This Week's Education Research Report 1-19-13 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

Education Research Report:

THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT

Extreme student discipline practices

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 19 minutes ago

The extreme student discipline practices that led the Department of Justice to sue one Mississippi county are far more widespread than previously thought, cites a new report from a coalition of civil rights organizations. Titled Handcuffs on Success: The Extreme School Discipline Crisis in Mississippi Public Schools, the report details how extreme school disciplinary practices harm tens of thousands of Mississippi students who are removed from school every year for minor misbehaviors, such as violating dress codes and mouthing off to teachers. Many are also criminalized in the proc... more »

Parents' financial help linked to lower college GPAs, higher graduation rates

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

A new study by University of California, Merced, sociology professor Laura T. Hamilton found that students' GPAs decreased with increased financial support from their parents. The study also found that students with financial aid from their parents were more likely to complete college and earn a degree. The study, "More is More or More is Less? Parental Financial Investments during College," will appear in the February issue of the American Sociological Review and has been posted on the publisher's website. "Students with parental support are best described as staying out of serio... more »

No evidence that the amount of time a child spends in child care leads to an increase in behavioral problems

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

A new study that looked at more than 75,000 children in day care in Norway found little evidence that the amount of time a child spends in child care leads to an increase in behavioral problems, according to researchers from the United States and Norway. Several prior studies in the U.S. made connections between the time a child spends in day care and behavioral problems, but the results from Norway contradict those earlier findings, the researchers report in the online version of the journal Child Development. "In Norway, we do not find that children who spend a significant amount... more »

The Effect of Teacher Gender on Student Math Achievement

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

This paper attempts to reconcile the contradictory results found in the economics literature and the educational psychology literature with respect to the academic impact of gender dynamics in the classroom. Specifically, using data from a randomized experiment, the authors looked at the effects of having a female teacher on the math test scores of students in primary school. Female students who were assigned to a female teacher without a strong math background suffered from lower math test scores at the end of the academic year. This negative effect however not only seems to dis... more »

The Impact of Short-Term Science Teacher Professional Development

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

This study evaluated the effects of a short-term professional development session. Forty volunteer high school biology teachers were randomly assigned to one of two professional development conditions: (a) developing deep content knowledge (i.e., control condition) or (b) evaluating student errors and understanding in writing samples (i.e., experimental condition). A pretest of content knowledge was administered, and then the participants in both conditions watched two hours of online videos about natural selection and attended different types of professional development sessions ... more »

On the Road to Assessing Deeper Learning: The Status of Smarter Balanced and PARCC Assessment Consortia

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

Two consortia, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), are currently developing comprehensive, technology-based assessment systems to measure students’ attainment of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The consequences of the consortia assessments, slated for full operation in the 2014/15 school year, will be significant. The assessments themselves and their results will send powerful signals to schools about the meaning of the CCSS and what students know and are able to do. ... more »

Preparing for the New GED® Test: What to Consider Before 2014

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago

In January 2014, significant changes are scheduled to go into effect for the General Education Development—GED®—test. While there is agreement that the GED test needs to be updated in order to better recognize the skills required in today’s economy, there are concerns that the pending changes could create obstacles for students, especially low-income adults. This new brief by the Working Poor Families Project provides an overview of the GED, a primer on the 2014 changes, and explores alternatives to attaining a high school equivalency diploma. The brief includes actions states can... more »

Poor ranking on international test misleading about U.S. student performance

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago

*By Jonathan Rabinovitz* Socioeconomic inequality among U.S. students skews international comparisons of test scores, finds a new report released today by the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the Economic Policy Institute. When differences in countries' social class compositions are adequately taken into account, the performance of U.S. students in relation to students in other countries improves markedly. An accurate comparison of nations' test scores must include a look at the social class characteristics of the students who take the test in each country, says Stanford... more »

Can Scholarships Alone Help Students Succeed? Lessons from Two New York City Community Colleges

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago

*What is the study about?* The study examined the effects of performance-based scholarships for low-income community college students (ages 22–35) who were required to enroll in remedial courses. The study evaluated the impact of the scholarships on continued community college enrollment, credits attempted and earned, and cumulative grade-point average (GPA). All study subjects were eligible for Pell Grants. Study authors randomly assigned 1,502 students at two New York City community colleges into one of three groups: (a) students were offered a performance-based scholarship for ... more »

Some children lose autism diagnosis

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 days ago

* Small group with confirmed autism now on par with mainstream peers -- NIH-funded study* Some children who are accurately diagnosed in early childhood with autism lose the symptoms and the diagnosis as they grow older, a study supported by the National Institutes of Health has confirmed. The research team made the finding by carefully documenting a prior diagnosis of autism in a small group of school-age children and young adults with no current symptoms of the disorder. The report is the first of a series that will probe more deeply into the nature of the change in these childre... more »

Success for All: New Research Shows Uncertain Benefits after Grade 2

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 days ago

Education researchers Paul Hanselman and Geoffrey D. Borman have evaluated the impact of literacy instruction in grades 3 through 5. Their findings were published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (EEPA) in Online First. EEPA is a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association. The researchers examined Success for All, an instructional approach that is among the most mature and proven school reform models, to identify impact on reading achievement among older elementary students. This study, a follow-up to an earlier one that found beneficial eff... more »

Number of Kids Reading eBooks Has Nearly Doubled Since 2010

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 days ago

In the fourth edition of the Kids & Family Reading Report™ , a national survey released today, kids age 6-17 and their parents share their views on reading in the increasingly digital landscape and the influences that impact kids’ reading frequency and attitudes toward reading. The study, a biannual report from Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education and media company, and the Harrison Group, a leading marketing and strategic research consulting firm, reports that: - The percent of children who have read an ebook has almost doubled since 2010 (2... more »

Talent Development Middle Grades Program has potentially positive effects on comprehension for adolescent readers

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 days ago

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) has reviewed the research on the Talent Development Middle Grades Program and finds that it has potentially positive impacts. The Talent Development Middle Grades Program is a comprehensive reform model for large urban middle schools that aims to improve student achievement by transforming the structure and curriculum. The literacy component of the program, Student Team Literature, utilizes cooperative learning activities, high-interest reading materials, and explicit instruction to teach reading strategies, comprehension skills, and fluency in r... more »

enVisionMath has potentially positive effects on mathematics achievement for elementary school students

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 days ago

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) has reviewed the research on enVisionMATH and finds that it has potentially positive impacts. enVisionMATH is a core curriculum for students in grades K–6. The program seeks to help students develop an understanding of math concepts through problem-based instruction, small-group interaction, and visual learning with a focus on reasoning and modeling. The WWC reviewed two studies that investigated the effects of enVisionMATH on the math performance of elementary school students. One of the studies meets WWC evidence standards without reservations a... more »

30 percent of teen girls report meeting offline with someone they met online

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 4 days ago

* Study highlights special risk faced by abused and neglected teen girls* A new study highlights the risk that female teenagers face when they go online – a risk heightened for teen girls who have been victims of abuse or neglect. The study, published in the eFirst pages of the journal Pediatrics, shows that 30 percent of teenagers reported having offline meetings with people they have met on the Internet and whose identity had not been fully confirmed prior to the meeting. "These meetings may have been benign, but for an adolescent girl to do it is dangerous," says Jennie Noll, P... more »

From Math Intrinsic Motivation and Achievement to Math Course Accomplishments and Educational Attainment

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 4 days ago

Across 20 years, pathways from math intrinsic motivation and achievement (ages 9–17) to high school math course accomplishments and educational attainment (age 29) were analyzed in this study. Academic intrinsic motivation was the theoretical foundation. To determine how initial status and change in motivation and achievement related to course accomplishments and educational attainment, a latent curve model was fit to data from the Fullerton Longitudinal Study. Levels of motivation and achievement at 9 had positive, direct, and mutually indirect paths to course accomplishments. ...more »

Replicating the Impact of a Supplemental Beginning Reading Intervention: The Role of Instructional Context

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 4 days ago

The purpose of this varied replication study was to evaluate the effects of a supplemental reading intervention on the beginning reading performance of kindergarten students in a different geographical location and in a different instructional context from the initial randomized trial. A second purpose was to investigate whether students who received the intervention across both the initial and replication studies demonstrated similar learning outcomes. Kindergarten students (n = 162) identified as at risk of reading difficulty from 48 classrooms were assigned randomly at the clas... more »

U.S High School Graduation Rates: Patterns and Explanations

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 5 days ago

THIS REPORT surveys the evidence on patterns in U.S. high school graduation rates over the period 1970-2010 and report the results of new research conducted to fill in holes in the evidence. THIS REPORT begin sby pointing out the strengths and limitations of existing data sources. THIS REPORT then describes six striking patterns in graduation rates. They include stagnation over the last three decades of the twentieth century, significant race-, income-, and gender-based gaps, and significant increases in graduation rates over the first decade of the twenty-first century, especia... more »

Some of the most popular study strategies -- such as highlighting and even rereading -- don't show much promise for improving student learning

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

Students everywhere, put down those highlighters and pick up some flashcards! Some of the most popular study strategies -- such as highlighting and even rereading -- don't show much promise for improving student learning, according to a new report published in *Psychological Science in the Public Interest,* a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. In the report, John Dunlosky of Kent State University and a team of distinguished psychological scientists review the scientific evidence for ten learning techniques commonly used by students. "Schools and parents spend a ... more »

Children taking psychotropic medications - GAO report

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

Experts have concerns that children with mental health conditions do not always receive appropriate treatment, including concerns about appropriate use of psychotropic medications (which affect mood, thought, or behavior) and about access to psychosocial therapies (sessions with a mental health provider). These concerns may be compounded for low-income children in Medicaid and children in foster care (most of whom are covered by Medicaid)--populations who may be at higher risk of mental health conditions. Within HHS, CMS oversees Medicaid, and ACF supports state child welfare agenc... more »

Quality Counts 2013: State of the States

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

*State and National Grades Issued for Education Performance, Policy; U.S. Earns a C-plus, Maryland Ranks First for Fifth Straight Year Grades and Highlights Reports Issued for All 50 States and D.C. * The full Quality Counts 2013 report and interactive state report cards: State Highlights Reports for the 50 states and the District of Columbiafeaturing detailed, state-specific data and our comprehensive grading of the states across six categories of educational performance and policy THE STATE OF THE STATES The annual Quality Counts report card—the most comprehensive ongoing ... more »

Quality Counts 2013: Code of Conduct—Safety, Discipline, and School Climate

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

The full Quality Counts 2013 report A collaboration between the Education Week newsroom and the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, Quality Counts 2013 investigates the impact of a school’s social and disciplinary environment on students’ ability to learn and on the teachers and administrators tasked with guiding them. The report’s journalism takes an in-depth look at a range of school-climate factors—including strong and positive peer interactions, a sense of safety and security, and school disciplinary policies and practices—that help to lay the groundwork for stude... more »

Gates Foundation: Teacher evaluations - a balanced approach works best – which incorporates the student survey data and classroom observations

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

The Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project, a three-year study designed to determine how to best identify and promote great teaching, has released its third and final research report. The project has demonstrated that it is possible to identify great teaching by combining three types of measures: classroom observations, student surveys, and student achievement gains. The findings will be useful to school districts working to implement new development and evaluation systems for teachers. Such systems should not only identify great teaching, but also provide the feedback teacher... more »

Enrollment in elementary and secondary schools

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

The National Center for Education Statistics has released Projections of Education Statistics to 2021. This publication provides projections for key education statistics. It includes statistics on enrollment, graduates, teachers, and expenditures in elementary and secondary schools, and enrollment and earned degrees conferred expenditures of degree-granting institutions. For the Nation, the tables, figures, and text contain data on enrollment, teachers, graduates, and expenditures for the past 14 years and projections to the year 2021. For the 50 States and the District of Columb... more »