THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT
New Study Looks at Discrimination African-American Adolescents Face in Schools
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 17 hours ago
Nearly 60 years after the Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation in public schools, African-American adolescents of all socioeconomic backgrounds continue to face instances of racial discrimination in the classroom. A new study sheds light on that and points to the need for students of color to rely on personal and cultural assets to succeed academically. The study “African American Adolescents’ Academic Persistence: A Strengths-Based Approach,” was published online May 24 in the *Journal of Youth and Adolescence.* “This study is unique in that it is a socioeconomically divers... more »
Advances in student achievement since the passage of the 1993 Education Reform Act in Massachusetts
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago
Mass Insight Education has released a summative report reviewing student achievement during the twenty years since the passage of the 1993 Education Reform Act in Massachusetts, which set to transform public education across the state. The anniversary report highlights the significant progress the state has made as a result of the landmark legislation and also provides a call to action to address the challenges that remain - specifically in raising student achievement for underserved populations and in increasing college success rates for all Massachusetts students. - *Statewi... more »
Trends to Reform the American School Calendar
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago
Learning Time in America: Trends to Reform the American School Calendar, from the National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL) and the Education Commission of the States is an update to a July 2011 report of the same name. It provides a comprehensive overview of legislative and policy developments at the federal, state, and district levels to close achievement gaps and improve public school through expanding learning time over the two years since the release of the first report. The report also includes results from a national survey, commissioned by NCTL and administered in February...more »
Lessons from High Schools on Educating Students to Succeed in a Changing World
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago
With the increasing national recognition that high schools need to better prepare students to navigate a changing world and the advent of the more complex Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards, a new report from the National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL) describes how five innovative high schools are rethinking - and in some cases expanding - how and when learning takes place to make sure students graduate with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. Students at these high schools must not only master grade-level content and standards, but mus...more »
High School Graduation Rate Reaches Highest Point in 40 Years
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago
A new national report from Education Week and the Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center finds that the nation’s graduation rate has posted a solid gain for the third straight year, following a period of declines and stagnation. Amid this continuing turnaround, the nation’s graduation rate has risen to almost 75 percent, the highest level of high school completion since 1973. Although 1 million students will fail to graduate with the class of 2013, the report shows that the nation’s public schools will generate 96,000 fewer dropouts than the previous year. Nationwid... more »
Peer Pressure Starts in Childhood, Not with Teens
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago
Peer group influences affect children much earlier than researchers have suspected, finds a new University of Maryland-led study. The researchers say it provides a wake-up call to parents and educators to look out for undue group influences, cliquishness and biases that might set in early, the researchers say. The study appears in the May/June 2013 issue of *Child Development*, and is available online. The researchers say their work represents a new line of research – what they call "group dynamics of childhood." No prior research has investigated what children think about challeng... more »
Teacher collaboration, professional communities improve many elementary school students' math scores
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago
Many elementary students' math performance improves when their teachers collaborate, work in professional learning communities or do both, yet most students don't spend all of their elementary school years in these settings, a new study by UNC Charlotte researchers shows. The U.S. Department of Education funded the study, which the journal *Sociology of Education* recently published. As school districts work to improve math scores and narrow racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps, many schools may have overlooked the impact of teacher collaboration and professional community on ... more »
More Fresh Air in Classrooms Means Fewer Absences
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago
If you suspect that opening windows to let in fresh air might be good for you, a new study by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has confirmed your hunch. Analyzing extensive data on ventilation rates collected from more than 150 classrooms in California over two years, the researchers found that bringing classroom ventilation rates up to the state-mandated standard may reduce student absences due to illness by approximately 3.4 percent. With this reduction in student absence, California’s school districts would gain $33 million annually in attendan... more »
Many Well-Prepared US High School Grads Don’t Enroll/Persist in College
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago
Nearly one in five 2011 U.S. high school graduates who were prepared to succeed in first-year college coursework either never enrolled in college or didn’t return for a second year, according to national and state-specific reports from ACT entitled The Reality of College Readiness 2013. (State Reports here) The data show 19 percent of college-ready, ACT-tested 2011 graduates were not enrolled in a two- or four-year college a little more than a year later, in the fall of 2012, including 10 percent who had never enrolled. Those data are based on graduates who had achieved the ACT C... more »
High School Students Don't Need Another Test
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 4 days ago
According to a recent report, U.S. high schools should start taking part in yet another standardized test, as a way to spur improvements in achievement. Specifically, the report contends that participating in a new international test will benefit U.S. middle class students. The report, from the advocacy organization America Achieves, is titled Middle Class or Middle of the Pack: What can we learn when benchmarking U.S. schools against the world’s best?. It contends that U.S. students are performing inadequately in the math and science portions of a prominent international assessmen... more »
The Impact of a Classroom-Based Guidance Program on Student Performance in Community College Math Classes
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Passing through remedial and required math classes poses a significant barrier to success for many community college students. This study uses random assignment to investigate the impact of a “light-touch” intervention, where an individual visited math classes a few times during the semester, for a few minutes each time, to inform students about available services. Entire class sections, rather than individuals, were randomly assigned to program and control groups, reducing the administrative burden for the college of a randomized-controlled experiment. This study finds that the... more »
States Made Deep Cuts to Higher Education
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Public universities and colleges in nearly every state have seen their state funding decline sharply, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Nationwide, states are on average spending 28 percent less this year than they did in 2008, a decrease of $2,353 per student. As a result, colleges and universities have had to raise tuition, make changes that undermine educational quality, or both. “Investment in higher education should be a priority,” said Phil Oliff, policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and author of the report ... more »
CareerStart: a significant treatment effect for math performance but no effect for reading performance
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Research and theory suggest that students learn more effectively when they perceive course content as relevant to their futures. This researchassessed the impact of CareerStart, a middle grades instructional strategy designed to advance the occupational relevance of what students are being taught in the core subjects—math, science, language arts, and social studies. CareerStart was introduced randomly in 7 of 14 middle schools in a diverse district with 3,295 students followed for 3 years. The analyses examined impact on end-of-grade test scores on math and reading exams. Findings ... more »
WWC report: Scott Foresman–Addison Wesley Elementary Mathematics: "mixed effects on mathematics achievement"
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
An updated What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) report provide new information about the effectiveness of Scott Foresman–Addison Wesley Elementary Mathematics. Report Summary Effectiveness Scott Foresman–Addison Wesley Elementary Mathematics was found to have mixed effects on mathematics achievement for elementary school students. Program Description Scott Foresman–Addison Wesley Elementary Mathematics is a core mathematics curriculum for students in prekindergarten through grade 6. The program aims to improve students’ understanding of key math concepts through problem-solving instru... more »
What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) report: Saxon Math "potentially positive effects"
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
An updated What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) report provide new information about the effectiveness of Saxon Math a Report Summary Effectiveness Saxon Math was found to have potentially positive effects on mathematics achievement for elementary school students. Program Description Saxon Math, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, is a core curriculum for students in grades K–5. A distinguishing feature of the curriculum is its use of an incremental approach for instruction and assessment. This approach limits the amount of new math content delivered to students each day and allows... more »
THE IMPACT OF UNIVERSAL PRESCHOOL ON THE CHILDCARE SECTOR
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Government programs for early childhood education have expanded in recent decades. Two states illustrate this trend. Georgia expanded its preschool program to all age-eligible residents in 1995, enabling money from the state government to follow children to the government-certified provider of their parents' choice. Oklahoma adopted universal preschool in 1998, offering it through the state's existing public school system. As one would expect, these different subsidy methods led to substantial differences in the market for childcare. In Does State Preschool Crowd-out Private Pro... more »
A Review of Research on the Returns to Higher Education
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Recent stories of soaring student debt levels and under-placed college graduates have caused some to question whether a college education is still a sound investment. In this paper, the authors review the literature on the returns to higher education in an attempt to determine who benefits from college. Despite the tremendous heterogeneity across potential college students, the authors conclude that the investment appears to payoff for both the average and marginal student. During the past three decades in particular, the earnings premium associated with a college education has ri... more »