THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT
Single-sex classes & student outcomes: Evidence from North Carolina
The effects of single-sex education are hotly contested, both in academic and policy circles. Despite this heated debate, there exists little credible empirical evidence of the effect of a U.S. public school's decision to offer single-sex classrooms on the educational outcomes of students. This study seeks to fill this hole. Using administrative records for third through eighth graders in North Ca
Principal turnover and student achievement
Principals have important management roles, including responsibilities for teachers, curricula and budgets. Schools change principals frequently; about 20% of public school principals in the United States leave their positions each year. Despite the significance of principals and the regularity of principal departures, little is known about how turnover affects schools. Using twelve years of admin
Boys Math Achievement Gap Higher In Single Geneder Schools
This paper uses a distinctive feature of the Irish education system to examine the impact of single-sex education on the gender difference in mathematical achievement at the top of the distribution. The Irish primary school system is interesting both for the fact that many children attend single-sex schools, and because these single-sex schools are part of the general educational system, rather th
Raising the minimum dropout age leads to more in-school crime
Over the years, the minimum dropout age has been raised to 18 in 21 states. Although these policy changes are promoted for their educational benefits, they have been shown to reduce crimes committed by youths in the affected age groups. However, an unintended consequence of increasing the minimum dropout age could be the displacement of crime from the streets to schools. This study uses data from
Principals Tend to Give Better Teachers Larger Classes
The high stakes testing and school accountability components of our K-12 education system create an incentive for principals to behave strategically to maximize school performance. One possible approach is the adjustment of class sizes based on observed teacher effectiveness. Conceptually, this relationship may be positive or negative. On one hand, performance-maximizing principals may place more
The impact of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program
This study analyzes the impact of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, a college-preparatory educational program designed for higher-achieving students, on high school academic achievement in Chicago Public Schools. The study concludes that there is a positive effect of the program on the probability of obtaining a B average or better in coursework, with most of the effect accruing t
AUG 22
Does weight affect children's test scores and teacher assessments differently?
The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity increased dramatically in the United States during the past three decades. This increase has adverse public health implications, but its implication for children's academic outcomes is less clear. This paper uses data from five waves of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten to examine how children's weight is related to their scores
Special-education teacher training and achievement of students with & w/o disabilities
Using statewide data from Florida, this paper analyzes the impact of both pre-service and in-service training on the ability of teachers to promote academic achievement among students with disabilities. The authors find students with disabilities whose teacher is certified in special education have greater achievement in both math and reading than similar students whose teacher is not special-educ
Is a good elementary teacher good in all subjects?
In most elementary schools, teachers are responsible for several subjects. Various personnel policies, such as evaluating teachers based on value-added estimates aggregated across subjects or departmentalizing teachers, implicitly make assumptions about how closely teacher effectiveness is aligned across subjects. This paper reports on research exploring these issues using student–teacher linked d
ACT: College and career readiness problems - the majority ill-prepared for success at the next level
College and career readiness problems persist among U.S. high school graduates, with the majority ill-prepared for success at the next level, according to the latest edition of nonprofit ACT’s yearly report, The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2013. State reports are available here. Only 39 percent of ACT-tested 2013 graduates met three or more of the four ACT College Readiness Benchma
New Orleans Charter School Study Debunked
The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University recently released a follow-up report to its 2013 national study on charter school performance. The new study is focused on Louisiana and particularly on the effects in New Orleans. The report states, “We observed positive impacts from attending a [New Orleans] charter for students in poverty (unlike in the overall state),
Classroom Quality and High-Stakes Accountability
High-stakes tests are the most heavily weighted measures in accountability systems developed in response to No Child Left Behind. While some studies show high-stakes accountability being related to test score gains, others suggest these policies do not improve achievement and often result in unintended consequences. To understand mechanisms driving positive and negative effects on student learning
AUG 21
More than half of parents have not heard much about Common Core State Standards
Standardized tests have support among parents, who view them as a useful way to measure both students' and schools' performances, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.Key findings:• Sixty-one percent of parents think their children take an appropriate number of standardized tests and 26 percent think their children take too many tests.• Less than half of pa
What Americans are thinking about Common Core and other education policies
Although opposition to Common Core education standards is growing, an overwhelming majority of Americans remain supportive of these standards. A majority also back government funding of preschool education for disadvantaged children. At the same time, Americans are becoming increasingly resistant to demands for greater education spending and higher teacher pay. They give a higher evaluation to pri
Exemplary Science Standards: How Does Your State Compare?
With states weighing whether to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a new analysis from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute compares the existing science standards of thirty-eight states with the NGSS and with exemplary standards from three other states. (The thirty-eight are those states with standards that are either “clearly inferior” to the NGSS or “too close to call,” based on its
Evaluation of the Next Generation Science Standards
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) received a C grade from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in its final evaluation.This grade is clearly inferior to those awarded to twelve states and the District of Columbia, as well as the NAEP and TIMSS frameworks, as ranked in the State of State Science Standards 2012. At the same time, the NGSS grade is clearly superior to grades given to the scienc
Portrait of 4 million U.S. children starting kindergarten this fall
Child Trends, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center on issues pertaining to children and youth, examined a range of available statistics to provide a portrait of the kindergarten class of 2013.Based on a class size of 100 students, Child Trends reported the following about the kindergarten class of 2013:98 "usually" or "always" smile or laugh a lot.94 "usually" or "always" show interest and cur
New Report Finds an Active School-to-Prison Pipeline in the Wake County Public School System
Students exhibiting minor misbehavior may find themselves suspended and on a pathway to the delinquency and criminal systems if they attend Wake County, NC public schools – particularly if they are African-American, have a disability, and/or are economically disadvantaged – new research shows.In just the 2011-12 school year alone, the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) handed out 14,626 susp
AUG 20
ELL learners: The early development of two languages is best approach
The Foundation for Child Development has issued a new report: PreK-3rd: Challenging Common Myths About Dual Language Learners:The most current scientific research suggests that the development of twolanguages from a child’s earliest years has specific impacts on a variety ofcognitive functions discernable as early as seven months of age that are persistentthroughout childhood and may even offer so
71% of undergraduate students received some type of financial aid
This report presents findings from the 2011-12 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, a nationally representative study of undergraduate and graduate students attending postsecondary institutions in the United States. NPSAS provides the most-up-to-date and comprehensive look at postsecondary student characteristics and student financial aid for the 2011-12 academic year.The survey includes abou
AUG 19
Students exercise artistic passions outside of traditional programs, fueled by new technologies
Even though schools are cutting back on arts education, young people are following their artistic passions outside of traditional programs, fueled by new technologies that enable them to create and share art, according to a new report commissioned by The Wallace Foundation. The report, New Opportunities for Interest-Driven Arts Learning in a Digital Age, delves into "interest-driven arts learning
Early Planning Is One of Several Steps Crucial to Successful Summer Learning Programs
The most important steps school districts can take to implement an effective summer learning program are to begin planning at least six months in advance and to include both district and summer site leaders in the process, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.RAND researchers examined six school districts in the study -- Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Duval County (Florida), Pittsburgh
The effects of bullying last long into adulthood
A new study shows that serious illness, struggling to hold down a regular job, and poor social relationships are just some of the adverse outcomes in adulthood faced by those exposed to bullying in childhood.It has long been acknowledged that bullying at a young age presents a problem for schools, parents and public policy makers alike. Although children spend more time with their peers than their
Giving preschoolers choice increases sharing behavior
Getting kids to share their toys is a never-ending battle, and compelling them to do so never seems to help. New research suggests that allowing children to make a choice to sacrifice their own toys in order to share with someone else makes them share more in the future. The new findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.These experiment
Improving Post-High School Outcomes for Transition-Age Students with Disabilities
A new report reviews the research literature on strategies designed to help students with disabilities transition from high school to employment, postsecondary education and training, or independent living. The review deviates from previous evidence reviews on this topic by using the What Works Clearinghouse (WWW) systematic review procedures, focusing on direct measures of students' post-high sch
AP students at many schools struggle
Complete article...A Baltimore Sun analysis of test scores showed a troubling discrepancy between grades for AP course work and scores on the exams. In at least 19 high schools throughout the Baltimore region, more than half of the students who earned an A or B in an AP class failed the exam.Failure rates of 75 percent on the exam were common at Woodlawn and other Maryland schools with large numbe
Survey: Parents’ Attitudes on the Quality of Education in the United States
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted a national survey of 1,025 parents or guardians of children who completed a grade between kindergarten and 12th grade during the 2012 - 2013 school year. Key findings of the survey include: • Parents believe that people—teachers and parents—play a bigger part in school quality than the amount of money spent for education. Two-t
State Assessments at an Urban High School: Using Extrinsic Motivation
The purpose of this qualitative research study was to discover the influence of a student achievement program implemented at one large urban high school that employed extrinsic motivation to promote student achievement on state assessments. Using organismic integration theory as the theoretical framework, 19 randomly selected students participated in structured interviews with their responses anal
Leaving Boys Behind: Gender Disparities in High Academic Achievement
Using three decades of data from the "Monitoring the Future"cross-sectional surveys, this paper shows that, from the 1980s to the2000s, the mode of girls' high school GPA distribution has shiftedfrom "B" to "A", essentially "leaving boys behind" as the mode ofboys' GPA distribution stayed at "B". The authors' analysis reveals that genderdifferences in post-secondary expectations, controlling for s
AUG 17
Autistic Kids Best IQ Peers at Math, Show Different Brain Organization
Children with autism and average IQs consistently demonstrated superior math skills compared with nonautistic children in the same IQ range, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital."There appears to be a unique pattern of brain organization that underlies superior problem-solving abilities in children with autism," sa
Developing behavioral skills in children: long term effects
This study exploits a randomized trial of two light-touch elementary school interventions to estimate long-run impacts on postsecondary attendance and attainment. The first is a classroom management technique for developing behavioral skills in children. Assignment to the behavioral intervention increases the likelihood of college attendance for females, especially at 2-year institutions, but has