This Week's Education Research Report 11-3-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

Education Research Report:

THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT

How Strong Are U.S. Teacher Unions? A State-By-State Comparison

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 17 hours ago

This study represents the most comprehensive analysis of American teacher unions’ strength ever conducted, ranking all fifty states and the District of Columbia according to the power and influence of their state-level unions. The study analyzed factors ranging from union membership and revenue to state bargaining laws to campaign contributions. Its metrics included: a unique stakeholder survey and the alignment between specific state policies and traditional union interests. The report sorts the fifty-one jurisdictions into five tiers, ranking their teacher unions from strongest t... more »

Religiously-affiliated Youth Go Further With School

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 23 hours ago

Sociologists from Brigham Young University and Rice University found religiously-affiliated youth are 40 percent more likely to graduate high school than their unaffiliated peers and 70 percent more likely to enroll in college. The researchers note that teens' fellow church-goers are an important factor, serving as mentors who help teens set their sights high. "Youth have a unique chance to form relationships with peers and mentors outside of their classroom at school or their neighborhood at home," said Lance Erickson, the lead study author and a sociologist at BYU. "Mentors es... more »

Migraine in children may affect school performance

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

Children with migraine are more likely to have below average school performance than kids who do not have headaches, according to new research published in the October 30, 2012, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study of 5,671 Brazilian children ages 5 to 12 found that those with migraine were 30 percent more likely to have below average school performance than those with no headaches. "Studies have looked at the burden of migraine for adolescents, but less work has been done to determine the effect of migraine on younger chil... more »

Early autism intervention improves brain responses to social cues

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

An autism intervention program that emphasizes social interactions and is designed for children as young as 12 months has been found to improve cognitive skills and brain responses to faces, considered a building block for social skills. The researchers say that the study, which was completed at the University of Washington, is the first to demonstrate that an intensive behavioral intervention can change brain function in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders. “So much of a toddler’s learning involves social interaction, and early intervention that promotes attention to people a... more »

Common Bond Between School Bullies and Their Targets: Alcohol Abuse

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

A new study out of the University of Cincinnati finds that both school bullies and their victims are likely to abuse alcohol after a bullying episode. Keith King, a University of Cincinnati professor of health promotion, along with Rebecca Vidourek, a UC assistant professor of health promotion, will present early findings of a new study on Oct. 29, at the 140th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in San Francisco. The study examined bullying, recent alcohol use and heavy drinking episodes among more than 54,000 7th-through-12th grade students in schools across... more »

Soda consumption, screen time, team sports at school influence students' weight

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

Soda consumption, TV and video/computer games, and the frequency of meals heavily influenced students' weight in an Indiana University study that examined the impact of a school-based obesity intervention program over an 18-month period. More soda consumption and screen time meant students were more likely to be overweight or to gain weight. The more frequently students ate meals each day, the less likely they were to stay overweight or gain weight during the study, which examined the Healthy, Energetic, Ready, Outstanding, Enthusiastic Schools program. Dong-Chul Seo, associate p... more »

A new approach to early reading skills may be better

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

Many educators have long believed that when words differ on only one sound, early readers can learn the rules of phonics by focusing on what is different between the words. This is thought to be a critical gateway to reading words and sentences. But scientists at the University of Iowa are turning that thinking on its head. A recent study published in Developmental Psychology shows certain kinds of variation in words may help early readers learn better. When children see the same phonics regularities, embedded in words with more variation, they may learn these crucial early reading... more »

Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs Costly & Ineffective

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

A new report Breaking Rules, Breaking Budgets, documents the high price tag attached to school districts’ use of discretionary out-of-school suspension, expulsion, and disciplinary alternative schools and spending on school policing—an approach that has failed to reduce student disciplinary referrals in Texas. The 11 surveyed school districts—which educate a quarter of the State’s four million public school students—spent nearly a combined $140 million in 2010-11 on out-of-school suspensions, referrals to Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs (DAEPs), and discretionary expul... more »

“Double-dose” algebra has positive long-term effects

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

A new study focuses on “double-dose” algebra, in which struggling students are given twice as much instructional time as they would normally receive. The study examined the impact of Chicago Public School's double-dose algebra policy on such longer-run outcomes as advanced math course work and performance, ACT scores, high-school graduation rates, and college enrollment rates. Using data that track students from 8th grade through college enrollment, the researchers analyzed the effect of this innovative policy by comparing the outcomes for students just above and just below the dou...more »

Low literacy rates in pre-teen girls significantly predict child-bearing among teenagers in the US

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

Supporting previous research, it has been confirmed that independent of other influences, low literacy rates in pre-teen girls significantly predict child-bearing among teenagers in the US, according to a new study presented at the American Public Health Association's 140th Annual Meeting in San Francisco. This is the first research of its kind to analyze the possible link with literacy among US pre-teens and teen child-bearing. The team of researchers, from the University of Pennsylvania, found a connection between 12,339 girls' seventh-grade reading scores enrolled in Philadelp... more »

Anxiety About Math Activates Pain Networks In Brain

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

Fear of math can activate regions of the brain linked with the experience of physical pain and visceral threat detection, according to research published Oct 31 by Ian Lyons and colleagues at the University of Chicago in the open access journal PLOS ONE. The researchers found that in individuals who experience high levels of anxiety when facing math tasks, the anticipation of math increases activity in regions of the brain associated with the physical sensation of pain. The higher an individual's math anxiety, the more such neural activity was increased. According to the researc... more »

The WWC recently released 7 single study reviews

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) provides a summary of single study reviews at the end of each month. These 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. The WWC recently released seven single study reviews: • Chetty, R., Friedman, J. N., & Rockoff, J. E. (2011). The long-term impacts of teachers: Teacher value-added and student outcomes in adulthood (NBER Working Paper 17699). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of ... more »

Autism early intervention found to normalize brain activity in children as young as 18 months

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

An intensive early intervention therapy that is effective for improving cognition and language skills among very young children with autism also normalizes their brain activity, decreases their autism symptoms and improves their social skills, a nationwide study has found. The researchers said the study is the first to demonstrate that an autism early intervention program can normalize brain activity. "We know that infant brains are quite malleable and previously demonstrated that this therapy capitalizes on the potential of learning that an infant brain has in order to limit auti... more »

We Need To Better Identify Talented Students from Low Income and Disadvantaged Backgrounds

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

Greater accountability, better trained teachers, expanded access to supplemental programs and the removal of policy barriers are among the recommendations a newly released report offers to reverse the nation's neglect of its high-potential students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Unlocking Emergent Talent: Supporting High Achievement of Low-Income, High-Ability Students, released by the National Association for Gifted Children, offers a set of priority recommendations that emerged out of a two day National Summit on Low-Income, High-Ability Learners that brought together more than... more »

Charter School Grants Aren't Adequately Monitored

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

*U.S. Department of Education Office of the Inspector General’s FINAL AUDIT REPORT of The Office of Innovation and Improvement’s Oversight and Monitoring of the Charter Schools Program’s Planning and Implementation Grants * The objectives of this audit were to determine whether the U.S. Department of Education (Department), Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) (1) had effective oversight and monitoring to ensure grantees of the Charter Schools Program’s State Educational Agency (SEA) Planning and Implementation Grant (SEA grant) and the Charter School Program non-SEA Plannin... more »

Michigan: Higher Standards=Lower Graduation Rates

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

*The class of 2011, the first group of students exposed to the Michigan Merit Curriculum (MMC) for their entire high school careers, saw mixed results.* The introduction of the MMC reduced graduation rates slightly for students who entered high school with weak academic skills. For those who entered with strong skills, there was no effect of the MMC on high school completion rates. Performance on standardized tests rose slightly for students who entered high school with strong skills. The impact on test scores was small or negative for those who entered high school with weak skil... more »