:
THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT
The Effects of School Vouchers on College Enrollment: Experimental Evidence from New York City
In this study, using a randomized experiment to measure the impact of school vouchers on college enrollment, Matthew Chingos and Paul Peterson, professor of government at Harvard University, examine the college-going behavior through 2011 of students who participated in a voucher experiment as elementary school students in the late 1990s. They find no overall impacts on college enrollment but do find large, statistically significant positive impacts on the college going of African-American students who participated in the study. Their estimates indicate that using a voucher to att... more »
FACULTY TRY INNOVATIVE TEACHING METHODS, BUT DON’T STICK WITH IT
*A study of physics faculty awareness and use of research-based instructional techniques offers greater understanding of what is missing from current education reform efforts* “Use of research-based instructional strategies in introductory physics: Where do faculty leave the innovation-decision process?” Charles Henderson, Melissa Dancy, and Magdalena Niewiadomska-Bugaj, Phys. Rev. ST Physics Ed. Research 8, 020104 (2012). Published online July 31, 2012. The world has changed dramatically in recent decades but many argue that the university system has not kept pace. As another acad... more »
Medical exemptions from school vaccination requirements across states
*Findings suggest need to ensure medical exemptions are granted only to children who truly need them* In states where medical exemptions from vaccination requirements for kindergarten students are easier to get, exemption rates are higher, potentially compromising herd immunity and posing a threat to children and others who truly should not be immunized because of underlying conditions, according to a study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases and now available online. Nationwide in scope, the study found inconsistency among states in standards allowing medical exemption... more »
Many US schools are unprepared for another pandemic
Less than half of U.S. schools address pandemic preparedness in their school plan, and only 40 percent have updated their school plan since the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, according to a study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). A team of researchers from Saint Louis University collected and analyzed survey responses from approximately 2,000 school nurses serving primarily elementary, middle, and high schools in 26 states to ascertain whethe... more »
The What Works Clearinghouse Reports for August
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) provides detailed reports on individual studies of programs, practices, or policies include a user friendly summary of the study and its findings, along with the WWC’s assessment of the quality of the design of the research. During August, the WWC released five single study reviews: Bettinger, E. P., & Baker, R. (2011). The effects of student coaching in college: An evaluation of a randomized experiment in student mentoring (Working Paper No. 16881). Retrieved from: http://www.nber.org/papers/w16881. View the report at http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc... more »
Speaking Two Languages Also Benefits Low-Income Children
Living in poverty is often accompanied by conditions that can negatively influence cognitive development. Is it possible that being bilingual might counteract these effects? Although previous research has shown that being bilingual enhances executive functioning in middle-class children, less is known about how it affects lower income populations. In a study forthcoming in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychological scientist Pascale Engel de Abreu of the University of Luxembourg and colleagues examine the effects of speaking two lan... more »
Kindergarten readiness: Are shy kids at an academic disadvantage?
Parents of young children hope for a successful kindergarten experience that will set their youngsters on the right path of their educational journey. Some worry about their kids not adapting to the school environment, particularly when the children are talkative and overactive. Yet, a new study by the University of Miami (UM) shows that overly shy preschool children are at greater academic risk than their chatty and boisterous peers. The study is one of the first to follow the social and academic progress of children throughout the preschool year. The report shows that children d... more »
Pretend Play May Not Be as Crucial to Child Development as Believed
Pretend play can be fun for preschool children, but a new University of Virginia study, published in the current online edition of the journal Psychological Bulletin, finds that it is not as crucial to a child's development as currently believed. Pretend play is any play a child engages in, alone, with playmates, or with adults, that involves uses of the imagination to create a fantasy world or situation, such as making toy cars go “vrrooooom” or making dolls talk. Based on a number of key studies over four decades, pretend play is widely considered by psychologists – and teachers ... more »
Diagnosis often missed for Hispanic children with developmental delay, autism
Hispanic children often have undiagnosed developmental delays and large numbers of both Hispanic and non-Hispanic children who first were thought to have developmental delay actually had autism, researchers affiliated with the UC Davis MIND Institute have found. The study, one of the largest to date to compare development in Hispanic and non-Hispanic children, is published in the journal *Autism.* The results lead the study authors to recommend increased public health efforts to improve awareness, especially among Hispanics, about the indicators of developmental delay and autism. ... more »
The Potentially Devastating Impact of Charter Schools on Public and Private School Enrollments
Charter schools are publicly funded schools that have considerable independence from public school districts in their curriculum development and staffing decisions, and their enrollments have increased substantially over the past two decades. Charter schools are changing public and private school enrollment patterns across the United States. This study analyzes district-level enrollment patterns for all states with charter schools, isolating how charter schools affect traditional public and private school enrollments after controlling for changes for the socioeconomic, demographic,... more »
Higher Education: Gaps in Access and Persistence Study
The National Center for Education Statistics has released Higher Education: Gaps in Access and Persistence Study. The 46 indicators and multivariate analyses presented in the report document the scope and nature of gaps in access and persistence in higher education by sex and race/ethnicity. Report findings include: • In 2008-09, a lower percentage of males than females graduated with a regular high school diploma (71.8 vs. 78.9 percent). This pattern was also found for Whites (78.9 vs. 84.0 percent), Blacks (57.3 vs. 69.3 percent), Hispanics (60.3 vs. 69.7 percent), Asians/Pacific... more »
Little evidence supports autism treatment options in adolescents
Vanderbilt University researchers studying interventions for adolescents and young adults with autism are reporting today that there is insufficient evidence to support findings, good or bad, for the therapies currently used. Although the prevalence of autism is on the rise, much remains to be discovered when it comes to interventions for this population, the researchers concluded. “Overall, there is very little evidence in all areas of care for adolescents and young adults with autism, and it is urgent that more rigorous studies be developed and conducted,” said Melissa McPheeter... more »