Saturday, February 22, 2025

Spending more than 3 hours a day sedentary worsens teens’ mental health

 


The conclusion comes from a study that analyzed data from more than 3,600 adolescents aged 14 to 17. Moderate screen time spent on educational activities was associated with less psychological distress.



Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day engaged in sedentary behaviors – including playing video games, reading for leisure or spending a lot of time distracted by screens – have a higher risk of facing psychological distress in the future, according to a study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

On the other hand, moderate screen exposure (between 60 and 119 minutes per day) invested in educational activities, such as doing homework or attending classes, was considered a “protective” factor associated with less psychological distress.

Sedentary behavior among adolescents has become a growing problem worldwide, with significant implications for the physical and mental health of the population in this age group. Several studies have shown that a lack of physical activity, especially when combined with excessive use of electronic devices, contributes to an increase in problems such as obesity and cardiovascular disease.

In addition, a growing body of research shows that the effects of a sedentary lifestyle are not limited to the physical body, but can also affect mental health, increasing feelings of anxiety and depression, for example.

The study, conducted at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London in the United Kingdom, analyzed information from 3,675 adolescents who were part of the Millennium Cohort Study, a project that follows children born between 2000 and 2002 and maintains a large database.

The analysis included information on sedentary behavior collected at two points in time: when the adolescents were 14 years old and then at the age of 17. In the first phase, the participants completed a diary in which they recorded the different activities they performed every ten minutes. These activities were categorized into broader contexts: general physical activity, time spent sleeping, recreational screen time, non-screen recreational time, and educational sedentary behavior.

At age 17, the same participants reported their psychological distress using a six-question questionnaire about their feelings, using a tool known as the Kessler Scale. The questions included “how often in the past 30 days” did the participant feel nervous, hopeless, restless, depressed, anxious, and worthless. Analysis of the scores, based on the scale, indicated whether or not they were in psychological distress.

According to André de Oliveira Werneck, author of the article and doctoral student at the Center for Epidemiological Research in Nutrition and Health at the School of Public Health of the University of São Paulo (FSP-USP) in Brazil, the fact that the research was based on responses to sedentary behavior recorded in a diary is one of the differences that make the results so relevant.

Werneck explains that there are several ways to measure sedentary behavior. One of them, which is more objective, uses an accelerometer (a type of device that measures how much a person moves), but it cannot distinguish between different sedentary activities, which are very broad.

“Sedentary behavior includes a variety of activities, such as using a computer, watching television, reading, listening to music, or attending class. Most research focuses on analyzing total sitting time, but we can have positive sedentary activities, such as attending class and doing homework, for example. And there are activities that are not beneficial, such as spending too much time on the Internet or playing video games,” he explains.

A second method of measuring sedentary behavior is subjective, in which people answer a questionnaire about how much time they spend sedentary, watching TV, playing video games, working, or studying in a typical week. Nevertheless, it depends on the participant’s memory.

“Having a record of all the activities of these adolescents, formalized in a diary, provides a much more faithful result and has a more reliable accuracy of the different time periods. It’s not common to use this type of tool, precisely because it’s difficult to implement,” says the doctoral student, who carried out the study as part of a research internship funded by FAPESP.

Impact of reading

To analyze the data, the researchers adjusted for several covariates, including gender, parental education, net family income, parental psychological distress, body mass index, physical activity, total sedentary time and depressive symptoms.

After cross-checking the information, they found that the adolescents spent an average of four hours a day in educational sedentary behavior (school, homework) and about three hours a day in screen and non-screen sedentary behavior. Those who spent more than 180 minutes a day on screens for leisure were associated with greater psychological distress at age 17.

Similarly – and surprisingly – the researchers found that those who spent more than three hours a day reading for leisure (especially boys) also reported more psychological distress. According to the study, while previous research has shown that reading is associated with better mental health outcomes and other healthy behaviors, this new research suggests that excessive reading may be harmful in some cases.

One of the hypotheses to explain this finding, says Werneck, is that adolescents who spend many hours reading are “displacing” time that could be spent on activities with face-to-face or outdoor social interactions, which are protective, leading to greater isolation. In addition, it is possible that some of the reading is done on screen devices (cell phones, computers or tablets), which is also harmful – there are studies in adults that link screen reading to poorer sleep because of exposure to blue light.

“This is an unexpected finding in the study, but it’s important to emphasize that very few adolescents spend a lot of time reading for leisure. Our main finding, given the general context, is that more leisure screen time [video games] was associated with worse psychological distress, while more time in educational activities was associated with less distress,” he says.

Professor Brendon Stubbs, who supervised the study, told Agência FAPESP by email that the study revealed several worrying patterns. “We found that adolescents who spent more than three hours a day on screen-based leisure activities showed significantly greater psychological distress three years later. Video games were particularly influential, with each additional hour associated with a 3% increase in psychological distress.”

According to Stubbs, the results suggest a clear dose-response relationship between excessive recreational screen time and future mental health outcomes. “Importantly, this relationship was context-dependent, meaning that educational screen time did not show the same negative effects, highlighting that the problem is not screen use per se, but how and why screens are used.”

How to minimize the impact

Based on the findings, the researchers suggest interventions that could help minimize the negative psychological effects:

• Set clear limits on screen time: Implement guidelines that limit recreational screen time to less than three hours per day, as the study results show that this is when the risks increase significantly;

• Focus on context: Encourage more educational and structured screen activities rather than passive recreational screen time. The study found that educational screen time had no negative effects;

• Balance activities: Promote alternative leisure activities with social interaction components, as isolated screen time can contribute to psychological distress;

• Gender-specific approaches: Consider personalized interventions, as work has found gender differences in effects (e.g., girls were more associated with screen use for Internet browsing, boys for video games);

• Educational support: Since moderate amounts of homework and class time have been associated with less psychological distress, ensure adequate academic engagement;

• Manage and optimize screen time instead of eliminating it altogether.

Werneck emphasizes that sedentary behavior is very complex, and for adolescents, each activity and context needs to be evaluated separately. “We need to focus on interventions that not only reduce sedentary behavior but also reduce it in some specific and very long activities that are more associated with psychological distress,” he concludes.


Wednesday, February 19, 2025

More than Half of Public School Leaders Say Cell Phones Hurt Academic Performance

 

Most schools have policies that restrict cell phone use during class, with many citing negative impacts on attention and performance

 New data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) show the extent to which public schools have implemented policies to limit cell phone use. According to the latest findings from the School Pulse Panel (SPP), 77 percent of public schools prohibit students from using cell phones during any class, with a higher percentage of elementary schools (86 percent) implementing such a policy compared to high/secondary schools (55 percent). Also, 38 percent of schools with cell phone policies have restrictions for cell phone use outside of class, such as during free periods, between classes, or during extracurricular activities. Notably, 30 percent of schools prohibit cell phone use during all classes as well as in these situations outside of class.

"The latest School Pulse Panel data underscore that school leaders see cell phones as more than just a classroom distraction," said NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr. "With 53 percent of school leaders reporting negative impacts of cell phone use on academic performance, and even more citing negative impacts on students’ mental health and attention spans, schools are facing a critical issue. Schools are responding with practical solutions, like banning or restricting phone use."

The School Pulse Panel also provides insights about artificial intelligence (AI) in public schools. Sixty-nine percent of leaders have a favorable view of teachers using AI for their job duties. Public school leaders moderately or strongly agree that integrating AI tools into teaching and learning will make life easier for teachers (72 percent), enable teachers to be more relevant with today’s teaching and learning needs (70 percent), and enable teachers to be more effective educators (67 percent). Sixty-seven percent of schools offer training on the use of AI to all or some teachers, staff and/or administrators, though differences exist based on school characteristics. About half (47 percent) of schools teach some or all of their students about AI, with higher percentages for high/secondary schools (72 percent), schools with 1,000 or more students (69 percent), and middle/combined schools (59 percent). Only 31 percent of all public schools have written policies on students’ AI use in school and about a third of public schools (32 percent) have teachers who use software to identify whether a student’s work has been AI-generated.

In the area of school facilities and infrastructure, most public schools (87 percent) report having adequate space for their student population, with 24 percent relying on portable or modular buildings. More than three-quarters of public schools (77 percent) reported that high-speed internet is available to students across all school grounds and buildings. Nearly all schools (98 percent) have some form of cooling system, most schools have central heating throughout the entire main instructional building (87 percent), and 80 percent of schools rate their overall indoor air quality as “good” or “excellent.”

The findings released today are part of an experimental data product from the School Pulse Panel which surveys public K-12 schools in the United States on high-priority education-related topics once a month during the school year. The SPP data, collected December 6–20, 2024, came from 1,490 participating public K-12 schools from every state and the District of Columbia.

Additional data collected from 99 public K-12 schools in the U.S. Outlying Areas—American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands—are also available. Results from this collection include the finding that 36 percent of Outlying Area public schools prohibit students from using cell phones during any class.

Experimental data products are innovative statistical tools created using new data sources or methodologies. Experimental data may not meet all of NCES’s quality standards but are of sufficient benefit to data users, in the absence of other relevant products, to justify release. NCES clearly identifies experimental data products upon their release.

All data released today can be found on the School Pulse Panel Dashboard.

Key Findings:

Technology Devices

  • More than three-quarters of public schools (77 percent) have a cell phone policy that prohibits students from having their cell phone during any classes. Meanwhile, 12 percent have a cell phone policy that allows teachers to decide whether students can have their cell phones during class, and 5 percent have policies that allow students to have their cell phones during all classes. Among public schools, 6 percent reported not having a policy about students having cell phones in the classroom.
    • Compared to the national percentage (77 percent), a higher percentage of elementary schools (86 percent) have a cell phone policy that prohibits students from having their cell phones during any classes, while a lower percentage of high/secondary schools (55 percent) and schools with 1,000 or more students (61 percent) have this type of policy.
  • Thirty-eight percent of public schools with a cell phone policy prohibit their students from using their cell phones in situations outside of class (i.e., during “free periods,” between periods, during extracurricular activities, during meal periods, outside of school buildings while still on school grounds, and other situations).
  • Overall, 30 percent of all public schools have a cell phone policy that prohibits students from having their cell phone in all classes or using their cell phone at school.
  • More than half of public school leaders (53 percent) feel that their students’ academic performance has been negatively impacted by cell phone usage. More than two-thirds feel cell phones have had a negative impact on their students’ mental health (72 percent) and attention span (73 percent). Overall, 52 percent of public school leaders feel that their students have been negatively impacted in these three areas while 9 percent feel students have been positively impacted in these three areas.
  • About 9 in 10 public schools (88 percent) have a 1-to-1 computing program that provides every student a school-issued device, such as a laptop or tablet for the 2024–25 school year. Among these schools:
    • Eighty-nine percent make laptops available to students, and 27 percent make tablets available.
    • Forty-six percent allow students to bring their device home on school days and weekends, while 37 percent do not allow students to bring their device home.
      • Compared to the national percentage (46 percent), a higher percentage of schools with the following characteristics allow students to bring their device home on school days and weekends:
        • Schools with 1,000 or more students (86 percent)
        • High/secondary schools (80 percent)
        • Middle/combined schools (67 percent)
      • Compared to the national percentage (46 percent), a lower percentage of schools with the following characteristics allow students to bring their device home on school days and weekends:
        • Schools with 300–499 students (36 percent)
        • Schools in high poverty neighborhoods (34 percent)
        • Elementary schools (23 percent)

Artificial Intelligence

  • When it comes to their students using AI for their education, 42 percent of public school leaders reported having a favorable view, while 31 percent reported an unfavorable view.
    • The following percentage of public school leaders "agreed” to the statement “Integrating AI tools into teaching and learning will
      • enable students at their school to develop better critical thinking skills (39 percent); and
      • lead to better educational outcomes for students at their school (38 percent).”
  • When it comes to their teachers using AI for their job duties, 69 percent of public school leaders reported having a favorable view, while 13 percent reported an unfavorable view.
    • The following percentage of public school leaders agreed to the statement “Integrating AI tools into teaching and learning will
      • make life easier for teachers at their school (72 percent);
      • enable teachers at their school to be more relevant with today’s teaching and learning needs (70 percent); and
      • enable teachers at their school to be more effective educators (67 percent).”
  • Considering policies on students’ use of AI in school, 31 percent of public school leaders reported their school or district has a written policy, 18 percent reported that their school or district does not currently have a policy but they are aware of plans to develop one, and 30 percent reported that their school or district does not have a policy and they are not aware of current plans to develop one. One in five public school leaders (20 percent) did not know if their school or district has a written policy on students’ use of AI in school.
  • About two-thirds of public schools (67 percent) provided training on the use of AI to all or some teachers, staff, and/or administrators this school year, and 26 percent provided training to all teachers.
    • Compared to the national percentage (67 percent), a higher percentage of schools with less than 25 percent students of color (75 percent) provided training on the use of AI to teachers, staff, and/or administrators this school year, while a lower percentage of schools with more than 75 percent students of color did so (58 percent).
  • Around 7 in 10 public schools (73 percent) reported that they have at least a few teachers who use AI for one or more of the following tasks: creating lesson plans, administrative tasks, creating tailored educational materials for students, supplementing instruction, creating diagnostic assessments, creating formative assessments, or grading and feedback.
  • Around half of public schools (47 percent) reported that they teach students about AI.
    • Compared to the national percentage (47 percent), a higher percentage of schools with the following characteristics reported that they teach students about AI:
      • High/secondary schools (72 percent)
      • Schools with 1,000 or more students (69 percent)
      • Middle/combined schools (59 percent)
    • Compared to the national percentage (47 percent), a lower percentage of schools with the following characteristics reported that they teach students about AI:
      • Schools with 300–499 students (40 percent)
      • Schools with a student body made up of more than 75 percent of students of color (38 percent)
      • Elementary schools (32 percent)
  • About a third of public school leaders (32 percent) reported that they have one or more teachers at their school who use software to identify whether a student’s work has been AI-generated.

Digital Literacy

  • Digital literacy training is offered to students by 68 percent of public schools. Among these schools, 61 percent reported that this training is part of a formal or structured digital literacy curriculum.
    • The two most commonly reported ways in which students receive digital literacy instruction is in library or media lab (57 percent) and embedded in core subjects, such as English language arts, social studies, math, and/or science (54 percent).

School Facilities

  • Most public schools (87 percent) report that their school building(s) is(are) adequate for the size of their student population, with 24 percent reporting that this is true with the use of portable classrooms or modular school buildings and 63 percent reporting this is true without using portable classrooms or modular school buildings.
  • More than three-quarters of public schools (77 percent) reported that high-speed internet is available to students across all school grounds and buildings. Additionally, 21 percent reported that high-speed internet is available to students within all school buildings but not on all school grounds, and 1 percent have high-speed internet only in some rooms of school buildings.
  • Nearly all public schools (98 percent) have some type of cooling system, such as central air conditioning (74 percent) and individual thermostat-controlled cooling systems in certain rooms (42 percent).
  • Most public schools (87 percent) have central heating throughout the entire main instructional building.
  • Eighty percent of public schools reported the indoor air quality at their school as “good” or “excellent.”
  • When asked about the quality of various building features of their main instructional building, 25 percent of public school leaders reported that all features were “good” or “excellent,” while 18 percent reported that at least one of the features needs replacement.

Daily Attendance

  • The average daily student attendance at public schools during this month’s collection window, as reported by school leaders, was 92 percent.

Technical Note

Statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling and non-sampling error. All comparisons in this statistical press release have been tested and found to be statistically significant unless otherwise noted. NCES statistical tests are generally conducted at a 95 percent level of confidence. Additional details regarding the methodology, including the survey questionnaire, can be found on the School Pulse Panel methodology web page.

Definitions

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a machine-based system that can make predictions, recommendations, or decisions through analysis in an automated manner.

Digital literacy refers to being able to use technology to find, evaluate, organize, create, and communicate information.

Definitions provided for rating features of main instructional building, including roofs, floors, foundation, exterior (walls, ceilings, or doors), interior (walls, ceilings, or doors), plumbing, heating, ventilation, and/or air condition systems (HVAC), electrical power, indoor lighting, and exterior lighting:

  • Excellent: new or easily restorable to “like new” condition; only minimal routine maintenance required.
  • Good: some preventive maintenance and/or corrective repair required.
  • Fair: does not meet functional requirements in some cases; extensive corrective maintenance and repair required.
  • Poor: consistent substandard performance; failure(s) are disruptive and costly; requires constant attention, major corrective repair or overhaul.
  • Needs Replacement: non-operational, replacement required.

Friday, February 14, 2025

School salad bars raise fruit intake among kids and benefit economically diverse schools

  School salad bars boost how much fruit kids eat but don’t drive up vegetable intake, according to a new study by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU. That’s still good news for salad bars, which some schools have installed to help kids meet the fruit and vegetable guidelines of the National School Lunch Program and the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010.

 

Melanie Bean, Ph.D., and VCU colleagues tested whether salad bars increased elementary school students’ fruit and vegetable intake in one Virginia school district. The study, published Feb. 5 in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, demonstrates the positive impact of school salad bars on kids’ nutrition. It builds on previous findings from the same research team, which found that school salad bars improved the overall dietary quality of students’ lunches.

 

“What’s really important is that vegetable intake did not go down,” said Bean, a professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics and co-director of the Healthy Lifestyles Center at CHoR. “Students were still eating the same amount of vegetables with the salad bar. They were just adding fruit, and eating more fruit. Students in salad bar schools also selected a greater variety of fruits and vegetables, potentially leading to a greater range of nutrient intake.”

 

The school district installed salad bars, which featured a rotating variety of four vegetables and three fruits, into all of their elementary schools over several years. The research team randomly selected seven schools receiving salad bars and paired them with control schools with similar demographics. The researchers matched the school pairs based on their Title I status, a designation where at least 40 percent of students live below the poverty line. Among the Title I schools, between 60% and 100% of students received free, federally funded lunches.

 

“We know that fruit and vegetable intake in particular is lower among families who are under-resourced, and that their risk for chronic disease is higher,” Bean said. “School meals play a particularly important role for these families.”

 

Researchers measured the amount of fruit and vegetables kids ate by taking photos of their lunch trays — over 13,000 photos from 6,623 students — before and after lunch. They then estimated how much the students ate, as well as how much food waste the kids left on their plates, before salad bars were installed and four to six weeks after installation.

 

The research team found that students in “salad bar” schools ate approximately one-third of a cup more fruit than they did before the salad bars were installed, and around one-third of a cup more than students in control schools, who were served fruit and vegetables in a typical lunch line throughout the study. Vegetable consumption — approximately one-quarter of a cup — stayed the same in both groups.

 

That could be because most kids naturally prefer fruit over vegetables.

 

“Sweet tastes are more palatable, and we hypothesize that kids were more familiar with some of the fruits versus the vegetables,” said Suzanne Mazzeo, Ph.D., a professor in VCU’s Department of Psychology in the Colleges of Humanities and Sciences and one of the study’s co-authors. Over time, Mazzeo said, students might choose more vegetables from the salad bars.

 

The researchers also found that fruit food waste increased very slightly over time in “salad bar” schools but not in control schools, while vegetable food waste was unchanged in both.

 

Strikingly, the results were consistent across Title 1 designation, which means that all kids benefited from the salad bars.

 

“The National School Lunch Program, and salad bars within the National School Lunch Program, are in some ways kind of an equalizer,” Bean said. “It overcomes those disparities that we see in fruit and veggie intake across sociodemographic groups.”


Wednesday, February 12, 2025

High school health classes rarely include nutrition

 High school health classes often consist of a series of awkward lessons about STDs, drugs, and alcohol. Rarely do these classes teach students anything about another critical component of their health — nutrition.

This lack of nutrition education is especially dangerous to student athletes who need to fuel their bodies properly to protect themselves from injury and other health risks.

A new study shows that high school athletes have some serious gaps in both their general and sports-specific nutrition knowledge.

This work was published in Nutrients. Jennifer B. Fields, assistant professor of nutritional science in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, collaborated with researchers at the University of Wisconsin and George Mason University on this study.

Fields and her collaborators have known that young athletes struggle with proper nutrition to fuel their highly active bodies.

“There’s this preconceived notion that all athletes are healthy,” Fields says. “A lot of times that’s not the case.”

The researchers previously found a high prevalence of eating disorders and other forms of disordered eating in college athletes, often linked to a lack of nutrition knowledge.

Student athletes often turn to unscientific outlets, like social media, for nutrition information in the absence of formal education.

Given this, the team became interested in seeing if similar patterns existed for high school athletes.

They used a pre-validated survey, the Abridged Sports Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire, to assess student athletes’ nutrition knowledge. Forty-four students were recruited from high schools in Wisconsin and beyond.  The students’ total nutrition score averaged around 45% for both boys and girls. Their general nutrition knowledge was about 58% and sport nutrition knowledge was about 35%.

The students’ perceptions about the daily recommended intake of key nutrients were significantly off base. They thought they needed fewer carbohydrates and total calories, and far more protein and fat than is actually recommended.

The students also demonstrated a lack of knowledge about when and what to eat to support sport performance.

“Their level of general nutrition knowledge and sport nutrition knowledge was very, very low,” Fields says. “They didn’t know how to eat a balanced diet for their overall health. Moreso, they didn’t know how to make proper fueling decisions for their sport.”

Many students reported that their primary source for nutrition knowledge was friends or family, followed closely by their coaches, who do not generally receive any formal nutrition training or education.

Fields says many of these knowledge gaps may be fueled by social media which pumps out inaccurate nutrition information and unrealistic body standards for young people, especially athletes.

“Adolescents in particular are just inundated with social media,” Fields says. “High schoolers are on Instagram, TikTok, whatever it may be, getting preconceived notions about how their bodies should look, how they should eat, and how they should exercise. And many times, it’s really conflicting with how they should be fueling as an athlete.”

One of the key differences between sports and regular nutrition is athletes’ calories and carbohydrate needs. Athletes should be consuming more than half their daily calories as carbohydrates, Fields says.

“Carbohydrates are athletes’ best friends,” Fields says. “That is so contradictory to what a lot of social media tells us.”

Athletes also, generally, shouldn’t follow the trend of intermittent fasting diets as they need to be fueling consistently throughout the day to support performance and recovery and ensure they are getting enough calories.

Athletes need to have more muscle mass to support their own safety as well, meaning they won’t look like some of the people they see on social media.

The next step for this research will be to develop an educational intervention for high school athletes to empower them with the knowledge they need to make healthy choices.

“One of our biggest takeaways is simply the need for more general nutrition education and sports-specific nutrition education for these adolescent athletes,” Fields says. “If we can change the behaviors throughout these high school years, then they get to college and have a much better sense of how to eat for their health and to optimize their performance.”

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Adolescents who feel overweight face triple the risk of self-harm,

 Adolescents who perceive themselves as overweight are three times more likely to consider committing self-harm compared to those who do not, regardless of whether the person is objectively overweight, according to a new study released by The University of Texas at Arlington.

“What we found was that the perception of being overweight has a much stronger effect of suicidal ideation than the objective measure of weight,” said Philip Baiden, an associate professor of social work at UTA and lead author of the study.

Dr. Baiden conducted the research with fellow UTA social work Associate Professor Catherine LaBrenz, along with researchers from UT Dallas, Texas Woman’s University, Florida International University, New York University, Simmons University and the University of Ghana.

“This finding ties neatly into recent calls to reconsider how accurate BMI is as a tool for diagnosing individuals as overweight or obese,” Baiden said.

Published in the peer-reviewed journal Psychiatry Research, the researchers examined data from more than 39,000 individuals age 14 to 18 obtained from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Behavior Risk Survey. It considered factors such as socioeconomic status, family dynamics, academic pressures and adverse childhood experiences.

The pooled data from 2015 to 2021 included both self-reported data from adolescents as well as information obtained from caregivers and school records. This comprehensive approach allowed researchers to identify the relationship between weight perceptions and the increased likelihood of mental health issues.

“Even after adjusting for established suicidal ideation risk factors such as feelings of hopelessness, bullying, cyberbullying, substance use and demographic variables, we still found a connection between how adolescents feel about their weight and whether they are considering self-harm,” Dr. LaBrenz, a co-author of the study, said. “We also found that females were more at risk than males at perceiving themselves to be overweight.”

The study also highlights the critical role of schools, families and communities in creating supportive environments that can help improve adolescents’ self-perceptions, the former because they can offer mental health resources and foster a positive and inclusive atmosphere.

“By investing in preventive measures and early-intervention programs,” Baiden said, “it is possible to reduce the long-term burden on the health care system and improve the quality of life for young people.”

Education Recovery Scorecard

Full report

A new report on academic recovery through the 2023-24 school year finds that, as of Spring 2024, the average U.S. student remained nearly half a grade level behind pre-pandemic achievement in both math and reading. While district-level data reveal pockets of success, there is clear evidence of continued struggle in most states. In particular, socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in math achievement have grown since the start of the pandemic both within districts and across districts. And the widespread rise in absenteeism is slowing the recovery, especially in high poverty districts.


Education Recovery Explorer

Compare learning loss in districts across the country and gain insights into how remote learning, federal funds, and other factors impacted students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Monday, February 10, 2025

Impact of a Content-Rich Literacy Curriculum on Kindergarteners

Full text 

This study examined the impact of a widely used content-rich literacy curriculum on kindergartenersvocabulary, listening comprehension, and content knowledge. In combined findings from two randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the second being a replication of the first, 47 schools in large urban U.S. districts were randomly assigned to implement Core Knowledge Language Arts: Knowledge Strand (CKLA: Knowledge) or to a wait- list control condition. 

CKLA: Knowledge focuses instruction on language comprehension through interactive read alouds that systematically build content knowledge. Teachers received two days of professional develop- ment workshops, along with light-touch support from facilitators during implementation. 

Participants included 1,194 kindergarten students, who were administered individual pre- and posttest measures of proximal and standardized vocabulary, listening comprehension, and content knowledge (i.e., science, social studies). 

After approximately one semester of curricular implementation, CKLA: Knowledge demonstrated positive and significant impacts on proximal vocabulary and science and social studies knowledge. Significant interactions were found for vocabulary and content knowledge, such that children who began the year with relatively higher receptive vocabulary scores derived a greater benefit of learning the words and content knowledge taught in the curriculum. 

The present work is unique in that it tested the effects of a content-rich literacy curriculum that integrated literacy and two RCTs.