Self-regulation game predicts kindergarten achievement
Early childhood development researchers have discovered that a simple, five-minute self-regulation game not only can predict end-of-year achievement in math, literacy and vocabulary, but also was associated with the equivalent of several months of additional learning in kindergarten.
Claire Ponitz from the University of Virginia and Megan McClelland of Oregon State University assessed the effectiveness of a game called the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS) task, which is a new version of the Head-to-Toes task developed by researchers at the University of Michigan. Both tasks have proved effective at predicting academic skills among preschool age children. Their results were published in the newest issue of the journal, Developmental Psychology.
The researchers assessed a group of 343 kindergarteners from Oregon and Michigan. Their self-regulation, or ability to control behavior, was measured with the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task, a structured observation requiring children to perform the opposite of a response to four different oral commands. For example, children were instructed to touch their toes if told to touch their head, and vice versa.
They found that students who performed well on his behavior task in the fall achieved strong scores in reading, vocabulary and math in the spring, compared to students who had low performance on the task. In addition, the research showed that the children who performed well on the task scored 3.4 months ahead of peers who performed at average levels on mathematics learning.
"It's amazing that this game works as well as it does," McClelland said. "It is simple to administer, fun for the kids, and predicts children's academic achievement."
One area where the task did not make a difference was assessing children's interpersonal skills. McClelland explained that the game is not "emotion-oriented," meaning it is not set up to trigger an emotional response. Instead, the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task tests children on important classroom-related behavior such as listening, following directions and remembering instructions.
"We know this task predicts end-of-year achievement," she said. "Now we want to take the game to the next level."
McClelland is planning to do an extensive evaluation of the task for her next research project, testing the task with an even larger group of children. She also has a number of research projects under way with OSU graduate students, including one that uses a variety of fun games to improve a child's ability to regulate their behavior.
She said she has made a simple DVD that demonstrates the task, and in response has received requests from around the world from researchers who want to use the task with young children.
"The evidence strongly suggests that improving self-regulation is directly related to academic achievement and behavior," McClelland said. "If we can make a difference early in a child's life, they have that much more of a chance at success."
Abstract
1. The authors examined a new assessment of behavioral regulation and contributions to achievement and teacher-rated classroom functioning in a sample (N = 343) of kindergarteners from 2 geographical sites in the United States. Behavioral regulation was measured with the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS) task, a structured observation requiring children to perform the opposite of a dominant response to 4 different oral commands. Results revealed considerable variability in HTKS scores. Evidence for construct validity was found in positive correlations with parent ratings of attentional focusing and inhibitory control and teacher ratings of classroom behavioral regulation.
2.
3. Hierarchical linear modeling indicated that higher levels of behavioral regulation in the fall predicted stronger levels of achievement in the spring and better teacher-rated classroom self-regulation (all ps < .01) but not interpersonal skills. Evidence for domain specificity emerged, in which gains in behavioral regulation predicted gains in mathematics but not in language and literacy over the kindergarten year (p < .01) after site, child gender, and other background variables were controlled. Discussion focuses on the importance of behavioral regulation for successful adjustment to the demands of kindergarten.
4.
Full article:
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/dev/45/3/605.pdf
Response to Intervention Thought Leaders 2009 RTI findings
Spectrum K12 School Solutions, Inc., and leading education organizations including the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE), American Association of School Administrators (AASA), the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), and State Title 1 Directors have announced the results of their 2009 survey of K-12 district administrators to gauge the extent to which Response to Intervention (RTI) has been adopted and implemented.
The survey results can be downloaded at www.spectrumk12.com/campaign/rti_survey_results.
Spectrum K12 and these organizations teamed to determine the Response to Intervention rate of adoption, the effectiveness of RTI implementation and perceived critical implementation factors to provide a roadmap for districts nationwide.
The 2009 survey results indicate strong and rapid support for Response to Intervention with 71% of districts in some stage of implementing RTI – up from 60% in 2008 and 44% in 2007. The survey results also showed RTI is being increasingly implemented across all grade levels with a significant increase in high school implementation compared to 2008.
Districts reported the three primary obstacles to implementing RTI as insufficient teacher training, lack of intervention resources and lack of an easy, comprehensive way to monitor and drive student achievement.
Of districts with enough data, 83% indicated RTI has reduced the number of referrals to special education
“The Response to Intervention National Survey is a valuable tool to provide school districts with data that provide a realistic picture of RtI implementation across the United States,” commented George Batsche Co-Director of the Institute for School Reform, Florida Statewide Problem-Solving/RtI Project, University of South Florida. “These data provide information that districts can use to develop timelines and priorities for their own implementation plans. Comparing data year-to-year provides districts with realistic implementation schedules.”
“The survey results indicate how rapidly districts are adopting and formalizing an intervention centric approach to driving student achievement,” Spectrum K12 School Solutions’ CEO, Jim Marshall commented. “Our relationship with CASE, AASA, NASDSE and State Title 1 Directors has been instrumental in helping Spectrum K12 provide districts with what they need to drive student achievement including our EXCEED™ product.”
“This follow up survey shows the continued need for additional resources and unique partnerships if we are to be successful with Response to Intervention in our schools,” said Luann Purcell, Ed.D., CASE executive director. “CASE is proud to have been a partner in the first survey and in this follow up survey with Spectrum K12 School Solutions. The more we all know about each other, the better we can join together to improve academic performance for ALL students.”
“The results from the 2009 Response to Intervention National Survey give our members—and education and policy makers across the country—a snapshot of how RtI implementation is growing,” said Noelle Ellerson, Policy Analyst at the American Association of School Administrators. “This type of data, from where schools are in the implementation process to implementation obstacles and impacts on student achievement, is valuable information as schools and districts move forward in their RtI efforts.
High School Graduation Rate Improves Over Past Decade;
Recent Declines Threaten Progress
Report Identifies Big-City School Districts Beating Graduation Expectations;
Examines Efforts to Prepare All Students for College
A new national report from Education Week and the Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center paints a cautiously optimistic picture of high school graduation trends, finding that the national graduation rate has improved over the past decade, though a recent one-year downturn—the first significant annual decline in that 10-year period—raises cause for concern.
Despite overall progress, three out of every 10 students in U.S. public schools still fail to finish high school with a diploma, the report finds. That amounts to 1.3 million students lost from the graduation pipeline every year, or almost 7,200 students lost every day, it adds. The report also points out that there is no firm consensus among states, schools, and policymakers on what it means to be ready for postsecondary education or how to measure college readiness.
The report, Diplomas Count 2009: Broader Horizons: The Challenge of College Readiness for All Students, investigates one of the most critical issues facing the nation’s educational and economic future—the challenge to prepare all students for college. As leaders at all levels of public life call for Americans to engage in some education beyond high school, Diplomas Count examines this growing movement by:
Mapping the policy and reform landscape that defines the college-ready agenda;
Profiling one high school’s efforts to nurture a college-going culture;
Examining how better data and accountability systems can help support readiness initiatives; and
Highlighting the cutting-edge efforts of a state working to put actionable information about college preparation in the hands of educators.
This push for college comes amid sobering statistics on the proportion of U.S. students who currently finish high school and on the level of college preparation that comes with a high school diploma. The report—part of a multi-year project supported by the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—also tracks graduation policies for all 50 states and the District of Columbia and presents an updated analysis of graduation rates and trends for the nation, states, and the country’s 50 largest school systems.
“The nation is failing to reach a level necessary to put the United States on a solid footing in a competitive global market,” said EPE Research Center Director Christopher B. Swanson. “However, the longer-term trajectory of change for the country’s graduation rate does offer some reason to be cautiously optimistic.”
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE NUMBERS
Overall, graduation rates have made slow but steady progress during the last decade, according to an original analysis by the EPE Research Center using its Cumulative Promotion Index method and data from the U.S. Department of Education. Over this period, the nation’s graduation rate increased by almost 3 percentage points, rising from 66.4 percent in 1996 to 69.2 percent in 2006, the most recent year for which data were available. Graduation rates improved, at least marginally, in 34 states during this time, with several—Arizona, South Carolina, and Tennessee—experiencing double-digit gains. Ten states saw drops of at least 1 percentage point, with the largest decline occurring in Nevada.
Long-term improvements can be found for all major demographic groups, though gains have been considerably stronger among non-Hispanic whites than for racial and ethnic minorities. In most respects, progress has been more rapid in areas where graduation rates have historically languished. Conditions have improved much faster in high-poverty school systems, urban communities, larger districts, and those serving majority-minority student populations.
According to the report, 2006 marked the first time in the past decade that the nation’s graduation rate has posted a noticeable annual decline, falling more than 1 percentage point from 2005 to 2006. Graduation rates fell nationally for all major racial and ethnic groups. In addition, half the states showed a measurable drop, signaling that the consistent improvements found for the nation and many states in recent years may be in jeopardy of eroding.
With Native American, Hispanic, and African-American students from the class of 2006 graduating at rates of no more than 55 percent, a graduation gap of as much as 26 percentage points divides these historically underserved minorities from their white peers. A gulf of 35 points separates the highest-performing state in the nation (New Jersey) and the lowest (Nevada). The report also finds great variation across the nation’s 50 largest school districts. Within that group, Detroit had the lowest graduation rate at 26.8 percent, while Cypress-Fairbanks, Texas, tops the nation at 80.7 percent.
“As a nation, we have a long way to go in order to reconcile the goal of raising college attendance and completion rates with troubling data on the proportion of U.S. students who graduate from high schools in the traditional four-year time span,” Swanson said. “The rates are generally not as high as we would like them to be, and the pace of improvement needs to be much faster.”
REPORT IDENTIFIES OVERACHIEVING DISTRICTS
Despite recent downturns, Diplomas Count 2009 finds widespread long-term gains at the district level. From 1996 to 2006, the majority of the nation’s local school systems posted improvements in their levels of high school completion. In fact, graduation rates rose by 15 percentage points or more for about 1,500 districts across the country.
The EPE Research Center also conducted a special analysis to identify school systems that exceed expectations for current graduation rates or improvements over the past decade. The report finds stellar performance in some of the nation’s most at-risk communities, recognizing 50 “overachieving” big-city school systems from across the country.
Among these top-ranking urban districts, especially strong showings were posted by: Merced Union High School District (Calif.); Sharyland Independent School District (Mission, Texas); Stockton Unified School District (Calif.); Texarkana Independent School District (Texas); and Metropolitan School District of Warren Township (Indianapolis). In each of these districts, both graduation rates for 2006 and graduation-rate improvements from 1996 to 2006 surpassed expected levels by at least 15 percentage points.
UPDATED ROAD MAP TO STATE GRADUATION POLICIES
To provide context for high school graduation rates and reform efforts, Diplomas Count 2009 examines state policies in three key areas: definitions of college and work readiness, high school completion credentials, and exit exams. Among the findings:
College and work readiness: Twenty states define what students should know and be able to do to be prepared for credit-bearing courses in college, while 28 states have a definition of work readiness.
Advanced diplomas: Twenty-four states award advanced diplomas or some type of formal recognition to students who exceed standard graduation requirements.
Exit exams: Twenty-four states require exit exams for the class of 2009, with 20 of those states basing exit exams on standards at the 10th grade level or higher.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Nationally, graduation rates have moved upward over the past decade. However, a recent one-year downturn raises cause for concern.
ÿ In the class of 2006, 69.2 percent of all public school students in the nation graduated from high school with a regular diploma. From 1996 to 2006, the nation’s graduation rate increased by 2.8 percentage points, an average of about three-tenths of a point annually.
ÿ From 2005 to 2006, the national graduation rate posted a noticeable annual decline for the first time in the past decade, falling more than 1 percentage point. Half of states showed a similar drop.
ÿ Graduation rates in the majority of states have improved since 1996. South Carolina, Tennessee, and Arizona have seen the greatest increases, of 13.1, 12.8, and 12.1 percentage points, respectively. Ten states saw drops of at least 1 percentage point, with the largest drop occurring in Nevada. At the district level, graduation rates rose by 15 percentages points or more in about 1,500 districts.
While all demographic groups have made progress, nationwide achievement gaps persist, both across states and among different racial and ethnic groups.
ÿ In states leading the nation—Iowa, New Jersey, and Wisconsin—more than 80 percent of all high school students graduate with a diploma. By contrast, just under half of students finish high school in the District of Columbia and Nevada.
ÿ More than three-quarters of white and Asian students earn a high school diploma, while just 55 percent of Latino, 51 percent of African-American, and 50 percent of Native American students do. Though graduation rates for all major racial and ethnic groups have shown long-term improvements, gains have been strongest among non-Hispanic whites.
ÿ Progress has been more rapid in areas where graduation rates have historically been low. From 1996 to 2006, high school completion rates in urban districts rose by 3.1 percentage points, compared with 1.9 percentage points in suburban districts. Similarly, rates rose 50 percent faster in high-poverty districts than in more affluent ones.
A number of urban school systems are performing better than expected given their demographic and structural profiles.
ÿ Thirty-three big-city districts posted 2006 graduation rates at least 10 percentage points higher than expected. Two districts, Warren Township in Indianapolis and Texarkana Independent School District in Texarkana, Texas, exceeded expectations by more than 20 points.
ÿ Twenty-seven districts across the country surpassed expected graduation-rate improvements from 1996 to 2006 by at least 10 points. The graduation rate in Stockton Unified School District in Stockton, Calif., for example, rose by 27 percentage points, although the school system’s characteristics would have predicted a 1 point drop.
ÿ A complete list of “overachieving” urban districts is included in the report.
More states are spelling out a definition of “college readiness,” although movement on other high school graduation requirements is slower.
ÿ Currently, 20 states—five more than last year—have described the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in entry-level college work. Fourteen states include academic-content standards in their definitions of college readiness, and 13 recommend or require college-preparatory courses.
ÿ Twenty-eight states have defined work readiness, while seven other states are in the process of crafting such a definition.
ÿ Twenty-four states offer students in the class of 2009 advanced recognition for exceeding standard graduation requirements, the same number as last year.
ÿ Twenty-four states require exit exams for the class of 2009, one more than in 2008. All but one of those states test knowledge in both English and math, and about half also have exams that cover other subjects, such as science and history. The number of states basing exit exams on standards at the 10th grade level or higher has increased from six in 2002 to 20 in 2009.
Enthusiasm and support are building for data systems, which can help educators and policymakers understand and focus on what matters most in preparing students for college.
ÿ Just six states have all 10 of the elements identified by the Data Quality Campaign as necessary to track how well students are prepared for college and how well they do once there.
ÿ Funding of $250 million for data systems was set aside in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help states and school systems build their information systems. This is in addition to $150 million that the Institute of Education Sciences awarded to 27 state agencies earlier this year for use in building data systems.
Graduation in the United States
About 69 percent of all public school students in the nation graduated from high school with a regular diploma in the class of 2006. Thirty-five percentage points separate the graduation rates in the best-performing and worst-performing states. More than eight in 10 students graduate in Iowa, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. But that proportion drops to fewer than six in 10 in the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, and New Mexico. Results reported in Diplomas Count 2009 show that, from 2005 to 2006, the nation’s graduation rate decreased by more than 1 percentage point, the first sizable annual decline in the past decade.
TEN-YEAR GRADUATION TREND
(ALL STUDENTS) GRADUATION RATES
FOR STUDENT SUBGROUPS, CLASS OF 2006
Class of 2006 Class of 1996 Change
1996 to 2006
(percentage point) Male Female American
Indian Asian Hispanic Black White
Alabama 61.4% 57.0% +4.4 56.5% 68.0% 63.4% 66.9% 42.2% 51.3% 68.3%
Alaska 65.9 66.1 -0.2 62.1 69.9 45.2 69.0 55.6 59.7 72.4
Arizona 68.6 56.6 +12.1 64.1 72.7 45.6 81.3 60.8 67.6 74.0
Arkansas 71.9 69.4 +2.5 67.7 76.0 50.3 ‡ 60.0 63.6 74.5
California 67.5 67.5 0.0 63.5 70.6 49.6 80.2 56.9 54.6 77.1
Colorado 72.7 71.5 +1.2 69.6 75.9 46.3 80.7 51.2 58.9 80.1
Connecticut 78.9 76.1 +2.7 75.3 81.5 ‡ 80.4 55.3 63.2 85.0
Delaware 66.0 63.2 +2.8 59.3 71.1 ‡ 89.2 ‡ 53.8 71.1
District of Columbia 48.8 49.7 -0.9 † † † † † † †
Florida 57.5 57.5 0.0 50.4 58.9 58.5 81.7 53.7 43.0 58.6
Georgia 55.9 55.1 +0.7 51.5 61.9 37.9 79.8 40.8 45.6 65.1
Hawaii 63.9 59.0 +4.9 61.1 67.1 57.6 65.4 59.7 60.3 59.0
Idaho 76.8 78.6 -1.7 73.9 80.9 50.9 ‡ 56.3 59.5 79.9
Illinois 74.1 78.7 -4.6 70.1 77.0 30.1 86.5 56.7 51.0 83.2
Indiana 73.3 69.8 +3.5 66.3 72.7 48.2 70.3 50.5 52.6 71.1
Iowa 80.7 79.1 +1.6 77.7 81.7 ‡ 73.3 56.0 52.6 82.4
Kansas 75.4 72.8 +2.5 74.7 78.6 61.3 83.5 55.1 58.9 81.0
Kentucky 72.0 62.9 +9.0 64.9 75.3 ‡ 82.7 55.4 59.2 70.3
Louisiana 61.9 54.0 +7.8 55.4 68.7 ‡ 74.1 73.5 51.2 69.3
Maine 76.3 75.1 +1.2 72.8 78.5 40.5 ‡ ‡ ‡ 76.1
Maryland 73.5 73.5 0.0 68.7 78.1 59.1 92.9 65.4 62.7 79.8
Massachusetts 75.9 75.2 +0.7 72.8 78.8 37.2 79.9 50.9 56.3 81.6
Michigan 69.6 69.0 +0.5 65.9 72.8 49.4 75.5 43.5 38.4 76.5
Minnesota 79.2 77.1 +2.1 77.2 83.2 39.8 73.3 37.3 ‡ 84.2
Mississippi 60.5 54.5 +6.0 54.0 67.2 37.1 57.1 43.2 54.9 66.1
Missouri 74.4 70.4 +4.0 71.4 77.2 58.2 77.8 53.9 52.6 78.7
Montana 76.1 76.2 0.0 73.7 77.7 48.3 ‡ 54.8 44.5 79.5
Nebraska 78.7 79.3 -0.6 74.5 79.7 38.3 ‡ 50.9 46.9 84.1
Nevada 47.3 70.5 -23.2 42.7 52.8 37.9 72.1 36.3 34.5 54.0
New Hampshire 77.0 71.3 +5.6 74.4 78.5 † † † † †
New Jersey 82.1 83.1 -1.0 79.7 83.3 ‡ 86.7 66.8 67.3 85.8
New Mexico 56.0 55.3 +0.8 53.2 61.3 49.5 64.7 51.6 49.2 67.8
New York 68.3 61.1 +7.2 63.8 71.0 39.6 75.7 45.8 47.4 79.0
North Carolina 63.3 61.9 +1.4 55.1 65.1 43.6 73.7 49.5 45.4 69.8
North Dakota 79.0 80.9 -1.9 76.7 81.5 39.9 ‡ 27.7 ‡ 83.7
Ohio 74.3 67.8 +6.6 71.9 77.5 31.3 76.0 48.3 47.3 80.3
Oklahoma 70.6 67.0 +3.6 68.7 73.4 64.1 79.7 57.1 54.9 73.2
Oregon 74.9 66.0 +8.9 † † 39.1 72.7 57.6 54.4 73.1
Pennsylvania 77.6 74.8 +2.8 75.0 80.0 36.4 79.1 49.7 49.3 83.9
Rhode Island 72.8 69.0 +3.8 68.6 76.3 40.2 60.7 60.4 63.4 76.5
South Carolina 66.3 53.2 +13.1 ‡ 71.2 ‡ 72.3 ‡ ‡ 69.5
South Dakota 77.1 77.6 -0.5 74.2 76.8 33.5 58.0 41.8 53.0 81.7
Tennessee 69.5 56.7 +12.8 65.0 73.8 ‡ 73.5 51.7 58.1 73.0
Texas 65.3 58.5 +6.8 61.7 68.9 51.7 85.2 56.3 52.7 75.7
Utah 72.2 78.5 -6.3 † † † † † † †
Vermont 78.7 75.2 +3.5 75.8 79.3 41.7 ‡ ‡ ‡ 81.7
Virginia 69.2 73.4 -4.2 64.4 75.3 52.8 83.7 56.5 55.0 75.8
Washington 62.4 68.0 -5.5 60.1 67.6 37.9 71.7 49.3 46.1 66.8
West Virginia 71.8 75.7 -4.0 69.1 75.3 26.7 78.0 ‡ 61.1 72.7
Wisconsin 81.7 77.0 +4.7 78.3 83.8 55.4 78.0 53.8 49.4 85.9
Wyoming 73.2 75.9 -2.7 69.7 75.2 25.8 ‡ ‡ ‡ 76.7
U.S. 69.2% 66.4% +2.8 64.9% 72.2% 50.0% 78.9% 55.0% 51.2% 76.1%
Students Who Get Stuck Look For Computer Malfunctions
When students attempting to solve a mathematical problem, were informed by the computer that their answer was incorrect, they often focused on trying to find the reasons for this in the functions of the educational software itself.
"They would maintain that their answers merely needed to be rephrased, that the computer's answers were wrong in the same way as answers on an answer key of a mathematics textbook could be wrong, or provided other similar explanations," says Annika Lantz-Andersson.
Her study shows that the often-repeated proposition that educational software is self-instructing is just not true.
Her results show that the need for a person providing support is not any less in the case of educational software than in conventional teaching situations.
"There is a kind of silence in the relationship between students and the educational software they use. The computer never gets tired, is not bothered by endless examples of random answers, does not distinguish between students, but on the other hand cannot provide individually-fitted feedback, which is one of the most important tasks of a teacher", she continues.
Annika Lantz-Andersson's study also does not provide any indication that students view digital technology as being a more authentic or realistic to work with, as compared to conventional educational material.
The extremely rapid increase in educational software predicted around the year 2000 has not been realised, although most textbooks today have a digital application linked to their conventional text.
"Educational software has many advantages, not least its interactivity and its opportunity to promote cooperation amongst the students. There is still a strong belief that digital technology improves learning, despite the fact that this has not been proven", declares Annika Lantz-Andersson.
"Instead of getting mired in a debate about how digital tools can solve various types of classical pedagogical problems, it would be more relevant to focus on the new types of interaction and knowledge that can arise from the use of digital tools.
Abstract:
An overarching ambition of this thesis is to study the in situ practices that emerge when technology becomes part of educational activities and, in addition, to examine what students’ definition of such activities will be. By analysing students’ concrete uses of digital technology in regular classroom practices, the study intends to demystify how digital technology codetermines activities in educational settings. A background of this interest is that there are many different claims in the literature and in the public debate regarding what learning will be like when such tools are used. Accordingly, the use of digital technologies is in this thesis studied from the perspective of student activities and rationalities. Analytically, this is done within a sociocultural perspective and, in addition, with the help of the conceptual distinctions of frame analysis. Empirical material have been collected via video recordings of secondary school students’ engaging in solving word problems in mathematics presented by means of educational software. The analyses aim at scrutinizing what the presence of educational software in mathematics implies for the students’ learning practices in situations when they encounter some kind of difficulty in their problem solving.
The results, presented in three studies, show that for long periods of time the students’ interaction involved not only the contents but also different functionalities and design qualities of the digital technology. The findings in this study thus point to the need to question the alleged benefits that surround the implementation of digital technologies. According to the empirical findings in the three studies presented in this thesis, along with knowledge from previous research, digital technology cannot be said to improve learning in any linear sense. Instead, educational activities involving the use of digital technologies imply a different way of learning with new possibilities and new problems; a different pedagogical situation and a different relation between the students and the contents.
Full report:
http://gupea.ub.gu.se/dspace/bitstream/2077/19736/1/gupea_2077_19736_1.pdf
Evening chronotype in high school students is linked with lower college GPA
Students who consider themselves to be evening types (that is someone who feels more alert and does their best work later in the day) had significantly lower first year college GPA (2.84) than morning and intermediate types (3.18). These evening-type students showed a greater decrease in their GPA during the transition from high school to college than their peers; their grades dropped by .98 GPA points, while others only dropped by .69 GPA points. These evening types also slept on average 41 minutes less than other students on school nights.
Lead author Jennifer Peszka, PhD, psychology department chair at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., said that many students experience deterioration in sleep during their transition from high school to college.
"Although the results of the study aligned with our expectations, the size of the GPA difference between evening types and morning and intermediate types was surprising," said Peszka. "Further, the difference is at a critical point on the GPA scale with evening types scoring below a B average and morning and intermediate types scoring above a B average."
The study was based on data from 89 students (between 17 and 20 years old) preparing to begin their freshman year and 34 of those students as they completed their freshman year at a liberal arts college.
Authors of the study state educating high school and college students about the possible negative effects of poor sleep behaviors on academic performance may result in improvement in academic performance, especially in adolescents who are at risk due to poor sleep hygiene and evening-type status.
It is recommended that adolescents get nine hours of sleep per night, and school-aged children between 10-11 hours. More information about sleep hygiene is available from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) at: http://www.sleepeducation.com/Hygiene.aspx
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