THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT
Secondary Math Teachers from Teach for America: higher scores on end-of-year mathematics achievement tests
“The Effectiveness of Secondary Math Teachers from Teach for America and the Teaching Fellows Program”This study examined the impact of Teach for America (TFA) and The New Teacher Project’s Teaching Fellows (TF) programs on the mathematics achievement of students in grades 6–12. TFA and TF provide alternative routes to teacher certification and aim to provide high-quality teachers to schools in l
Access to effective teaching for disadvantaged students in 29 school districts
Recent federal initiatives emphasize measuring teacher effectiveness and ensuring that disadvantaged students have equal access to effective teachers. This study substantially broadens the existing evidence on access to effective teaching by examining access in 29 geographically dispersed school districts over the 2008-2009 to 2010-2011 school years. The report describes disadvantaged students’ ac
2013 Mathematics Report Card
The nation’s eighth-grade students have made gains in mathematics since 2011, according to data from the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The Nation’s Report Card, Mathematics 2013 presents results from the 2013 NAEP assessments administered to students at grades 4 and 8 across the country. These reports present results for the nation, all 50 states, the District of Columbi
Report confirms charter schools enroll fewer special-needs students
There’s clear evidence that charter schools enroll significantly fewer special education students than traditional public schools. But why is that? In Why the Gap? Special Education and New York City Charter Schools, a recent report published jointly by the Manhattan Institute and the Center on Reinventing Public Education, Marcus Winters asserted the disparity is not the product of concerted atte
Educational video games can boost motivation to learn
Math video games can enhance students' motivation to learn, but it may depend on how students play, researchers at New York University and the City University of New York have found in a study of middle-schoolers.While playing a math video game either competitively or collaboratively with another player—as compared to playing alone—students adopted a mastery mindset that is highly conducive to lea
NOV 06
Early Childhood Educators Hold the Key to Children’s Communication Skills
Researchers at UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute have completed a new examination of peer-reviewed science that reveals how early childhood educators can ignite the growth of language and communication skills in infants and toddlers. Earlier today, Nicole Gardner-Neblett and Kathleen Cranley Gallagher published the FPG team’s research-based recommendations online.“Early languag
School violence lowers test scores, not grades
It's hard to go a day without seeing news of violence in some form occurring in schools around the country, and Chicago is often cited as a city where crime rates in schools are particularly high. In a new study in the current issue of Sociology of Education, Brown University sociologist Julia Burdick-Will looked at the effect such violence has on school achievement among Chicago high school stude
Effects of incentives for high-performing teachers to transfer to low-achieving schools
One policy response to the challenge of attracting high-performing teachers to low-achieving schools is offering teachers monetary incentives to transfer. This report examines impacts of transfer incentives -- including the willingness of teachers to transfer when offered an incentive, teacher retention in the schools to which they transferred, and the impact of transfer incentives on student achi
NOV 05
Neediest Students Most Likely to Miss Aid Deadlines
Students with the greatest need for financial aid for college are the least prepared to submit the applications early enough to receive it, according to a study by a researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an Illinois financial aid official."Among all low-income students who qualify for need-based aid, those with a slightly higher expected family contribution are more likely t
NOV 04
Only 36 percent of third graders on track in cognitive development
The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s latest KIDS COUNT® report details how a child’s early development across critical areas of well-being is essential to make the effective transition into elementary school and for long-term school success. According to a newly released analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal study that began to track 13,000 children who were in kindergarten in 1998-99, by third
NOV 02
Problem of gender differences on physics assessments remains unsolved
The mystery of why women consistently score lower than men on common assessments of conceptual understanding of physics remains poorly understood In a new synthesis of past work, "The gender gap on concept inventories in physics: what is consistent, what is inconsistent, and what factors influence the gap?" A. Madsen, S. B. McKagan and E. C. Sayre, Physical Review Special Topics – Physic
NOV 01
Segregation in American schools still problematic, despite best efforts
As American schools struggle with issues of race, diversity and achievement, a new study in the American Sociological Review has split the difference in the ongoing discussion of resegregation. Yes, black, white and Hispanic students were less likely to share classrooms in 2010 than in 1993, but no, that increase in segregation is usually not the result of waning efforts to reduce it."People
The Impact of Race and Ethnicity on the Identification Process for Giftedness
Many gifted education experts have found that Black, Hispanic, and Native American students are less likely to be identified for gifted programs than Asian American and White students. A study was conducted to ascertain the degree of underrepresentation of these groups in gifted programs in Utah. Using state-collected data from 14,781 students in six representative school districts in Utah, it was
OCT 31
Study Gives Catholic Schools Poor Marks
A national study led by a Michigan State University economist suggests Catholic schools are not superior to public schools after all.Math scores for Catholic students dropped between kindergarten and eighth grade, while math scores for public school students increased slightly. In addition, Catholic students saw no significant increase in reading scores or better behavioral outcomes between kinder
K-12 Online Learning: policies, practices, and trends
Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: An Annual Review of Policy and Practice (2013) is the 10th in a series of annual reports that began in 2004 that examine the status of K-12 online education across the country. The report provides an overview of the latest policies, practices, and trends affecting online learning programs across all 50 states.
35 Require Student Achievement To Be A Significant Criterion For Rating Teacher Effectiveness
The National Council on Teacher Quality has released Connecting the Dots: Using Evaluations of Teacher Effectiveness to Inform Policy and Practice, which provides a lay of the land on state teacher evaluation policy in 2013. The report finds that there has been an unprecedented adoption of more rigorous teacher evaluation policies across the states, with 35 states and the District of Columbia Publ
Success for All Evaluation
First implemented in 1987, the Success for All (SFA) school reform model combines three basic elements:• Reading instruction that is characterized by an emphasis on phonics for beginning readers and comprehension for students at all levels, a highly structured curriculum, an emphasis on cooperative learning, across-grade ability grouping and periodic regrouping, frequent assessments, and tutoring
OCT 30
Wide Range of Assessments to Gauge Students’ Career and Technical Skills
While most states give one or more assessments of career readiness, technical, or employability skills to high school students, the types of tests used vary considerably across states and are sometimes decided at the school district level, according a new report by the Center on Education Policy (CEP). These career and technical assessments are distinct from the academic tests that states currentl
More Graduates with High Academic Scores Now Enter Teaching
A new study released today finds the academic caliber of new teachers, entering the profession with a bachelor’s degree, has risen substantially since the early 2000s.The study’s authors use a variety of data sets to look at demographic and academic changes in the teaching profession and find that the average SAT scores of first-year teachers in 2008 was 8 percentile rank points higher than the av
Two high schools and the road to full inclusion: A comparison study
This article documents a roadmap for developing fully inclusive school sites at the secondary level. Full inclusion is defined as placement in the general education classroom for all students with disabilities. Specifically, two large high schools located in suburban areas attempted to fully include over 300 students identified as needing special services. Students had varying disabilities, but ea
Parental reactions: child referred for special education services
This study used the grief and loss model as conceptualized by Kubler-Ross (1969), Lamb (1988), and Kubler-Ross and Kessler (2005) as a foundation in examining parental reactions when a child has been referred for special education services. The model was expanded to include definitions of the concepts as applied to a special education setting and incorporated additional stages. Findings suggested
Time in General Education and Achievement for Students With Disabilities
This study examined the relationship between hours in general education and achievement in reading and mathematics for students with disabilities. The study population included more than 1,300 students between the ages of 6 and 9 years old within 180 school districts. The relationship between hours in general education and achievement in reading and mathematics was explored while accounting for st
OCT 29
Challenging Common Core the Research: A Reanalysis of Text Complexity
This study offers an independent analysis of third- and sixth-grade reading textbooks used throughout the past century. Contrary to the authors of the English Language Arts component of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) – which builds a case for higher complexity in textbooks and reading materials for students by pointing to research showing a steady decline in the difficulty of student textb
The Effect of Postsecondary Coenrollment on College Success
This study finds that co-enrollment – defined as simultaneous enrollment at multiple postsecondary institutions during the same academic term – has a significant positive effect on educational attainment and postsecondary persistence for students beginning at community colleges and four-year institutions. Over the past two decades, postsecondary enrollment patterns have become more diversified, wi
Gender Gaps in College Enrollment: The Role of Gender Sorting Across Public High Schools
This study finds gender sorting across Florida public high schools contributes to 12 percent and 16 percent of females’ higher rate of college enrollment among black and Hispanic students, respectively. Girls and boys sort into different public schools at a level well beyond what would be expected if the sorting were random, and that the level of gender sorting is higher among black and Hispanic s
After a concussion, students may need gradual transition back to academics
A concussion should not only take a student athlete off the playing field – it may also require a break from the classroom, according to a new clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).In the clinical report, "Returning to Learning Following a Concussion," released Sunday, Oct. 27 at the AAP National Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, the AAP offers guidance to p
Hearing number words in natural speech -- not just in counting routines -- is an important part of learning the meaning of numbers.
Talk to your toddler. And use numbers when you talk. Doing so may give a child a better head start in math than teaching her to memorize 1-2-3 counting routines.That's the takeaway of an international study published this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Led by David Barner, associate professor of psychology and linguistics in the Division of