THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT
YESTERDAY
Most States Funding Schools Less Than Before the Recession
A new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities finds that states’ new budgets are providing less per-pupil funding for kindergarten through 12th grade than they did six years ago — often far less. The reduced levels reflect not only the lingering effects of the 2007-09 recession but also continued austerity in many states; indeed, despite some improvements in overall state revenues, sc
Youth More Likely to Be Bullied at Schools With Anti-Bullying Programs
Anti-bullying initiatives have become standard at schools across the country, but a new UT Arlington study finds that students attending those schools may be more likely to be a victim of bullying than children at schools without such programs.The findings run counter to the common perception that bullying prevention programs can help protect kids from repeated harassment or physical and emotional
SEP 12
Aerobic fitness boosts learning, memory in 9-10-year-old children
Higher measures of aerobic fitness linked to better recall of learned informationPhysical fitness can boost learning and memory in children, particularly when initial learning on a task is more challenging, according to research published September 11 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Lauren Raine and colleagues from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Forty-eight children aged nin
Race to the Top: Failures and Mismatches
Race to the Top has done little to help most states close achievement gaps, and may have exacerbated them, according to a new report by Elaine Weiss, National Coordinator of the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education. In Mismatches in Race to the Top Limit Educational Improvement: Lack of Time, Resources, and Tools to Address Opportunity Gaps Puts Lofty State Goals Out of Reach, Weiss takes a compr
Teachers Need More Effective Professional Development to Meet Higher Standards
Despite decades of research, teacher professional development is not adequately helping teachers to develop their students’ critical thinking skills and subject matter knowledge so that they can be ready for college and the workplace, a new report by the National School Boards Association’s (NSBA) Center for Public Education (CPE) finds.“Teaching the Teachers: Effective Professional Development in
Student Arrests Decline in CT But Many Arrests Avoidable and Practices Vary Widely
A new study of records from Connecticut schools shows a reduction in the number of student arrests in schools. The report from Connecticut Voices for Children, the first comprehensive study of its kind, attributed the change in arrest rates to reforms of school discipline policies which followed passage of a 2007 law limiting the use of out-of-school suspensions. Connecticut Voices for Children fo
Transforming a program designed and taught by adults to one designed and taught by youth
Collaboration (GDMC), an informal education program in 3D computer modeling and 2D interactive game design serving primarily African American youth aged 7 to 19 years in the Washington, D.C. metro area, transformed from a program designed and taught by adults to one designed and taught by youth. In Year 1, 8% of youth participants held a leadership role; by Year 4, 30% of youth participants did. M
SEP 11
The Impact of Interim Assessments on Mathematics & Reading Achievement
Interim assessments are increasingly common in U.S. schools. This paper examines the impact of two well-known commercial interim assessment programs on mathematics and reading achievement in Indiana. Results indicate that the treatment effects are positive but not consistently significant. The treatment effects are smaller in lower grades (i.e., kindergarten to second grade) and larger in upper gr
Assessing vocabulary learning in early childhood
There is widespread agreement with in the field of early childhood education that vocabulary is important to literacy achievement and that reading aloud can support vocabulary growth. However, there are unexplored and significant problems with the ways we assess young children’s vocabulary learning from read-alouds. This paper critically reviews the forms of vocabulary assessment commonly used wit
SEP 10
Bilingual education programs have a substantial spillover effect on native English-speaking students
Bilingual education programs have a substantial spillover effect on the students they’re not designed for, according to a groundbreaking study co-authored by a Michigan State University scholar.Texas elementary students who speak English as their home language and were enrolled in schools with bilingual education programs performed much better on state math and reading tests than native English-sp
Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study
The supply of and demand for teachers is a topic of attention and concern as teachers of the baby boom generation retire. Finding ways to assure that there are enough teachers to educate America’s children is a major policy issue at the local, state, and federal levels. To learn about the early career patterns of beginning teachers, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the Instit
New Study Examines Effectiveness of Secondary School Math Teachers from Teach For America and the Teaching Fellows Programs
Middle and high school math teachers from Teach For America (TFA) and the TNTP Teaching Fellows programs are as effective as, and in some cases more effective than, other math teachers in the same schools acording to a new study. The first large-scale, random assignment study of the effects of secondary school math teachers from these programs on student achievement provides new evidence for polic
SEP 09
African-American Students May Improve Grades if Teachers Convey High Standards
African-American students who need to improve their academic performance may do better in school and feel less stereotyped as underachievers if teachers convey high standards and their belief that students can meet them, according to new psychology research from The University of Texas at Austin.The findings, published online in August in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, contradict
Positive Interactions Vital to Pre-K Learning
Positive interactions in a pre-kindergarten classroom may be equally or more important to the future academic development of 4-year-olds than learning letters and numbers, according to Dale Farran, senior associate director of the Peabody Research Institute at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College for education and human development.Farran is co-author with colleagues Mary Wagner Fuhs and Kimberly Turner N
NY Times: The Great Stagnation of American Education
Complete articleEducation deserves particular focus because its effects are so long-lasting. Every high school dropout becomes a worker who likely won’t earn much more than minimum wage, at best, for the rest of his or her life. And the problems in our educational system pervade all levels.The surge in high school graduation rates — from less than 10 percent of youth in 1900 to 80 percent by 1970
Why poor children are more likely to become poor readers
Socioeconomic status at the individual- and school-level are positively related to literacy achievement in all English-speaking countries. The components of socioeconomic status – income, parent education and parent occupation – are each statistically significant predictors of school literacy achievement but they are primarily a proxy for more directly salient factors. This literature review outli
SEP 06
What are the risks of student cyberbullying?
The analysis of the results of middle and high school student attitudes to cyberbullying and online safety to be published in the International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments shows that many children are bullied and few understand internet safety.Stacey Kite, Robert Gable and Lawrence Filippelli of the Johnson & Wales University, in Providence, Rhode Island, USA,
What To Do With Algebra II?
Pushing students to take more advanced coursework has been a mainstay of American school reform for several decades. That prescription has worked in boosting enrollments. In 1986, less than half of all 17 year-olds (44%) had completed Algebra II, and for Black and Hispanic students, the rate was less than a third. Completing Algebra II is now commonplace. In 2012, about three-fourths of students c
Algebra Assessments are Essential, but Inadequate
Over the past two decades, algebra has acquired elevated status within the U.S. school curriculum. Researchers have documented that readiness for both college-level mathematics and technically-oriented employment hinges on students gaining, at least by the end of high school, a basic knowledge of algebra.[i] The recognition of algebra’s “gatekeeper” role within the continuum of high school math co
Teens Losing Interest In Stem Careers While U.S. Projects Significant Growth In Field
Junior Achievement USA® (JA) and the ING U.S. Foundation's 2013 Teens & Careers survey reveals a substantial year-over-year decline in teens' interest in science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and medical-related fields. This is the 12th year the survey has been conducted. While almost half (46 percent) of all teens surveyed showed interest in pursuing either a STEM or medical-related j
Math, Language Arts rated most valuable school subjects
According to a new Gallup Poll, women, liberals, and those with a postgraduate degree rate Language Arts as their most valuable school subject. Most others choose Math. The question does not specify which level of school -- grade school, high school, college, or postgraduate study -- respondents should use in assessing the value of subjects. Thus, respondents were free to look back over their enti
New School-District Consolidation Report Debunked
The Center for American Progress (CAP) recently released a report intended “to spark a conversation” about closing and consolidating small school districts. The report, titled “Size Matters: A Look at School-District Consolidation,” concludes: “Across the nation, we found that small, nonremote districts might represent as much as $1 billion in lost annual capacity” (p. 2). Unfortunately, two major
SEP 04
Using harsh verbal discipline with teens found to be harmful
Many American parents yell or shout at their teenagers. A new longitudinal study has found that using such harsh verbal discipline in early adolescence can be harmful to teens later. Instead of minimizing teens' problematic behavior, harsh verbal discipline may actually aggravate it.The study, from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Michigan, appears in the journal C
Children benefit from positive peer influence in afterschool programs
Children in afterschool programs who have a sense of connectedness with their peers are less likely to report emotional problems, according to Penn State researchers. Children exhibited fewer behavior problems if they perceived their peers were willing to encourage them to behave well."Encouraging your friends to do something positive or to not misbehave may start from selfishness because you want
Endangering Prosperity: A Global View of the American School
In Endangering Prosperity: A Global View of the American School by Eric A. Hanushek, Paul E. Peterson, and Ludger Woessmann (Brookings Institution Press, 2013) scholars from Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Munich show just how far American students are falling behind their global counterparts and how the looming failure of our education system imperils our economic future. Through their
Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts: School Year 2010-11
This First Look report presents findings on public education revenues and expenditures at the local education agency (LEA) level using fiscal year 2011 (FY 11) provisional data from the LEA Finance Survey of the Common Core of Data (CCD) survey system. Findings include:• The national median total current revenues per pupil were $12,054 in FY 11. Adjusting for inflation, this represents a decrease
SEP 03
Teaching the Whole Child
Social-emotional learning is critical to the introduction of college- andcareer-readiness standards, which increase the demands on students’ ability toengage in deeper learning and shift the focus and rigor of instruction (NationalGovernors Association Center for Best Practices [NGA Center] & Council of ChiefState School Officers [CCSSO] 2010a; NGA Center & CCSSO, 2010b).To aid this critic