Education Research Report:
THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT
Socioeconomic risk and oral reading ability in first grade predicts growth of reading and math achievement in Grades 3 through 8
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 »
Measures of Academic Progress: No Impact on Student Reading Achievement
This study examined the impact of the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) program on student reading achievement and teachers’ use of differentiated instructional practices. The MAP program is one of the most widely used commercially available systems incorporating benchmark assessment and training in differentiated instruction. MAP includes computer-adaptive assessments administered to students three or four times a year and teacher training and access to MAP resources on how to use data from these assessments to differentiate instruction. The study found no impacts of MAP on st... more »
A Dozen Economic Facts About K-12 Education
Education is a powerful force for promoting opportunity and growth. It is not surprising that an individual’s educational attainment is highly correlated with her income: college graduates generally earn more than less-educated Americans. What might be less obvious is that education is also a significant determinant of many other very important outcomes, including whether individuals marry, whether their children grow up in households with two parents, and even how long they will live. What’s more, on all of these dimensions, the gap between highly educated and less-educated Americ... more »
Speaking Skills Crucial for Hearing Impaired Children in the Classroom
*Intelligible speech closes the gap between hearing-impaired children and their normal-hearing peers, TAU researcher says* Current special education laws are geared towards integrating special-needs children into the general classroom environment from a young age, starting as early as preschool. Prof. Tova Most of Tel Aviv University's Jaime and Joan Constantiner School of Education and the Department of Communications Disorders at the Stanley Steyer School of Health Professions says that these laws present a unique set of challenges for children with hearing loss, and that a sens... more »
Can Instilling Racial Pride in Black Teens Lead to Better Educational Outcomes?
*Pitt study shows racially conscious parenting strategies can be the key to student success in school* African American adolescents tend to have more success in school if their parents instill in them a sense of racial pride, reducing their vulnerability to the effects of racial discrimination from teachers and peers. This is the conclusion of a University of Pittsburgh study published this fall in the journal *Child Development*. Titled “Parental Racial Socialization as a Moderator of the Effects of Racial Discrimination on Educational Success Among African American Adolescents,”... more »
Schools Help Curb Teen Smoking
Strong school smoking-prevention programs and high cigarette prices can reduce smoking among high school students, according to a new study. The study included more than 24,000 students in grades 10 and 11 at 51 high schools in Canada. Researchers looked at the schools' smoking policies and prevention and quitting programs, along with community factors such as the price of cigarettes. Rates of student smoking were lower at schools that had strong tobacco-prevention programs and had higher cigarettes prices in stores near the school. No other factors, including non-smoking policies,...more »
Non-Cognitive Ability, Test Scores, and Teacher Quality: Evidence from 9th Grade Teachers in North Carolina
This paper presents a model where students have cognitive and non-cognitive ability and a teacher's effect on long-run outcomes is a combination of her effect on both ability types. Conditional on cognitive scores, an underlying non-cognitive factor associated with student absences, suspensions, grades, and grade progression, is strongly correlated with long-run educational attainment, arrests, and earnings in survey data. In administrative data teachers have meaningful causal effects on both test-scores and this non-cognitive factor. Calculations indicate that teacher effects ... more »
The Effects of Texas's Targeted Pre-Kindergarten Program on Academic Performance
There has been a resurgence in research that investigates the efficacy of early investments as a means of reducing gaps in academic performance. However, the strongest evidence for these effects comes from experimental evaluations of small, highly enriched programs. This report assesses the extent to which a large-scale public program, Texas's targeted pre-Kindergarten (pre-K), affects scores on math and reading achievement tests, the likelihood of being retained in grade, and the probability that a student receives special education services. The authors find that having partici... more »
School improvement strategy designed by teachers shows promise
* Students in lowest-performing Boston schools are closing the achievement gap compared to their peers in the district and statewide * Data from the 2012 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) shows that students in Boston’s T3 Initiative partner schools are making extraordinary gains in English language arts and math. Teach Plus’ T3: Turnaround Teacher Team Initiative partners with Boston Public Schools that are among the lowest-performing in the state. But a new report by Teach Plus shows that students in these schools are now catching up with their peers in all ot... more »