This Week's Education Research Report 3-2-13 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

Education Research Report:

THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT

Sex Education Requiremennts and Teen Pregnancy

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 50 minutes ago

This brief from the Guttmacher Institute summarizes state-level sex and HIV education policies, as well as specific content requirements, based on a review of state laws, regulations and other legally binding policies. HIGHLIGHTS: General Requirements: Sex Education and HIV Education 22 states and the District of Columbia mandate sex education.  20 states and the District of Columbia mandate both sex education and HIV education.  2 states only mandate sex education. 33 states and the District of Columbia mandate HIV education; of these states, 13 mandate only HIV education. 27 s... more »

Setting passing standards for readiness

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 hour ago

Performance standards are a powerful way to communicate K–12 student achievement (e.g., proficiency) and are the cornerstone of standards-based reform. As education reform shifts the focus to college and career readiness, approaches for setting performance standards need to be revised. The focus on assessing student readiness can move performance standards toward an increasingly empirical grounding, leading to more meaningful and understandable standards for student achievement and better guideposts for instructional improvement. This article, Evidence-Based Standard Setting Esta...more »

K-1 At-Risk Summer School: Promising Results

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 16 hours ago

This study examined the impact of a summer literacy program on kindergarten and first-grade students who were at moderate risk for reading difficulties in one Pacific Northwest school district. Study authors randomly assigned students to either receive an invitation to attend the summer school intervention or to serve as a comparison group where summer school attendance was not offered. The study assessed the effectiveness of the summer literacy program by comparing the achievement of the students in the intervention and comparison conditions. Application of multiple regression mod... more »

Guiding Healthier Behavior While Preserving Choices

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 19 hours ago

School Lunches: Hanks, A. S., Just, D. R., & Wansink, B. (2013). Smarter Lunchrooms can Address New School Lunchroom Guidelines and Childhood Obesity. Journal of Pediatrics, 162: 867-9 Recently, the USDA passed regulations designed to make school lunches more nutritious. Schools participating in the National School Lunch Program are required to increase whole grain offerings, cap the fat of milk at 1% for white and non-fat for flavored, and ensure that students take either a fruit or a vegetable with their purchased lunch. Unfortunately, forcing behavior jeopardizes the potential t... more »

Preventive intervention helps children who show aggression at an early age

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

Fast Track is a preventive intervention designed to help children who show aggression at an early age. The intervention addresses kids’ social-cognitive processes in several ways, including social-skill training groups, parent groups, and classroom curricula. In this study, the researchers investigated the processes underlying this intervention’s success. A total of 891 kindergarteners who were at high risk for adolescent antisocial behavior were randomly assigned to receive either the Fast Track intervention or a control program. The data revealed that children in the interventio... more »

First grade math skills set foundation for later math ability

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

* Study identifies fundamental skills needed for math functioning in adult life* Children who failed to acquire a basic math skill in first grade scored far behind their peers by seventh grade on a test of the mathematical abilities needed to function in adult life, according to researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health. The basic math skill, number system knowledge, is the ability to relate a quantity to the numerical symbol that represents it, and to manipulate quantities and make calculations. This skill is the basis for all other mathematics abilities, includin... more »

Action video games boost reading skills

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

Much to the chagrin of parents who think their kids should spend less time playing video games and more time studying, time spent playing action video games can actually make dyslexic children read better. In fact, 12 hours of video game play did more for reading skills than is normally achieved with a year of spontaneous reading development or demanding traditional reading treatments. The evidence, appearing in the Cell Press journal *Current Biology* on February 28, follows from earlier work by the same team linking dyslexia to early problems with visual attention rather than lan... more »

Evaluating aerobics in academic performance

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

Although the long-term consequences of childhood obesity are well documented, some school districts have reduced physical education classes to devote more time to the 3 Rs in education—reading, writing, and arithmetic. However, there is new evidence that leaving out an important fourth R—aerobics—could actually be counterproductive for increasing test scores. A new study scheduled for publication in *The Journal of Pediatrics*studied the associations between aerobic fitness, body mass index (BMI), and passing scores on standardized math and reading tests. Dr. Robert R. Rauner and co... more »

Sexting Among Ethnic Minority Urban High School Students

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

Sexting, the use of technology to send or receive sexually explicit messages, photos, or videos, is a relatively new trend and, in many cases, has legal implications. As many as 25-50% of young people may participate in sexting. A close-up look at the sexting practices of a group of urban ethnic minority youths is presented in an article in *Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking*, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. In fact, sexting is relatively common among ethnic minority youth, according to Melissa Fleschler Peskin, PhD and coauthors, U... more »

Closer Personal Relationships Could Help Teens Overcome Learning Disabilities

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

In addition to struggling in school, many learning disabled children are known to face social and emotional challenges including depression, anxiety, and isolation. Often beginning early in childhood, they become more pronounced during adolescence, an emotionally turbulent time. For these youngsters, more positive relationships with the significant adults in their lives — including parents and teachers — can improve learning and "socioemotional" experiences, says Dr. Michal Al-Yagon of Tel Aviv University's Jaime and Joan Constantiner School of Education. In a recent study publishe... more »

TEACHER PERSPECTIVES ON THE COMMON CORE

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

To better understand the views of teachers on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the EPE Research Center invited users of edweek.org—Education Week’s flagship Web site—to participate in a online survey in October 2012. Surveys were received from 670 qualified respondents—teachers or other instructional specialists in K-12 schools. The results presented in this report focus on the 599 respondents from states that have adopted the common standards. While not statistically representative of the nation’s educators, respondents include a diverse group of teachers and instruction... more »

How Teens Do Research in the Digital World

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

The teachers who instruct the most advanced American secondary school students render mixed verdicts about students’ research habits and the impact of technology on their studies. Some 77% of advanced placement (AP) and National Writing Project (NWP) teachers surveyed say that the internet and digital search tools have had a “mostly positive” impact on their students’ research work. But 87% say these technologies are creating an “easily distracted generation with short attention spans” and 64% say today’s digital technologies “do more to distract students than to help them academi... more »

How Teachers Are Using Technology at Home and in Their Classrooms

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

A survey of teachers who instruct American middle and secondary school students finds that digital technologies have become central to their teaching and professionalization. At the same time, the internet, mobile phones, and social media have brought new challenges to teachers, and they report striking differences in access to the latest digital technologies between lower and higher income students and school districts. These are among the main findings of an online survey of a non-probability sample of 2,462 middle and high school teachers currently teaching in the U.S., Puerto R... more »

National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

The Report of 2012 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education details the results of a survey of 7,752 science and mathematics teachers in schools across the United States. Areas addressed include: teacher backgrounds and beliefs, teachers as professionals, science and mathematics courses, instructional objectives and activities, instructional resources, and factors affecting instruction. *Download Complete Report* - Report of the 2012 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education(PDF, 3.7M) *Download Chapter by Chapter* - Front Matter (Table of Contents, et... more »

Health & Productivity Benefits from Green School Efforts

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

According to a new report released by McGraw-Hill Construction entitled New & Retrofit Green Schools-The Cost Benefits and Influence of a Green School on its Occupants, both K-12 and universities are reporting significant benefits from their green school efforts—both in improved child health, wellbeing and performance, but also teacher and faculty satisfaction. These results are accompanied by reported financial benefits from green school activities. According to the study, nearly all K–12 school (91%) and university (89%) respondents report that green schools have improved the hea...more »

New State-Level Data on the State Education Reforms Website

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 day ago

New state-level data on arts education, early childhood education, as well as school, college, and career readiness are now available on the NCES State Education Reforms website. The State Education Reforms website, which draws primarily on data collected by organizations other than NCES, compiles and disseminates data on state-level education reform efforts in five areas: (1) Accountability (2) Assessment and standards (3) Staff qualifications and development (4) State support for school choice and other options (5) Student readiness and progress through school The “Assessment... more »

Nine Lessons for School Districts to Cultivate Top-Notch Principals

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago

A new report, Districts Matter: Cultivating the Principals Urban Schools Need, distills insights from school leadership projects and major studies supported by the foundation since 2000 to highlight key district actions to boost school leadership, including drawing up meaningful job descriptions and mentoring novice principals. Specifically, the report recommends that districts recognize that they have two chief areas of responsibility and a number of concrete tasks to do within each: First, build a large corps of well-qualified candidates for the principalship: - Create job de... more »

Moving toward “competency-based learning"

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago

For a century, most students have advanced from grade to grade based on the number of days they spend in class, but in New Hampshire, schools have moved away from “seat time” and toward “competency-based learning,” which advances students when they have mastered course content. Strengthening High School Teaching and Learning in New Hampshire’s Competency-Based System, a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education, profiles how two high schools in New Hampshire made this shift and examines the changes that were necessary to make competency-based advancement an important part... more »

Boys' Lack of Effort in School Tied to College Gender Gap

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago

When it comes to college education, men are falling behind by standing still. The proportion of men receiving college degrees has stagnated, while women have thrived under the new economic and social realities in the United States and elsewhere, according to two sociologists who have written a new book on the subject. "The world has changed around boys, and they have not adapted as well as girls," said Claudia Buchmann, a professor of sociology at Ohio State University and co-author of The Rise of Women: The Growing Gender Gap in Education and What it Means for American Schools (R...more »

Benefits of requiring that all students take the SAT or the ACT.

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago

Since 2001 Colorado, Illinois, and Maine have all enacted policies that require high school juniors to take college entrance exams—the SAT or the ACT. One goal of these policies was to increase college enrollment based on the belief that requiring students to take these exams would make students more likely to consider college as a viable option. This article, The ACT of Enrollment - The College Enrollment Effects of State-Required College Entrance Exam Testing presents the effects of this state-mandated college entrance exam testing. Based on both state- and individual-level ana... more »

School breakfast = 17.5% higher scores on standardized math tests

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago

According to new analysis, "Ending Childhood Hunger: A Social Impact Analysis" ensuring low-income children have access to a healthy school breakfast has the potential to dramatically impact their academic, health and economic futures. The study was developed in collaboration with Deloitte and analyzed third party studies and publicly available data. Nationally, students on average who eat school breakfast have been shown to achieve 17.5% higher scores on standardized math tests and attend 1.5 more days of school per year. Research also shows students who attend class more regularl...more »

Girls + high school sports = college graduation

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 4 days ago

Girls who don a sports uniform in high school are more likely to eventually sport a collegiate cap and gown, a conclusion based on a new Brigham Young University study about the playing field and classroom dynamic. Playing on a high school team increases young women’s odds of graduating from college by 41 percent, according to recent BYU grad Kelly Troutman and her mentor, sociology professor Mikaela Dufur, who report their research in the new issue of the journal Youth & Society. “If the goal is for girls to get a higher education, our findings favor the idea of girls playing hig... more »

Girls perform as well as boys in math competitions

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 4 days ago

* Supposed gender gap just a product of first-round nerves* The idea that boys are better at math and in competitions has persisted for a long time, and now we know why: Nobody bothered to schedule the rematch. Most school math contests are one-shot events where girls underperform relative to their male classmates. But a new study by a Brigham Young University economist presents a different picture. Twenty-four local elementary schools changed the format to go across five different rounds. Once the first round was over, girls performed as well or better than boys for the rest of the... more »

Not mixing genders in high-school classes = long-run gains

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

In most European and North American countries women have overtaken men in college graduation rates. Nevertheless, a striking gender gap persists in the salaries of men and women, even when they are highly educated – and even if the overall gap has, in fact, narrowed in some nations (Black and Spitz-Oener 2007). One important reason for that gap is that men and women choose different college majors leading to very different careers. Nearly two thirds of all humanities degrees are awarded to women. Men, instead, choose majors in engineering, economics and in the mathematical sciences ... more »

Strict Discipline in Charters - Is It Worth the Price?

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

Urban minority children are increasingly being educated at public schools run by charter management organizations (CMOs) characterized by a highly rule-ordered and regulated environment. These rules, enforced through continuous streams of reinforcements and penalties, while contributing to a tight focus on academics and a safe culture, have associated costs. This report, Charter Management Organizations and the Regulated Environment Is It Worth the Price?, scrutinizes four CMO commonalities, along with their implications: the pervasive adult monitoring of students, targeting behav... more »

Inexpensive changes to school cafeterias promote healthier foods

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

In January 2012, the United States Department of Agriculture passed a series of regulations designed to make school lunches more nutritious, which included requiring schools to increase whole grain offerings and making students select either a fruit or vegetable with their purchased lunch. However, children cannot be forced to eat these healthier lunches. In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers determined that small, inexpensive changes to school cafeterias influenced the choice and consumption of healthier foods. Andrew S. Hanks, PhD, and... more »

Student Loans Help Women More than Men in Reaching Graduation

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

* Women Need College Degree More to Get Good Job* Student loans provide more help to women than they do for men in encouraging graduation from college, a new nationwide study reveals. Findings showed that, on average, taking out loans actually makes graduation more likely for all students. But at a certain point – which is about $2,000 lower for men than for women – debt has diminishing returns and becomes less effective at boosting chances of graduation. One reason loans help women more may be tied to job prospects for college dropouts – which are much better for men than for wom... more »

Are countries moving towards more equitable education systems?

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

Ideally, school systems provide high-quality educational opportunities for all students, irrespective of the students’ backgrounds. students from socio-economically advantaged families and those from disadvantaged families should be equally likely to succeed in school. That is the ideal, anyway. In most countries, the reality looks a lot different. PISA results have consistently shown that socio-economic disadvantage is linked to poor performance in school. in fact, on average across OECD countries, disadvantaged students are twice as likely to be among the poorest performers in ... more »

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Mega-States report

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Mega-States reportfocuses on the performance of students in the five most populous states in the United States: California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texas. These five states have the five largest public school populations in the nation. The report focuses on the performance of public school students in three subjects: reading, mathematics, and science at grades 4 and 8. Please note that writing results were not included in this report because the 2011 writing framework begins a new trend line. In addition, the 2011 compu... more »

The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Challenges for School Leadership

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Challenges for School Leadership (2012) captures the viewpoints and experiences of teachers and principals working to meet those responsibilities in an environment of continued strained resources and increased expectations to strengthen educational outcomes. Key Findings: • Among responsibilities that school leaders face, those that teachers and principals identify as most challenging result from conditions that originate beyond school doors. A majority of teachers and principals report that their school’s budget has decreased in the la... more »

The 9th Annual AP Report to the Nation

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

Data released yesterday by the College Board as part of The 9th Annual AP Report to the Nation revealed that more high school graduates are participating — and succeeding — in college-level AP courses and exams than ever before. Succeeding in AP is defined as achieving a score of 3 or higher on the five-point AP Exam scale, which is the score needed for credit, advanced placement or both at the majority of colleges and universities. *Among the class of 2012:* - The number of high school graduates taking AP Exams increased to 954,070, (32.4%), up from 904,794 (30.2%) among th... more »

The School Staffing Surge hits the Bunkum trifecta

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

The “Three’s a Harm” Award, a National Education Policy Center (NEPC) 2012 Bunkum Award for truly dreadful educational research, goes to the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice’s report *The School Staffing Surge: Decades of Employment Growth in America’s Public Schools*. This think tank is a past Bunkum winner, and this time it has truly outdone itself. The School Staffing Surge hits the Bunkum trifecta with its inaccurate information, erroneous reasoning, and sheer audacity. According to the report, public school test scores and dropout numbers did not improve between 199...more »

School Vouchers had a “tiny insignificant impact” on College Enrollment

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

The “Trust Us, There’s a Pro-Voucher Result Hiding in Here Somewhere” Award, a National Education Policy Center (NEPC) 2012 Bunkum Award for truly dreadful educational research, has been given to Matthew M. Chingos, Paul E. Peterson and The Brookings Institution. Their report, The Effects of School Vouchers on College Enrollment: Experimental Evidence from New York City, searches far and wide for any possible evidence of the benefits of school vouchers. This report’s raison d’être was to make the case that an old (now expired) New York City voucher policy, providing $1,400 per year... more »

Including Students With Disabilities and English Learners in Measures of Educator Effectiveness

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

This report provides an overview of the challenges of accounting for students with disabilities (SWDs) and English learners (ELs) in the evaluation of mainstream teachers. It focuses on the two prominent indicators of teaching quality—classroom observations and value-added scores. The report begins by describing each indicator and outlining the specific challenges related to the inclusion of SWDs and ELs in mainstream teacher evaluation. The report makes recommendations for states and districts to ensure that teacher evaluation systems adequately and fairly account for these stu... more »

College Courses Can Use Technology To Improve Access and Reduce Costs

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

* Experimental study shows students learn as much online as do peers in traditional courses* While increasing attention is being given to the rising cost of a college education, there has been little systematic research on the potential for online learning to deliver high-quality instruction on a more cost-effective basis. Now a new experimental study has shown that students enrolled in a large “hybrid” introductory statistics course at six public university campuses, featuring online learning modules with lecture periods as supplements, learn as much as students in traditional lec... more »

Saxon Math has mixed effects on mathematics achievement for middle school students

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

*Saxon Math* is a core curriculum for students in grades K–12 that uses an incremental approach for instruction and assessment. New concepts are introduced gradually and build upon previously introduced content, giving students daily time to practice. After reviewing 21 studies on the effectiveness of *Saxon Math* on the mathematics achievement of middle school students, the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) found that five of the studies meet WWC evidence standards. These five studies included 6,601 students in grades 6–8 from 52 schools in four states. One study is a randomized co...more »

Upping the Ante of Text Complexity in the Common Core State Standards

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

* Examining Its Potential Impact on Young Readers* The Common Core Standards for the English Language Arts (CCSS) provide explicit guidelines matching grade-level bands (e.g., 2–3, 4–5) with targeted text complexity levels. The CCSS staircase accelerates text expectations for students across Grades 2–12 in order to close a gap in the complexity of texts typically used in high school and those of college and career. This article examines the theoretical and empirical support for three assumptions that underlie the acceleration of text complexity in Grades 2–3. The first step of the... more »

Modifying Media Content for Preschool Children: Sesame Street and Dora

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

Full text Abstract: BACKGROUND: Although previous studies have revealed that preschool-aged children imitate both aggression and prosocial behaviors on screen, there have been few population-based studies designed to reduce aggression in preschool-aged children by modifying what they watch. METHODS: We devised a media diet intervention wherein parents were assisted in substituting high quality prosocial and educational programming for aggression-laden programming without trying to reduce total screen time. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of 565 parents of preschool-aged... more »

Simple interventions bridge the achievement gap between Latino and white students

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

The achievement gap in academic performance between academically at-risk minorities and white students has concerned educators for decades now. It's a troubling fact that Latino Americans and African Americans, for example, earn lower grades on average than their white peers and are much more likely to drop out of high school. Amid such sobering statistics, a bright spark has appeared in the form of research being led by Geoffrey Cohen, a professor of education and of psychology at Stanford, and David Sherman of the University of California-Santa Barbara. In an article published on... more »

Dual Credit and Exam-Based Courses in U.S. Public High Schools:

Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago

During the 2010-11 school year, 82 percent of high schools reported that students were enrolled in dual credit courses. “Dual Credit and Exam-Based Courses in U.S. Public High Schools: 2010-11,” a First Look report from the Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) provides national data about enrollment in dual credit courses, eligibility requirements for enrolling in dual credit courses, the types of instructors in dual credit courses, and expenses paid by students and their parents. This survey is an update to a 2002-03 dual credit survey. Findings include: • During the 2010–11 schoo... more »