Education Research Report:
THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT
Teenagers Without Internet Access at Home Are Educationally Disadvantaged
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 14 minutes ago
A major in-depth study examining how teenagers in the UK are using the internet and other mobile devices says the benefits of using such technologies far outweigh any perceived risks. The findings are based on a large-scale study of more than 1,000 randomly selected households in the UK, coupled with regular face-to-face interviews with more than 200 teenagers and their families between 2008 and 2011. While the study reflects a high level of parental anxiety about the potential of social networking sites to distract their offspring, and shows that some parents despair at their chil... more »
Nearly One in Three Children With Food Allergies Experience Bullying
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 34 minutes ago
Nearly a third of children diagnosed with food allergies who participated in a recent study are bullied, according to researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Almost eight percent of children in the U.S. are allergic to foods such as peanuts, tree-nuts, milk, eggs, and shellfish. Nearly half of parents surveyed (47.9 percent) were not aware of the bullying -- although both the bullied children and their parents reported experiencing higher stress levels and lower quality of life. The study, titled, "Child and Parental Reports of Bullying in a Consecutive Sample ... more »
94 percent of high school students accessed social media on their phones during class
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 hour ago
* Study shows most common use of the Internet in class was to access social media sites, followed by listening to music, playing games, and sending text messages and photos*. Of Israeli high school pupils 94% access social media via their cell phones during class, reveals a new study conducted by the University of Haifa. Only 4% reported not using their cell phones at all during class. It was also found that in classes with more permissive teachers, cell phone use was lower than in classes where the teacher imposed strict discipline. "The students use their mobile phones in various... more »
Positive results from a comprehensive reform of Portland’s high school system
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 hour ago
This report provides an update on the implementation of Portland Public Schools’ High School System Design (HSSD), a comprehensive reform of Portland’s high school system that was approved by the Portland School Board beginning in the fall of 2010, following an extensive two year public input process. HSSD changes were formally launched at the start the 2011-12 school year and will take full effect by the end of the 2014-15 school year. (High schools had already begun implementing a core program as early as 2010-11, and making other changes even earlier.) The high school reforms ... more »
Positive impacts of Pacific CHILD on reading comprehension and on teachers’ instructional practices
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 hour ago
This study examines the impact of the Pacific Communities with High Performance in Literacy Development (Pacific CHILD) professional development program on student achievement in reading comprehension and on teacher pedagogical knowledge and instructional practice in English language arts classes. Pacific CHILD is a two-year professional development program that trains fourth and fifth grade teachers in research-based reading comprehension strategies and instructional practices for enhancing student reading comprehension. The study used a randomized design and involved 45 elemen... more »
Algebra for 8th graders: Negative effects among students in the bottom 60%
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 hours ago
This paper examines the effects of policies that increase the number of students who take the first course in algebra in 8th grade, rather than waiting until 9th grade. Extending previous research that focused on the Charlotte-Mecklenberg school system, The authors use data for the 10 largest districts in North Carolina. The authors identify the effects of accelerating the timetable for taking algebra by using data on multiple cohorts grouped by decile of prior achievement and exploiting the fact that policy-induced shifts in the timing of algebra occur at different times in diff... more »
Socioeconomic risk and oral reading ability in first grade predicts growth of reading and math achievement in Grades 3 through 8
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
This investigation tested the importance of early academic achievement for later achievement trajectories among 18,011 students grouped by level of socioeconomic risk. Students considered to be at highest risk were those who experienced homelessness or high residential mobility (HHM). HHM students were compared with students eligible for free meals, students eligible for reduced price meals, and students who were neither HHM nor low income. Socioeconomic risk and oral reading ability in first grade predicted growth of reading and math achievement in Grades 3 through 8. Risk statu... more »
Both socioeconomic and racial diversity are essential to promoting a positive campus racial climate
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
This article considers whether the socioeconomic diversity of the undergraduate student body and experiences with cross-class interaction (CCI) are significantly related to cross-racial interaction (CRI) and engagement with curricular/co-curricular diversity (CCD) activities. Individual students who reported higher levels of CCI had significantly higher levels of CRI and CCD. While the socioeconomic diversity of the student body had no direct effect on student involvement in CCD activities or CRI, it had an indirect effect on these activities via CCI. In other words, a socioecono... more »
Mathematics Recovery: By the end of second grade, no significant effects
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Mathematics Recovery (MR) is designed to identify first graders who are struggling in mathematics and provide them with intensive one-to-one tutoring. This study reports findings from a 2-year evaluation of MR conducted in 20 elementary schools across five districts in two states. The design allowed for the estimation of the counterfactual growth trajectory based on those students randomly assigned either to a tutoring cohort with a delayed start or to a wait list. Results demonstrate strong end of first grade effects on a diagnostic measure developed by MR and weak to moderate ... more »
Young offenders who work, don't attend school may be more antisocial
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Many high school students work in addition to going to school, and some argue that employment is good for at-risk youths. But a new study has found that placing juvenile offenders in jobs without ensuring that they attend school may make them more antisocial. The study, by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University, and the University of California, Irvine, appears in the journal Child Development. While evidence suggests that working long hours during the school year has negative effects on adolescent antisocial behavior among middle- and upper-income youths,... more »
Motivation, study habits -- not IQ -- determine growth in math achievement
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
It's not how smart students are but how motivated they are and how they study that determines their growth in math achievement. That's the main finding of a new study that appears in the journal Child Development. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Munich and the University of Bielefeld. "While intelligence as assessed by IQ tests is important in the early stages of developing mathematical competence, motivation and study skills play a more important role in students' subsequent growth," according to Kou Murayama, postdoctoral researcher of psychology at t...more »
Toddlers' language skills predict less anger by preschool
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Toddlers with more developed language skills are better able to manage frustration and less likely to express anger by the time they're in preschool. That's the conclusion of a new longitudinal study from researchers at the Pennsylvania State University that appears in the journal Child Development. "This is the first longitudinal evidence of early language abilities predicting later aspects of anger regulation," according to Pamela M. Cole, liberal arts research professor of psychology and human development and family studies at Pennsylvania State University, who was the principa... more »
Head Start: Early effects rapidly dissipated in elementary school
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Report of the Third Grade Follow-up to the Head Start Impact Study, a nationally representative evaluation of the federal Head Start program. The evaluation studied children who entered the program in the fall of 2002. The report presents impacts on children and families through the children's third grade year, as well as impacts on subgroups of children and families. Key Findings Looking across the full study period, from the beginning of Head Start through 3rd grade, the evidence is clear that access to Head Start improved children’s preschool outcomes across developmental doma... more »
Research debunks the IQ myth
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
After conducting the largest online intelligence study on record, a Western University-led research team has concluded that the notion of measuring one's intelligence quotient or IQ by a singular, standardized test is highly misleading. The findings from the landmark study, which included more than 100,000 participants, were published today in the journal Neuron. The article, "Fractionating human intelligence," was written by Adrian M. Owen and Adam Hampshire from Western's Brain and Mind Institute (London, Canada) and Roger Highfield, Director of External Affairs, Science Museum ... more »
Continued high use of marijuana by the nation's eighth, 10th and 12th graders
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Continued high use of marijuana by the nation's eighth, 10th and 12th graders combined with a drop in perceptions of its potential harms was revealed in this year's Monitoring the Future survey, an annual survey of eighth, 10th, and 12th–graders conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan. The survey was carried out in classrooms around the country earlier this year, under a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The 2012 survey shows that 6.5 percent of high school seniors smoke marijuana daily, up from 5.1 perc... more »
Content Literacy Continuum: No impact on on high school students’ reading comprehension
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
This study examines impacts of the Content Literacy Continuum (CLC) on high school students’ reading comprehension and accumulation of credits in core subject areas. The Content Literacy Continuum (CLC) combines whole-school and targeted approaches to supporting student literacy and content learning, using instructional routines and learning strategies developed by the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. The study used a randomized design and involved 33 high schools in nine school districts within four Midwestern states. The study found no statistically signifi... more »
California Lagging Far Behind Other States in Implementing the Common Core State Standards
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
A new Education Trust—West (ETW) report, Catching up to the Core: Common Sense Strategies for Accelerating Access to the Common Core in California, finds that California has fallen far behind other states and even local school districts in implementing the new English Language Arts and Math CCSS. This lack of progress will leave millions of California students trailing their peers in other states, two years before new assessments aligned with the Common Core are expected to come online. “Districts know that students will benefit from the Common Core State Standards, but many are st... more »
NYC DOE failure to provide curriculum and training threatens city results on new state tests
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Although new state tests will be rolled out this spring based on demanding Common Core national standards, almost 8 out of 10 New York City teachers surveyed said the city’s Department of Education has yet to address the new learning benchmarks, including failing to provide any curriculum or other instructional materials keyed to the new standards. And more than half of the teachers surveyed said they had received no training to get their students ready for the tougher courses and exams, while many of those who did attend training sponsored by the DOE said the sessions were too fe...more »