Education Research Report:
THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT
School improvement strategy designed by teachers shows promise
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 2 days ago
* Students in lowest-performing Boston schools are closing the achievement gap compared to their peers in the district and statewide * Data from the 2012 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) shows that students in Boston’s T3 Initiative partner schools are making extraordinary gains in English language arts and math. Teach Plus’ T3: Turnaround Teacher Team Initiative partners with Boston Public Schools that are among the lowest-performing in the state. But a new report by Teach Plus shows that students in these schools are now catching up with their peers in all ot... more »
US 4th Graders: 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS)
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 days ago
This report from the National Center for Education Statistics summarizes the performance of U.S. fourth-grade students on the 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), comparing their scores with their peers internationally as well as documenting changes in reading achievement since 2001. The report also describes additional details about the achievement of students within the United States, by sex, racial/ethnic background, and the poverty level of the schools they attend. It also includes state-level results for public school students in Florida. PIRLS is sp... more »
Postsecondary Enrollment, Graduation Rates, and Student Financial Aid
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 days ago
By extending the time students were tracked for program completion from within 100 percent of normal time to within 200 percent of normal time, graduation rates for undergraduates who were full-time, first-time students in 2007 increased from 21 percent to 37 percent at 2-year institutions and from 46 percent to 69 percent at less-than-2-year institutions, according to new data released by the National Center for Education Statistics. Enrollment in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2011; Financial Statistics, Fiscal Year 2011; and Graduation Rates, Selected Cohorts, 2003-2008presen... more »
TIMSS 2011: U.S. Students & Peers Around the World
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 3 days ago
This report from the National Center for Education Statistics summarizes the performance of U.S. fourth- and eighth-grade students on the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), comparing their scores with their peers internationally as well as documenting changes in mathematics and science achievement since 1995. The report also describes additional details about the achievement of students within the United States, by sex, racial/ethnic background, and the poverty level of the schools they attend. It also include state-level results for public school ... more »
Characteristics of U.S. Science and Engineering Doctorates Detailed
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 4 days ago
The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) has released a report titled Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities: 2010that unveils important trends in U.S. doctoral education. The report calls attention to the changing characteristics of U.S. doctorate recipients over time, including the increased representation of women, minorities and foreign nationals; the emergence of new fields of study; the time it takes to complete doctoral study; the expansion of the postdoctoral pool; and employment opportunities after graduation. Understanding connections among t... more »
Does State Preschool Crowd-Out Private Provision?
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 5 days ago
The success of any governmental subsidy depends on whether it increases or crowds out existing consumption. Yet to date there has been little empirical evidence, particularly in the education sector, on whether government intervention crowds out private provision. Universal preschool policies introduced in Georgia and Oklahoma offer an opportunity to investigate the impact of government provision and government funding on provision of childcare. This study examines the effects of universal preschool on childcare providers. In both states there is an increase in the amount of form... more »
High-Achieving, Low Income Students Miss Out On Better Colleges
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 5 days ago
The authors of this study report that the vast majority of very high-achieving students who are low-income do not apply to any selective college or university. This is despite the fact that selective institutions would often cost them less, owing to generous financial aid, than the resource-poor two-year and non-selective four-year institutions to which they actually apply. Moreover, high-achieving, low-income students who do apply to selective institutions are admitted and graduate at high rates. The study demonstrates that these low-income students' application behavior differs... more »
FIT KIDS FINISH FIRST IN THE CLASSROOM
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Fit kids aren’t only first picked for kickball. New research from Michigan State University shows middle school students in the best physical shape outscore their classmates on standardized tests and take home better report cards. Published in the *Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness*, it’s the first study linking children’s fitness to both improved scores on objective tests and better grades, which rely on subjective decisions by teachers. The study also is among the first to examine how academic performance relates to all aspects of physical fitness – including body ... more »
Among low-income schools, traditional public schools show higher achievement scores than charters
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) recently released Report Cards for a majority of public and charter schools in the state. Public schools comprise 95% (1,772 schools) of the total data set, charter schools comprise 5% (101) of the total. The Report Cards represent a compilation of three years of data intended to provide a standard of measure for school, student, and teacher performance. Forward Institute is conducting an extensive study on the effects of Wisconsin 2011 Act 32 on high poverty vs. low poverty school students, to be completed in January 2013. For... more »
New NAEP Report Relates Vocabulary Skills to Reading Comprehension
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
* National- and State-Level Data Available for Grades 4, 8, and 12* The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report card focuses on how well students are able to use words to gain meaning from the passages they read. Although previous NAEP reading assessments included vocabulary questions, the 2009 assessment was redesigned to provide a new, systematic way of more fully measuring and reporting how students’ understanding of word meanings in the context of the passage impacts reading comprehension. Today’s report, Vocabulary Results from the 2009 and 2011 NAEP Re... more »
Charter Schools Under-Enroll Students With Special Needs, New Review Finds
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Several recent reports, including one from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, have found that charter schools generally under-enroll special education students when compared to conventional public schools. A new report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education, however, asserts that charter schools’ special education rates are much closer to those of district public schools than is described by these other recent reports. A review of that new report concludes that, even though it was touted as reaching different conclusions – more favorable to charter schools – than ... more »
Using Student Test Scores to Measure Principal Performance
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Expansion of the use of student test score data to measure teacher performance has fueled recent policy interest in using those data to measure the effects of school administrators as well. However, little research has considered the capacity of student performance data to uncover principal effects. Filling this gap, this article identifies multiple conceptual approaches for capturing the contributions of principals to student test score growth, develops empirical models to reflect these approaches, examines the properties of these models, and compares the results of the models empiricall... more »
Ensuring Educational Technology Meets the Needs of Students Today
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Born in Another Time - The Report of the NASBE Study Group on the Role of Technology in Schools and Communities Summary and Recommendations Innovative technologies—from smartphones and smart TVs to iPads and even Leap Pads for preschoolers— have launched our children into a digital age, a period in which the average teenager texts 60 times every day, a large majority of teens have a social networking site, and the combined use of media by students averages 6.5 to nearly 10 hours daily, much of it in a multi-tasking environment. This generation of students truly has been born in a ... more »
Math Assessment Accommodations for English Language Learners
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
WestEd's Regional Educational Laboratory West (REL West) examined the effect of linguistic modification on middle school students' ability to show what they know and can do on mathematics assessments. Linguistic modification involves reducing the complexity of the English used in a test in ways that support clarity without simplifying or significantly altering the targeted construct assessed. This can help ensure that math tests more accurately measure students' math understanding. This study resulted in a report prepared by REL West staff. Research Questions The primary research...more »
No Clear Path to Mathematics Learning
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
New research examining the course-taking patterns of some 24,000 students in 24 California unified school districts finds that students already doing well in mathematics in the 7th grade are more likely to take advanced math courses in high school and achieve proficiency on the California Standards Test (CST) in algebra. But for the many students who struggle with math in grade 7, there is no clear path to learning and achievement in this critical content area. Conducted by a team of researchers at WestEd and SRI International and released today by the Center for the Future of Tea... more »
Effectiveness of Four Supplemental Reading Comprehension Interventions
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
This article presents evidence from a large-scale randomized controlled trial of the effects of four supplemental reading comprehension curricula (Project CRISS, ReadAbout, Read for Real, and Reading for Knowledge) on students’ understanding of informational text. Across 2 school years, the study included 10 school districts, more than 200 schools, and more than 10,000 fifth-grade students. Schools interested in implementing 1 of the 4 supplemental curricula were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatment groups or to a control group. The impact analyses in the study's first year revea...more »
Effective Reading Programs for Spanish-Dominant English Language Learners (ELLs) in the Elementary Grades
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
This review synthesizes research on English reading outcomes of all types of programs for Spanish-dominant English language learners (ELLs) in elementary schools. It is divided into two major sections. One focuses on studies of language of instruction and one on reading approaches for ELLs holding constant language of instruction. A total of 13 qualifying studies met the inclusion criteria for language of instruction. Though the overall findings indicate a positive effect (effect size = .21) in favor of bilingual education, the largest and longest term evaluations, including the o... more »
First- Through Eighth-Grade Retention Rates for All 50 States
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
How many students repeat a grade each year? How do retention rates vary across states and over time? Despite extensive research on the predictors and consequences of grade retention, there is no systematic way to quantify state-level retention rates; even national estimates rely on imperfect proxy measures. This report presents a conceptually simple method—based on publicly available data that are routinely collected each year—that describes retention rates at the state and national levels. After describing and validating this method, the authors use it to report first- through ... more »
Why Superintendents Turn Over
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
Although superintendent turnover can hinder district reform and improvement, research examining superintendent exits is scarce. This studyidentifies factors contributing to superintendent turnover in California by matching original superintendent and school board survey data with administrative data and information hand-collected from news sources on why superintendents left and where they went. Among 215 superintendents studied beginning in 2006, 45% exited within 3 years. Using a multinomial framework to separate retirements from other turnover, the authors find that factors suc... more »
Recruiting Effective Math Teachers: Evidence From New York City
Jonathan Kantrowitz at Education Research Report - 1 week ago
For well over a decade school districts across the United States have struggled to recruit and retain effective mathematics teachers. In response to the need for qualified math teachers and the difficulty of directly recruiting individuals who have already completed the math content required for qualification, some districts, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York City, have developed alternative certification programs with a math immersion component to recruit otherwise well-qualified candidates who do not have undergraduate majors in math. This articl... more »
