THIS WEEK Education Research Report

Education Research Report

THIS WEEK 

Education Research Report

Do Kids Fall Behind in Math Because There Isn’t Enough Grade-Level Material, or Because There’s Too Much? It’s Both

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 22h

Complete report New Classrooms Innovation Partners W alk into almost any classroom in America, and you’ll find at least some students who’ve fallen behind the academic standards for their grade — meaning they’re at risk of not learning everything they’ll need to be ready for college and the lives they want to lead. Helping these students get back on the path to grade-level proficiency is one of t

Automatic Enrollment Increases Contributions to Supplement Retirement Programs by K-12 and University Employees

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 22h

This study examines the impact of the adoption of automatic enrollment provisions by schools and universities in the state of South Dakota for its supplemental retirement saving plan (SRP). In South Dakota, educational personnel are also covered by a defined benefit pension plan and by Social Security. Thus, career public employees in South Dakota can expect a life time annuity from these two pro

The School to Prison Pipeline: Long-Run Impacts of School Suspensions on Adult Crime

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 22h

. Schools face important policy tradeoffs in monitoring and managing student behavior. Strict discipline policies may stigmatize suspended students and expose them to the criminal justice system at a young age. On the other hand, strict discipline acts as a deterrent and limits harmful spillovers of misbehavior onto other students. This paper estimates the net impact of school discipline on stude

Breaking Down Barriers: Understanding Hispanic High School Students’ Perceptions on the Transition to College

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 23h

. Hispanic students make up roughly 18 percent of all college students and are one of the largest minority groups on U.S. campuses. However, Hispanic students tend to meet ACT College Readiness Benchmarks at lower rates, on average, than their non-Hispanic White counterparts. In addition, Hispanic students may face added barriers in navigating the landscape of the college application process, le

SEPTEMBER 2019 Using Chronic Absence Data to Improve Conditions for Learning

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 23h

Reducing chronic absence goes hand in hand with cultivating positive conditions for learning. When schools provide engaging, supportive, welcoming and culturally responsive environments, families are inclined to help their children get to school, and students are motivated to attend, even when there are hurdles to getting there. Likewise, when students attend class consistently, positive conditio

Mathematics Anxiety in the Transition From Elementary School to Junior High

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d

Mathematics anxiety negatively impacts cognitive processing, performance, expectations, motivation, and future choices. However, research has not examined patterns in students’ mathematics anxiety levels over time. The current study addresses this gap by exploring group-based trajectories in mathematics anxiety during the transition to junior high school. Five trajectories are described: consiste

SEP 26

Kids in poor, urban schools learn just as much as others

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d

Schools serving disadvantaged and minority children teach as much to their students as those serving more advantaged kids, according to a new nationwide study. The results may seem surprising, given that student test scores are normally higher in suburban and wealthier school districts than they are in urban districts serving mostly disadvantaged and minority children. But those test scores speak

SEP 25

Great Recession -School Spending Cuts = Sizable Learning Losses for Students in Hardest Hit Areas

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

Substantial school spending cuts triggered by the Great Recession were associated with sizable losses in academic achievement for students living in counties most affected by the economic downturn, according to a new study published today in AERA Open , a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association. The estimated declines in student math and English language arts achiev

The Value-Added Estimates and Evaluation Ratings of Teachers with a Graduate Degree

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

This study uses teacher value added and evaluation rating data from North Carolina public schools to estimate the signaling and human capital effects of graduate degrees. These analyses consider the effects of graduate degrees, overall, and the effects of graduate degrees inside and outside teachers’ area(s) of teaching. Analysis shows that those with a graduate degree in their area of teaching h

The more time spent watching television and playing video games was associated with poorer academic performance

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

Screen time overall wasn't associated with the academic performance of children and adolescents in this observational study. Called a systematic review and meta-analysis, this research consisted of a review of 58 studies from 23 countries (involving 480,000 participants ages 4 to 18) and a meta-analysis that combined the results of 30 of those studies involving 106,000 participants. The studies e

Over 2.2 Million Students in Class of 2019 Took SAT, Largest Group Ever

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

Over 2.2 million students in the class of 2019 took the SAT, an increase of 4% over the class of 2018, according to the 2019 [Opens in New Window] SAT Suite of Assessments Program Results . The class of 2019 was the first to take the full SAT Suite of Assessments: SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT 10, and PSAT 8/9. State Results The Growing, Changing SAT Population Almost a million students in the class of 2

What Adults Without Degrees Say About Pursuing Additional Education and Training

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

Çomplete report Roughly half of American adults without a college degree (46 percent) said they need additional education to advance in their careers, according to new survey data from the Strada Education Network and Gallup. Employers were the first-choice providers for this group, with 33 percent saying they are most likely to participate in additional education and training from employers. Com

New Report Looks at School Choice in the United States

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

Over time, enrollment in traditional public schools and public charter schools increased, as did the number of homeschooled students, while enrollment in private schools decreased. School Choice in the United States: 2019 uses recent data from multiple National Center for Education Statistics surveys to describe the landscape of school choice in the United States. The report discusses the changes

Helping smooth the transition to kindergarten

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

The schools and districts profiled in the four communities in this report have taken different steps to help smooth the transition to kindergarten for children and families, with a particular emphasis on promoting equity by focusing on better serving children from low-income families. Because of the historic divide between early learning and the formal K–12 school system, it will require years of

Using Local, State, and Federal Dollars to Improve Pre-K to K Transitions

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

When early learning experiences are connected from birth through third grade (B–3rd), children and their families can more seamlessly transition between ECE programs and grade levels. Smoothing transitions requires careful planning, effective policies and practices, and funding. The transition between pre-K and kindergarten is a particularly important one. There are a number of federal and state

Community Colleges Apprenticeship Programs

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

Apprenticeship is a proven education and employment model that combines structured on-the-job learning with related technical or classroom instruction to prepare individuals for specific occupations. Apprentices are paid, have access to work-site mentors, and earn progressively higher wages as they advance in their programs. The rising cost of higher education, combined with the increasing skill

SEP 24

Effect of Simplifying Financial Aid Offers on College Enrollment and Borrowing

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

. Recent policy and research efforts have focused on simplifying the college-going process, improving transparency around college costs, and helping students make informed decisions. In 2012, the Obama administration released the “shopping sheet,” a standardized financial aid offer that is intended to provide students with simplified information about costs, loan options, and college outcomes. Th

Investigating the Impact of the Pittsburgh Promise

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

Place-based promise scholarships are a relatively recent innovation in the space of college access and success. Although evidence on the impact of some of the earliest place-based scholarships has begun to emerge, the rapid proliferation of promise programs largely has preceded empirical evidence of their impact. This paper analyses the causal effect of the Pittsburgh Promise on students’ immedia

Parental Credit Constraints and Child College Attendance

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

Parents in the United States frequently supplement the student loans available to their children by cosigning on a loan, borrowing against their home equity, or with unsecured debt in their own names. This paper investigates whether some students are constrained from attending and completing college by their parents’ lack of access to credit markets by linking individual parental credit scores to

The Returns to Education at Community Colleges: New Evidence

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

This study uses nationally representative data from the Education Longitudinal Survey (ELS) to update the literature on returns to community college education, comparing the experiences of the ELS cohort that graduated high school in 2004 with those of the National Education Longitudinal Survey (NELS) cohort that graduated high school more than a decade earlier, in 1992. The author estimates that

The Wisconsin Scholars Grant (WSG)

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

The WSG is a privately funded program designed to help low-income Wisconsin families pay for college and increase college completion. Student access to the WSG is based on Pell Grant eligibility, Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) information, and college admissions records. The grant provided students with $1,800 per year for each year in which they were enrolled in a Wisconsin two

The Multiple Measures Placement System

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

Research shows that using only test scores to place students in remediation—the typical method—is correlated with over-placement, which can lead to unnecessary time and expense spent on the pursuit of a degree. To combat this, researchers from the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness (CAPR) and staff from seven State University of New York (SUNY) community colleges collaborated to d

SEP 23

Overall screen time isn't associated with academic performance in kids, teens?

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

Screen time overall wasn't associated with the academic performance of children and adolescents in this observational study. Called a systematic review and meta-analysis, this research consisted of a review of 58 studies from 23 countries (involving 480,000 participants ages 4 to 18) and a meta-analysis that combined the results of 30 of those studies involving 106,000 participants. The studies e

Relative youth status in the school year is associated with an increased risk of diagnosis of ADHD, intellectual disability, and depression in childhood.

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

Complete report Key Points Question What is the association between relative age in the school year and incidence of intellectual disability, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and depression? Findings In this cohort study of 1 042 106 children in the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink, relatively young children were 1.3 times more likely than the oldest quarter of children in the scho

New Evidence on School Segregation and Racial Academic Achievement Gaps

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

U.S. public schools are highly segregated by both race and class. Prior research shows that the desegregation of Southern schools in the 1960s and 1970s led to significant benefits for black students, including increased educational attainment and higher earnings. We do not know, however, whether segregation today has the same harmful effects as it did 50 years ago, nor do we have clear evidence

Existing state policies to support the costs of apprentices’ classroom training at colleges are a patchwork. Some state...

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

Existing state policies to support the costs of apprentices’ classroom training at colleges are a patchwork. Some states have implemented effective subsidies to support credit-bearing apprenticeship offerings without any cost to the apprentice; other policies are well-intentioned but counterproductive. Across the country, though, many states already have the policy groundwork to support college c

Helping English language learners in mathematics

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

National and state assessments show that English language learners (ELs) in elementary and secondary grades score lower in mathematics compared with their matched English proficient peers (EPs). To provide information on strategies for enhancing learning opportunities for ELs in language inclusive classrooms, this study analyzes the efficacy of Learning Mathematics Through Representati ons (LMR),

The Effects of Full-Day Prekindergarten

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

This study is a randomized control trial of full- versus half-day prekindergarten (pre-K) in a school district near Denver, Colorado. Four-year-old children were randomly assigned an offer of half-day (4 days/week) or full-day (5 days/week) pre-K that increased class time by 600 hours. The full-day pre-K offer produced substantial, positive effects on children’s receptive vocabulary skills (0.275

SEP 21

Nationwide Survey of Teachers Reveals Digital Divide Far from Closed

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 6d

As students all over the country are settling back into school, Common Sense is releasing The Homework Gap: Teacher Perspectives on Closing the Digital Divide , a nationwide survey of teachers revealing troubling evidence of the continuing "homework gap," a divide between students who have home 

Education Research Report