Education Research Report:
THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT
Swimming kids are smarter
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 17 hours ago
Children who learn how to swim at a young age are reaching many developmental milestones earlier than the norm. Researchers from the Griffith Institute for Educational Research surveyed parents of 7000 under-fives from Australia, New Zealand and the US over three years. A further 180 children aged 3, 4 and 5 years have been involved in intensive testing, making it the world’s most comprehensive study into early-years swimming. Lead researcher Professor Robyn Jorgensen says the study shows young children who participate in early-years swimming achieve a wide range of skills earlie... more »
States Have Not Yet Shifted Their Focus from Building Education Data Systems to Helping People Like Parents and Teachers Use Them
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 21 hours ago
The Data Quality Campaign’s (DQC) eighth annual state analysis, *Data for Action 2012*, shows that although states are making progress in supporting effective data use, the hardest work remains. States collect quality data and have enacted policy changes, but they have not yet focused on helping people, especially parents, teachers and students, effectively use data. “States should be commended for their hard work building robust data systems. But it’s time to focus on the people side of the data equation — how this benefits teachers and students,” said Aimee Rogstad Guidera, exe... more »
Developing a comprehensive digital strategy
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 23 hours ago
School, district, and state leaders must make critical decisions in the next two years involving digital learning that will shape education for decades, according to a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education. The report, The Nation’s Schools Are Stepping Up to Higher Standards, identifies four key challenges that public school district leaders must systemically address in the next two years and outlines the essential elements for developing a comprehensive digital strategy. The report and the webinar accompanying its release are the first steps in a major effort by the... more »
School Programs’ Success Can Hinge on Principals Going “All In”
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago
When principals go “all in” in terms of supporting school programs, teachers stand a better chance of successfully implementing change, according to new research published by the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Virginia (UVA). The researchers report in Prevention Science that if school principals lack enthusiasm or show little support, they are actually viewed as a hindrance by teachers, posing “major challenges” to the success of school programs like the Responsive Classroom®, an approach boasting social-emotional learning. Additionally, apprehensive teachers feari... more »
Youth with autism gravitate toward STEM majors in college — if they get there
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago
It’s a popularly held belief that individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) gravitate toward STEM majors in college (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). A new study, co-authored by Paul Shattuck, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, confirms that view yet finds that young adults with an ASD also have one of the lowest overall college enrollment rates. The study, “STEM Participation Among College Students with an Autism Spectrum Disorder,” was published online Nov. 1 in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Dis... more »
State Loopholes Stalling Progress of Physical Education Programs
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago
The 2012 Shape of the Nation Report: Status of Physical Education in the USA, released today by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) and the American Heart Association, finds that while 74.5 percent of states mandate physical education in elementary through high school, most still fail to require a specific amount of instructional time and nearly half allow exemptions, waivers and/or substitutions. These "loopholes" reduce the effectiveness of policy efforts to ensure the quality of physical education currently taught in the nation's schools. "The fa... more »
Principal plays surprising role in why new teachers quit
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 days ago
Why do so many beginning teachers quit the profession or change schools? Surprising new research finds it’s not a heavy workload or lack of resources that has the most significant effect, but instead the relationship between teachers and their principal. Peter Youngs, associate professor of educational policy at Michigan State University and lead investigator on the study, said the findings reinforce the need for principals to serve as strong, supportive leaders in their schools. “The principal isn’t there just to help the novice teacher handle discipline and classroom management,... more »
The Aftermath of Calculator Use in College Classrooms
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 days ago
Math instructors promoting calculator usage in college classrooms may want to rethink their teaching strategies, says Samuel King, postdoctoral student in the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research & Development Center. King has proposed the need for further research regarding calculators' role in the classroom after conducting a limited study with undergraduate engineering students published in the British Journal of Educational Technology. "We really can't assume that calculators are helping students," said King. "The goal is to understand the core concepts during the lectu... more »
Academic and Fiscal Benefits of Universal Preschool
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 days ago
This brief is authored by Dr. William Mathis, managing director of the National Education Policy Center, housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education. There is near-universal agreement among researchers “that high-quality preschool programs more than pay for themselves in economic and social benefits,” Mathis writes. Indeed, high-quality preschool for at least two years has been found to close as much as half the achievement gap. Such preschool participation is also associated with a wide range of more positive adult outcomes, including less drug use, less welf... more »
Link Found Between Child Prodigies and Autism
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
A new study of eight child prodigies suggests a possible link between these children’s special skills and autism. Of the eight prodigies studied, three had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders. As a group, the prodigies also tended to have slightly elevated scores on a test of autistic traits, when compared to a control group. In addition, half of the prodigies had a family member or a first- or second-degree relative with an autism diagnosis. The fact that half of the families and three of the prodigies themselves were affected by autism is surprising because autism occurs in... more »
Kids need at least 7 minutes a day of 'vigorous' physical activity
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
* Most aren't getting that* Children need a minimum of seven minutes a day of vigorous physical activity, demonstrates recently published findings by University of Alberta medical researchers and their colleagues across Canada. "If you watch late-night television, or look in the backs of magazines, you'll see magical ads saying you need just 10 minutes a day or five minutes a day of exercise to stay fit. And for those of us in the medical field, we just rolled our eyes at that. But surprisingly, they may actually be right and that's what this research shows," says co-principal inv... more »
Record Shares of Young Adults Have Finished Both High School and College
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Record shares of young adults are completing high school, going to college and finishing college, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly available census data. In 2012, for the first time ever, one-third of the nation’s 25- to 29-year-olds have completed at least a bachelor’s degree. These across-the-board increases have occurred despite dramatic immigration-driven changes in the racial and ethnic composition of college-age young adults, a trend that had led some experts to expect a decline in educational attainment. College completion is now at record levels among k... more »
Why Superintendents Turn Over
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Although superintendent turnover can hinder district reform and improvement, research examining superintendent exits is scarce. This study identifies factors contributing to superintendent turnover in California by matching original superintendent and school board survey data with administrative data and information hand-collected from news sources on why superintendents left and where they went. Among 215 superintendents studied beginning in 2006, 45% exited within 3 years. Using a multinomial framework to separate retirements from other turnover, the authors find that factors s... more »
Assistive listening devices may improve dyslexic student reading skills
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Children with dyslexia may benefit from wearing assistive listening devices in the classroom, a study suggests. Nina Kraus and colleagues studied 34 dyslexic children who ranged in age from 8 to 14 years. Nineteen of the students wore an assistive listening device, similar to a Bluetooth receiver, throughout the school day for the duration of the school year. The brain responded to sound more consistently in children wearing the devices, the authors report, a finding that could have implications for improved reading skills. According to the authors, the devices could help improve... more »
Gender biases within academic science
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Science faculty display subtle gender biases that may contribute to the underrepresentation of women within many fields of academic science, according to a study. Using a randomized, double-blind study design, Corinne Moss-Racusin and colleagues asked a nationwide sample of 127 biology, chemistry, and physics professors to evaluate the application materials of an undergraduate student who was ostensibly applying for a lab manager position. All professors received identical applications, which were randomly attributed to either a male or a female student. The authors found that th... more »
Reading instruction and brain development influence each other
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
A child's ability to read may largely depend on when that individual's brain circuitry is sufficiently developed yet capable of growth, a longitudinal study reports. Jason Yeatman and colleagues tracked reading proficiency over a 3-year period for 55 children who ranged in age from 7 to 12. Thirty-nine of those children underwent at least three scans measuring development in brain regions associated with reading skills. The measurements focused on white matter, the brain component involved in transmitting signals from one region to another. While every child's reading skills incr... more »
Teacher Absence as a Leading Indicator of Student Achievement
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
*On average, 36 percent of teachers nationally were absent more than 10 days during the 2009-10 school year based on the 56,837 schools analyzed in the dataset* On any given school day, up to 40 percent of teachers in New Jersey’s Camden City Public Schools are absent from their classrooms. Such a high figure probably would not stand out in parts of the developing world, but it contrasts sharply with the 3 percent national rate of absence for full-time wage and salaried American workers, and the 5.3 percent rate of absence for American teachers overall. Certainly, it isn’t unreason... more »
Difficult Transition from Student to Teacher
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
"It was the hardest thing I ever had to do, emotionally and mentally." These are not the words we generally associate with a university student who is undergoing teacher training, yet Concordia researcher Anita Sinner has heard similar statements from many such individuals. Every year thousands of students make the transition from student to teacher and the stories of those who struggle are often missing from our conversations. "Pre-service teachers who experience varying degrees of struggle have few stories against which to compare their experiences when entering the teaching prof... more »
Preschoolers’ Counting Abilities Relate to Future Math Performance,
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Along with reciting the days of the week and the alphabet, adults often practice reciting numbers with young children. Now, new research from the University of Missouri suggests reciting numbers is not enough to prepare children for math success in elementary school. The research indicates that counting, which requires assigning numerical values to objects in chronological order, is more important for helping preschoolers acquire math skills. “Reciting means saying the numbers from memory in chronological order, whereas counting involves understanding that each item in the set is ... more »
Child care providers can be part of the solution for childhood obesity
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys revealed that over 21% of children 2 to 5 years old were considered overweight or obese. Child care settings can serve as a platform to teach children about nutrition in our fight against childhood obesity, as nearly 50% of children in the United States under age 5 are enrolled in child care. In a new study released in the November/December 2012 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, training child care providers about their role in children's healthful eating is an essential component of child care-based obes... more »
Classes Taken and Credits Earned by Beginning Postsecondary Students
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
These Web Tables provide an overview of classes taken and credits earned by a nationwide sample of first-time beginning postsecondary students based on data from the Postsecondary Education Transcript Study (PETS) of the 2004/09 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study. PETS collected transcripts from all the postsecondary institutions students attended, providing a complete 6-year record of students’ coursetaking and credit accumulation. Topics covered in these Web Tables include precollege credits, remedial education participation, withdrawals and repeated courses, and...more »
Beginning K–12 Teacher Characteristics and Preparation
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Research on academic achievement has revealed wide variation in teachers’ qualifications and experiences across schools. These Web Tables present the demographic characteristics and teaching preparation, including undergraduate coursetaking and certification, of 2007–08 baccalaureate degree recipients who taught at the K–12 level within a year of completing their bachelor’s degree. The analysis also compares teachers across a number of key characteristics of the schools in which they taught, including the percentage of students who qualified for free or reduced-price lunch, locatio... more »