Education Research Report:
THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT
School layouts can influence a child’s development by as much as 25 percent
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago
A study of school design has discovered that school layouts can influence a child’s development by as much as 25 percent — positively or negatively — over the course of an academic year. The 751 pupils using 34 classrooms across seven primary schools in Blackpool were studied over the 2011-12 academic year by the University of Salford’s School of the Built Environment and architecture firm Nightingale Associates. Standardised data — such as age, gender and academic performance — were collected on each child at the start and end of the year, while each classroom was rated for qualit...more »
First-Year Undergraduate Remedial Coursetaking
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago
A new report from NCES looks at what kinds of students take remedial courses, and what kinds of institutions offer remedial courses more often. This Statistics in Brief, First-year Undergraduate Remedial Coursetaking: 1999-2000, 2003-04, and 2007-08, uses data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) to measure the frequency and change of remedial coursetaking in U.S. postsecondary institutions. The results show that remedial coursetaking dropped significantly for nearly every school and student characteristic from 1999-2000 to 2003-04, but rose from 2003-04 to 20... more »
Why girls do better in school
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago
Why do girls get better grades in elementary school than boys-even when they perform worse on standardized tests? New research from the University of Georgia and Columbia University published in the current issue of *Journal of Human Resources* suggests that it's because of their classroom behavior, which may lead teachers to assign girls higher grades than their male counterparts. "The skill that matters the most in regards to how teachers graded their students is what we refer to as ‘approaches toward learning,'" said Christopher Cornwell, head of economics in the UGA Terry Coll... more »
Recess a Necessary Break From the Demands of School
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago
Both recess and physical education in schools promote activity and a healthy lifestyle, and should be a daily break for young children and adolescents. A new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), “The Crucial Role of Recess in Schools,” will be published in the January 2013 issue of *Pediatrics.* Safe and properly supervised recess offers children cognitive, physical, emotional and social benefits. It should be used as a complement to physical education classes, not a substitute, and whether it’s spent indoors or outdoors, recess should provide free, uns... more »
Teenagers Without Internet Access at Home Are Educationally Disadvantaged
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 5 days 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 - 5 days 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 - 5 days 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 - 5 days 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 - 5 days 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 - 5 days 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 »