Latest News and Comment from Education

Saturday, April 19, 2014

This Week's Education Research Report 4-19-14 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2


THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT





Latest trends show decrease in school-aged bullying and fighting
New research from the American Journal of Public Health finds a decrease in bullying and physical fighting among middle and high school students. However, the prevalence of carrying weapons increased among white students.Using survey data from the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children study, researchers analyzed trends in bullying, physical fighting and carrying of weapons among sixth- through 1
Moderators of Middle School Transition Effects on Academic Achievement
The academic impact of the transition from elementary to middle school has significant consequences for many early adolescents. This study examines academic growth across the transition, as well as sociodemographic moderators. Rather than defining the transition effect as a decline in student achievement between fifth and sixth grade, these data demonstrate the transition effect as an interruption

APR 17

Banning Chocolate Milk in School Cafeterias Decreases Sales and Increases Waste
Click to view larger image and download! Free for non-commercial useFor many children eating school lunch, chocolate milk is a favorite choice.  What would happen if chocolate milk were banned from school cafeterias? “Students take 10% less milk, waste 29% more and may even stop eating school meals,” says Andrew Hanks, PhD.In a recent article published in PLOS ONE, researchers for the Cornell Ce

APR 16

Federal School Improvement Grants at High-ELL Schools
Federal School Improvement Grants (SIG) support turnaround efforts in the nation’s lowest-performing schools, including many that serve a large number of English Language Learner Students (ELLs). This evaluation brief examines 11 high-ELL SIG schools’ capacity and efforts to address the unique needs of ELLs.Key findings include:- Although all 11 schools provided specialized supports for ELL studen
The true extent of poor pupil behavior in schools in England is seriously underestimated,
 Research by Prof Haydn of  the University of East Anglia questions the positive picture of behaviour presented by the government. He says recent Department for Education and Ofsted reports suggesting it is at least satisfactory in 99.7% of English schools and good or outstanding in 92% of schools are misleading. He warns that even the acknowledgement last year by Her Majesty’s chief inspector of

APR 15

Students enrolled in NC Pre-K show significant gains across all areas of learning
Scientists from UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute have released their new study of NC Pre-K, the state’s program to prepare four-year-olds for success in kindergarten. According to FPG’s report, students enrolled in NC Pre-K show significant gains across all areas of learning.  “Children are progressing at an even greater rate during their participation in NC Pre-K than expec
Integrated Student Supports and Equity: What’s Not Being Discussed?
Connecting school, home, and community resources is essential to the well-beingof children and youth and to enhancing equity of opportunity for them to succeedat school and beyond. With this in mind, many initiatives and policy reports havefocused on addressing the widespread fragmentation of supports for families andtheir children. Considerable policy emphasis has centered on the notion ofintegra
What students and families pay out-of-pocket to attend college
Out-of-pocket net price for college increased over time despite an increase in grant and loan aid over the same period (1999-2000 to 2011-12). This publication briefly presents trends in out-of-pocket net price for college, the amount that students and their families must pay to attend college after subtracting grants, loans, work-study, and all other student aid from the total price of attendance
Co-location Report omits statistical details and background research
A recent report argues that co-locating charter schools with traditional public schools doesn’t harm the achievement of the traditional public school students. But the report leaves out the necessary documentation by which its conclusions could be reasonably assessed, a new review released today explains.Professor Tina Trujillo of the University of California-Berkeley School of Education, along wi

APR 10

College Dropout Rates Decrease as Student Readiness Increases
Student Aspirations, College Selectivity, and Parent Education Level All Linked to Persisting in CollegeA new ACT research report shows a clear link between student academic readiness and college dropout and transfer rates. The findings suggest students at the greatest risk of dropping out are those who earn lower ACT® college readiness assessment scores, particularly those with less educated pare
Report on teacher value-added impact improperly ignores information contradicting its findings
A highly influential but non-peer-reviewed report on teacher impact suffers from a series of errors in methodology and calculations, according to a new review published today.Professor Moshe Adler reviewed two recent reports released in September 2013 as National Bureau of Economic Research working papers. Dr. Adler’s review for the Think Twice think tank review project is published today by the N

4-19-14 Schools Matter All Week

Schools Matter: 

 Schools Matter All Week





In the 1920s Harvard was a beehive of activity aimed at segregation and sterilization of those deemed mentally and socially defective, based principally on classist and racist assumptions about the poor and the those of different ethnic backgrounds.   One of the Eugenics Movement rock stars, Charles Davenport, was a graduate of Harvard and instrumental in assuring the forced castration of a number


Citizen Jack's analysis of Michelle Rhee's recent mendaciousness
"In an even more disturbing revelation heard on the tape Rhee laughs about when the tape was removed hurting the children and some even started to bleed." — John Kugler "Jack," a frequent commenter on Professor Ravitch's site, sent me the following analysis in which he compares various sources on Michelle Rhee recent deceitfulness. Jack's commentary takes the original guest pos
Opt Out Wave Growing
The articles below are captured in one day of Google Alert for "opt out."  The movement to end a century of miseducative, classist, and racist tests will not be denied. Town HallNY Schools Struggle Where to Put Students Who Opt Out of Standardized TestsTown HallA battle between parents and educators has erupted over standardized testing in the state of New York. These exams have been the

APR 17

Really? Do We Really Want Experienced Teachers to Resign
How many more experienced, professional educators will submit their letters of resignation before Washington and the State Legislatures stop catering to the monied interests intent on destroying any meaningful and real education for the next generation? Haven't we already documented extensively through research and blogging how damaging the current corporate education reform movement is to the nat
NYT Talking about the Tests as Weapons of Mass Distraction
The New York Times editors appear to be catching on to the fact that the proliferation and misuse of high stakes testing  are not only a huge waste of resources that are actually doing more harm than good, but are also a "distraction" from the very real problems of poverty and inequality.  It's about time.To the Editor:Elizabeth Phillips decries the gag order that school principals are u

APR 15

Labeling, Sorting, Segregating: The History of Standardizing Tests in U. S. Schools
Much of the first sections of TMoE is dedicated to tracing out how tests came to be used as social sorting tools during our first Gilded Age when grand canyons of inequality between rich and poor had turned American cities into dangerous and unhealthy place. Below is a piece posted last week at Alternet, but I want to preface that first with two quotes from an important book published 98 years ago

APR 14

Why the Growing Opt Out Movement Puts Fear into the Antiquated Losers of Corporate Education Reform
I was chatting today with someone I had not seen in a while, and told them about my work in support of United Opt Out and how it could 6 percent of parents keeping their children home on test days could make the tests unusable for the sorting and punishing they are intended. Brilliant, she said. Brilliant, indeed.  That is why the creaky dean of CorpEd, Chester Finn, has offered his own "love

APR 13

Assessing the Model: A KIPP Teacher Speaks of Her Nervous Breakdown and Post-KIPP Recovery, Part 3
"I would say that working at KIPP was the most horrible experience of my life. I would tell people that, I would tell a friend especially that the message is good with KIPP, that you want to send all kids to and through college. But it is at such great personal sacrifice that it’s—it crushed me. I would encourage anyone else to just stop. It wasn’t even getting fired that was the worst thing

APR 12

Stephen Colbert on the Common Core
ht to Lisa Guisbond at CPS:The Colbert ReportGet More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,Video Archive
The Firing: A KIPP Teacher Speaks of Her Nervous Breakdown and Post-KIPP Recovery, Part 2
At the end of Part 1 of my conversation with Jane, the results for the first interim assessment for the state test had been announced, and the KIPP administration was in crisis mode due to lower than expected scores.  JANE: So when they had their big crisis . . . . And these kids, honestly, a lot of them don’t have dads. You know? They come from rough families. They don’t have a lot of stability.