Education Research Report:
THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT
Testing Can Be Useful for Students and Teachers
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 19 hours ago
Pop quiz! Tests are good for: (a) Assessing what you’ve learned; (b) (b) Learning new information; (c) (c) a & b; (d) (d) None of the above. The correct answer? According to research from psychological science, it’s both (a) and (b) – while testing can be useful as an assessment tool, the actual process of taking a test can also help us to learn and retain new information over the long term and apply it across different contexts. New research published in journals of the Association for Psychological Science explores the nuanced interactions between testing, memory, and learni... more »
School Readiness and Early Childhood Success among Young Children in Black Immigrant Families
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 20 hours ago
This report examines levels of school readiness among young children by race/ethnicity and nativity, helping fill a significant gap in knowledge about the early childhood experiences of young children in Black immigrant families. Using a nationally representative US birth-cohort study (the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort), the authors identify the contextual factors - such as family circumstances, parenting practices, and enrollment in center-based child care - that encourage early school success. They conclude that these immigrant children do quite well.
A Better Affirmative Action: State Universities that Created Alternatives to Racial Preferences
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 20 hours ago
The Supreme Court of the United States will hear the Fisher v. Texas argument on October 10. The case could dramatically alter or eliminate race-based admissions policies at colleges and universities. In a new report, A Better Affirmative Action, Senior Fellow Richard Kahlenberg and Policy Associate Halley Potter of The Century Foundation look at socio-economic solutions to racial preferences in Affirmative Action.
Parent-teacher communication
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago
Communication between K-12 teachers and parents has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. Parent-teacher communication represents a primary form of parental support or involvement, elements which have recently received much attention given the connections between parental support and academic achievement. In fact, parental involvement at the K-12 level represents a major component in recent education policies at the national level. Mazer and Blair Thompson (Western Kentucky University) published an articlein the April 2012 issue of Communication Education in which they dev...more »
What Makes Self-Directed Learning Effective?
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago
In recent years, educators have come to focus more and more on the importance of lab-based experimentation, hands-on participation, student-led inquiry, and the use of “manipulables” in the classroom. The underlying rationale seems to be that students are better able to learn when they can control the flow of their experience, or when their learning is “self-directed.” While the benefits of self-directed learning are widely acknowledged, the reasons why a sense of control leads to better acquisition of material are poorly understood. Some researchers have highlighted the motivati... more »
Factors to Help Parents and Professionals Recognize Teens in Distress
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago
Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for teens, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now, a University of Missouri public health expert has identified factors that will help parents, medical professionals and educators recognize teens at risk for self injury and suicide. “For many young people, suicide represents an escape from unbearable situations—problems that seem impossible to solve or negative emotions that feel overwhelming,” said Lindsay Taliaferro, an assistant professor of health sciences at MU. “Adults can help these teens dissect their pr... more »
New definition of autism in DSM-5 will not exclude most children with autism
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago
Parents should not worry that proposed changes to the medical criteria redefining a diagnosis of autism will leave their children excluded and deemed ineligible for psychiatric and medical care, says a team of researchers led by psychologists at Weill Cornell Medical College. Their new study, published in the October 1 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, is the largest to date that has tried to unpack the differences between the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorders in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) and... more »
Study Criticizes School Improvement Grant Program
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago
A new brief by Tina Truillo of the University of California at Berkeley and Michelle Renée of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University finds that standardized test scores are not a reliable measure for student growth and are even more problematic as a measure of whether a turnaround was successful or not, because test scores ignore social, civic and broader academic aspects of schooling. The study found that across the country has found the the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program treats our lowest-performing schools as corporations and fails to engag... more »
CDC study shows 54 percent decrease in teen drinking and driving since 1991
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 days ago
*Nearly one million high school teens still drink and drive each year* The percentage of teens in high school (aged 16 and older) who drove when they had been drinking alcohol decreased by 54 percent between 1991 and 2011, according to a Vital Signs study released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nine out of 10 high school teens (aged 16 and older) did not drink and drive during 2011. “We are moving in the right direction. Rates of teen drinking and driving have been cut in half in 20 years,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “But we must kee... more »
Report on Success for All for English Language Learners
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 days ago
*Success for All® *is a program for students in pre-K through eighth grade that focuses on reading, writing, and oral language development. Using a whole-school improvement approach, the goal of the program is to have all students, including English language learners, reading at grade level by the end of the third grade. Does research evidence show that the program really works for English language learners? The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) identified 30 studies of the impact of Success for All® on English language learners that were published or released between 1983 and 2012 (... more »