Education Research Report

Record Number of Children Enrolled in Private School Choice Programs this Year

2012-01-27T15:12:00.000-05:00

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More than 210,000 children are participating in publicly funded private school choice programs across the nation, according to the School Choice Yearbook 2011-12 released by the Alliance for School Choice.

The Alliance’s annual Yearbook, entitled School Choice Now: The Year of School Choice, is a collection of the nation’s most accurate data on private school choice programs across the country. The 2011-12 edition, which was coauthored by Alliance Communications Manager Michelle Gininger, contains an analysis of trends and information regarding school choice, a directory of the accountability provisions and requirements for each of the 27 private school choice programs, and a chronicle of the events from the past year.

Among the findings:

- School choice programs in the United States have grown nearly 25 percent since 2007.
- Seven new programs were enacted last year, including a new program in Indiana that boasted the highest first-year enrollment ever for a voucher plan. Of the new programs, there are four voucher programs, one scholarship tax credit program, one individual tuition tax credit, and one education savings account program—a new program that lets parents use education dollars on a variety of educational tools.
- Ten of the 27 school choice programs are specifically tailored to serve children with special needs, benefiting almost 30,000 students nationwide.
- Nearly all of the children participating in America’s school choice programs come from low- or middle-income families or are students with special needs.
- Florida is home to the greatest number of students who benefit from school choice, with 65,000 students participants in the state’s two existing programs.
- Two states—Ohio and Arizona—have four school choice programs each.

In step with what The Wall Street Journal has dubbed as “The Year of School Choice,” the Yearbook chronicles not only the new programs, but how significant expansions everywhere from Wisconsin to Georgia to Washington, D.C. made 2011 such a breakthrough year.

“It was unquestionably a remarkable year in the fight to give educational opportunities to low-income families,” said Yearbook coauthor Malcom Glenn, the national director of communications at the Alliance. “The gains of 2011 give us great momentum towards helping even more kids in the year ahead.”

Where Should Student Teachers Learn to Teach? Effects of Field Placement School Characteristics on Teacher Retention and Effectiveness

2012-01-27T14:10:00.000-05:00

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This study is motivated by an ongoing debate about the kinds of schools that make for the best field placements during pre-service preparation. On the one hand, easier-to-staff schools may support teacher learning because they are typically better-functioning institutions that offer desirable teaching conditions. On the other hand, such field placements may leave new teachers unprepared to work in difficult-to-staff schools and with underserved student populations that need high quality teachers the most.

Using administrative and survey data on almost 3,000 New York City teachers, their students, and their schools, this study finds that learning to teach in easier-to-staff field placement schools has positive effects on teacher retention and student achievement gains, even for teachers who end up working in the hardest-to-staff schools. The proportion of poor, minority, and low-achieving students in field placements is unrelated to later teacher effectiveness and retention suggesting something beyond student populations explain these results.

Algebra A Challenge at the Crossroads of Policy and Practice

2012-01-27T14:05:00.000-05:00

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The authors of this study review what is known about early and universal algebra, including who is getting access to algebra and student outcomes associated with algebra course taking in general and specifically with universal algebra policies. The findings indicate that increasing numbers of students, some of whom are underprepared, are taking algebra earlier. At the same time, other students with requisite skills are not given access to algebra. Although studies using nationally representative data indicate strong positive outcomes for students who take algebra early, studies conducted only in contexts where all students are mandated to take algebra in eighth or ninth grade provide mixed evidence of positive outcomes, with increased achievement when policies include strong supports for struggling students.

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Changing people's behavior: From reducing bullying to training scientists

2012-01-27T13:57:00.000-05:00

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If you want to change how teenagers view bullying, go to the straight to the source of most school trends: the most connected crowd. According to new intervention research, targeting the most influential students in a school could be a key factor in reducing harassment and bullying.

These results are part of a group of studies that are being presented today at a social psychology conference in San Diego, CA, on new, sometimes small, ways to make meaningful impacts on people's lives. "This is an exciting time in the field of social psychology," says Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia who wrote Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change. "Increasingly, researchers are devising theory-based interventions that have dramatic effects in the areas of education, prejudice reduction, adolescent behavior problems, health, and many others."

The idea behind such intervention work is to change the behavior for a particular group of individuals. Reducing student bullying, increasing interest among teens in math and science, and improving perceptions of women in engineering are the focus of today's talks in San Diego.

Reducing student bullying

In the bullying intervention study, Elizabeth Levy Paluck and Hana Shepherd of Princeton University set out at a U.S. public high school to change students' perceptions that harassment of fellow students is a normal way to gain and maintain status.

"We were interested in the idea that harassment and bullying in schools is a social norm that is not necessarily related to students' personal feelings," says Levy Paluck. Her team used social network analysis to identify the students who might have the most influence in setting social norms. A random subset of these students participated in public denouncements of harassment and bullying. The researchers then tracked the social network over one year, also collecting data on disciplinary records and teacher assessments.

Levy Paluck and Shepard found that students who were socially tied to the intervention significantly decreased their perception that harassment and bullying is a desirable norm. At the same time, those students' decreased their harassment and bullying behavior as measured through disciplinary records, teacher assessments, and independent behavioral observations.

Increasing teens' interest in math and science

In a different intervention study aimed at changing teen behavior in math and science, researchers did not target the students themselves but rather their parents. The goal was to increase students' interest in taking courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). "We focus on the potential role of parents in motivating their teens to take more STEM courses, because we feel that they have been an untapped resource," says Judith Harackiewicz of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

The participants consisted of 188 U.S. high school students and their parents from the longitudinal Wisconsin Study of Families and Work. Harackiewicz and her colleague Janet Hyde found that a relatively simple intervention aimed at parents – two brochures mailed to parents and a website that all highlight the usefulness of STEM courses – led their children to take on average nearly one semester more of science and mathematics in the last two years of high school, compared with the control group. "Our indirect intervention," funded by the National Science Foundation, "changed the way that parents interacted with their teens, leading to a significant and important change in their teens' course-taking behavior," Harackiewicz says.

Improving perceptions of women engineers

"Many of these interventions work by changing the stories people tell themselves about who they are and why they do what they do, in ways that lead to self-sustaining changes in behavior," says Wilson of the University of Virginia. For example, new work being presented by Greg Walton of Stanford University tested the effects of two interventions on female engineering students, one aimed at making them feel like they belong in engineering and another at teaching them to reflect on core values to help them cope with stress.

Both interventions improved the first-year grades of women enrolled in male-dominated engineering majors compared to a control group, eliminating a gender gap. The two interventions worked in different ways, however: Women in the belonging group were able to build better relationships with male engineers, while women in the value-training group made more friends outside of engineering, according to the study funded by the Spencer Foundation. "The two interventions suggest the power of social-psychological approaches to help people cope with settings in which their group is underrepresented and negatively stereotyped," Walton says.

Analysis of state policies that shape the teaching profession

2012-01-26T13:40:00.001-05:00

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The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has released its fifth annual comprehensive (an encyclopedic 9,000 pages of analysis packed into 51 state volumes and a national overview report) review of everything there is to know about the state policies that shape the teaching profession today—the 2011 State Teacher Policy Yearbook.

It was a year like no other since NCTQ started the Yearbook project. NCTQ documented more changes in teacher policy than any previous review of the laws and regulations governing the profession.

In this not-so-ordinary year, the nation finds itself just one state shy of half the states requiring that objective measures of student achievement be included in teacher evaluations. More states than ever before are opting to take evidence of teacher effectiveness in the classroom seriously in making decisions about teacher tenure and dismissal.

Largely driven by policy adoption around teacher evaluation, 28 states improved their standing since the last time NCTQ graded the states, in our 2009 Yearbook.

Seven states—Florida, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio—earned the highest grades we've ever handed out. States topping the list for the most progress on teacher policy include Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois and Rhode Island.

But it wasn't an extraordinary year for all the states or for all areas of teacher policy. Some states—Alaska, California, Mississippi, Missouri and Montana—made no progress whatsoever on even a single one of the Yearbook's 36 research-based teacher goals. The not-so-insignificant state of California ranks dead last in the nation on teacher policy progress. The average of all state grades is a mere D plus and the lowest grades of all are for teacher preparation policies, where the states average a D for dismal.

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Rising Test Scores in Connecticut School Districts Related to the Exclusion of Students with Disabilities

2012-01-26T10:18:00.001-05:00

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This report finds that the exclusion of thousands of students with disabilities from reported Connecticut Mastery Test results has distorted reported trends in test scores. Following test scores from year to year in the same grade, the study finds that statewide improvements in standard Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) scores reported by the Connecticut State Department of Education (SDE) between 2008 and 2009 -- the period of the largest reported gains -- were largely the result of the exclusion of students with disabilities from these standard test results, rather than overall improvements in performance. For example, 84% of the reported improvement in 4th grade math proficiency between 2008 and 2009 and 69% of the improvement in 8th grade reading proficiency could be attributed to the exclusion of these students. Much of the reported improvements in later years could also be attributed to this exclusion, though there were some modest overall gains as well.

In 2009, state and federal policy changes enabled school districts to offer a modified assessment (MAS) to students with disabilities that the districts determined would not have passed the CMT in math and/or reading. As a result of these policy changes, the share of students taking the regular CMT declined substantially. Prior to 2009, students who did not reach the proficient level on the CMT because of their disabilities were included in statewide CMT results. In 2009, thousands of low-scoring students were assigned to take the MAS test instead of the standard CMT, and these students were not included in the CMT results. Thus, CMT scores reported by the State Department of Education appeared to improve in large part because these low-scoring students were no longer included in the calculations.

The analysis by Connecticut Voices for Children, a research-based think tank, focused on 4th and 8th grade CMT scores and also finds:

· Across school districts, there was a very strong correlation between a declining percentage of students taking the standard CMT and increasing percentages of students reported as reaching proficient scores – ie, as more students with disabilities were excluded from score results, more students were reported as reaching the proficiency level.

· If students with disabilities that took the modified assessment in reading and math in 2009 to 2011 were included in the total sample of 4th and 8th grade test takers, then the revised percentages of students at or above the proficient level would be two to three percentage points lower than the state reported. There were some modest improvements in scores, but not to the degree that the state initially reported.

· The percentage of students who were assigned to take the MAS rather than the standard CMT varied substantially across school districts – from 0% to 12.8%. Most districts had some participation on the modified assessment that affected their test score data.

To ensure more valid, “apples to apples” comparisons of trends over time, Connecticut Voices recommends that state officials clarify the impact of the exclusion of students with disabilities when reporting on changes in CMT scores over time. Further, the organization suggests that policymakers:
· use a variety of indicators, not just standardized test scores, to evaluate improvements in public education; and
· reconsider policies that assign rewards and punishments based on these test scores.

The report includes district-level data on 4th and 8th grade CMT scores, the percentage of local students who took the CMT and MAS, and a recalculation of district test scores that includes students with disabilities (see appendices F and G for local 2011 data).

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Adolescents from unstable families lose ground in rigorous high schools

2012-01-25T15:33:00.002-05:00

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Research continues to support a connection between instability in the home and school performance in adolescents, but a new study in the January issue of Sociology of Education takes the research a step further by exploring how the relationship between family structure change and adolescent academic careers is also affected by the kinds of schools they attend.

According to study co-author Shannon Cavanagh, a professor in The University of Texas at Austin's Department of Sociology, schools vary considerably in terms of socio-demographic composition and "academic press," measured by whether the school is defined by academic, achievement-oriented values, goals, and norms and by specific standards of achievement.

"For these reasons, we were curious about whether the family instability effect on course-taking behaviors might be different (stronger or weaker) in different kinds of schools," she said.

What Cavanagh and study co-author Paula Fomby, an assistant professor in the University of Colorado Denver's Department of Sociology, found supports what is called the "mismatch hypothesis"—a theory that suggests that students who have experienced repeated changes in their family structure status will be less successful academically when attending schools with higher levels of academic press.

Cavanagh and Fomby used data from a nationally representative, longitudinal study of students who were in high school in the mid-1990s. They chose to focus on math course-taking patterns, since math is among the strongest predictors of college matriculation. Academic status in mathematics at the end of high school not only represents interest and ability in the subject, but, more generally, it captures a clearer picture of a student's cumulative high school career.

Because the data from the chosen study included information on students' school records and their families as well as multiple reporter accounts of the characteristics of their schools, Cavanagh and Fomby were able to relate a specific characteristic of each student—their family structure history—with school characteristics such as the level of academic press and the percentage of students who were from single-parent homes.

"This interaction allowed us to determine the context in which a student's own family history had the greatest impact on their course-taking patterns," Cavanagh said.

"While students in a high-academic press school, regardless of family instability histories, are higher achieving in terms of course-taking compared to their peers overall, students who have experienced repeated family structure changes lose some part of their advantage," Cavanagh said. As such, Cavanagh and Fomby frame their results in terms of "lost gains."

Unfortunately, the results of the study complicate the work of policymakers and educators who have historically sought to mitigate social disadvantages through access to opportunities and resources found in higher-performing schools. While acknowledging that there are people specifically trained to convert academic findings into policy, Cavanagh does highlight the need for teachers and school leaders to clarify what she calls the "opaque process of college preparation" and to help parents ask the right questions about their student's college preparation.

"[School administrations] can remove some of this opacity with broad information campaigns about the expectations that colleges and employers have for student learning," Cavanagh suggested. "Local business and community leaders who join schools in an effort to prepare college-ready high school graduates may also be effective in reaching parents and adolescents."

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High school whiz kids may face reading comprehension issues in university

2012-01-25T15:29:00.002-05:00

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Everyone knows a high-school high achiever who has floundered in university. Now U of A researcher and Reading Research Lab director George Georgiou may have an explanation for the problem.

Georgiou and co-researcher J. P. Das say it is likely that some of these students may have undetected reading comprehension difficulties. Using funding from a Killam Cornerstone grant, Georgiou and Das screened about 400 University of Alberta students and found that five per cent of them were experiencing difficulties. Georgiou says that, while they were reading fluently, they had trouble making sense of what they were reading. Georgiou and Das analyzed the students' cognitive skills such as working memory, attention, planning ability and processing, and found that that even though these students had good fluency skills, they experienced pronounced difficulties in working memory and simultaneous processing of information.

"When they were doing the test, I noticed some of them were highlighting, writing ideas on the margins of the page. It was obvious that they had developed a strategy to help them with the ideas," he said. "But they still had a significant difficulty looking at the full picture, as reflected in poor simultaneous processing."

Organization: Make a mental map

The journey towards better reading comprehension starts with a single paragraph; the key, says Georgiou, is organizing the ideas in the texts and keeping them in mind. Students can start with a single paragraph then move to longer and harder texts. He says getting the students to identify and write down the main idea of a paragraph as they read is helpful. While it may be time-intensive, it helps them learn to decode the meaning of the text as they read it and appreciate the fact that, in order to comprehend, one needs all the information that is available in a text, not just part of it. He says that learning to create that mental map of ideas while reading can lead to improved reading comprehension.

"The students invest most of their time on reading and they forget the meaning. They read and they decode the whole passage. So, by the time they get to the end, they forget what the first paragraph was talking about," said Georgiou. "We want to break that massive task of decoding the text into smaller, manageable steps."

Solution: Read more often

While it may seem counterintuitive for someone with reading comprehension challenges to read more, Georgiou says that reading outside a known subject area – and outside the classroom in general – is an excellent way to develop background knowledge that can be helpful in reading and decoding different texts. He says that this practice improves the basics of memory and retention as well as simultaneous processing, the skills needed to overcome comprehension problems. Further, Georgiou added that reading helps students build a much-needed content knowledge base.

"Read beyond your coursework. Get a magazine and read outside of the field of your own study," Georgiou says, adding that reading creates a background knowledge that's necessary to comprehend general ideas involved in all kind of texts.

"If you don't read, then basically you reduce the exposure to print. It's like you deprive yourself of all the background knowledge that people have about different topics."

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Good handwriting and good grades linked

2012-01-25T14:26:00.000-05:00

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In research funded by the Children’s Trust and soon to be published in the Journal of Early Childhood Education and Development, Laura Dinehart, an assistant professor at Florida International University’s College of Education, discovered that 4-year-olds who demonstrate strong handwriting skills are more likely to excel academically in elementary school. Research on the importance of handwriting is just beginning to emerge, and Dinehart’s findings establish a new link in understanding how penmanship plays a role in a child’s academic development.

We talk about reading, we talk about math, but no one talks about handwriting,” Dinehart said. “It’s not even a subject area in many classrooms anymore. We don’t ask kids to spend time on their handwriting, when in fact, the research is clear that kids who have greater ease in writing have better academic skills in 2nd grade in both reading and math.”

Dinehart took a sample of 1,000 2nd grade students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools and linked their grades and academic scores back to the information gathered from them when they were still in pre-kindergarten.

Students who received good grades on fine motor writing tasks in pre-k had an average GPA of 3.02 in math and 2.84 in reading – B averages. Those who did poorly on the fine motor writing tasks in pre-k had an average GPA of 2.30 in math and 2.12 in Reading – C averages.

More impressively, those who did well on the fine motor writing tasks in pre-k scored in the 59th percentile on the Reading SAT in second grade (just above average) and in the 62nd percentile on the Math SAT. Kids who did poorly on the fine motor writing tasks in pre-k scored in the 38th percentile on the Reading SAT in second grade and in the 37nd percentile on the Math SAT.

There is still much research to be done, and many questions to answer. What exactly is happening when a child’s academic performance improves when his or her handwriting is practiced? Exactly how much practice is necessary before results are seen?

Dinehart will attempt to answer those questions in the second part of her research. However, one thing is clear.

“People should take a second look at how important handwriting might actually be,” she said. “And public schools should rethink how much they focus on handwriting in the classroom and how those skills can really improve reading and mat

Helping Newcomer Students Succeed in Secondary Schools and Beyond

2012-01-25T14:10:00.000-05:00

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Adolescent newcomer students are at risk in our middle and high schools, and districts across the United States have been looking for effective program models to serve them. Helping Newcomer Students Succeed in Secondary Schools and Beyond has been written for educators and policymakers to focus attention on these newcomer adolescent English language learners at the middle and high school grades and to communicate promising practices for serving their educational and social needs.

The report is based on a 3-year national research study, Exemplary Programs for Newcomer English Language Learners at the Secondary Level, conducted by the Center for Applied Linguistics on behalf of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. This research project consisted of a national survey of secondary school newcomer programs; compilation of program profiles into an online, searchable database; and case studies of 10 of these programs, selected for their exemplary practices.

Helping Newcomer Students Succeed in Secondary Schools and Beyond addresses the successes, challenges, and day-today implementation of newcomer programs, drawing from information provided by the programs that participated in the national survey and those that served as case study sites. This report shows how successful newcomer programs develop students’ academic English literacy skills, provide access to the content courses that lead to college and career readiness, and guide students’ acculturation to U.S. schools and their eventual participation in civic life and the global economy.

The findings in this report show that there is no one set model for a newcomer program. Diverse designs can be very effective providing that a program considers the varied characteristics of their middle and high school newcomer students and is carefully designed to meet the learners’ academic and social needs. The differences in the newcomers’ literacy skills and educational backgrounds prove to be the most important factors to consider when planning such a program. The report highlights design features and policies that are working well to promote academic rigor and put newly arrived adolescent learners on the path to high school graduation and postsecondary opportunities.

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Educating Multiples in the Classroom: Together or Separate?

2012-01-25T12:42:00.000-05:00

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Complete report

The drastic increase in the birthrate of twins and multiples makes the education of these children an important issue for parents and educators. Many educators and parents disagree on whether it is better for these children to be educated in the same classroom or apart. After conducting research, one can analyze the feelings of parents and educators on the education of twins and multiples. In addition to research, additional interviews were also analyzed to assess the feelings of twins and multiples on being educated together or apart from one’s siblings.

The children interviewed for this study offered the most insight into the implications involved in separating twins and multiples in the classroom versus keeping them in the same classroom. While both separation and keeping children together has its pros and cons, one can conclude that the children involved should have the most say in their own education. Twins and multiples themselves may be the best source of information when rendering a decision about whether or not to educate them in the same classroom.

National Education Report Card Ranks Massachusetts First, West Virginia Last

2012-01-25T08:58:00.000-05:00

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The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has released its 17th Report Card on American Education: Ranking State K-12 Performance, Progress, and Reform. The comprehensive report grades all 50 states and the District of Columbia according to data from national test scores, state education policy, charter school regulation, and other benchmarks of quality. Additionally, the report discusses what resources are being wasted, what students are being left behind, and what administrators, parents, and teachers can do to make a difference in education. This year, Massachusetts beat out all other states while West Virginia placed last.

Authors Dr. Matthew Ladner and Dan Lips rank states based on two factors. The first is student performance and their progress on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exams.

See Grades for each State

Student Performance (NAEP Scores)

Top Five

1. Massachusetts
2. Vermont
3. New Jersey
4. Colorado
5. Pennsylvania

Bottom Five

47. Missouri
48. Mississippi
49. Louisiana
50. South Carolina
51. West Virginia

The second metric ranks states from A to F based on education reform policies including academic standards, school choice programs, charter schools, online learning, and that state’s ability to hire good teachers and fire bad ones. In this category, Missouri is the clear leader.

Education Reform Policy Grades
Highest Scoring Reform States

“A-“ Missouri
“B” Colorado
“B” Indiana
“B” Ohio
“B” District of Columbia
“B” Georgia
“B” California
“B” New Mexico
“B” Arizona
“B” Utah
“B” Oklahoma

Lowest Scoring Reform States
“D+” Alabama
“D+” Nebraska
“D+” North Dakota
“D+” Vermont
“D+” West Virginia

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School Obesity Programs May Promote Worrisome Eating Behaviors and Physical Activity in Kids

2012-01-24T17:30:00.000-05:00

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A new report from the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health examines the possible association between school-based childhood obesity prevention programs and an increase in eating disorders among young children and adolescents.

The Poll asked parents about obesity prevention programs in their children’s schools and about food-related behaviors and activity that may be worrisome.

Overall, 82 percent of parents of children age 6-14 report at least one school-based childhood obesity intervention program taking place in their child’s school. Among these programs are nutrition education, limits on sweets or “junk food” in the classroom, height and weight measurements, and incentives for physical activity.
Additionally, 7 percent of parents report that their children have been made to feel bad at school about what or how much they were eating.

This same group of parents was also asked about their children’s eating behaviors.

Thirty percent of parents of 6-14 year-olds report least one behavior in their children that could be associated with the development of an eating disorder. These behaviors include inappropriate dieting, excessive worry about fat in foods, being preoccupied with food content or labels, refusing family meals, and having too much physical activity.

“The issue of childhood obesity is a serious problem. In order to intervene in what seems like an epidemic of childhood obesity, everyone needs to be involved,” says David Rosen, M.D., M.P.H., Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, and Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School and Chief of Teenage and Young Adult Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics.

However, Rosen says, “When obesity interventions are put in place without understanding how they work and what the risks are, there can be unintended consequences. Well-intentioned efforts can go awry when children misinterpret the information they’re given.

“Many of these behaviors are often dismissed as a phase,” says Rosen, “But given what we know about the association of these behaviors with the development of eating disorders and knowing that eating disorders are increasing in prevalence, they should be taken very seriously.”

Parents that report incentive programs at their children’s school to increase physical activity are more likely to say their children are “too physically active” (11%) compared with parents who do not report incentives for physical activity at their child’s school (4%). Otherwise, the poll did not find an association between school-based obesity prevention programs and other worrisome eating behaviors among children.

The fact that 30% of parents report at least one worrisome eating behavior in their children is concerning.

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Benefits of high quality child care persist 30 years later

2012-01-19T16:11:00.002-05:00

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Adults who participated in a high quality early childhood education program in the 1970s are still benefiting from their early experiences in a variety of ways, according to a new study.

The study provides new data from the long-running, highly regarded Abecedarian Project, which is led by the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Researchers have followed participants from early childhood through adolescence and young adulthood, generating a comprehensive and rare set of longitudinal data.

According to the latest study of adults at age 30, Abecedarian Project participants had significantly more years of education than peers who were part of a control group. They were also four times more likely to have earned college degrees; 23 percent of participants graduated from a four-year college or university compared to only 6 percent of the control group.

The findings were published online Wednesday (Jan. 18) in the journal Developmental Psychology.

Elizabeth Pungello, Ph.D., scientist at the FPG Institute and co-author of the study, said the educational attainment findings were especially noteworthy.

“When we previously revisited them as young adults at age 21, we found that the children who had received the early educational intervention were more likely to go to college; now we know they were also more likely to make it all the way through and graduate,” Pungello said. “What’s more, this achievement applied to both boys and girls, an important finding given the current low rate of college graduation for minority males in our country.”

Other benefits included that Abecedarian Project participants were more likely to have been consistently employed (75 percent had worked full time for at least 16 of the previous 24 months, compared to 53 percent of the control group) and less likely to have used public assistance (only 4 percent received benefits for at least 10 percent of the previous seven years, compared to 20 percent of the control group). They also showed a tendency to delay parenthood by almost two years compared to the control group. Project participants also appeared to have done better in relation to several other social and economic measures (including higher incomes), but those results were not statistically significant.

Of the 111 infants originally enrolled in the project (98 percent of whom were African-American), 101 took part in the age 30 follow-up.

“Being able to follow this study sample over so many years has been a privilege,” said Frances Campbell, Ph.D., senior scientist at the institute and lead author of the study. “The randomized design of the study gives us confidence in saying that the benefits we saw at age 30 were associated with an early childhood educational experience.”

Craig Ramey, Ph.D., professor and distinguished research scholar at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute and study co-author, said the findings have powerful implications for public policy.

“I believe that the pattern of results over the first 30 years of life provides a clearer than ever scientific understanding of how early childhood education can be an important contributor to academic achievement and social competence in adulthood,” Ramey said. “The next major challenge is to provide high quality early childhood education to all the children who need it and who can benefit from it.”

The Abecedarian Project was a carefully controlled scientific study of the potential benefits of early childhood education for children from low-income families who were at risk of developmental delays or academic failure. Participants attended a full-time child care facility that operated year-round, from infancy until they entered kindergarten. Throughout their early years, the children were provided with educational activities designed to support their language, cognitive, social and emotional development. Follow-up studies have consistently shown that children who received early educational intervention did better academically, culminating in their having greater chance of adult educational attainment.

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Elementary & Secondary Math & Science Education - Leading Indicators

2012-01-19T11:28:00.001-05:00

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The United States remains the global leader in supporting science and technology (S&T) research and development, but only by a slim margin that could soon be overtaken by rapidly increasing Asian investments in knowledge-intensive economies. So suggest trends released in a new report by the National Science Board (NSB), the policymaking body for the National Science Foundation (NSF), on the overall status of the science, engineering and technology workforce, education efforts and economic activity in the United States and abroad.

"This information clearly shows we must re-examine long-held assumptions about the global dominance of the American science and technology enterprise," said NSF Director Subra Suresh of the findings in the Science and Engineering Indicators 2012 released today. "And we must take seriously new strategies for education, workforce development and innovation in order for the United States to retain its international leadership position," he said.

According to the new Indicators 2012, the largest global S&T gains occurred in the so-called "Asia-10"--China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand--as those countries integrate S&T into economic growth. Between 1999 and 2009, for example, the U.S. share of global research and development (R&D) dropped from 38 percent to 31 percent, whereas it grew from 24 percent to 35 percent in the Asia region during the same time.

In China alone, R&D growth increased a stunning 28 percent in a single year (2008-2009), propelling it past Japan and into second place behind the United States.

"Over the last decade, the world has changed dramatically," said José-Marie Griffiths, chair of the NSB committee that oversees production of the report. "It's now a world with very different actors who have made advancement in science and technology a top priority. And many of the troubling trends we're seeing are now very well established."

Key Findings from Chapter 1. Elementary and Secondary Mathematics and Science Education:

Student Learning in Mathematics and Science

Gains in average mathematics scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) between 2007 and 2009 leveled off for grade 4 and continued for grade 8. For 12th graders, average mathematics scores improved from 2005 to 2009.

• From 1990 to 2007, average mathematics scores increased by 27 points for fourth graders. Scores then leveled off in 2009 across almost all demographic groups and performance levels and among students at public and private schools.

• At grade 8, average mathematics scores steadily gained 20 points from 1990 to 2009, with improvement for most demographic groups, performance levels, and school types.

• At grade 12, average mathematics scores improved by 3 points from 2005 to 2009, with improvement patterns similar to those of eighth graders.

Score gaps among demographic groups narrowed over time but remained substantial.

• At grades 4, 8, and 12, white and Asian/Pacific Islander students had significantly higher scores than their black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native counterparts.

• Students from higher income families also performed significantly better than their peers from lower income families. Although boys scored higher than girls, the differences were relatively small.

• At grade 4, some gaps narrowed over time. Between 1990 and 2009, the score gap between white and black students fell from 32 to 26 points, the score gap between public and private school students dropped from 12 to 7 points, and the score gap between low- and high-performing students narrowed by 9 points.

Few students in ninth grade mastered high level algebra skills in 2009, according to the High School Longitudinal Study assessment.

• A majority of ninth graders demonstrated proficiency in lower level algebra skills such as algebraic expressions (86%) and multiplicative and proportional thinking (59%).

• Few students reached proficiency in systems of equations (18%) and linear functions (9%), the two highest algebra skills assessed.

Relatively few students at grades 4, 8, and 12 reached their grade-specific proficiency levels in science on the 2009 NAEP assessment. Science scores varied significantly across student subgroups.

• At all three grade levels, whites, Asians/Pacific Islanders, and students from higher income families scored significantly higher than their counterparts. Boys also scored higher than girls at all three grade levels, but the difference was substantially smaller.

In both 2006 and 2009, U.S. 15-year-olds scored below those of many other developed countries in the Programme for International Student Assessment, a literacy assessment designed to test mathematics and science. Nonetheless, U.S. scores improved from 2006 to 2009.

• The average mathematics literacy score of U.S. 15-yearolds declined about 9 points from 2003 to 2006, and then rose about 13 points in 2009, placing the United States below 17 of 33 other members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

• The average science literacy score of U.S. 15-year-olds was not measurably different from the 2009 OECD average, though it improved by 3 points from 2006 to 2009. The U.S. score was lower than the score of 12 out of 33 other OECD nations participating in the assessment.

Student Coursetaking in High School Mathematics and Science

High school graduates in 2009 continued an upward trend of earning more credits in mathematics and science, including advanced mathematics and science courses.

• The average number of credits earned in all mathematics courses was 3.9 in 2009, up from 3.2 in 1990. The average number of credits earned in all science courses was 3.5 in 2009, up from 2.8 in 1990.

• Graduates in 2009 earned an average of 1.7 credits in advanced mathematics and 1.9 credits in advanced science and engineering courses, compared with 0.9 and 1.1 credits, respectively, in 1990.

The percentages of students completing advanced mathematics and science courses increased in all subject areas.

• In 2009, 76% of all graduates earned a credit for algebra II, compared with 53% of all graduates in 1990.

• The percentage of students earning a credit in precalculus/ analysis more than doubled since 1990, with 35% of graduates completing precalculus/analysis in 2009, compared with 14% in 1990.

• From 1990 to 2009, the percentage of students earning a credit in advanced chemistry increased from 45% to 70%. Increased rates were also seen in advanced biology (28% to 45%) and physics (24% to 39%).

• The percentage of students taking algebra I before high school increased. Twenty-six percent of high school graduates took algebra I before high school in 2009, up from 20% in 2005.

Although students in all racial/ethnic groups are earning more advanced mathematics and science credits, differences among these groups have persisted.

• Asian/Pacific Islander students earned the most credits in advanced mathematics, an average of 2.4 credits in 2009. Hispanics and blacks earned the fewest credits in advanced mathematics, approximately 1.4 credits. White students earned more credits (1.8) than black or Hispanic students, but fewer than Asian/Pacific Islander students. Similar patterns were seen in science coursetaking.

Teachers of Mathematics and Science

The percentage of public middle and high school mathematics and science teachers with advanced degrees and full certification has increased since 2003, but school differences persist.

• Fifty-four percent of mathematics teachers and 58% of science teachers had earned a master’s or higher degree in 2007, compared with 48% and 52%, respectively, in 2003.

• Eighty-seven percent of mathematics and science teachers held regular or advanced teaching certification in 2007—a significant increase for science teachers from 83% in 2003.

• Degree and certification differences persist among schools with different student populations. For example, 69% of science teachers in low-poverty schools had advanced degrees versus 49% in schools with high poverty rates.

• In 2007, about one in five new mathematics and science teachers was hired through an alternative certification program. Relatively more of these teachers were found in high-poverty or high-minority schools. For example, 26% of mathematics teachers in schools with the highest poverty levels became teachers through alternative certification, compared with 12% of those in schools with the lowest poverty levels. (Some alternative certification programs aim to place teachers in high-poverty schools.)

Novice teachers — those with 3 or fewer years of experience — are more prevalent at high-poverty and high-minority schools.

• In 2007, about 20% of all public middle and high school mathematics and science teachers were novice teachers. Proportionally, more of those in high-minority schools were novices: 22% of mathematics teachers and 25% of science teachers were novices, compared with 13% and 15% in low-minority schools.

Most high school teachers of mathematics and science taught in field (i.e., they had a degree or full credential in the subject matter they taught) in 2007. In-field teaching is less prevalent among middle school teachers but has increased among middle school mathematics teachers since 2003.

• In-field mathematics teachers in public middle schools increased from 53% in 2003 to 64% in 2007. Approximately 70% of middle school science teachers taught in field in both 2003 and 2007.

• Eighty-eight percent of high school mathematics teachers in 2007 taught in field, as did 93% of biology/life science teachers and 82% of physical science teachers.

Participation has increased in new teacher induction programs, which provide professional development and support during early teaching years, and the gap in participation rates between teachers at schools with different demographics has narrowed.

• In 2007, 79% of new mathematics teachers and 73% of new science teachers in public middle and high schools had participated in an induction program. The corresponding rates in 2003 were 71% among mathematics teachers and 68% among science teachers.

• In 2003, 63% of new mathematics teachers in high-minority schools had been in an induction program, 25 percentage points fewer than their counterparts at low-minority schools. In 2007, this gap narrowed to 8 percentage points because of higher participation in high-minority schools.

More than three-quarters of mathematics and science teachers in 2007 said that they had received some professional development in their subject matter. However, few participated for as many hours as research suggests is desirable.

• In 2007, 83% of mathematics teachers and 77% of science teachers in public middle and high schools said they had received professional development in their subject matter during the previous 12 months.

• Among those with professional development in their subject matter, 28% of mathematics teachers and 29% of science teachers received 33 hours or more. Research has suggested that 80 hours or more may be required to affect teacher knowledge and practice.

Teachers’ views of their working conditions varied with the characteristics of the student population at their schools, but some differences have narrowed since 2003.

• Half of mathematics and science teachers at high-poverty or high-minority schools viewed student tardiness and class cutting as interfering with teaching. In contrast, a third of their counterparts at low-poverty and low-minority schools expressed this view.

• Some differences have narrowed since 2003. Then, about half of mathematics teachers at high-poverty schools saw student apathy as a serious problem, compared with 12% at low-poverty schools. In 2007, that gap had narrowed by about 20 percentage points, reflecting more positive views of teachers at high-poverty schools. The gap in reported lack of student preparedness for learning also shrank.

Transition to Higher Education

Rates of students graduating within 4 years of entering ninth grade (“on-time” graduation) increased slightly in recent years, but gaps among racial/ethnic groups persist.

• In 2009, 76% of students completed high school on time, up from 73% in 2001.

• The on-time graduation rates of black and Hispanic students increased between 2006 and 2009: from 59% to 64% for black students and from 61% to 66% for Hispanic students.

• Wide gaps remained between the on-time graduation rates of black and Hispanic students and those of white students, who graduated at a rate of 82% in 2009.

The U.S. high school graduation rate lags behind those of most other developed (OECD) nations.

• The United States ranked 18th out of 25 OECD countries for which graduation rate data were available in 2008.

• According to OECD estimates, the United States had an average graduation rate of 77% compared with the OECD average of 80%.

The majority of U.S. high school graduates enroll in a postsecondary institution immediately after high school completion.

• Seventy percent of 2009 high school graduates had enrolled in a postsecondary institution by the October following high school completion, an increase of 19 percentage points since 1975.

• Relatively more female graduates than male graduates enrolled immediately in postsecondary education in 2009 (74% versus 66%).

• Students from high-income families enrolled at a higher rate (84%) than did students from middle-income (67%) or low-income families (55%).

• The rate for white students was 71%, compared with 63% for black and 62% for Hispanic students.

Bias, Bullying and Homophobia in Grades K-6

2012-01-18T14:01:00.000-05:00

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"Playgrounds and Prejudice: Elementary School Climate in the United States" First National Study to Look at Homophobia, Gender Nonconformity in Elementary Schools

Gender Nonconforming Students at Particular Risk for Bullying, Many Teachers Unprepared to Address Issues of Gender Expression, LGBT Families

The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) today released a new report on school climate, biased remarks and bullying, Playgrounds and Prejudice: Elementary School Climate in the United States. The report, based on national surveys of 1,065 elementary school students in 3rd to 6th grade and 1,099 elementary school teachers of K-6th grade, examines students' and teachers' experiences with biased remarks and bullying, and their attitudes about gender expression and family diversity. The surveys were conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of GLSEN during November and December 2010.

Playgrounds and Prejudice

"School climate and victimization can affect students' educational outcomes and personal development at every grade level," said GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Byard. "Playgrounds and Prejudice offers invaluable insights into biased remarks and bullying in America's elementary schools. The report also shows the need for elementary schools to do more to address issues of homophobia, gender expression and family diversity."

GLSEN today also released Ready, Set, Respect! GLSEN's Elementary School Toolkit, an instructional resource developed to help educators address issues raised in Playgrounds and Prejudice, particularly teachers' willingness to address but lack of understanding of biased language, LGBT-inclusive family diversity and gender nonconformity.

Ready, Set, Respect! contains suggested lesson plans that focus on name-calling, bullying and bias, LGBT-inclusive family diversity and gender roles and diversity. The templates are designed for teachers to use as either standalone lessons or for integration into existing curriculum content or school-wide anti-bullying programs. The toolkit also contains helpful tips for teaching more inclusively and intervening in bullying and promoting respectful recess playtime and physical education.

The GLSEN toolkit was developed in partnership with the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) that serves elementary and middle school principals in the United States, Canada, and overseas and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the world's largest organization working on behalf of young children.

"Elementary principals are painfully aware of the impact that name-calling, bullying, and bias have not only on an individual student's development, but also in disrupting a positive school culture that nurtures the whole child" said Gail Connelly, executive director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals. "Principals, who are key instructional leaders, are poised to partner with teachers and to use resources such as Ready, Set, Respect!, ensuring that schools are safe and respectful environments that nurture students' social and emotional development."

The GLSEN toolkit outlines its application within the Common Core States Standards for English Language Arts and the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) Standards (4th Edition).

"Over the past few years, there has been an increase in research on bullying in schools, including elementary schools," said GLSEN Senior Director of Research & Strategic Initiatives Dr. Joseph Kosciw. "However, our report is one of the few that examines bias-based bullying at the elementary school level and the first to examine incidence of homophobic remarks and the negative experiences of children who do not conform to societal standards in their gender expression from a national vantage point."

"Playgrounds and Prejudice articulates a desire among elementary educators to create optimal learning environments for all students, but there is a larger need to provide educational tools and resources that enhance their understanding of gender nonconforming students and families with LGBT parents," said Byard. "Providing this kind of support to teachers and school staff serving our nation's youngest students will build a lasting foundation of learning and development for all elementary school students."

Key Findings on Biased Language, Name-Calling and Bullying

- The most common forms of biased language in elementary schools, heard regularly (i.e., sometimes, often or all the time) by both students and teachers, are the use of the word "gay" in a negative way, such as "that's so gay," (students: 45%, teachers: 49%) and comments like "spaz" or "retard" (51% of students, 45% of teachers). Many also report regularly hearing students make homophobic remarks, such as "fag" or "lesbo" (students: 26%, teachers: 26%) and negative comments about race/ethnicity (students: 26%, teachers: 21%).
- Three-fourths of students (75%) report that students at their school are called names, made fun of or bullied with at least some regularity. Most commonly this is because of students' looks or body size (67%), followed by not being good at sports (37%), how well they do at schoolwork (26%), not conforming to traditional gender norms/roles (23%) or because other people think they're gay (21%).

Key Findings on Gender Non-Conforming Students

- Nearly 1 in 10 of elementary students in 3rd to 6th grade (8%) indicate that they do not always conform to traditional gender norms/roles - either they are boys who others sometimes think, act or look like a girl, or they are girls who others sometimes think, act or look like a boy.
- Gender nonconforming students are less likely than other students to feel very safe at school (42% vs 61%), and are more likely than others to indicate they sometimes do not want to go to school because they feel unsafe or afraid there (35% vs 15%). Gender nonconforming students are also more likely than others to be called names, made fun of or bullied at least sometimes at school (56% vs 33%).
- Less than half of teachers believe that a gender nonconforming student would feel comfortable at their school (male student who acts or looks traditionally feminine: 44%, female student who acts or looks traditionally masculine: 49%)
- Only a third (34%) of teachers report having personally engaged in efforts to create a safe and supportive classroom environment for gender nonconforming students.

Key Findings on Family Diversity

- Seven in ten students (72%) say they have been taught that there are many different kinds of families. However, less than 2 in 10 (18%) have learned about families with gay or lesbian parents (families that have two dads or two moms).
- While an overwhelming majority of elementary school teachers say that they include representations of different families when the topic of families comes up in their classrooms (89%), less than a quarter of teachers report any representation of lesbian, gay or bisexual parents (21%) or transgender parents (8%).
- Only a quarter (24%) of teachers report having personally engaged in efforts to create a safe and supportive classroom environment for families with LGBT parents.

Key Findings on Teacher Preparedness

- A majority of elementary school teachers believe they are obligated to ensure a safe learning environment for gender nonconforming students (83%) and students with LGBT parents (70%). Eight in 10 teachers would feel comfortable addressing name-calling, bullying or harassment of students because a student is perceived to be gay, lesbian or bisexual (81%) or is gender nonconforming (81%).
- Less than half of teachers (48%) indicate that they feel comfortable responding to questions from their students about gay, lesbian or bisexual people. There was a lower level of comfort found among teachers (41%) responding to questions from their students about transgender people.
- A majority of teachers (85%) have received professional development on diversity or multicultural issues, but less than half of teachers have ever received specific professional development on gender issues (37%) or on families with LGBT parents (23%).

Methodology

Findings in Playgrounds and Prejudice: Elementary School Climate in the United States came from online surveys conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of GLSEN among 1,065 U.S. elementary school students in 3rd to 6th grade and 1,099 U.S. elementary school teachers of Kindergarten to 6th grade. The national sample was drawn primarily from the Harris Poll Online (HPOL) opt-in panel and supplemented with sample from trusted partner panels. All respondents were invited to participate through password protected emails. Interviews for students averaged 15 minutes in length and were conducted between November 3 and November 29, 2010. Interviews for teachers averaged 20 minutes in length and were conducted between November 11 and December 7, 2010. The data were weighted to key demographic variables to align with the national population of the respective groups. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. In addition, an online strategy session was conducted on June 14, 2010 among a group of 20 elementary school teachers of grades ranging from Kindergarten to 6th grade to inform the development of the survey. Key informants (e.g., elementary school teachers, administrators, students, and teacher educators) reviewed the student and teacher surveys to assess for comprehension and face validity.

About GLSEN

GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for all students. Established in 1990, GLSEN envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. GLSEN seeks to develop school climates where difference is valued for the positive contribution it makes to creating a more vibrant and diverse community. For information on GLSEN's research, educational resources, public policy advocacy, student organizing programs and educator training initiatives, visit www.glsen.org.

Annual National Rankings of Charter School Laws

2012-01-18T10:53:00.000-05:00

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The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) has released its annual ranking of state charter school laws across the country. The report, and the NAPCS model charter school law it is based upon, is meant to be a useful tool to assist in passing laws that support the creation of more high-quality schools. Following one of the most positive years for state charter school legislation in recent memory, there were numerous changes in this edition’s rankings. Sixteen states saw their charter school law scores increase, 22 states’ overall scores remained the same, and four states fell in their overall score. Maine’s law, which passed last year, vaulted to the top of the rankings. Of the states that allow charter schools, Mississippi’s law remains at the bottom of the list.

In its third year, Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Public Charter School Laws ranks each of the country’s 42 state charter school laws. Each state receives a score on its law’s strength based on the 20 essential components from the NAPCS model law, which include measuring quality and accountability, equitable access to funding and facilities and limited caps on charter school growth.

“What’s most encouraging about the charter school movement’s legislative efforts is that they are more frequently marrying growth with quality and accountability,” said lead author of the report and NAPCS Vice President for State Advocacy and Support, Todd Ziebarth. “The long-term viability of the charter school movement is primarily dependent on the quality of the schools that open. It’s critical that state lawmakers recognize the importance of charter school quality and accountability – and the impact that their laws have on it. We are glad to see that they are increasingly doing so.”

In the 2011 rankings, the average score of all states with a charter school law was 100 (out of a maximum possible 208), and in this year’s rankings the average state score rose to 107, demonstrating that state charter laws are increasingly improving. The top 10 states with laws best positioned to support the growth of high-quality charter schools are Maine, Minnesota, Florida, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Indiana, Colorado, New York, California and Michigan.

At long last, Maine enacted a charter school law, becoming the 42nd jurisdiction to do so. Additionally, as a result of positive policy changes made over the past year, New Mexico made a big jump in the rankings, moving from 20th to fourth; Indiana went from 25th to sixth; and Rhode Island from 37th to 26th.

Conversely, Georgia fell from seventh to 14th and New Jersey dropped from 26th to 31st. Louisiana dipped in the rankings from ninth to 13th, and Idaho dropped four spots from 28th to 32nd.
The nine states that have still failed to enact a charter school law include Alabama, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.

"There were a lot of shake-ups on the list this year. Most notably, Maine's new charter law is ranked number one after passing a strong charter law that is aligned with the NAPCS' model charter law, although it is yet to be seen how the implementation or enforcement of the law plays out," says Ursula Wright, interim president and CEO, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. "While we see an increasing number of states creating favorable policy environments for high-quality charter schools, we acknowledge there is still a lot of work to be done.”

As lawmakers prepare for the upcoming legislative sessions, the rankings provide clear indications of where some states excel and others come up short in their charter school laws. The report is meant to be a tool that offers a roadmap for how governors and legislators can take action to strengthen education reform laws.

The complete analysis can be downloaded at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ website: http://www.publiccharters.org/publication/?id=658.

See detailed state-by-state summaries and color-coded maps of how states measure against each component at the http://www.publiccharters.org/law/.

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4 decade analysis finds technology enhances educational experience

2012-01-17T17:14:00.000-05:00

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Technology has grown by leaps and bounds, yet are computers helping students progress in their learning? Absolutely, says a 40-year retrospective on the impact of technology in classrooms.

Published in the journal Review of Educational Research, the findings gathered by Concordia University researchers suggest that technology delivers content and supports student achievement.

Expanded from a doctoral thesis by Rana Tamim, the study’s first author, the research brought together data from 60,000 elementary school, high school, and post-secondary students. It compared achievement in classrooms that used computer technology versus those that used little or none.

In those classrooms where computers were used to support teaching, the technology was found to have a small to moderate positive impact on both learning and attitude. “We deduce that the impact would be even greater if observed over a student’s entire educational experience,” says co-author Richard Schmid, chair of Concordia’s Department of Education and a member of the university’s Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance.

The research team found technology works best when students are encouraged to think critically and communicate effectively. “A standard PowerPoint presentation will most likely not enhance the learning experience beyond providing content or enhancing teacher-directed lectures or class discussions,” says Schmid.

The team now plans to evaluate what technologies work best for what subjects. “Educational technology is not a homogenous intervention, but provides a broad variety of tools and strategies for learning,” says Schmid, adding there are few resources available to keep teachers abreast of newer technologies and their potential.

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Physical Activity Program Leads to Better Behavior for Children with ADHD

2012-01-17T15:35:00.000-05:00

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While children who suffer from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) struggle with hyperactive-impulses and have trouble maintaining attention, a recent study found that a structured physical activity program may help to improve their muscular capacities, motor skills, behavior assessments, and the ability to process information. This study, "A Physical Activity Program Improves Behavior and Cognitive Functions in Children with ADHD: An Exploratory Study," was released in the recent issue of the Journal of Attention Disorders (published by SAGE).

Authors Claudia Verret, Marie-Claude Guay, Claude Berthiaume, Phillip Gardiner, and Louise Béliveau enrolled ten children in a physical activity program that included a warm-up, aerobic activity, muscular and motor-skill exercises, and a cool-down. The objective of each session was to maintain moderate to high-intensity activity throughout each session as observed by a heart-rate monitor.

"A main finding of this study is that both parents and teachers observed better behavioral scores in the physical activity group," wrote the authors. "This could mean that positive effects of physical activity may occur in different settings of the children's life."

The authors monitored ten children with ADHD who were participating in the physical activity program three times a week and eleven different children with ADHD as part of a control group.

The authors wrote, "Considering the beneficial effect of physical activity participation on some important ADHD-related variables, schools and parents of children with ADHD should look to maximize opportunities for structured group physical activity in their children's life."

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Junk food in schools doesn't cause weight gain among children

2012-01-17T11:53:00.001-05:00

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While the percentage of obese children in the United States tripled between the early 1970s and the late 2000s, a new study suggests that—at least for middle school students—weight gain has nothing to do with the candy, soda, chips, and other junk food they can purchase at school.

"We were really surprised by that result and, in fact, we held back from publishing our study for roughly two years because we kept looking for a connection that just wasn't there," said Jennifer Van Hook, a Professor of Sociology and Demography at Pennsylvania State University and lead author of the study, which appears in the January issue of Sociology of Education.

The study relies on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999, which follows a nationally representative sample of students from the fall of kindergarten through the spring of eighth grade (the 1998-1999 through 2006-2007 schools years). Van Hook and her coauthor Claire E. Altman, a sociology and demography doctoral student at Pennsylvania State University, used a subsample of 19,450 children who attended school in the same county in both fifth and eighth grades (the 2003-2004 and the 2006-2007 school years).

The authors found that 59.2 percent of fifth graders and 86.3 percent of eighth graders in their study attended schools that sold junk food. But, while there was a significant increase in the percentage of students who attended schools that sold junk food between fifth and eighth grades, there was no rise in the percentage of students who were overweight or obese. In fact, despite the increased availability of junk food, the percentage of students who were overweight or obese actually decreased from fifth grade to eighth grade, from 39.1 percent to 35.4 percent.

"There has been a great deal of focus in the media on how schools make a lot of money from the sale of junk food to students, and on how schools have the ability to help reduce childhood obesity," Van Hook said. "In that light, we expected to find a definitive connection between the sale of junk food in middle schools and weight gain among children between fifth and eighth grades. But, our study suggests that—when it comes to weight issues—we need to be looking far beyond schools and, more specifically, junk food sales in schools, to make a difference."

According to Van Hook, policies that aim to reduce childhood obesity and prevent unhealthy weight gain need to concentrate more on the home and family environments as well as the broader environments outside of school.

"Schools only represent a small portion of children's food environment," Van Hook said. "They can get food at home, they can get food in their neighborhoods, and they can go across the street from the school to buy food. Additionally, kids are actually very busy at school. When they're not in class, they have to get from one class to another and they have certain fixed times when they can eat. So, there really isn't a lot of opportunity for children to eat while they're in school, or at least eat endlessly, compared to when they're at home. As a result, whether or not junk food is available to them at school may not have much bearing on how much junk food they eat."

The study results also intimate that when it comes to combating childhood obesity and weight issues, policymakers should put more emphasis on younger children, Van Hook said. "There has been a lot of research showing that many children develop eating habits and tastes for certain types of foods when they are of preschool age, and that those habits and tastes may stay with them for their whole lives," Van Hook said. "So, their middle school environments might not matter a lot."

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Academic Achievement in Public and Catholic Schools

2012-01-17T11:50:00.000-05:00

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This article examines two critical questions related to equality of educational opportunity. First, does the academic advantage that was observed in Catholic high schools more than two decades ago continue to hold for contemporary students in Catholic middle schools? Second, how closely do different school sectors adhere to the common school ideal? Answers to these questions are central to efforts to reduce educational inequalities.

The study reported here relies on data from sixth- and eighth-grade students in the Chicago School Study, a longitudinal survey of Chicago public schools, and the Chicago Catholic School Study, a survey of all the Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago. These school systems are the third largest public and largest Catholic school systems in the United States.

The results show no consistent sector differences in achievement gains in sixth and eighth grades in reading and mathematics. Moreover, background characteristics vary by school sector, and neither sector eliminates all background effects on achievement. Compared to the Chicago public schools, Chicago Catholic schools reduce the effects of students’ race and socioeconomic status on reading achievement but exacerbate the effects of race on mathematics achievement.

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The Geography of Inequality: Why Separate Means Unequal in American Public Schools

2012-01-17T11:44:00.000-05:00

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Persistent school segregation means not only that children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds attend different schools but also that their schools are unequal in performance. This study documents the extent of disparities nationally in school performance between schools attended by whites and Asians compared with those attended by blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans. It further examines the geography of school inequality in two ways.

First, it analyzes the segregation of students between different types of school profiles based on racial composition, poverty, and metropolitan location. Second, it estimates the independent effects of these and other school and school district characteristics on school performance, identifying which aspects of school segregation are the most important sources of disadvantage.

A focus on schools at the bottom of the distribution, as in No Schools Left Behind, would not ameliorate wide disparities between groups that are found across the whole spectrum of school performance.

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Contracts in the classroom

2012-01-16T15:39:00.000-05:00

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While contracts are an indispensable tool in the modern workplace, a new study has found that they may also be very effective in contemporary classrooms. According to a new article published in SAGE Open, courses in which students design their own course based on a contract lead to both higher grades and higher student satisfaction than traditional points-based courses.

The article, "Use of Contract Grading to Improve Grades among College Freshmen in Introductory Psychology," details this study. Researchers Dana Lindemann and Colin Harbke assigned a total of 40 college freshmen enrolled in one introductory psychology course to a traditional or contract grading system. Those assigned to the contract system signed a contract at the beginning of the semester in which they indicated what grade they were aiming to receive and specified which assignments they would complete to receive that grade. Students who wanted to receive a better grade had to complete more assignments and receive a higher score on exams than those aiming for a lower grade.

Though the instructor and course materials were identical for both sections, at the end of the semester, the group of students who were graded contractually were three times more likely to earn an A grade, one third as likely to fail or withdraw from the course, perceived a higher degree of control over their grade, and consistently rated their own effort, their instructor, and the course overall more favorably.

"Students indicated higher ratings for working hard for their grade, enjoying the course format, and for enhancing independent thinking," wrote the authors. "Contract graded students may be more motivated to perform well."

For the students assigned to the contract-grading system, the course instructor implemented components into the course structure which are unique to a contractually-graded course, unbeknownst to the other students in the classroom. These components included allowing students to choose their coursework from a variety of assignments, grading their exams and assignments as pass or fail, requiring that each student master 85% of the material to receive a passing grade, and allowing students to resubmit their assignments one time in order to receive a passing grade.

Lindemann and Harbke continued, "When assignments are graded pass or fail, emphasis is placed on mastery of the material, as opposed to gaining a partial understanding of the material."

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Decade of Research Points to Five Must-Haves for Effective Principals

2012-01-16T12:13:00.001-05:00

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School leadership doesn't just happen. Effective principals employ five key practices, according to The School Principal as Leader: Guiding Schools to Better Teaching and Learning, a Wallace Foundation Perspective that distills lessons from school leadership projects and major research studies supported by the foundation since 2000.

"After more than a decade of investment in school leadership, we can confirm the empirical link between school leadership and improved student achievement. We hope that this Wallace Perspective can contribute a new and deeper understanding of effective school leadership and how it operates," said Will Miller, president of The Wallace Foundation. "No longer seen as glorified managers of buildings and bus schedules, today's principals must be their schools' chief improvement officers, strengthening instruction, building a culture of high achievement, and marshaling the skills of other educators to boost student performance."

Perspectives are occasional reports that mine Wallace-supported projects and research for insights that could help solve difficult problems, including the inadequacy of education in many urban public schools. The School Principal as Leader gleans lessons from Wallace-supported scholarship by leading researchers (at institutions including the RAND Corporation, Stanford, Vanderbilt, the University of Washington, and the Universities of Minnesota and Toronto) as well as Wallace-funded projects in 24 states and numerous districts. It concludes that five practices are central to effective principal leadership:

1. Shaping a vision of academic success for all students: The literature evinces a broad consensus that setting clear, rigorous learning expectations for all students is crucial to closing the achievement gap between advantaged and less-advantaged students, and for raising achievement overall.

2. Creating a climate hospitable to education: For students to reach learning goals, and for teachers to be able to help them, principals must establish such basics as safety and orderliness, but these alone are not sufficient to create a positive instructional climate. Research indicates that effective principals also focus on building a sense of school community that is upbeat, welcoming, solution-oriented, and professional.

3. Cultivating leadership in others: Consistent with scholarship on leadership in general, effective school principals empower those around them, including influential teachers and staff teams. Hallmarks of this practice, which correlates with better student performance on math and reading tests, include consistent and well-defined student learning expectations, and frequent discussion and pedagogical critiques among teachers.

4. Improving instruction: Research indicates that, next to teaching itself, principal leadership is the most important in-school factor in driving student achievement, but the Perspective also shows that effective principals work to get the most out of the teaching staff. They do this by promoting high expectations, attacking teacher isolation and instituting research-based strategies to improve learning through professional development.

5. Managing people, data and processes to foster school improvement: Researchers found that effective leaders nurtured and supported their staff members, but were also not averse to "aggressively weeding out individuals who did not show the capacity to grow," in the words of one study. The Perspective also notes that, despite the rule of thumb that a principal should be in place five to seven years in order to have a beneficial impact on a school, the average length of a principal's stay in 80 schools examined by one study team was 3.6 years. This high turnover was associated with lower student performance on reading and math achievement tests.

The Perspective singles out the need for support from district and state officials if school-level leadership is to be successful. It also notes that school leaders cannot transform failing schools by themselves, but that without effective principals, there is little likelihood that these schools can be turned around.

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Private Education Management Organizations Continue to Grow – But Results are Mixed

2012-01-13T12:31:00.000-05:00

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New report shows 778,000 students attend schools operated by private education management organizations – more than 40 percent of all students in charter schools

A mere 27 percent of U.S. online schools run by for-profit
companies achieved Adequate Yearly Progress

Across the nation, almost 300 private companies referred to as “education management organizations” are taking a big bite out of the public school apple. According to a new report, EMOs now operate 35 percent of all public charter schools, and these schools account for more than 40 percent of all charter school students. In the for-profit sector, the number of companies has remained relatively stable for the past few years, yet many of the large and medium-sized for-profit EMOs are expanding the number of students they serve on their campuses, and there has been a dramatic expansion in “virtual schools.” Further, the number of students enrolled in schools under non-profit management has been growing even more rapidly acording to a new report, Profiles of For-Profit and Nonprofit Education Management Organizations: Thirteenth Annual Report – 2010-2011, released by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), which is housed at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“Growth is occurring vertically as well as horizontally,” said the report’s lead author Dr. Gary Miron, a professor of evaluation, measurement and research at Western Michigan University. “Many of the for-profit operators have actually lost contracts and schools, but have replaced lost contracts with new agreements in other states and districts. Much of the growth experienced by for-profit EMOs is due to steadily adding grades or growing enrollment in existing schools.”

While the growth rate of EMOs, and especially of those delivering online education, has been strong, performance has been mixed.

Only 27.4 percent of “virtual schools” run by for-profit EMOs achieved “Adequate Yearly Progress” as set forth under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Public schools that fail repeatedly to make AYP are subject to sanctions, including bringing in private companies to manage them or converting them to charter schools. The results for virtual schools are especially jarring when compared with figure for the privately managed brick-and-mortar schools identified in the report as well as the national AYP figure for public schools: both in the 52% range.

The report is the NEPC’s latest in its annual series of profiles of EMOs, companies that are contracted to manage charter schools and other public schools. The EMO sector emerged in the 1990s as part of an effort to use market forces to reform public education.

Profiles of For-Profit and Nonprofit Education Management Organizations is the nation’s most comprehensive examination of the private entities that operate public schools. The Profiles reports are produced by a team of researchers from Western Michigan University, led by Gary Miron and Jessica L. Urschel.

This year’s Profiles report covers 99 for-profit companies and 197 nonprofit organizations that operate public schools, predominately charters. Among the for-profit firms profiled in the report are Connections Academy, Imagine Schools, K-12 Inc., Edison Schools Inc., and White Hat Management. The largest of the non-profit operators is KIPP, with 109 schools and 32,000 students in 20 states and the District of Columbia.

The 99 for-profit companies profiled operate a total of 758 schools, with approximately 393,500 students nationwide. The 197 nonprofits manage 1,170 schools, enrolling approximately 384,000 students. The schools that have seen the fastest growth in recent years are virtual schools operated by for-profit EMOs. During the 2010-2011 school year, a total of 79 such schools enrolled almost 108,000 students.

Among their findings, the researchers obtained Adequate Yearly Progress ratings for 677 of the 758 schools managed by for-profit EMOs. AYP provides a crude indicator of the extent to which schools are meeting state standards. Of those for-profit EMO-operated schools, only 48.2 percent made AYP; 51.8 percent did not. By contrast, the nonprofit EMO sector performed better: the researchers obtained AYP ratings for 948 schools out of 1,170 under non-profit management, and 56.4 percent of those examined made AYP.

This year’s Profiles of For-Profit and Nonprofit Education Management Organizations: Thirteenth Annual Report - 2010-2011 for the first time combines information about for-profit EMOs and nonprofit charter school operators in one report. As the report indicates, the for-profit and non-profit sectors are closely related with some EMOs changing status each year.

Creating Teacher Incentives for School Excellence and Equity

2012-01-13T12:27:00.000-05:00

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Do teachers think like salesmen or assembly line workers? Does a financial reward tied to a production goal or sales target motivate teachers to teach better, and do students benefit from these financial incentives? The answer is that few or no gains come from such teacher incentives. This is because pay-for-performance schemes don’t respond to what teachers care most about, but other incentives might be much more successful, according to Creating Teacher Incentives for School Excellence and Equity, issued today by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The policy brief provides state governments, schools, and school districts with fundamental information about what research tells us concerning the kinds of incentives that are likely to get the best teachers to work in and stay in schools — particularly high-needs schools.

The policy brief is written for the NEPC by Barnett Berry, founder and president of the Center for Teaching Quality, and Jonathan Eckert, an education professor at Wheaton College in Illinois and former Teaching Ambassador at the U.S. Department of Education, where he worked in both the Bush and Obama administrations on teacher quality issues. A companion document takes the policy brief’s recommendations and offers legislative language that would translate those recommendations into law. This legislative brief is written by professor Scott R. Bauries of the University of Kentucky College of Law, whose areas of expertise include education law and employment law.

In their review of the empirical evidence, Berry and Eckert note that “teacher incentive proposals are rarely grounded on what high-quality research indicates are the kinds of teacher incentives that lead to school excellence and equity.”

For example, the authors note that “empirical evidence, including large-scale studies and an increasing number of teacher testimonies, suggest that working conditions are far more important than bonuses.” Moreover, those important working conditions go well beyond the issues of time, class size, and the length of the workday. Policymakers need to focus on the conditions that allow teachers to teach effectively, including: “(1) principals who cultivate and embrace teacher leadership; (2) time and tools for teachers to learn from each other; (3) specialized preparation and resources for the highest needs schools, subjects, and students; (4) the elimination of out-of-field teaching assignments; (5) teaching loads that are differentiated based on the diversity and mobility of students taught; (6) opportunities to take risks; (7) integration of academic, social, and health support services for students; and (8) safe and well-maintained school buildings.”

In addition, missing from virtually all of the currently in-vogue strategies to give teachers incentives to improve achievement is an understanding of how incentives could be used to reward teachers who spread their expertise to their colleagues. Teachers have long been organizationally “siloed” from each other. Berry and Eckert point out that strategic compensation could be used to reward teachers who collaborate, not compete, with their colleagues in helping them teach for more effectively.

The authors offer other specific recommendations as well, concluding, “What most teachers desire is the know-how to teach their subjects as well as the autonomy and supports to best meet the needs of their students.” Effectively addressing the conditions that the best teachers want and need will go a long way toward supporting their professional activities and retaining them — particularly in high-needs schools.

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Revisiting the Age-Old Question: Does Money Matter in Education?

2012-01-13T12:20:00.000-05:00

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This policy brief revisits the long and storied literature on whether money matters in providing a quality education. Increasingly, political rhetoric adheres to the unfounded certainty that money doesn’t make a difference in education, and that reduced funding is unlikely to harm educational quality. Such proclamations have even been used to justify large cuts to education budgets over the past few years. These positions, however, have little basis in the empirical research on the relationship between funding and school quality.

The brief, discusses selected major studies on three specific topics; a) whether money in the aggregate matters; b) whether specific schooling resources that cost money matter; and c) whether substantive and sustained state school finance reforms matter. Regarding these three questions, the brief concludes:

1. Does money matter? Yes. On average, aggregate measures of per-pupil spending are positively associated with improved or higher student outcomes. In some studies, the size of this effect is larger than in others and, in some cases, additional funding appears to matter more for some students than others. Clearly, there are other factors that may moderate the influence of funding on student outcomes, such as how that money is spent – in other words, money must be spent wisely to yield benefits. But, on balance, in direct tests of the relationship between financial resources and student outcomes, money matters.

2. Do schooling resources that cost money matter? Yes. Schooling resources which cost money, including class size reduction or higher teacher salaries, are positively associated with student outcomes. Again, in some cases, those effects are larger than others and there is also variation by student population and other contextual variables. On the whole, however, the things that cost money benefit students, and there is scarce evidence that there are more cost-effective alternatives.

3. Do state school finance reforms matter? Yes. Sustained improvements to the level and distribution of funding across local public school districts can lead to improvements in the level and distribution of student outcomes. While money alone may not be the answer, more equitable and adequate allocation of financial inputs to schooling provide a necessary underlying condition for improving the equity and adequacy of outcomes. The available evidence suggests that appropriate combinations of more adequate funding with more accountability for its use may be most promising.
While there may in fact be better and more efficient ways to leverage the education dollar toward improved student outcomes, we do know the following:

- Many of the ways in which schools currently spend money do improve student outcomes.
- When schools have more money, they have greater opportunity to spend productively. When they don’t, they can’t.
- Arguments that across-the-board budget cuts will not hurt outcomes are completely unfounded.

Yes, money matters, resources that cost money matter, and more equitable distribution of school funding can improve outcomes.

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Common Core State Standards Implementation Planning

2012-01-13T12:13:00.000-05:00

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Preparing for Change, a National Perspective on Common Core State Standards Implementation Planning.

The early stages of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative were largely occupied with debates over the merits of the standards and the feasibility of their adoption by the states. As the movement has matured, the focus of attention has shifted toward issues related to practical implementation, such as the readiness of teachers to actually enact the new standards in the classroom. To gauge state progress toward implementing the CCSS, Education First and the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center surveyed state education agency officials to gain their insights on the status of transition planning efforts. Recognizing that the movement toward a new set of standards could constitute a dramatic shift for many educators, administrators, and policymakers, their survey sought to examine how state leaders are preparing for this change, by collecting information on the steps involved in developing the capacity of their school systems to face challenges in several key areas.

In the survey, states reported on the status of their implementation planning as of fall 2011. This study provides specific details about the status of their plans for changes in the areas of: teacher professional development, curriculum, and teacher-evaluation systems. All 50 states and the District of Columbia—which is treated as a state throughout this report—were included in the study.

Key findings:

 All but one of the 47 CCSS-adopting states reported having developed some type of formal implementation plan for transitioning to the new, common standards. Wyoming indicated work on its plan is underway.

 The majority of states reported that they have at least begun the process of developing plans to align their systems to the CCSS by: providing professional development to teachers (45 states), changing or devising curriculum guides and other instructional materials (35 states), and revising their teacher-evaluation systems (38 states).

 Every state that has adopted the CCSS—except New Hampshire—has a fully developed plan to provide teacher professional development aligned with the CCSS (20 states) or is in the process of developing such a plan (25 states).

 Seventeen states have fully developed plans for providing CCSS-aligned instructional materials to teachers, and another 18 states are developing a plan. Eleven states report no progress toward developing a plan.

 All but eight of the states that have adopted the CCSS say they are at least working on a plan for their teacher-evaluation systems that will include holding teachers accountable for students’ mastery of the new standards.

 Seven states indicated they have fully developed plans for each of the three main implementation areas examined in our survey: teacher professional development, curriculum materials, and teacher-evaluation systems. Most of these states are recipients of federal Race-to-the-Top funds.

 Eighteen states lack fully developed plans in all three of these implementation areas.

Most studies of charter schools use unsophisticated methods that tell us little

2012-01-12T17:22:00.001-05:00

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Some two decades into the grand national experiment with charter schools, how much do we really know about them? Not all that much. And not nearly as much as we easily could, say researchers from the University of California, San Diego Division of Social Sciences.

Writing in the journal Science, UC San Diego educational economist Julian Betts and Richard Atkinson, president emeritus of the University of California and former director of the National Science Foundation, find that most studies of charter schools "use unsophisticated methods that tell us little about causal effects."

Better Research Needed on the Impact of Charter Schools

The Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, as well as many members of the general public (not to mention the makers of the popular 2010 education documentary "Waiting for Superman") have all embraced charter schools as the saviors of a broken educational system. But does going to a charter school improve student outcomes? We don't really know, argue Atkinson and Betts. Which charter schools, or even types of charter schools, are more effective than others? We don't really know.

Ideally, charter schools – which are funded publicly but are granted charters by school districts or other authorizing bodies to operate outside many of the strictures of regular neighborhood schools – would be hotbeds of innovation. They could try out different curricula, different teaching methods, different training or reward systems for the teachers. The best and most effective schools would inspire imitation. The worst would have their charters revoked and would go away.

"But most policymakers don't have sufficient data on charter schools to decide whether they're successes to be replicated or disasters to be shut down," said Betts, who, in addition to being an economics professor at UC San Diego, is also executive director of The San Diego Education Research Alliance at the university, a Bren Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Most studies take a simple snapshot of achievement at a charter school, reading and math scores in the spring, say, and compare these to scores at a nearby traditional public school. A study of this sort, Betts said, is "naïve and essentially meaningless."

Self-selection is the problem. A snapshot study might give you a picture of the students who selected a particular charter but says little about that school's effectiveness. In a recent meta-analysis of the available literature on charter schools, coauthored by Betts (with UC San Diego economist Emily Tang) and published by the University of Washington's National Charter School Research Project, 75 percent of studies were discarded because they failed to account for differences in the backgrounds and academic histories of traditional public-school students and those who chose to go to a charter.

Some of the best, most rigorous studies are based on analyses of charter-school lottery winners and losers, write Betts and Atkinson. Charter schools that are popular enough to be oversubscribed are usually compelled by law to hold lotteries. As dramatized by the documentary "Waiting for Superman," lottery winners differ from losers only by the luck of the draw. That is to say, students who lose a lottery are an ideal control group, and comparing outcomes for lottery winners and losers is the closest we can get to a randomized controlled experiment.

Lottery-based studies suggest that charters do as well as or better than traditional public schools. But, write Betts and Atkinson, these studies have, to date, only examined about 90 charter schools – or just 2 percent of charter schools nationally.

As good as lottery-based studies are, they contain some major impediments. One is that most charter schools don't hold lotteries. They're not oversubscribed. A recent and major nationwide U.S. Department of Education study of charter middle schools found that only 130 out of 492 held lotteries. (And of these, only 77 agreed to share their lottery data so researchers could study them.)

It also very likely, Betts said, according to evidence from Texas and elsewhere, that the oversubscribed, lottery-holding schools are better than average to begin with. Put another way, parents are smart and there's a reason some charter schools are popular.

The lottery-based studies, Betts and Atkinson conclude, are not very representative.

So how to study all the other charter schools, the majority, that don't hold lotteries? Atkinson and Betts propose that "value-added" research – research that follows individual students' trajectories, comparing how they test before/after entering or leaving a charter – is a close second-best to lottery-based research. For that, though, researchers need access to individual student test-score data over time. This access is not easy to come by and is often fiercely contested.

Betts and Atkinson add that for the fullest account of educational impacts it would also be important to look at and supplement testing data with measures of higher-order learning and behavior as well as such longer-term outcomes as graduation rates and college attendance.

The way forward is clear, Betts said, but whether there's political will is another matter: "We need more lottery-based studies and we need to be able to do longitudinal work," he said.

Researchers need routine access to individual student data. And charter laws should be overhauled so that charters schools have to share their lottery data with authorizing bodies and with state departments of education. (To do good research, researchers would also need to know how wait lists are administered.) This last wouldn't be costly, Betts said, and could be accomplished by simple fiat.

It might be a tall order for all 51 states to implement the suggested reforms at once, the researchers write, but federal initiatives like the No Child Left Behind Act and the Race to the Top fund could make financial support to schools contingent on these requirements.

"Taking these steps," Betts said, "would improve research, not only on charter schools but on all public education."

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Quality Counts 2012

2012-01-12T14:03:00.001-05:00

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Maryland Ranks First for Fourth Straight Year

Special Theme Explores American Education from a Global Perspective Grades and Highlights Reports Issued for All 50 States and D.C.

The nation and many states face continuing challenges in delivering a high-quality education to all students, according to Quality Counts 2012, the 16th edition of Education Week's annual examination of issues and challenges facing America's public schools.

In addition to the in-depth package of articles on this year's theme, Quality Counts 2012 offers fresh data and analysis from the EPE Research Center on key education policy indicators, including scores and letter grades for individual states and for the nation overall in five of six areas tracked by the annual report.

This year's updated categories include the Chance-for-Success Index, introduced in Quality Counts 2007 to offer a handle on the role that education plays in enhancing positive outcomes at various stages over the course of a person's life; the K-12 Achievement Index, which offers a yardstick on student performance by state on 18 crucial indicators; and school finance, graded on eight factors, including how education resources are spread within a state, as well as overall spending patterns. Also updated are categories tracking policies that involve the teaching profession, and those that focus on standards, assessments, and accountability.

The sixth category captured in the report's annual "State of the States" roundup involves policies relating to transitions and alignment among different sections of the educational continuum, from early childhood to postsecondary education and the world of work. It was updated in Quality Counts 2011.

Together, these six categories form the basis of the summative letter grades given to the nation overall and to the individual states.

State-by-State Grades

Maryland, for the fourth consecutive year, ranks at the top of the national list with a grade of B-plus. Tightly clustered behind it with a B are Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia, all of which consistently performed strongly in past Quality Counts reports.

Ranked at the bottom was South Dakota, which receives a grade of D-plus, while 11 states rank in the lowest tier, with grades of C-minus. The nation overall receives a grade of C, the same as last year; overall, 41 states receive grades ranging from C-minus to C-plus.

Bright Spots

Although the nation as a whole posted no overall increase on the summative grade reflecting all six categories tracked annually in the report, notable changes took place in some specific areas.

Chief among these is the category of standards, assessments, and accountability, a long-standing feature of Quality Counts. Since 2010, when this category was last updated, 20 states have posted improvements, with 12 states—led by Indiana—earning an A, and nine an A-minus. Illinois increased its score by nearly 18 points, and Kentucky by 15. Academic-content standards were the strongest single indicator; 19 states earned a perfect score in this subcategory.

In the realm of K-12 student achievement, Quality Counts evaluates 18 separate criteria looking at how states are performing now, how they have improved over time, and poverty-based achievement gaps. The nation overall posted a 1 point increase over last year. Thirty states' scores improved between 2011 and 2012, and five notched improvements of 4 points or more. Massachusetts and New Jersey were the only two states to earn a B-minus or better across all three categories included in the K-12 Achievement Index.

The nation receives a C when graded across the six distinct areas of policy and performance tracked by the report, the most comprehensive ongoing assessment of the state of American education.

For the fourth year in a row, Maryland earns honors as the top-ranked state, posting the nation’s highest overall grade, a B-plus. Perennial strong finishers Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia follow close behind, each receiving a B. Nearly half the states, however, receive grades of C or lower.

A well-educated workforce and citizenry is widely viewed as the basis for economic stability and competitiveness, both internationally and domestically. Yet, new findings from the report’s annual Chance-for-Success Index—which captures the role of education in a person’s life, from cradle to career—show the country struggling to provide opportunities to succeed and many states lagging far behind the national leaders. The U.S. as a whole receives a C-plus on the index. For the fifth year running, Massachusetts earns the only A and remains at the top of the national rankings, followed closely by New Hampshire and New Jersey, each posting grades of A-minus. Mississippi, New Mexico, and Nevada receive the lowest scores, with grades of D-plus or lower. Scores on the Chance-for-Success Index have dropped from pre-recession levels, due in part to declines in conditions that support early schooling success, including family income and parental employment.

Focusing more specifically on academic performance, the report’s K-12 Achievement Index evaluates the overall strength of a state’s public schools against 18 individual indicators that capture: current achievement, improvements over time, and poverty-based disparities or gaps. Massachusetts emerges as the top-achieving state this year, with New Jersey and Maryland finishing second and third, respectively. These states—each earning a B in this year’s report—have been the nation’s top three
scorers since the index was first graded in 2008. A wide gulf separates the leaders from the rest of the pack, with the average state earning a C-minus on K-12 Achievement, a slight improvement over last year. Three states—Louisiana, Mississippi, and West Virginia—and the District of Columbia receive grades of F on the index.

States post their highest scores for policies related to standards, assessments, and school accountability, one of Quality Counts’ longest-standing categories. The nation earns a B in this year’s report, with 12 states—led by Indiana—receiving an A and nine with an A-minus. Since results were last reported in 2010, scores have improved in 20 states, with the largest gains found in Illinois and Kentucky. Progress in these areas reflects the cumulative legacies of standards-based reform and accountability initiatives dating back to the 1990s, the decade-old No Child Left Behind Act, and, more recently, an array of stimulus-era programs and the common-standards movement.

Quality Counts 2012 features new results for its Teaching Profession category, which spans 44 individual state indicators. The U.S. earns a C in this area, although scores for the nation as a whole and the majority of states have dropped in the past two years. Arkansas and South Carolina each earn a B-plus, the highest grade awarded this year; four states and the District of Columbia earn a D-minus. Findings from a survey conducted by the EPE Research Center show that some declines can be attributed to the economic impacts of the recession and states’ inability to maintain funding for certain teacher-related policies and programs. More positive results emerge for the center’s Pay-Parity Index, which shows that the national pay-gap between teachers and other comparable workers has narrowed in the past several years. Public-school teachers earn about 94 cents for every dollar earned in similar occupations nationwide.

The report also includes an annually updated analysis of school expenditure patterns and the distribution of those funds within states. The national grade in school finance holds steady at a C for 2012, with seven states earning the top grade of B-plus. Since the onset of the recession in 2007, scores have dropped for the two aspects of school finance tracked by Quality Counts—spending and equity.

Key Findngs:

Effects of the economic downturn linger in American education, a year and a half after the official end of the recession.
 The educational impacts of the recession can be seen in a variety of areas, among them: states’ decisions to scale-back school programs due to tight budgets and troubling trends in factors linked to academic preparation and success, including increased child poverty and parental unemployment.
 States are financing fewer programs for educators in 2012 than they did in 2010. Reductions in efforts to develop and allocate teaching talent were made in 23 states. Officials often cited budget cuts prompted by the recession as a reason for eliminating programs.
 Fewer states reported using non-multiple-choice questions on their assessments in 2012 than in recent years. For example, the number of states including essay questions or other extended-response items in English assessments dropped from 45 in 2010 to 38 in 2012.
Since the recession, teacher pay has risen, relative to the earnings of workers from comparable occupations. However, uncertainty about the post-stimulus outlook remains.
 The EPE Research Center’s Pay-Parity Index measures the earning power of public school teachers compared with the wages of counselors, nurses, physical therapists, and other comparable occupations in the same state.
 Quality Counts finds that teachers earned 94 cents for every dollar earned by a comparable worker in 2010, the most recent year for which data are available. The median salary for public school teachers was $49,974 compared with $52,972 for comparable workers
 Median teacher salaries were at least on par with comparable workers in 13 states, four more than in 2010.
 Since the recession, median teacher salaries have risen modestly, while earnings for workers in similar occupations have declined.

SPECIAL FOCUS ON INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION

Quality Counts 2012: The Global Challenge—Education in a Competitive World takes a critical look at the nation’s place among the world’s public education systems, with an eye toward providing policymakers with perspective on the extent to which high-profile international assessments can provide valid comparisons and lessons. It examines effective reform strategies here and abroad that have gained traction and may be replicable. And, the report highlights the political and social challenges policymakers will face in improving American education to meet the demands of a 21st century work force.

In keeping with this year's theme, the EPE Research Center used its annual survey of state education agency officials to ask if they are drawing on international comparisons in crafting specific measures for improving education. Of those responding, agencies in 29 states affirmed using such information, while 21 states and the District of Columbia said they are not currently using international data as a resource in guiding public policy.

The ways in which international comparisons are put to use vary widely among the 29 states drawing on them as a policy tool, the EPE Research Center's policy survey found. A majority of those responding in the affirmative, 18 overall, use them to compare student achievement, and 12 states are looking to other nations in coming up with academic-content standards. A handful look abroad for ideas in setting performance standards for state assessments.

States that cited international comparisons as a factor in informing their academic-content standards most often looked to them in the areas of mathematics and science, rather than in social studies or English/language arts. Seven jurisdictions turned up on the list of those most mentioned in the area of math and science: Canada, England, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore. Cited most often in this area was Singapore, with 18 states naming it as a model for current standards in math or science. Officials responding to the survey often indicated the need to ensure that their states were preparing to keep up with the demands of a competitive world economy, and cited the importance of looking at "best practices" from high-achieving nations.

Key Findings:

Most states look beyond the U.S. borders to inform their own educational reforms, policies, and programs.
 Education officials in 29 states reported that their agency uses international education comparisons to inform their reform strategies or identify “best practices.”
 States using international comparisons often cited a need to align student preparation with the demands of a global economy and learn from the experiences of high-achieving nations.
 In describing the ways they used such insight from abroad, states most frequently noted the role of international indicators in comparing student achievement (18 states) and developing academic-content standards (12 states).
 Other uses of international comparisons included: improving assessment and accountability systems (9 states), finding ways to support teachers (8), and setting performance standards for state assessments (5).
Math and Science in the U.S. are the subject areas most strongly influenced by international standards and examples.
 When developing or revising their own academic standards, states are most likely to seek international guidance in mathematics and science, two subjects often linked to economic competitiveness and technological innovation.
 In math, 23 states looked to other nations to inform their standards; 13 states did so for science.
 Fewer states used international standards as models for English/language arts and social studies—10 states and 2 states respectively.
 For math and science, Singapore was most frequently cited as an exemplar, mentioned by 18 states. Other international systems used as models included: Japan (by 11 states), Finland (10), Canada (8), England (7), Hong Kong (6), and New Zealand (5).

State Reports Profiling First-Year Progress Under Race to the Top

2012-01-11T09:45:00.000-05:00

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The U.S. Department of Education has released state-specific reports profiling first-year progress on comprehensive education reform under Race to the Top. The reports document reform efforts underway in Delaware, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Tennessee, the 12 grantees that secured Race to the Top funding in 2010 through the competition's first two phases.

State Reports

State	Report
Delaware	Year 1 Report PDF (2.35M)
District of Columbia	Year 1 Report PDF (2.36M)
Florida	Year 1 Report PDF (1.8M)
Georgia	Year 1 Report PDF (1.93M)
Hawaii	Year 1 Report PDF (1.44M)
Maryland	Year 1 Report PDF (2.31M)
Massachusetts	Year 1 Report PDF (2.76M)
New York	Year 1 Report PDF (1.96M)
North Carolina	Year 1 Report PDF (1.98M)
Ohio	Year 1 Report PDF (2.26M)
Rhode Island	Year 1 Report PDF (1.8M)
Tennessee	Year 1 Report PDF (2.35M)

"Race to the Top states have made tremendous strides in this first year," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. "These twelve states have acted with courage and commitment in taking on ambitious education reform. Their year one work has helped lay the foundation for long-term, statewide improvements centered on doing what's best for students."

The 12 state-specific reports provide summaries of accomplishments made and setbacks experienced by states in pursuing reforms around Race to the Top's four assurance areas—raising academic standards, building robust data systems to improve instruction, supporting great teachers and school leaders, and turning around persistently low-performing schools.

State reports offer transparent and detailed accounts of work accomplished in year one measured against first-year plans outlined in the Race to the Top applications. Each report and progress achieved is unique to a state's plan with some grantees using year one to engage stakeholders, secure contracts or establish partnerships that will help implement large-scale reforms in years two through four, while others have put into place new systems or policies that have already reached districts or schools within their state.

Throughout year one, the Department's Implementation and Support Unit (ISU) partnered with states' Race to the Top teams to track progress and offer feedback, guidance and overall support for their reform work. As state plans encountered delays and obstacles, the Department worked with grantees to thoroughly and thoughtfully review, discuss and approve changes to timelines and budgets that help states move forward with their Race to the Top work.

"These twelve states created aggressive plans that set a high bar for reform, setting out to accomplish extraordinarily tough work that comes with its share of challenges" added Duncan. "We are supporting states to help them achieve their goals. At the same time, we will hold them accountable for those commitments."

Year one Race to the Top reports were drafted by ISU officials. Annual reports will be available again in years 2 and 3 along with a final report in year 4 to provide transparent and ongoing updates on progress.

Later this week, the Department will convene with Race to the Top teams to provide support and encourage collaborative work across state lines. Teams will be comprised of state and districts representatives together with stakeholders. The convening will focus on supporting great teachers and leaders as well as transitioning to college and career ready standards.

To date, a total of 21 states and D.C. have been awarded grants through three phases of Race to the Top, which includes the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge Fund. These states serve 65 percent of the nation's children and 59 percent of the low-income students in the country.

In the final omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2012, Congress provided an additional $550 million for Race to the Top. The bill includes language that will allow the Department to create a district-level competition and continue the Early Learning Challenge.

National Sexuality Education Standards: Core Content and Skills, K–12

2012-01-11T09:40:00.000-05:00

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The goal of the National Sexuality Education Standards: Core Content and Skills, K–12 is to provide clear, consistent and straightforward guidance on the essential minimum, core content for sexuality education that is developmentally and age-appropriate for students in grades K–12. The development of these standards is a result of an ongoing initiative, the Future of Sex Education (FoSE). Forty individuals from the fields of health education, sexuality education, public health, public policy, philanthropy and advocacy convened for a two-day meeting in December 2008 to create a strategic plan for sexuality education policy and implementation. A key strategic priority that emerged from this work was the creation of national sexuality education standards to advance the implementation of sexuality education in US public schools.

Specifically, the National Sexuality Education Standards were developed to address the inconsistent implementation of sexuality education nationwide and the limited time allocated to teaching the topic. Health education, which typically covers a broad range of topics including sexuality education, is given very little time in the school curriculum. According to the School Health Policies and Practices Study, a national survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Adolescent School Health to assess school health policies and practices, a median total of 17.2 hours is devoted to instruction in HIV, pregnancy and STD prevention: 3.1 hours in elementary, 6 hours in middle and 8.1 hours in high school.[1]

Given these realities, the National Sexuality Education Standards were designed to:
• Outline what, based on research and extensive professional expertise, are the minimum, essential content and skills for sexuality education K–12 given student needs, limited teacher preparation and typically available time and resources.
• Assist schools in designing and delivering sexuality education K–12 that is planned, sequential and part of a comprehensive school health education approach.
• Provide a clear rationale for teaching sexuality education content and skills at different grade levels that is evidence-informed, age-appropriate and theory- driven.
• Support schools in improving academic performance by addressing a content area that is both highly relevant to students and directly related to high school graduation rates.
• Present sexual development as a normal, natural, healthy part of human development that should be a part of every health education curriculum.
• Offer clear, concise recommendations for school personnel on what is age-appropriate to teach students at different grade levels.
• Translate an emerging body of research related to school-based sexuality education so that it can be put into practice in the classroom.

The National Health Education Standards2 (NHES) heavily influenced the development of the National Sexuality Education Standards. First created in 1995 and updated in 2007, the NHES were developed by the Joint Committee on National Health Education Standards of the American Cancer Society and widely adopted by states and local school districts. The NHES focus on a student’s ability to understand key concepts and learn particular skills for using that content. These standards were developed to serve as the underpinning for health education knowledge and skills students should attain by grades 2, 5, 8 and 12. The NHES do not address any specific health content areas, including content for sexuality education.

The National Sexuality Education Standards were further informed by the work of the CDC’s Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool (HECAT)[3]; existing state and international education standards that include sexual health content; the Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education: Kindergarten – 12th Grade [4]; and the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics [5], recently adopted by most states.

Barriers to Outdoor Activity for Children in Child Care Centers

2012-01-10T16:49:00.000-05:00

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Three-fourths of preschool-age children in the United States attend child care, and many are not getting enough outdoor physical activity, which may be due in part to parental and societal values about injury prevention and kindergarten readiness.
The study, “Societal Values and Policies May Curtail Preschool Children’s Physical Activity in Child Care Centers,” will be published in the February 2012 Pediatrics and published online Jan. 4.

A team led by Kristen Copeland, MD, division of General and Community Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Faculty Scholar, conducted a focus-group study of 53 child care providers from 34 child care centers in Cincinnati to examine their perceptions of potential barriers to children’s physical activity in child care.

Researchers identified three main barriers to children’s physical activity: injury concerns, a focus on academics over outdoor play, and financial constraints. Because many children spend all daylight hours in care, and because some lacked a safe place to play near their home, these barriers to physical activity in child care may limit children's only opportunity to engage in physical activity, according to Dr. Copeland.

The child care providers who were interviewed for the study said that they felt pressure from parents to make sure that their children did not get injured while playing outside and at times were asked to keep children from participating in vigorous activity to keep them from being injured.

Similarly, child care providers noted that recent stricter licensing codes have resulted in playgrounds being less physically challenging and interesting to children. The new play equipment that was safe according to these standards soon became boring to the children as they quickly mastered it. Teachers noted that children would then start to use equipment in unsafe ways for which it was not intended such as walking up the slide.

“Child care providers mentioned that they appreciated having state inspections of their playground equipment and strict licensing codes because it helped them feel confident about the safety of the equipment,” says Copeland. “But several of them expressed how overly strict standards had rendered some of the equipment unchallenging and uninteresting to the children, which hampered the children’s physical activity.”

Another issue discovered during the study was that care providers felt pressured by parents (both upper-and lower-income) and early-learning state standards to prioritize academic classroom learning over outdoor and active playtime.

“Several of the care providers agreed with this goal in principle, but they also recognized that children learned through active play and that the energy release and creative stimulation of outdoor activities helped place children in a better mindset to learn and concentrate later either indoors or outdoors,” says Copeland. “We were surprised to find such a strong focus on academics for children as young as 3-years-old. At this age, most children don’t know how to skip, and are still learning how to share and negotiate peer relationships. Yet teachers told us that many parents wanted to know what their child ‘learned’ that day, but were not interested in whether they had gone outside, or had mastered fundamental gross motor skills.”

Many of the participants also cited budgetary reasons for why their centers could not offer children optimal physical activity opportunities. Most centers had tight operating margins and could not afford equipment for the children to play on. Yet Copeland does not feel the financial barriers present an insurmountable barrier to children’s physical activity in child care. “There are plenty of things centers can do to encourage physical activity that cost little to no money—such as putting on a dance CD, taking nature walks, running races on the playground, or learning how to skip.”

Copeland and her team say that these findings show that there may be a need to reset the balance of the priorities of injury prevention and kindergarten readiness with physical activity promotion. She says, “Given that childhood obesity is a national epidemic and a major cause of childhood morbidity, and that time in child care may be the child’s only opportunity for outdoor play, licensing standards may need to explicitly promote physical activity in as much detail as is devoted to safety.

“An important message from this study is that well-intentioned policies may have unintended consequences for preschool-aged children's physical development. Daily physical activity is essential for preschool-aged children's development and for preventing obesity, yet parents’ and teachers’ concerns about injury and school-readiness may be keeping children from being physically active. In essence, in ensuring that young children are smart and safe, we may also be keeping them sedentary.

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‘Tiger mothers’ should tame parenting approach

2012-01-10T16:34:00.003-05:00

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The Eastern view of parenting, as defined by best-selling author and self-described “tiger mother” Amy Chua, is that children should be pushed to excel at all costs. Parents needn’t worry about their happiness, she argues, only their success.

But now a Michigan State University scholar is refuting that theory.

In her research, Desiree Baolian Qin – who, like Chua, is a Chinese mother – found that high-achieving Chinese students were more depressed and anxious than their white counterparts. And contrary to the tiger mother philosophy, Qin said, a child’s happiness is vitally important.

“I strongly believe that happiness matters tremendously for children to develop well, so they don’t just have success now and then later on experience maladjustment,” said Qin, assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. “It’s really important for parents to pay attention to this.”

In her best-selling book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” Chua, a Yale Law School professor, created a firestorm of controversy for her hardline parenting. In the book, Chua describes how she demanded straight A’s from her two daughters and drilled them for hours every day on the piano and violin. The girls were not allowed to watch TV, be in a school play or have a play date with friends.

Qin called these restrictions “ridiculous.” She said she and her husband, Tom Buffett, would never keep their daughters – Olivia, 4, and Helena, 2 – from having play dates or other activities that build social and emotional skills.

“Children need the ability to work well with other people, to relate,” Qin said. “I feel strongly that I won’t raise my kids just toward success at the cost of other things. More than anything, I want them to be well-rounded, emotionally healthy kids.”

Qin was raised in rural China by her grandparents, whom she described as “fairly lenient.” She came to the United States in 1996 to attend Harvard University, where she earned a doctorate in human development and psychology. She now lives in East Lansing with her family.

In a recent talk at the Asian American Psychological Association Convention in Washington, D.C., Qin compared Chua’s hard-driving parenting style with the often “soft” and “forgiving” Western approach. The lecture was titled “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Chinese Tiger Mothers but Were Afraid to Ask.”

Qin believes the overall negative reaction to Chua’s book was unfair and that there are some themes Western parents can learn from. For example, she said many parents in the United States are so worried about injuring their children’s self-esteem, they overpraise.

“I agree with Amy Chua that a child will develop strong self-esteem when they really master something,” Qin said. “So that self-esteem should be grounded in their achievements, their ability, rather than empty praises from parents and teachers saying ‘great job’ for drawing a circle or ‘great job’ for just about anything.”

Qin said there’s nothing wrong with having high expectations for your children. The problem often comes in the way those expectations are communicated.

In a study that will appear in a forthcoming issue of the journal New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, Qin found that Chinese immigrant parents constantly pester their children to excel – a longstanding practice in their native China. This includes comparing the child to siblings – as in, “Your sister got straight A’s and went to Harvard, why can’t you?”

In another paper, to be published in the Journal of Adolescence, Qin found that Chinese students are more depressed and have lower self-esteem and more anxiety than white students. The findings are based on survey data from nearly 500 high-achieving students at a prestigious East Coast high school.

Qin said the majority of Asian American children come from immigrant families where parents face additional challenges in raising their kids. While the children attend U.S. schools and tend to learn English faster, the parents often work with fellow immigrants in Chinese-run businesses and thus are far less influenced by American culture, she said.

This issue, which researchers call the acculturation gap, can lead to alienation and conflict within families, and could become more widespread as the immigrant population grows, Qin said. Currently, about 20 percent of children in the United States have at least one immigrant parent – a number that’s predicted to jump to 33 percent by the year 2040.

Ultimately, Qin said, “There is a healthy middle ground between the parenting extremes of the East and West. What is most beneficial to children, regardless of the culture, is clear and high expectations in a warm and loving family environment.”

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Digital learning: How much does it cost?

2012-01-10T10:46:00.000-05:00

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The latest installment of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s Creating Sound Policy for Digital Learning series investigates one of the more controversial aspects of digital learning: How much does it cost? In this paper, the Parthenon Group uses interviews with more than fifty vendors and online schooling experts to estimate today's average per-pupil cost for a variety of schooling models, traditional and online, and presents a nuanced analysis of the important variance in cost between different school designs.

These ranges—from $5,100 to $7,700 for full-time virtual schools, and $7,600 to $10,200 for the blended version—highlight both the potential for low-cost online schooling and the need for better data on costs and outcomes in order for policymakers to reach confident conclusions related to the productivity and efficiency of these new models.

Measures of Effective Teaching

2012-01-09T14:26:00.001-05:00

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This report presents an in-depth discussion of the analytical methods and findings from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project’s analysis of classroom observations. A nontechnical companion report describes implications for policymakers and practitioners. Together, these two documents on classroom observations represent the second pair of publications from the MET project.

In December 2010, the project released its initial analysis of measures of student perceptions and student achievement in Learning about Teaching: Initial Findings from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project. Two more reports are planned for mid-2012: one on the implications of assigning weights to different measures; another testing the validity of teacher effectiveness measures following random assignment of students to teachers.

There is a growing consensus that teacher evaluation in the United States is fundamentally broken. Few would argue that a system that tells 98 percent of teachers they are “satisfactory” benefits anyone—including teachers. The nation’s collective failure to invest in high-quality professional feedback to teachers is inconsistent with decades of research reporting large disparities in student learning gains in different teachers’ classrooms (even within the same schools). The quality of instruction matters. And our schools pay too little attention to it. Many states and school districts are looking to reinvent the way they do teacher evaluation and feedback, and they want better tools. With the help of nearly 3,000 teacher-volunteers, the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project is evaluating alternative ways to provide valid and reliable feedback to teachers for professional development and improvement.

The researchers investigated the following five instruments in this report:

__ Framework for Teaching (or FFT, developed by Charlotte Danielson of the Danielson Group),
__ Classroom Assessment Scoring System (or CLASS , developed by Robert Pianta, Karen La Paro, and Bridget Hamre at the University of Virginia),
__ Protocol for Language Arts Teaching Observations (or PLATO, developed by Pam Grossman at Stanford University),
__ Mathematical Quality of Instruction (or MQI, developed by Heather Hill of Harvard University), and
__ UTeach Teacher Observation Protocol (or UTOP, developed by Michael Marder and Candace Walkington at the University of Texas-Austin).

Findings

The analysis in this report is based on the practice of 1,333 teachers from the following districts: Charlotte- Mecklenburg, N.C.; Dallas; Denver; Hillsborough Co., Fla.; New York City; and Memphis. This is the subset of MET project volunteers who taught math or English language arts (ELA) in grades 4 through 8 and who agreed to participate in random assignment during year 2 of the project.

Five findings stood out:

1. All five observation instruments were positively associated with student achievement gains.

2. Reliably characterizing a teacher’s practice requires averaging scores over multiple observations.

3. Combining observation scores with evidence of student achievement gains and student feedback improved predictive power and reliability.

4. In contrast to teaching experience and graduate degrees, the combined measure identifies teachers with larger gains on the state tests.

Compared to teachers with fewer than three years of experience, teachers with 12 or more years of experience had students with slightly higher achievement gains in math (0.5 months higher) and slightly higher achievement gains in ELA (0.7 months higher). The difference for those with master’s degrees was also small: 1 month higher in math and actually 0.6 months lower in ELA compared to those teachers without master’s.

5. Teachers with strong performance on the combined measure also performed well on other student outcomes:

__ Their students showed larger performance gains on tests of conceptual understanding in mathematics and a literacy test requiring short-answer responses.
__ Their students reported higher levels of effort and greater enjoyment in class.

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THE LONG-TERM IMPACTS OF TEACHERS

2012-01-06T12:11:00.001-05:00

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TEACHER VALUE-ADDED AND STUDENT OUTCOMES IN ADULTHOOD

Many policy makers advocate increasing the quality of teaching, but there is considerable debate about the best way to measure and improve teacher quality. One method is to evaluate teachers based on their impacts on students’ test scores, commonly termed the “value-added” (VA) approach. A teacher’s value-added is defined as the average test-score gain for his or her students, adjusted for differences across classrooms in student characteristics such as prior scores. School districts from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles have begun to use VA to evaluate teachers. Proponents argue that using VA can improve student achievement (e.g. Hanushek 2009), while critics argue that test score gains are poor proxies for a teacher’s true quality (e.g. Baker et al. 2010).

The debate about VA stems from two fundamental questions. First, does VA accurately measure teachers’ impacts on scores or does it unfairly penalize teachers who may systematically be assigned lower achieving students? Second, do high VA teachers improve their students’ long-term outcomes or are they simply better at teaching to the test? Researchers have not reached a consensus about the accuracy and long-term impacts of VA because of data and methodological limitations.

In this paper the authors address these two questions by tracking one million children from a large urban school district from 4th grade to adulthood. They evaluate the accuracy of standard VA measures using several methods, including natural experiments that arise from changes in teaching staff.

The study finds that when a high VA teacher joins a school, test scores rise immediately in the grade taught by that teacher; when a high VA teacher leaves, test scores fall. Test scores change only in the subject taught by that teacher, and the size of the change in scores matches what we predict based on the teacher’s VA. These results establish that VA accurately captures teachers’ impacts on students’ academic achievement and thereby reconcile the conflicting conclusions of Kane and Staiger (2008) and Rothstein (2010). These methods provide a simple yet powerful method to estimate the bias of value-added models in any district; interested readers can download computer code to implement these tests from this link.

In the second part of the study, the authors analyze whether high VA teachers also improve students’ long-term outcomes. They find that students assigned to higher VA teachers are more successful in many dimensions. They are more likely to attend college, earn higher salaries, live in better neighborhoods, and save more for retirement. They are also less likely to have children as teenagers.

Teachers’ impacts on students are substantial. Replacing a teacher whose true VA is in the bottom 5% with a teacher of average quality would generate lifetime earnings gains worth more than $250,000 for the average classroom. VA estimates are less reliable when they are based on data from a small number of classes. However, even after observing teachers’ impacts on test scores for one year, estimates of VA are reliable enough that such personnel changes would yield large gains on average.

Teachers have large impacts in all the grades analyzed (4 to 8), implying that the returns to education remain large well beyond early childhood. Teachers’ impacts on earnings are also similar in percentage terms for students from low and high income families. As a rough guideline, parents should be willing to pay about 25% of their child’s income at age 28 to switch their child from a below-average (25th percentile) to an above-average (75th percentile) teacher. For example, parents whose children will earn around $40,000 in their late 20s should be willing to pay $10,000 to switch from a below-average to an above-average teacher for one grade, based on the expected increase in their child’s lifetime earnings.

Overall, this study shows that great teachers create great value – perhaps several times their annual salaries – and that test score impacts are helpful in identifying such teachers. Improving the quality of teaching – whether using value-added or other tools – is likely to have large economic and social returns.

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CHARTER SCHOOLS CLOSURE RATE TOPS 15 PERCENT

2012-01-06T10:26:00.000-05:00

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Refuting assumptions and statements by opponents and proponents alike about the state of America’s charter schools, The Center for Education Reform released today an unprecedented analysis of and data documenting the high level of accountability that marks the nation’s charter schools. The report, The State of Charter Schools: What We Know – and What We Do Not – About Performance and Accountability, finds that charter schools historically have experienced a 15 percent closure rate.

The report is the first-ever national analysis regarding the number of charter schools that have closed since 1992, the basis by which authorizers ensure performance-based accountability.

STATE-BY-STATE BREAKDOWN

“All too often, supporters and opponents of charter schools claim that bad charter schools don’t close,” said Jeanne Allen, president of The Center for Education Reform. “The truth is charter schools that don’t measure up are closing at a rate of 15 percent. Regrettably, the same can’t be said for traditional public schools.”

ADDITIONAL REPORT FINDINGS:

• Of the approximately 6,700 charter schools that have ever opened across the United States, 1,036 have closed since 1992. There are 500 additional charter schools that have been consolidated back into the district or received a charter but were unable to open.

• There are five primary reasons for charter closures – financial (41.7 percent), mismanagement (24 percent), academic (18.6 percent), district obstacles (6.3 percent) and facilities (4.6 percent).

• Most charter schools that close for financial or operational deficiencies do so within the first five years, or within their first charter contract. Failing to produce audits, or conduct basic, required oversight is a sure sign that the charter school leaders are not capable of leading a strong organization. Academic closures usually take longer because it takes the whole charter term to gather enough sound data and make proper comparisons.

• The correlation between strong charter school laws, accountability and effective charter schools cannot be emphasized enough. Independent authorizers have full control over how they evaluate charter schools and have their own staff and funding streams. This enables them to create streamlined, effective tools to manage their portfolio of charter schools and close those that are not living up to their contract.

”The quality of charter schools in the U.S. is not as simple as saying ‘there are too many bad charters out there,’” said Allen. “The real story about charter school closures and accountability is that strong state charter laws and strong authorizers give schools a better chance at success because they hold them accountable and can offer them tools to succeed.”

Practical philosophy sessions offer valuable lessons

2012-01-05T16:44:00.000-05:00

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Children could learn valuable lessons in moral citizenship, such as making moral judgements and informed choices, through taking part in philosophical dialogue, according to researchers at Strathclyde.

A study of more than 130 primary and secondary pupils found that taking part in practical philosophy sessions improved the children’s listening skills, gave them greater respect for other people, encouraged them to consider other perspectives and ideas they may not otherwise have thought about and helped them analyse problems so that they are thought through before making decisions.

The sessions, following an approach known as Community of Philosophical Inquiry (CoPI), involved pupils being given a stimulus such as a picture, a piece of writing or a piece of music and being asked to come up with questions prompted by it. A question was chosen and a structured dialogue followed, facilitated by a teacher trained in CoPI.

Dr Claire Cassidy, a Lecturer in Education at Strathclyde, led the research. She said: “Doing practical philosophy in this way provides children with tools to enable them to participate as active citizens.

“Teachers in Scotland are being encouraged, through Curriculum for Excellence, to foster responsible citizenship in pupils, although discussions are continuing on what citizenship actually means. We wanted to assess how effective the Community of Philosophical Inquiry approach can be in supporting children towards achieving the aims of the curriculum. While doing philosophy doesn’t necessarily guarantee citizenship, it goes some way towards providing the necessary tools that a citizen requires.

“When pupils taking part in the study were asked what they thought citizenship meant, they emphasised that it related to representing the views of others, being environmentally aware, being law-abiding and sitting on committees, as well as having good manners and being respectful to others and their views.

“They found they were able to debate and discuss reasoned argument without conflict and often continued their discussions after their sessions had finished. They felt CoPI got them thinking deeply- as one pupil put it, thinking like they had never thought before.”

The study involved more than 130 primary and secondary pupils around Scotland being presented with a series of scenarios in which people faced moral choices, including what to do with money they have found and choosing which charity to give funds they have raised.

They were asked what course of action the people might take, what they would have done themselves and their reasons for their decisions.

After taking part in a series of CoPI sessions over eight to 10 weeks, the pupils were presented with similar scenarios. Their answers this time tended to be considerably more detailed and offered far more justification for their responses.

The research was presented at the recent EARLI (European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction) conference 2011, held at the University of Exeter.

Blogging may help teens dealing with social distress

2012-01-04T16:47:00.000-05:00

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Blogging may have psychological benefits for teens suffering from social anxiety, improving their self-esteem and helping them relate better to their friends, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

"Research has shown that writing a personal diary and other forms of expressive writing are a great way to release emotional distress and just feel better," said the study's lead author, Meyran Boniel-Nissim, PhD, of the University of Haifa, Israel. "Teens are online anyway, so blogging enables free expression and easy communication with others."

Maintaining a blog had a stronger positive effect on troubled students' well-being than merely expressing their social anxieties and concerns in a private diary, according to the article published online in the APA journal Psychological Services. Opening the blog up to comments from the online community intensified those effects.

"Although cyberbullying and online abuse are extensive and broad, we noted that almost all responses to our participants' blog messages were supportive and positive in nature," said the study's co-author, Azy Barak, PhD. "We weren't surprised, as we frequently see positive social expressions online in terms of generosity, support and advice."

The researchers randomly surveyed high school students in Israel, who had agreed to fill out a questionnaire about their feelings on the quality of their social relationships. A total of 161 students -- 124 girls and 37 boys, with an average age of 15 -- were selected because their scores on the survey showed they all had some level of social anxiety or distress. All the teens reported difficulty making friends or relating to the friends they had. The researchers assessed the teens' self-esteem, everyday social activities and behaviors before, immediately after and two months after the 10-week experiment.

Four groups of students were assigned to blog. Two of those groups were told to focus their posts on their social problems, with one group opening the posts to comments; the other two groups could write about whatever they wanted and, again, one group opened the blog up to comments. The number and content of comments were not evaluated for this experiment. The students could respond to comments but that was not required. Two more groups acted as controls – either writing a private diary about their social problems or doing nothing. Participants in the writing and blogging groups were told to post messages at least twice a week for 10 weeks.

Four experts, who held master's or doctoral degrees in counseling and psychology, assessed the bloggers' social and emotional condition via their blog posts. Students were assessed as having a poor social and emotional state if they wrote extensively about personal problems or bad relationships or showed evidence of low self-esteem, for example.

Self-esteem, social anxiety, emotional distress and the number of positive social behaviors improved significantly for the bloggers when compared to the teens who did nothing and those who wrote private diaries. Bloggers who were instructed to write specifically about their difficulties and whose blogs were open to comments improved the most. All of these results were consistent at the two month follow-up.

The authors conceded that the skewed sex ratio was a limitation to the study. However, the researchers analyzed the results separately by gender and found that boys and girls reacted similarly to the interventions and there were no major differences. However, they say future research should attempt to control for gender.

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Boosting your schooling may enhance your IQ

2012-01-04T09:24:00.002-05:00

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Does improving your educa t ion al so boost your in telligence? Yes—to a greater degree than widely understood, a new study suggests.

Although some scholars maintain that education has little effect on intelligence quotient (IQ) scores, others claim that IQ scores are indeed malleable, primarily through intervention in early childhood. The causal effect of education on IQ at later ages is often difficult to uncover because analyses based on observational data are plagued by problems of reverse causation and self-selection into further education. The authors exploit a reform that increased compulsory schooling from 7 to 9 y in Norway in the 1960s to estimate the effect of education on IQ. They find that this schooling reform, which primarily affected education in the middle teenage years, had a substantial effect on IQ scores measured at the age of 19 y.

Educa t ion is how much you know; in tel li gence is your abil ity to fig ure out and un der stand new things. Wheth er bol ster ing the first al so im proves the sec ond has long been con tro ver sial; some scien tists claim school ing helps en hance in tel li gence, while oth ers in sist in tel li gence is largely fixed from birth.

Grow ing ev i dence in re cent years al ready in di cates that early-childhood educa t ional ex pe ri ences do lead to bet ter in tel li gence-test scores, said re search ers Chris tian N. Brinch and Taryn Ann Gal lo way of the Uni vers ity of Os lo, Nor way, who car ried out the new stu dy. There fore, they added, the outstand ing ques tion has been wheth er we’re al so sus cep ti ble to this ef fect in our less-impressionable lat er years. Re search da ta is al so con sist ent with that, they went on, but it might simply be that higher in tel li gence spurs peo ple to get bet ter school ing, cre at ing the il lu sion that the ef fect works the oth er way around.

To work around that prob lem, Brinch and Gal lo way ex am ined how men’s in tel li gence test scores fared af ter a com pul so ry school ing re form in Nor way that length ened mid dle school educa t ion by two years. Be cause stu dents had no choice in the change, the in ves ti ga tors hoped to elim i nate effects re sult ing from self-pro pelled educa t ional de ci sions.

The re form was im ple mented in dif fer ent cit ies be gin ning in 1955 and af fected child ren in their mid-teens.

Brinch and Gal lo way ob tained da ta on Nor we gian men born be tween 1950 and 1958, in clud ing their place of res i dence at age 14, the lev el of educa t ion com plet ed by age 30, and scores from in tel ligence tests giv en by the Nor we gian mil i tary to all draft-eligible men at about age 19.

Af ter com par ing the scores be fore and af ter the re form, Brinch and Gal lo way found that av er age Intel li gence Quo tient, or I.Q., scores rose by 0.6 points. I.Q. score is a com mon way to meas ure in tel ligence and at tempts to gauge a per son’s men tal age di vid ed by ac tu al age. The aver age score is 100.

The re sults in di cat ed that an ad di tion al year of school ing raised IQ by 3.7 points, Brinch and Gal loway said. “Given that IQ is as so ci at ed with a host of so cial and eco nom ic out comes,” they wrote, “in sights on this is sue are of clear and def i nite rel e vance for so ci ety.”

For Kids with Near-Vision Disorder, Treatment Reduces Problems at School

2012-01-03T13:11:00.002-05:00

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After Effective Treatment for Convergence Insufficiency, Academic Behavior Problems Decrease

For children with convergence insufficiency (CI)—who have difficulty focusing on objects close up—effective treatments can help to reduce problems at school, reports a study in the January issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

"A successful or improved outcome after CI treatment was associated with a reduction in the frequency of adverse academic behaviors and parental concern associated with reading and school work," concludes the new research, led by Eric Borsting, OD, of Southern California College of Optometry, Fullerton.

After Positive Effects of CI Treatment, Parents See Fewer School-Related Problems

The researchers analyzed 218 children and adolescents from a previous study of treatment for CI. Convergence insufficiency is a condition in which the eyes have trouble working together to focus on close-up objects. In addition to symptoms like eyestrain, headache, and double vision, CI has been linked to problems in doing school work, reading, and studying.

In the study, children were assigned to different treatments for CI—office treatment by an eye care professional, two different types of home-based treatment, or an inactive "placebo" treatment. In 42 children, treatment was rated "successful" (near-normal binocular vision), while another 60 children were rated "improved." The remaining 116 children did not respond to treatment.

The researchers compared scores on a simple scale of academic behavior problems. Rated by parents, the scale included problems like difficulty completing assignments, avoiding reading or other close work, and careless mistakes in doing school work. Before treatment, the children's average score on the academic behavior problem scale was about 13 out of 24 (with higher scores indicating more problems).

For children who had improvement in CI after treatment, academic behavior problems were significantly reduced. The average improvement was four points in children whose treatment was rated "successful" and three points in those rated "improved." By comparison, children who did not improve with treatment had just a one-point improvement on the problem scale.

In particular, parents reported fewer worries about the child's school performance and fewer problems with attention to detail after effective CI treatment. Children in the "successful" and "improved" groups had similar improvement in academic behavior problems.

Convergence insufficiency is a relatively common problem, affecting about five percent of school-aged children. In addition to eyestrain and visual symptoms, children with CI are more likely to have problems such as difficulty completing school work, avoiding reading and studying, and inattentiveness while reading and studying. The new study sought to determine whether treatment for CI can alleviate such problems.

The results suggest that children who respond to treatment for CI have significant improvement in academic-related behavior problems, as rated by parents. When treatment is effective, attention to detail improves and parents are less worried about how their child is doing in school.

Although the study has some limitations, it is among the first to show how effective treatment for CI can affect school-related behavioral problems.

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KEY TO SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT: READING, WRITING, ARITHMETIC……. AND CHARACTER?

2012-01-03T12:51:00.001-05:00

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A study of 20 elementary schools in Hawaii has found that a focused program to build social, emotional and character skills resulted in significantly improved overall quality of education, as evaluated by teachers, parents and students.

The concept includes organized activities to build character that go beyond more traditional rules or policies to control or punish problem behaviors. But it still takes only about an hour a week away from traditional education, and previous research has documented much lower numbers of suspensions, lower absenteeism, and better reading and math scores on standardized tests.

The latest study, being published by researchers from Oregon State University in the Journal of School Health, found for the first time that teachers believed this approach improved “overall school quality” by 21 percent, with parents and students agreeing in slightly smaller numbers. It was based on findings from racially and ethnically diverse schools, half using the program and half that did not.

“Improved social and character skills leave more time for teachers to teach, and students to learn and be more motivated,” said Brian Flay, an OSU professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences. “What we’re finding now is that we can really address some of the concerns in our schools by focusing more on character in the classroom.

“These are not new concepts, they’re the kind of things that have always been discussed in families, church and social groups,” Flay said. “A third-grade lesson, for instance, might be helping kids to understand how other people feel, to learn about empathy. That may seem simple, but in terms of educational performance it’s important.”

School quality, as defined in this research, includes a safe environment, involvement and satisfaction among individuals, student support, continuous improvement, standards-based learning and other features.

Past policies to curtail substance abuse, violent behavior and other problems have shown only limited results, researchers said in the study, in part because they don’t address underlying issues such as student’s sense of self and social attachment. The new trend being explored is what they call social-emotional and character development.

The program used in this research includes K-12 classroom curricula, a school-wide climate development component, teacher and staff training, parent and community involvement, continued positive reinforcement and other techniques.

Lessons include topics related to self-concept, physical and intellectual actions, managing oneself responsibly, getting along with others, being honest, and self-improvement.

The results have been impressive. Previously published results showed 72 percent fewer suspensions, 15 percent less absenteeism, and much better reading and math skills based on state tests. National tests showed a 9 percent improvement in these academic subjects.

“The current research supports the hypothesis that these programs can generate whole-school change and improve school safety and quality,” the researchers wrote in their report. “The present study shows improvements in school quality were made by relatively underperforming schools.”

The findings suggest that schools, districts, states and the federal government should consider policies and funding directed toward social and character programs of this type, the researchers said.

Physical Activity and Performance at School

2012-01-03T11:59:00.001-05:00

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A Systematic Review of the Literature Including a Methodological Quality Assessment

Amika Singh, PhD; Léonie Uijtdewilligen, MSc; Jos W. R. Twisk, PhD; Willem van Mechelen, PhD, MD; Mai J. M. Chinapaw, PhD
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2012;166(1):49-55. doi:10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.716
A systematic review of previous studies suggests that there may be a positive relationship between physical activity and the academic performance of children, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Amika Singh, Ph.D., of the Vrije Universiteit University Medical Center, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues reviewed evidence about the relationship between physical activity and academic performance because of concerns that pressure to improve test scores may often mean more instructional time for classroom subjects with less time for physical activity.

The authors identified 10 observational and four interventional studies for review. Twelve of the studies were conducted in the United States, plus one in Canada and one in South Africa. Sample sizes ranged from 53 to about 12,000 participants between the ages of 6 years and 18 years. Follow-up varied from eight weeks to more than five years.

"According to the best-evidence synthesis, we found strong evidence of a significant positive relationship between physical activity and academic performance. The findings of one high-quality intervention study and one high-quality observational study suggest that being more physically active is positively related to improved academic performance in children," the authors comment.

Background information in the article suggests that exercise may help cognition by increasing blood and oxygen flow to the brain, increasing levels of norepinephrine and endorphins to decrease stress and improve mood, and increasing growth factors that help create new nerve cells and support synaptic plasticity.

Still, "relatively few studies of high methodological quality have explored the relationship between physical activity and academic performance," the authors conclude. No study in their systematic review used an objective measure of physical activity.

"More high-quality studies are needed on the dose-response relationship between physical activity and academic performance and on the explanatory mechanisms, using reliable and valid measurement instruments to assess this relationship accurately," the authors conclude.

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Young children understand the benefits of positive thinking

2011-12-24T11:29:00.001-05:00

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Even kindergarteners know that thinking positively will make you feel better. And parents' own feelings of optimism may play a role in whether their children understand how thoughts influence emotions.

Those are the findings of a new study by researchers at Jacksonville University and the University of California, Davis. The study appears in the journal Child Development.

In the study, researchers looked at 90 mostly White children ages 5 to 10. The children listened to six illustrated stories in which two characters feel the same emotion after experiencing something positive (getting a new puppy), negative (spilling milk), or ambiguous (meeting a new teacher). Following each experience, one character has a separate optimistic thought, framing the event in a positive light, and the other has a separate pessimistic thought, putting the event in a negative light. Researchers described the subsequent thoughts verbally, then asked the children to judge each character's emotions and provide an explanation for those emotions. They were most interested in the degree to which children predicted different emotions for two characters in the same situation.

The researchers also had the children and their parents complete surveys to measure their individual levels of hope and optimism.

Children as young as 5 predicted that people would feel better after thinking positive thoughts than they would after thinking negative thoughts. They showed the strongest insight about the influence of positive versus negative thoughts on emotions in ambiguous situations. And there was significant development in the children's understanding about the emotion-feeling link as they grew older.

The study also found that children had the most difficulty understanding how positive thinking could boost someone's spirits in situations that involved negative events—such as falling down and getting hurt. In these coping situations, children's levels of hope and optimism played a role in their ability to understand the power of positive thinking, but parents' views on the topic played an even larger part.

"The strongest predictor of children's knowledge about the benefits of positive thinking—besides age—was not the child's own level of hope and optimism, but their parents'," reports Christi Bamford, assistant professor of psychology at Jacksonville University, who led the study when she was at the University of California, Davis.

The findings point to parents' role in helping children learn how to use positive thinking to feel better when things get tough, Bamford notes. "In short, parents should consider modeling how to look on the bright side."

School absenteeism, mental health problems linked

2011-12-24T11:27:00.001-05:00

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School absenteeism is a significant problem, and students who are frequently absent from school more often have symptoms of psychiatric disorders. A new longitudinal study of more than 17,000 youths has found that frequently missing school is associated with a higher prevalence of mental health problems later on in adolescence, and that mental health problems during one year also predict missing additional school days in the following year for students in middle and high school.

The study, published in the journal Child Development, was conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Florida, Boston University, the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center, the Oregon Social Learning Center, and Johns Hopkins University.

"We've long known that students who are frequently absent from school are more likely to have symptoms of psychiatric disorders, but less clear is the reason why," says Jeffrey Wood, associate professor of educational psychology and psychiatry at UCLA, who led the study. "These two aspects of youths' adjustment may at times exacerbate one another, leading over the course of time to more of each."

The study found that between grades 2 and 8, students who already had mental health symptoms (such as antisocial behavior or depression) missed more school days over the course of a year than they had in the previous year and than students with few or no mental health symptoms. Conversely, middle and high school students who were chronically absent in an earlier year of the study tended to have more depression and antisocial problems in subsequent years. For example, 8th graders who were absent more than 20 days were more likely to have higher levels of anxiety and depression in 10th grade than were 8th graders who were absent fewer than 20 days.

"The findings can help inform the development of programs to reduce school absenteeism," according to Wood. "School personnel in middle schools and high schools could benefit from knowing that mental health issues and school absenteeism each influence the other over time. Helping students address mental health issues may in turn help prevent the emergence of chronic absenteeism. At the same time, working to help students who are developing a pattern of chronic absenteeism come to school more consistently may help prevent psychiatric problems."

The researchers looked at more than 17,000 children in 1st through 12th grades using three datasets: the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents in grades 7 to 12; the Johns Hopkins Prevention Intervention Research Center Study, a longitudinal study of classroom-based interventions involving children in grades 1 to 8; and the Linking the Interests of Families and Teachers trial, a longitudinal study of children in grades 1 through 12.

Researchers interviewed students and parents annually or biennially, and they gathered information from school attendance records. In addition, students, parents, and teachers filled out questionnaires.

Striving for Student Success: Shared Accountability

2011-12-23T11:49:00.000-05:00

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The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act ushered in a new era of accountability in American education: for the first time, schools were held responsible for improving student achievement across all demographic groups.

Yet there has always been a concern about holding only the schools themselves accountable for student success — especially given the profound impact of poverty on student achievement.

Instead of putting the entire achievement burden on schools, what would it look like to hold a whole community responsible for long-range student outcomes? How can accountability for youth development, health, and safety — as well as for academic achievement — be shared by non-profits, public non-school agencies, foundations, cities, corporations, and others?

In Striving for Student Success: A Model of Shared Accountability, authors Kelly Bathgate, Richard Lee Colvin, and Elena Silva look at communities that are working to create these shared accountability systems. In particular, the authors highlight the work of the Strive Partnership of Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky.

Made up of more than 300 civic groups, businesses, nonprofits, colleges, public agencies, and philanthropies, Strive “coordinates every service and support that children and adolescents need, at every stage of their education and development,” the authors write. Put simply, these organizations are all dedicated to seeing students succeed, from cradle to career. Although many communities provide these services, what’s different about Strive and other such partnerships is their shared goals—and the acceptance of joint responsibility for meeting those goals.

Already, the results of the Strive effort are impressive. In one particularly bright finding, the authors report that the percentage of children who come to kindergarten ready to learn has risen substantially in Cincinnati as well as in Newport and Covington, the two Kentucky communities that are also part of Strive.

The Obama administration’s Promise Neighborhoods program, which encourages communities to build a continuum of services for children and youth, is centered on this sort of comprehensive, community-wide approach to student success. Perhaps the best known example is the Harlem Children’s Zone, which links a variety of children’s services, including schools, in a 100-block area in New York City. A growing number of other communities are establishing community partnerships, as well.

But, as the authors note, no one should underestimate the work involved in making such programs succeed. “Making shared accountability more than notional poses technical, operational, political, and financial challenges,” the authors write. “Such systems require engaging multiple players in decisions about priorities, resource allocation, performance measures, responsibilities, and consequences for participating organizations if performance lags.”

This report provides an in-depth look at where shared accountability works, and on how other communities can use this approach to help all students succeed.

A Plan for Transforming Indianapolis Public Schools

2011-12-23T11:27:00.002-05:00

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The Mind Trust has released what it calls “a bold plan for transforming Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) ”

The plan would dramatically shrink and restructure the central administration, send about $200 million more a year to schools without raising taxes, provide universal prekindergarten to all 4-year-olds, give teachers and principals more autonomy in exchange for more accountability, and provide parents with more quality school choices. It is the boldest urban reform plan in the United States. In developing its plan, The Mind Trust engaged local and national experts to analyze highperforming urban public schools across the country and distill the key conditions for their success— autonomy, accountability, and parental choice.

Crafted after a year of research and design, The Mind Trust’s plan presents a new vision for how IPS and other urban districts could be restructured to create these conditions for all public schools. Under The Mind Trust’s plan, $188 million a year would be reallocated to schools by shrinking and refocusing the central office on targeted activities. Funding and responsibility for most services would shift to schools. Schools could use the funds to provide or purchase the services they need, such as curriculum, school lunches, and building maintenance, and do whatever it takes to support student needs, like extending the school day or year, paying great teachers more, and purchasing new technology.

The plan also calls for reallocating up to: $14 million a year for free, high-quality pre-K for all IPS four-year olds; $7.5 million a year to help start excellent new schools; and $2.5 million a year to recruit and develop the next generation of great teachers and school leaders. All aspects of this new design could be funded with existing resources.

The smaller and more efficient IPS central office would no longer directly run schools. It would focus instead on a handful of targeted functions: setting high standards and holding schools accountable; replacing failing programs with quality new schools; managing a district-wide choice and enrollment process; overseeing the New School Incubation and Talent Development Funds; and distributing funds for high-quality prekindergarten. The central office also would manage facilities, transportation, and special education — although schools could contract with other providers over time.

The plan also would break down the confusing distinctions among traditional district, public charter, and magnet schools. These are simply legal terms and none connote quality. The Mind Trust’s plan proposes a unifying designation for all high_quality public schools within IPS boundaries that are given the conditions to succeed: “Opportunity Schools.”

In The Mind Trust’s plan, over time all schools in IPS would become Opportunity Schools, once they have strong leadership teams in place and meet high standards. They would keep that status only if they perform at high levels and attract enough students. In return, all Opportunity Schools would control more resources and be guaranteed autonomy over staffing, budgeting, setting the school culture and other key decisions. Plus, they would be schools of choice, so parents could send their children to the school that best meets their needs.

The Mind Trust’s plan calls for bold changes because the current system is broken _ _ in IPS and in large cities around the country. Despite a 61% increase in per pupil funding over the last two decades adjusted for inflation, IPS is among the lowest performing districts in the country. Only 45% of students pass state tests in reading and math, and about 58% graduate on time.

“Decades of failure demonstrate that it’s not the people who are at fault, it’s the system. Most IPS schools don’t have the conditions that research shows schools need to succeed. This plan creates those conditions,” said David Harris, Founder and CEO, The Mind Trust.

“We know that poverty’s a major challenge, but around the country a growing number of schools are achieving remarkable success with students just like ours. Schools like CFI and school networks like YES Prep, KIPP, and Achievement First are proving that all kids can achieve at high levels. If they can do it, we have an obligation to ensure IPS schools have the conditions and talent that will achieve similar success with all students,” Harris said.

To carry out the new vision, the plan recommends that the mayor take responsibility for the schools by appointing three members of a new five person school board; the City-County Council would appoint the other two. The plan states that while no system of governance is perfect, mayoral accountability is much better than the alternatives: continuing the catastrophic status quo with the current school board or having the state take over all IPS schools. “The only way to make a plan this bold happen and succeed is if it stays at the top of the city’s agenda for years. The mayor is best positioned to provide this sustained leadership,” the plan says.

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CT Early Care/Education: Poor Coordination & Inadequate Funding Limit Access

2011-12-22T10:59:00.003-05:00

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Connecticut Early Care and Education Progress Report, 2011
Appendix

Following Connecticut’s loss in the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge funding competition and the Governor’s call this week for education reform legislation, a report on the state’s early care and education system finds that a lack of central coordination of early childhood programs and stagnant or declining funding levels are leaving many children in need of early care unserved. The organization called on state legislators and Governor Malloy, who has identified increasing access to preschool as a priority, to maintain early childhood program funding and to develop a more integrated approach to child care and early education.

“High quality early care and education can help our state’s children be more academically and socially ready for kindergarten.” said Sarah Esty, Policy Fellow at Connecticut Voices for Children and co-author of the report. “The early education we provide now will have long-term consequences for our children’s school performance and the health of our economy.”

Key findings in the report include:

· Connecticut’s patchwork of early care and education programs needs reform to create a coordinated and comprehensive system. Connecticut’s publicly-funded early care and education programs rely on multiple funding streams controlled by multiple agencies with varied reporting and eligibility and data requirements. This creates confusion and complications for both providers and parents, according to Connecticut Voices.

Funding for early care and education has been stagnant and is more than 10% below 2002 levels. Total state funding for early care and education increased by less than 1% between 2010 and 2011, and remains substantially below levels from early in the decade.

· Connecticut is not serving many of the children who need help. Despite the need for child care from working families struggling through the recession, over 86% of infants and toddlers, and at least 25% of preschoolers living in struggling families (families earning under 75% of the state median income) remain unserved by any state or federal subsidy for early care and education.

· The state lacks the data necessary to determine which aspects of the early care system are working effectively. The report indicates that there is not sufficient data gathered to evaluate the impact of Connecticut’s early education services on a child’s later school success or which programs are having the greatest impact.

To improve access to and quality of child care programs, Connecticut Voices recommends that the Governor and state legislators:

· Maintain and ultimately increase funding for early care and education.
· Move forward on creating plans for a more coordinated system of early care and education that works to integrate existing program "silos," gather data to evaluate and improve quality of care, and fund services based on the actual costs of providing care.

Early care and education has recently been a significant focus of attention among Connecticut policy makers. In the 2011 legislative session, legislation was approved to create a planning process for a more coordinated early care and education system. Connecticut’s application for federal Race to the Top education funding focused on improving quality in the state’s early education services. Also, Governor Malloy called this week for education reform legislation that “enhances families’ access to high-quality early childhood education opportunities.”

“Connecticut has many high-quality early care and education services already in place, and our Race to the Top application provided an excellent road map to achieving a more coordinated system that will ultimately lead to better long-term results for children,” said Cyd Oppenheimer, Senior Policy Fellow at Connecticut Voices and co-author of the report. “We know that our Governor and policy makers understand the importance of early care and education and will remain true to their commitment to better coordination and increased funding.”

Connecticut Voices is a research-based think tank that works to advance policies that benefit the state’s children, youth, and families.

Abnormality in auditory processing underlies dyslexia

2011-12-21T15:32:00.001-05:00

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People with dyslexia often struggle with the ability to accurately decode and identify what they read. Although disrupted processing of speech sounds has been implicated in the underlying pathology of dyslexia, the basis of this disruption and how it interferes with reading comprehension has not been fully explained. Now, new research published by Cell Press in the December 22 issue of the journal Neuron finds that a specific abnormality in the processing of auditory signals accounts for the main symptoms of dyslexia.

"It is widely agreed that for a majority of dyslexic children, the main cause is related to a deficit in the processing of speech sounds," explains senior study author, Dr. Anne-Lise Giraud and Franck Ramus from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. "It is also well established that there are three main symptoms of this deficit: difficulty paying attention to individual speech sounds, a limited ability to repeat a list of pseudowords or numbers, and a slow performance when asked to name a series of pictures, colors, or numbers as quickly as possible. However, the underlying basis of these symptoms has not been elucidated."

Dr. Giraud and colleagues examined whether an abnormality in the early steps of auditory processing in the brain, called "sampling," is linked with dyslexia by focusing on the idea that an anomaly in the initial processing of phonemes, the smallest units of sound that can be used to make a word, might have a direct impact on the processing of speech.

The researchers found that typical brain processing of auditory rhythms associated with phonemes was disrupted in the left auditory cortex of dyslexics and that this deficit correlated with measures of speech sound processing. Further, dyslexics exhibited an enhanced response to high-frequency rhythms that indirectly interfered with verbal memory. It is possible that this "oversampling" might result in a distortion of the representation of speech sounds.

"Our results suggest that the left auditory cortex of dyslexic people may be less responsive to modulations at very specific frequencies that are optimal for analysis of speech sounds and overly responsive to higher frequencies, which is potentially detrimental to their verbal short-term memory abilities," concludes Dr. Giraud. "Taken together, our data suggest that the auditory cortex of dyslexic individuals is less fine-tuned to the specific needs of speech processing."

Degrees of Failure: The Unprepared High School Graduate

2011-12-20T14:42:00.002-05:00

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A significant number of American teenagers graduate from high school unprepared to take their next big steps toward adulthood, according to a study by researchers at The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education.

More than 40 percent of high schoolers do not follow a college preparatory track or take adequate career and technical education courses, and these missed opportunities can leave young people at a disadvantage after graduation when they enroll in college or look for a job, according to Stefanie DeLuca, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Johns Hopkins, and Regina Deil-Amen of the University of Arizona.

“This group is a virtual underclass of students who are neither college-ready nor in an identifiable career curriculum,” DeLuca said. “They are likely to depart from high school having taken classes mainly from the high school general curriculum in which they received little to no job preparation or guidance. This group is also less likely to enroll in college, but if they do, they enroll at a remedial level and leave before earning a degree. Either path places them at risk for failure.”

DeLuca and Deil-Amen’s study, “The Underserved Third: How Our Educational Structures Populate an Educational Underclass,” was published by the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk.

Analyzing data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study along with other studies, DeLuca and Deil-Amen found that today’s high schoolers fall into three categories: those on a college preparatory track, making up an estimated one-third of the student body; those who prepare for the post-graduation labor force through career and technical education programs, making up a quarter of the student population; and the more than 40 percent of high school students who don’t have access to adequate college preparation or occupational training.

The college-track students were disproportionately white and of higher socioeconomic status, and the most unprepared students were the poorest, disproportionately underrepresented minority students, immigrant English language learner, and first-generation college students.

For some students who delay preparation for four-year colleges or jobs while in high school, two-year colleges seem like a second chance. Some students manage to meet the requirements for highly selective two-year community college programs or make it through expensive occupational programs at for-profit colleges—both options can prepare them for more lucrative jobs. However, many others end up in less selective two-year degree programs and often don’t complete the requirements. When they do, such programs may lead to less economically rewarding jobs, DeLuca and Deil-Amen wrote.
“Unfortunately, many who seek a concrete route to a good job pay the high cost of for-profit colleges when the same programs are often offered a much lower cost in community colleges or state universities,” DeLuca said. “Nowhere is there a safety net to prevent these youth from falling through the cracks in the two-year pipeline. They leave demoralized, having spent time and money, with no clear job skills or credentials to show for it.”

To combat these problems, the researchers support the fusion of both career and academic curricula in high school to provide more feasible methods of opening up career and college options for all.

“College access has increased dramatically, but to parade enrollment in higher education as a guaranteed pathway to social mobility is illusory,” DeLuca and Deil-Amen said. “To imagine that youth in poverty can be upwardly mobile via college access denies the fact that the education system positions them to be members of an educational underclass and ensures that they experience a structured lack of opportunities.”

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Between 30% and 40% of youths arrested by age 23

2011-12-20T10:09:00.002-05:00

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Cumulative Prevalence of Arrest From Ages 8 to 23 in a National Sample

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the cumulative proportion of youth who self-report having been arrested or taken into custody for illegal or delinquent offenses (excluding arrests for minor traffic violations) from ages 8 to 23 years.

METHODS: Self-reported arrest history data (excluding arrests for minor traffic violations) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (N = 7335) were examined from 1997 to 2008.

RESULTS: By age 18, the in-sample cumulative arrest prevalence rate lies between 15.9% and 26.8%; at age 23, it lies between 25.3% and 41.4%. These bounds make no assumptions at all about missing cases. If we assume that the missing cases are at least as likely to have been arrested as the observed cases, the in-sample age-23 prevalence rate must lie between 30.2% and 41.4%. The greatest growth in the cumulative prevalence of arrest occurs during late adolescence and the period of early or emerging adulthood.

CONCLUSIONS: Since the last nationally defensible estimate based on data from 1965, the cumulative prevalence of arrest for American youth (particularly in the period of late adolescence and early adulthood) has increased substantially. At a minimum, being arrested for criminal activity signifies increased risk of unhealthy lifestyle, violence involvement, and violent victimization. Incorporating this insight into regular clinical assessment could yield significant benefits for patients and the larger community.

Very Few Youths Invovled in Sexting

2011-12-20T10:05:00.001-05:00

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Prevalence and Characteristics of Youth Sexting: A National Study published in Pediatrics

OBJECTIVES: To obtain national estimates of youth involved in sexting in the past year (the transmission via cell phone, the Internet, and other electronic media of sexual images), as well as provide details of the youth involved and the nature of the sexual images.

METHODS: The study was based on a cross-sectional national telephone survey of 1560 youth Internet users, ages 10 through 17.

RESULTS: Estimates varied considerably depending on the nature of the images or videos and the role of the youth involved. Two and one-half percent of youth had appeared in or created nude or nearly nude pictures or videos. However, this percentage is reduced to 1.0% when the definition is restricted to only include images that were sexually explicit (ie, showed naked breasts, genitals, or bottoms). Of the youth who participated in the survey, 7.1% said they had received nude or nearly nude images of others; 5.9% of youth reported receiving sexually explicit images. Few youth distributed these images.

America’s Youth: Transitions to Adulthood

2011-12-20T09:58:00.001-05:00

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America’s Youth: Transitions to Adulthood compares the current generation of youth and young adults in the United States to youth and young adults in 2000, 1990, and 1980. Data for the report came from NCES and other federal surveys.

According to this new NCES report, the youth of 2011 are different than their peers in 1980, 1990, and 2000 in many aspects – they have greater education and less labor force participation, they have delayed the establishment of their own families, and they have higher expectations for their future.

Other findings include:

• In 2010, there were 47.1 million youth and young adults between the ages of 14 and 24 in the United States, compared with 46.2 million in 1980. While the number of youth and young adults increased by 0.9 million since 1980, their percentage of the U.S. population declined from 20 to 15 percent.

• For young adults between the ages of 18 and 24, the current generation is enrolled in school at higher rates than their predecessors in 1980. In 2009, some 69 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds were enrolled in school, compared with 46 percent in 1980. In addition, about 52 percent of 20- and 21-year-olds were enrolled in school in 2009, compared with 31 percent in 1980, and 30 percent of 22- to 24-year-olds were enrolled in school in 2009, compared with 16 percent in 1980.

• In 1980, about 86 percent of young adult males, ages 20 to 24, were in the labor force, compared to 69 percent of young adult females. By 2010, some 75 percent of young adult males and 68 percent of young adult females were in the labor force.

• Between 1980 and 2010, the percentage of persons ages 20 to 24 who were householders (i.e., those who owned or rented their own house) or the spouses of householders decreased from 38 to 19 percent. For females in this age range, the decrease was from 47 to 25 percent between these years; for males, the decrease was from 28 to 13 percent.

Does Practice-Based Teacher Preparation Increase Student Achievement?

2011-12-19T15:23:00.000-05:00

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Early Evidence from the Boston Teacher Residency

The Boston Teacher Residency is an innovative practice-based preparation program in which candidates work alongside a mentor teacher for a year before becoming a teacher of record in Boston Public Schools.

The authors find find that BTR graduates are more racially diverse than other BPS novices, more likely to teach math and science, and more likely to remain teaching in the district through year five.

Initially, BTR graduates for whom value-added performance data are available are no more effective at raising student test scores than other novice teachers in English language arts and less effective in math.

The effectiveness of BTR graduates in math improves rapidly over time, however, such that by their fourth and fifth years they out-perform veteran teachers.

Simulations of the program’s overall impact through retention and effectiveness suggest that it is likely to improve student achievement in the district only modestly over the long run.

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Bullying in Schools

2011-12-17T08:47:00.003-05:00

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The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has released Peer Victimization in Schools: A Set of Quantitative and Qualitative Studies of the Connections Among Peer Victimization, School Engagement, Truancy, School Achievement and Other Outcomes,

Conducted by the National Center for School Engagement in 2007, the OJJDP-funded study focused on the connection between bullying, truancy and low academic achievement and examined whether engaging students in academics or extracurricular activities mediates these factors.

Bullying does not directly cause truancy, researchers found. A caring school community where students are challenged academically and adults support them can serve as a powerful antidote. Victimization often distances students from learning and contributes to a myriad of other problems, including truancy and academic failure.

The researchers found "bullying in a box" curricula—generic, pre-fabricated anti-bullying curricula—to be an ineffective substitute for intentional, student-focused engagement strategies.

The researchers further recommended these strategies for schools:

- Offer mentoring programs;
- Provide students with opportunities for community service;
- Address the difficult transition between elementary and middle school (from one single classroom teacher to teams of teachers with periods and class changes in a large school); and
- Start prevention programs early.

The report examines the relationship among bullying, school attendance, school engagement, and school achievement; presents survey findings of young adults bullied in grade school; provides teachers' observations on efforts to ameliorate school bullying; and compares findings to existing research on bullying.

Unwanted Online Sexual Exposures Decline For Youth

2011-12-15T14:38:00.001-05:00

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A new study from the University of New Hampshire Crimes against Children Research Center finds declines in two kinds of youth Internet sexual encounters of great concern to parents: unwanted sexual solicitations and unwanted exposure to pornography. The researchers suspect that greater public awareness may have been, in part, what has helped.

The study found that the percentage of youth receiving unwanted online sexual requests declined from 13 percent in 2005 to 9 percent in 2010. Youth experiencing unwanted pornography exposure declined from 34 percent to 23 percent over the same period.

On the other hand, youth reports of online harassment increased slightly from 2005, up from 9 percent to 11 percent.

The study, “Trends in Youth Internet Victimization: Findings From Three Youth Internet Safety Surveys 2000–2010,” was published today online in the Journal of Adolescent Health. It is based on national surveys of youth ages 10 through 17 conducted in 2000, 2005, and 2010.

“The constant news about Internet dangers may give the impression that all Internet problems have been getting worse for youth but actually that is not the case,” said lead author Lisa Jones, research associate professor of psychology at the UNH Crimes against Children Research Center. “The online environment may be improving.”

Jones pointed out that unwanted sexual solicitations are down more than 50 percent since 2000, when attention first was drawn to the problem.

“The arrests, the publicity and the education may have tamped down the sexual soliciting online” said author Kimberly Mitchell, research assistant professor of psychology at the UNH Crimes against Children Research Center. ”The more effective safety and screening features incorporated into websites and networks may have helped reduce the unwanted encounters with pornography.”

Jones said harassment may not have fallen because attention to that online problem has been more recent. ”Hopefully, the new focus on online harassment will produce some of the same improvements in this problem that we have seen in sexual solicitations,” she said.

The authors cautioned that unwanted sexual solicitations should not be understood as necessarily communications from adult online predators. Previous research has found that while youth do not know the source of all the unwanted sexual solicitations they receive, when they did know, half were believed to come from other youth.

AYP Results for 2010-11

2011-12-15T11:43:00.002-05:00

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This report updates previous Center on Education Policy research with data from the 2010-11 school year on the number of schools not making adequate yearly progress (AYP) under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The estimated percentage of all U.S. schools not making AYP was 48% in 2011, an all-time high and an increase from 39% in 2010. The report also provides six years of trends in the percentage of schools in all 50 states, D.C., and the nation not making AYP, using official numbers from the State Consolidated Performance Reports submitted to the U.S. Department of Education.

Related article

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State High School Tests: Changes in State Policies

2011-12-15T11:40:00.001-05:00

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This 10th installment of the Center on Education Policy's annual study of high school exit exams and other assessments finds that fewer states are requiring students to pass a high school exit exam, though testing in other areas has increased. The report, based on a survey of all 50 state departments of education, discusses state policies associated with high school exit exams, college entrance exams (such as the ACT or SAT), and college and career readiness assessments.

State Profiles for Assessment Policies Through 2010-11

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NCLB: "The Accountability Plateau"

2011-12-15T10:38:00.002-05:00

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This new analysis of NAEP scores—focusing on Texas and on the entire nation—by former NCES commissioner Mark Schneider finds that solid gains in math achievement coincided with the advent of "consequential accountability," first in the trailblazing Lone Star State and a few other pioneer states, then across the land with the implementation of NCLB.

But Schneider warns that the recent plateau in Texas math scores may foreshadow a coming stagnation in the country’s performance. Has the testing-and-accountability movement as we know it run out of steam? How else might we rekindle our nation’s education progress?

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More On In School Arrests

2011-12-14T15:51:00.001-05:00

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From the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog, today!:

The Justice Department, stepping up its oversight of the juvenile justice system, has launched an investigation into whether school and law enforcement officials are targeting black students in Meridian, Miss., for unfair treatment.

The Civil Rights Division chief, Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez, disclosed the investigation in letters to local officials earlier this month. The department is investigating whether city and county authorities have a “pattern or practice” of violating the youths’ constitutional rights, specifically the 14th Amendment’s guarantees of due process and equal protection of the law, and the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.

Department officials said the allegations involve a “very tight relationship” between the schools and the juvenile court that works to put black students under law enforcement supervision. Black students cited “for very minor infractions end up in front of a juvenile judge,” who then sentences them to probation contingent on compliance with school rules, an official said. That way, “kids who’ve been out of school uniform by wearing the wrong color jacket or shirt” can be sent to juvenile hall for a probation violation. White students allegedly are treated more leniently for similar behavior, officials said.

Restorative practices found to be effective alternative to zero tolerance in schools

2011-12-14T15:28:00.001-05:00

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Restorative practices appear to be an effective alternative to exclusionary and punitive zero-tolerance behavior policies mandated in many schools today.

So reports Laura Mirsky in an article in the December 2011 issue of The Prevention Researcher, a quarterly journal that focuses on successful adolescent development and serves professionals who work with young people.

Mirsky interviewed educators and students at schools using restorative practices. She concludes that "although formal research is just beginning in this area, early indications and anecdotal evidence suggest that restorative practices, by intentionally promoting open communication, enhance relationships and thereby improve school climate, discipline and safety."

The International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) in Bethlehem, PA has gathered data—mainly discipline statistics—from approximately 40 schools since 1999 to evaluate the effects of restorative practices.

"The data indicate that restorative practice implementation increased school safety and decreased discipline problems," Mirsky writes.

At West Philadelphia High School, for example, which received its first formal training in restorative practices in 2008, suspensions decreased by half from April to December of that year. A year later the school was removed from Pennsylvania's persistently dangerous schools list, where it had been for six years.

Mirsky, assistant director of communications and technology for IIRP, says the restorative approach engages students in processes where they can take responsibility for their behavior. It also includes proactive ways for them to build relationships and community.

She discusses 11 elements used to change the learning climate in schools. Seven of these are school-wide and used by all staff members who come in contact with children. One—affective statements—underpins all other elements. Affective statements are "personal expressions of feelings in response to specific positive or negative behaviors of others."

"Understanding and using affective statements can help foster an immediate change in the dynamic between teacher and student," says Mirsky. "When teachers tell students how they feel, they humanize themselves to students, who often perceive teachers as distinct from themselves."

In the fall of 2010, City Springs Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore, Maryland began concentrating wholeheartedly on affective statements and the 10 other elements of whole-school change. The number of suspensions at City Springs declined from 86 in 2008-2009 to nine in 2010-2011.

While affective statements are the most informal restorative practice, at the other end of the 11-step continuum is the most formal one: the restorative conference. This is a structured protocol used in response to serious incidents. All persons involved come together to explore what happened, who was affected, and what needs to be done to make things right. The conference is run by a trained facilitator who leads participants through a series of scripted questions to think about the incident, who it affected and how, and how they can repair the situation.

Mirsky describes a restorative conference held at Kosciusko Middle School in Detroit's Hamtramck School District. Two girls had written a "hit list" naming 25 fellow students and signing their names. The situation upset the entire school. A restorative conference was held with the girls, all of the students on the list, and everyone's parents, along with teachers, administrators and translators in four languages. Everyone spoke. At the end, all agreed that the two girls, who were remorseful, would not be expelled. They would, however, not be allowed to attend the eighth-grade trip and would work in the school office all summer to make amends.

"In the center of the restorative practices continuum—and fundamental to it—are circles," says Mirsky. One person speaks at a time. Everyone has a chance to speak.

"Circles change the classroom dynamic," she says. "Students who might normally behave obstructively are integrated into the classroom when given a forum to be heard, and assertive students who might dominate discussion can no longer do so."

Said one student at Hamtramck High School, "Before we had circles we didn't feel like our voices mattered. Now the violence and fighting have stopped. Circles make you feel safe. We all come together. A lot of us want to change the world."

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Online: most children feel safe doing things that adults often perceive as risky

2011-12-14T15:26:00.000-05:00

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Sweden has one of Europe's highest rates of Internet use among children. The increasing number of children online implies increasing opportunities – but also risks. Yet a majority of 9-16 year olds say that they have not encountered anything on the Internet that has bothered or upset them in the past year.

The Swedish part of the study EU Kids Online also found that most children feel safe doing things that adults often perceive as risky.

However, in response to a general question, one in five (19%) Swedish children said that something on the Internet had bothered or upset them in the last twelve months. This figure varies from one-tenth of the 9-10 year olds to one-quarter of the 15-16 year olds.

One percent of the children said that they in the past year had felt upset when meeting face-to-face with a person they had first met online.

Five percent said that images with an obviously sexual content had made them feel uncomfortable online in the past year.

Most of those who had been cyberbullied in the past year (9 %) said that it had made them bothered and upset.

These are some of the results presented in the report Hur farligt är internet? (How dangerous is the Internet?) published today by NORDICOM's International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media, University of Gothenburg.

The report covers the Swedish part of the project EU Kids Online, where 9-16 year old Internet users and their parents in 25 European countries have been interviewed. About 1000 children have been interviewed in their homes in each country. The project is headed from London School of Economics and Political Science by Sonia Livingstone and Leslie Haddon, and is financed by the EC Safer Internet Plus Programme.

Many of the interviewed Swedish parents expressed that they would like more information from schools about Internet security. One suggestion presented in the report is therefore that a national directive targeting schools be developed concerning Internet security among young people.

Society may get stuck with the bill for expensive higher education

2011-12-14T14:57:00.001-05:00

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The rising cost of a college education and limited access to financial aid may create a less productive workforce and steeper wealth inequity, according to a study by North American economists.

Students with low-income parents are discovering that it is more difficult to find funds to pay for a college education now compared to students of similar economic backgrounds in the 1980s, said Alexander Monge-Naranjo, assistant professor of economics, Penn State.

"The consensus was that in the 1980s, credit constraints didn't seem to matter for those who went to college," said Monge-Naranjo. "But according to the latest data, we see family income and parental wealth are making a big difference in who is attending college."

Monge-Naranjo said there were several reasons for the move away from affordability. Over the last two decades, more higher-paying jobs required a college degree. The higher demand for a college education led universities to increase tuition, according to Monge-Narajo.

At the same time, money available through government loan programs remained flat or, when adjusting for in inflation, declined. During the 1990s, the percentage of undergraduates who borrowed from government lending programs increased significantly. Of those students, the ones at the top limit of their borrowing capacity tripled to 52 percent. Many more students are relying on private lenders for loans, Monge-Narajo said.

In the 1980s, credit constraints -- factors that limit financial access to college funding, such as caps on financial assistance and family income -- did not significantly stop students from attending college, once the researchers controlled for other factors, such as SAT score, age and race. Even poor students who had little financial resources to pay for college, but who were smart, could access credit to pursue an education, Monge-Naranjo said.

The researchers, who reported their findings in the current issue of the American Economic Review, said a shift occurred in the 1990s as more low-income students began to struggle to access credit to pay for a college. During the 1990s, youths from high-income families were 16 percent more likely to attend college than youths from low-income families.

Monge-Naranjo, who worked with Lance Lochner, associate professor, Western economics and director, CIBC Centre for Human Capital and Productivity, University of Western Ontario, used the most recent data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth and the Armed Forces Qualifying Test to examine the relationships between intelligence, family income and college attendance.

According to Monge-Naranjo, constraints on financial aid could have far-reaching economic impacts. When poor but intelligent workers are unable to earn a college degree, their career choices are restricted, Monge-Naranjo said. That could mean less qualified and less productive workers will attain those positions.

"It's a matter of economic efficiency," said Monge-Naranjo. "Are we choosing the best individuals for the job, or just the individual whose parents are wealthy? In the long-term that may have an effect on the economy, although it may take a couple of generations to find out and, even then, perhaps be hard to quantify."

Cigarette and alcohol use at historic low among teens

2011-12-14T14:45:00.002-05:00

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The 2011 Monitoring the Future Survey from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) shows continued high levels of abuse of alternate tobacco products, marijuana and prescription drugs

Cigarette and alcohol use by eighth, 10th and 12th-graders are at their lowest point since the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey began polling teenagers in 1975, according to this year's survey results. However, this positive news is tempered by a slowing rate of decline in teen smoking as well as continued high rates of abuse of other tobacco products (e.g., hookahs, small cigars, smokeless tobacco), marijuana and prescription drugs. The survey results appear to show that more teens continue to abuse marijuana than cigarettes; and alcohol is still the drug of choice among all three age groups queried.

MTF is an annual survey of eighth, 10th, and 12th-graders conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, under a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The survey was conducted in classrooms earlier this year.

"That cigarette use has declined to historically low rates is welcome news, given our concerns that declines may have slowed or stalled in recent years," said NIDA director Dr. Nora D. Volkow. "That said, the teen smoking rate is declining much more slowly than in years past, and we are seeing teens consume other tobacco products at high levels. This highlights the urgency of maintaining strong prevention efforts against teen smoking and of targeting other tobacco products."

The 2011 results showed that 18.7 percent of 12th-graders reported current (past-month) cigarette use, compared to a recent peak rate of 36.5 percent in 1997 and 21.6 percent five years ago. Only 6.1 percent of eighth-graders reported current smoking, compared to a recent peak of 21 percent in 1996 and 8.7 percent five years ago.

"While it is good news that cigarette use has declined to historically low rates, we can and must do more to accelerate that decline," said Howard K. Koh, MD, MPH, assistant secretary for health. "The actual decline is relatively small compared to the sharp declines we witnessed in the late nineties."

For alcohol, 63.5 percent of 12th-graders reported past year use, compared to a recent peak of 74.8 percent in 1997. Similarly, 26.9 percent of eighth-graders reported past year use of alcohol in 2011, compared to a recent peak rate of 46.8 percent in 1994. There also was a five-year decrease in binge drinking, measured as five or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks, across all three grades. Binge drinking was reported by 6.4 percent of eighth-graders, 14.7 percent of 10th-graders, and 21.6 percent of 12th-graders, down from the 2006 rates of 8.7 percent, 19.9 percent and 25.4 percent respectively.

Despite the declines noted in the report, use of marijuana has shown some increases in recent years and remains steady. Among 12th-graders, 36.4 percent reported past year use, and 6.6 percent reported daily use, up from 31.5 and 5 percent, respectively, five years ago. The upward trend in teens' abuse of marijuana corresponded to downward trends in their perception of risk. For example, only 22.7 percent of high school seniors saw great risk in smoking marijuana occasionally, compared to 25.9 percent five years ago. Similarly, 43.4 percent of eighth-graders reported that they saw great risk in smoking marijuana occasionally, compared to 48.9 percent five years ago. In addition, concerns about the use of synthetic marijuana, known as K2 or spice, prompted its inclusion in the survey for the first time in 2011. Surprisingly, 11.4 percent of 12th-graders reported past year use.

"K2 and spice are dangerous drugs that can cause serious harm," said Gil Kerlikowske, director of National Drug Control Policy. "We will continue to work with the public health and safety community to respond to this emerging threat but in the meantime, parents must take action. Parents are the most powerful force in the lives of young people and we ask that all of them talk to their teens today about the serious consequences of using marijuana, K2, or spice."

There was mixed news seen in the non-medical use of prescription drugs. Abuse of the opioid painkiller Vicodin was reported by 8.1 percent of 12th graders -- similar to 2010 and down from 9.7 percent in 2009. There was also a decline reported by 10th graders -- to 5.9 percent from 7.7 percent in 2010. However, no such declines were seen for the opioid painkiller OxyContin.

In 2011, the non-medical use of the ADHD medicines Adderall and Ritalin remained about the same as last year among 12th-graders, at 6.5 and 2.6 percent, respectively. There was, however, a significant decline in the abuse of over-the-counter cough medicine among eighth-graders, down to 2.7 percent in 2011 from 4.2 percent in 2006, when the survey first asked about its abuse. A similar decline in cough medicine abuse was seen among 12th-graders, to 5.3 percent from 6.9 percent five years ago.

"To help educate teens about the dangers of prescription drug abuse, NIDA is launching an updated prescription drug section on our teen website," said Dr. Volkow. "Teens can go to our PEERx pages to find interactive videos and other tools that help them make healthy decisions and understand the risks of abusing prescription drugs. We are also encouraging teens to provide feedback on these resources through NIDA's teen blog, Sara Bellum, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or email." PEERx can be seen at http://teens.drugabuse.gov/peerx.

Overall, 46,773 students from 400 public and private schools participated in this year's MTF survey. Since 1975, the survey has measured drug, alcohol, and cigarette use and related attitudes in 12th-graders nationwide. Eighth and 10th graders were added to the survey in 1991. Survey participants generally report their drug use behaviors across three time periods: lifetime, past year, and past month. Questions are also asked about daily cigarette and marijuana use. NIDA has providing funding for the survey since its inception by a team of investigators at the University of Michigan, led by Dr. Lloyd Johnston. Additional information on the MTF Survey, as well as comments from Dr. Volkow, can be found at http://www.drugabuse.gov/drugpages/MTF.html. To hear the audiocast of the event, visit: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/MonitoringTheFuture.

MTF is one of three major surveys sponsored by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services that provide data on substance use among youth. The others are the National Survey on Drug Use and Health and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The MTF website is: http://monitoringthefuture.org.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health, sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is the primary source of statistical information on substance use in the U.S. population 12 years of age and older. More information is available here.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, part of HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, is a school-based survey that collects data from students in grades 9-12. The survey includes questions on a wide variety of health-related risk behaviors, including substance abuse. More information is available here.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world's research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy and improve practice. Fact sheets on the health effects of drugs of abuse and information on NIDA research and other activities can be found here.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases.

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California Principals Between a Rock and a Hard Place

2011-12-14T12:17:00.002-05:00

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New report by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd finds principals challenged to meet dual roles of school manager and instructional leader

A new survey of more than 600 school principals finds California’s school site leaders between a rock and a hard place. Historic budget cutbacks present significant challenges to classroom teachers, thereby increasing the importance of the role principals play as a source of instructional leadership and support. But California’s disinvestment in its schools is also expanding school management responsibilities for principals. Facing growing demands and declining resources, school principals increasingly struggle to find the time, resources and capacity to meet the dual challenges of effective school management and ensuring quality instruction for California’s students.

These findings and others can be found in The Status of the Teaching Profession 2011, the annual report on California’s educator workforce by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd with research by SRI International.

“Research shows that second only to classroom teachers, school principals play a key role in improving student achievement,” says Holly Jacobson, director of the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd. “But budget cuts and increasing accountability pressures are clearly making the job harder. Just as teachers most need their support, principals have more to do, and less time, resources and support to do it.”

In addition to its findings on school principals, the report provides new information on key issues impacting the teaching workforce, including more than $100 million in cutbacks to teacher professional development, a dramatic decline of more than 50% in the enrollment of prospective teachers in training programs, a 40% drop in the production of newly credentialed teachers, and escalating retirements. The report also makes clear that California does not have the data system it needs to inform and guide future education policy decisions.

“California has increased its educational expectations, embracing the new Common Core State Standards and more meaningful systems of assessment, but historic budget cuts are impacting the abilities of teachers and principals to do their jobs,” says Patrick Shields of SRI International. “Schools are struggling to get the resources they need to increase student learning and California faces heightened uncertainties as to whether it will be able to meet future demand for a high quality teacher and principal workforce.”

Amid an increasing state and national focus on teaching quality, the report also examines the capacity of principals to conduct teacher evaluations. While the majority of principals have prior experience in key areas of evaluation, more than one third of principals say they had no or minimal experience in formally evaluating teachers prior to becoming a principal. One quarter report they had no or minimal experience in conducting classroom observations. Once on the job, about one third of principals say they receive minimal or no professional development in these areas of teacher evaluation.

When it comes to using the information to strengthen teaching, just over one half of principals strongly agree that their administrative team has the expertise needed to conduct classroom observations to identify teachers’ areas of need. And while a majority of principals say that formal performance evaluations inform individual teachers’ professional development or school-wide professional development, just one third say it does so to a great extent. Less than half report that teacher evaluations inform to a great extent whether teachers are retained. Almost 40 percent said that when a teacher is not performing satisfactorily, they tend to handle the matter outside the formal teacher evaluation system.

The report also examines principal’s views on barriers to teaching quality. Principals more frequently identified staffing-related issues than limited time or resources to increase the expertise and skills of their staff as a whole. Nearly half identified the influence of teacher seniority on staffing decisions as a “serious barrier.” Just under three quarters (73%) say overly cumbersome procedures for removing a teacher identified as unsatisfactory pose a serious barrier to teaching quality.

“California’s principals face significant challenges in meeting their dual responsibilities as school managers and instructional leaders and they are frustrated by the time consuming chore of removing unsatisfactory teachers, no matter how few those may be,” says Holly Jacobson. “But at a time when teachers may most need their help, principals are also greatly challenged to use evaluation in ways that inform and improve classroom teaching. California needs a fair and effective system of evaluation focused on strengthening the quality of teaching.”

The report also includes recommendations for strengthening teaching and leadership in California’s schools. The recommendations are focused on improving the state’s system of teacher development and evaluation in ways that strengthen the quality of classroom practice and address the challenge of preparing for the implementation of the new Common Core State Standards. The recommendations also encourage the development of data systems capable of providing policymakers and educators with the information needed to promote student learning, strengthen the teacher and principal workforce and address educational equity issues.

Key Findings

Fiscal uncertainty — California’s new normal
More than $20 billion in cumulative cuts to schools and districts occurred between 2007-08 and 2010-11. School districts have responded by increasing class size, laying off teachers and administrative staff, reducing support and professional development for teachers, and reducing the number of instructional days. Schools face the potential of additional mid-year budget cuts.

Teachers — doing more with less
California’s budget situation is transforming the state’s teaching workforce and increasing pressure on teachers in the classroom. Between 2009-10 and 2010-11, the size of the student population increased, but there were nearly 13,000 fewer teachers serving the population. Average class size in grades K-3 has risen from 20 students in in 2008-09 to 25 in 2010-11, and in grades 4-12 from 28 to 31 students. There are also fewer instructional days. Just 43% of schools reported providing 180 days of instruction in 2010-11, down from 100% in 2008-09. There are also fewer personnel to support teachers. More than half (55%) of principals reported a reduction in supporting instructional personnel (counselors, librarians, aides) since 2008-09. Professional development for teachers has also been cut by more than $100 million since 2007-08, and many schools are using professional development funds for other educational purposes.

Principals under pressure — more management, less instructional leadership
Layoffs of administrative and support staff have increased the management and administrative responsibilities of principals. In 2008-09, California already ranked 48th out of 50 states in its ratio of principals and assistant principals to students. But nearly one third (31%) of school districts report a decrease in the number of school administrators since then. Principals also report reductions in non-instructional support staff, including clerical workers and janitors. As school districts reduce district administrative staff, some principals also report increasing district responsibilities and receiving less district support. Principals also said that prior to becoming principals they had little experience with the management functions of their job, with more than half saying they have minimal or no experience in such areas as managing a school site budget (66%) or developing a school’s master schedule (55%). These challenges are compounded by the relative inexperience of the state’s principals. More than half have been in the job five years or less, and 53% have been principals in their current schools for three years or less. Despite these needs, professional development for principals has also been reduced. Two thirds (67%) of school districts have shifted funds away from the Administrator Training Program.

Principals report working an average of 60 hours each week, but despite long hours, increased administrative responsibilities leave principals with less time for instructional leadership. Principals consistently cited the challenge of insufficient time to meet all their responsibilities: One in three principals cited insufficient time to observe teachers for formal evaluation and insufficient time to debrief with all teachers after classroom observations as serious barriers to improving teaching quality.

While a majority of principals report prior experience in core job functions related to evaluation, a quarter (26%) say they have no or minimal experience conducting classroom observations or walk-throughs. More than one third (37%) say they have no or minimal experience or formally evaluating teachers. Principals also face challenges in the use of evaluation to improve teaching quality. About one third say that formal performance evaluations inform to a great extent teachers’ professional development or school-wide professional development. Fewer still (28%) say evaluation informs allocations of resources to strengthen areas of teacher weaknesses. Just under half (45%) reported that teacher evaluations inform to a great extent whether teachers are retained.

Principal views of barriers to teaching quality
Survey responses suggest that when principals think about improving teaching quality, many think first about staffing—removing any poorly performing teachers and keeping more effective teachers—and second about increasing the expertise and skills of their staff as a whole. Nearly three quarters of principals (73%) say cumbersome procedures for removing a teacher identified as unsatisfactory pose a serious barrier to teaching quality. Nearly one half say the same about the role teacher seniority plays in staffing decisions.

Heightened uncertainties
California faces heightened uncertainties about the future. Current progress on student achievement is insufficient to meet federal accountability requirements. And expectations for student learning will only increase with the implementation of the new Common Core State Standards and assessments. But in the face of these new expectations, teachers are receiving less support at all stages of the teacher development system.

There are very few new teachers in the system, with just six percent of the workforce in its first or second year of teaching. Additionally, enrollment in teacher preparation programs declined by more than 50% between 2001-02 and 2009-10, and the number of teaching credentials issued declined 40% between 2003-04 and 2009-10. Meanwhile, educator retirement is also steadily climbing — reaching 15,500 in 2009-10 — an increase of 21% over the previous year. California also lacks a statewide data system capable of informing policymakers and the public about decisions to address these and other educational challenges.

Study Examines the 6+1 Trait® Writing Model

2011-12-14T11:56:00.001-05:00

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Strong writing skills are important for student success in high school and college, and, increasingly, for success in the workplace. To add to the evidence base on effective strategies for teaching writing in the elementary grades, REL Northwest conducted a rigorous study to test the impact of the 6+1 Trait® Writing model on grade 5 writing achievement. The Trait® Writing model emphasizes analysis of writing using a set of characteristics, or “traits,” of written work, including ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions.

The study, An investigation of the impact of the 6+1 Trait® Writing model on grade 5 student writing achievement, found that students who experienced the model had higher scores on essay writing in comparison to students whose schools used their “business as usual” writing instruction.

The study’s exploratory analyses found statistically significant differences between Trait® Writing students and comparison students in performance on organization, voice, and word choice traits. There were no differences in the effects of the intervention by gender or ethnicity and for the ideas, sentence fluency, and conventions traits.

In school arrests - Connecticut

2011-12-14T10:09:00.002-05:00

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Complete report

From March through May of this year, more than 700 arrests were made in Connecticut schools, two-thirds of them for minor offenses such as breach of peace or disorderly conduct, according to data obtained from the Court Support Services Division (CSSD).

In Hartford alone, 87 arrests were made in schools, including 54 at grade K-8 schools. One Hartford elementary school, the Latino Studies Academy at Burns, recorded 16 arrests in the 2 1/2 month period. Similarly in Waterbury, 59 arrests were reported, more than half at elementary and middle schools. Offenses run the gamut from possession of tobacco, to swearing at a teacher, to fist-fighting.

The arrest data, which provides only a preliminary snapshot since the state began collecting it last spring, “blows out the myth that kids get in trouble after school or over the summer, when they’re idle,” said Abby Anderson, director of the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance, which has been working to reduce school-based arrests. “If you look at how kids get in trouble, it makes sense: They get in trouble as a group—especially in overcrowded, under-resourced schools.”

Connecticut is one of a handful of states trying to tackle school-based arrests, which experts say fuel recidivism in the criminal justice system and often are used in place of interventions that can lead to better outcomes for children. School arrests have become increasingly commonplace in the post-Columbine era, with many districts imposing “zero tolerance” policies on student misbehavior. Zero tolerance, originally coined in the 1980s for strict drug-seizure policies, has been expanded to include punishment for fighting, swearing, disrupting class, disobedience, truancy and other forms of misbehavior.

Additional resources:

“Hard Lessons: School resource Officer Programs and School-Based Arrests in Three Connecticut Towns”

18 Signs That Life In U.S. Public Schools Is Now Essentially Equivalent to Life In U.S. Prisons

High School Dual Enrollment Programs: Are We Fast-Tracking Students Too Fast?

2011-12-13T13:17:00.003-05:00

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Dual enrollment (DE), an arrangement by which high school students take college courses, is becoming increasingly popular as a means of improving high school education. However, there is little rigorous evidence on its impact on student outcomes. This working paper from the National Center for Postsecondary Research represents the first attempt to use a regression discontinuity (RD) design to gauge the causal effect of DE on the likelihood of high school graduation, college enrollment, and college completion among students who are on the margin of eligibility for participation in DE.

In two separate RD analyses, the paper examines the effects of taking an academic DE course in any subject and the effects of taking a DE course in college algebra. While the former appears to have no significant effects on student outcomes, participation in DE algebra was found to have large and significant effects on college enrollment and graduation rates for students on the margin of participation eligibility.

The Role of Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment Programs

2011-12-13T13:17:00.002-05:00

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Advanced Placement (AP) and Dual Enrollment (DE) are two programs that allow high school students to earn college credits. The recent growth of these programs has been unprecedented. However, there is little evidence that compares how they fare in terms of improving college access and success. Using data from two cohorts of all high school students in Florida and controlling for schools’ and students’ characteristics (including prior achievement), this study examines the relative power of AP and DE in predicting students’ college access and success.

The study finds that both AP and DE are strongly associated with positive outcomes, but the enrollment outcomes are not the same for both programs. DE students are more likely than AP students to go to college after high school, but they are less likely to first enroll in a four-year college. Despite this difference in initial enrollment, the difference between DE and AP in terms of bachelor’s degree attainment is much smaller and not statistically significant for some model specifications. In addition, the effect of DE is driven by courses taken at the local community college campus; there is no effect for DE courses taken at the high school.

Online Algebra I broadens access for grade 8 students

2011-12-13T10:30:00.001-05:00

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As schools’ technology capacity has increased, online courses have helped to expand curricular offerings, particularly in small schools and rural areas. To add to the evidence base on the effectiveness of online courses, REL Northeast and Islands conducted a rigorous experimental study of the impact of offering an online Algebra I course to grade 8 students in Maine and Vermont on algebra knowledge and subsequent mathematics course taking patterns.

The study, Access to Algebra I: The Effects of Online Mathematics for Grade 8 Students, found that algebra-ready students in schools offering online Algebra I scored higher on an algebra test and were more likely to participate in an advanced mathematics course sequence in high school, compared to algebra-ready students in schools that did not offer the online course. The study also found no evidence of negative effects on non-algebra-ready students attending schools where online Algebra I was offered to algebra-ready students. This combination of findings demonstrates that offering an online Algebra I course is an effective way to broaden access to this course.

Academic Libraries: 2010

2011-12-13T10:06:00.000-05:00

Academic Libraries: 2010

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Academic Libraries: 2010 summarizes services, staff, collections, and expenditures of academic libraries in 2- and 4-year, degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Findings include:

• Academic libraries held approximately 158.7 million e-books and about 1.8 million electronic reference sources and aggregation services at the end of FY 2010.

• Academic libraries spent approximately $152.4 million for electronic books, serial backfiles, and other materials in FY 2010. Expenditures for electronic current serial subscriptions totaled about $1.2 billion.

• During FY 2010, some 72 percent of academic libraries reported that they supported virtual reference services.

• Academic libraries reported 88,943 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff working in academic libraries during the fall of 2010.

Study debunks myths about gender and math performance

2011-12-12T16:13:00.000-05:00

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A major study of recent international data on school mathematics performance casts doubt on some common assumptions about gender and math achievement — in particular, the idea that girls and women have less ability due to a difference in biology.

"We tested some recently proposed hypotheses that try to explain a supposed gender gap in math performance and found they were not supported by the data," says Janet Mertz, senior author of the study and a professor of oncology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Instead, the Wisconsin researchers linked differences in math performance to social and cultural factors.

The new study, by Mertz and Jonathan Kane, a professor of mathematical and computer sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, was published today (Dec. 12, 2011) in Notices of the American Mathematical Society. The study looked at data from 86 countries, which the authors used to test the "greater male variability hypothesis" famously expounded in 2005 by Lawrence Summers, then president of Harvard, as the primary reason for the scarcity of outstanding women mathematicians.

That hypothesis holds that males diverge more from the mean at both ends of the spectrum and, hence, are more represented in the highest-performing sector. But, using the international data, the Wisconsin authors observed that greater male variation in math achievement is not present in some countries, and is mostly due to boys with low scores in some other countries, indicating that it relates much more to culture than to biology.

The new study relied on data from the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the 2009 Programme in International Student Assessment.

"People have looked at international data sets for many years", Mertz says. "What has changed is that many more non-Western countries are now participating in these studies, enabling much better cross-cultural analysis."

The Wisconsin study also debunked the idea proposed by Steven Levitt of "Freakonomics" fame that gender inequity does not hamper girls' math performance in Muslim countries, where most students attend single-sex schools. Levitt claimed to have disproved a prior conclusion of others that gender inequity limits girls' mathematics performance. He suggested, instead, that Muslim culture or single-sex classrooms benefit girls' ability to learn mathematics.

By examining the data in detail, the Wisconsin authors noted other factors at work. "The girls living in some Middle Eastern countries, such as Bahrain and Oman, had, in fact, not scored very well, but their boys had scored even worse, a result found to be unrelated to either Muslim culture or schooling in single-gender classrooms," says Kane.

He suggests that Bahraini boys may have low average math scores because some attend religious schools whose curricula include little mathematics. Also, some low-performing girls drop out of school, making the tested sample of eighth graders unrepresentative of the whole population.

"For these reasons, we believe it is much more reasonable to attribute differences in math performance primarily to country-specific social factors," Kane says.

To measure the status of females relative to males within each country, the authors relied on a gender-gap index, which compares the genders in terms of income, education, health and political participation. Relating these indices to math scores, they concluded that math achievement at the low, average and high end for both boys and girls tends to be higher in countries where gender equity is better. In addition, in wealthier countries, women's participation and salary in the paid labor force was the main factor linked to higher math scores for both genders.

"We found that boys — as well as girls — tend to do better in math when raised in countries where females have better equality, and that's new and important," says Kane. "It makes sense that when women are well-educated and earn a good income, the math scores of their children of both genders benefit."

Mertz adds, "Many folks believe gender equity is a win-lose zero-sum game: If females are given more, males end up with less. Our results indicate that, at least for math achievement, gender equity is a win-win situation."

U.S. students ranked only 31st on the 2009 Programme in International Student Assessment, below most Western and East-Asian countries. One proposed solution, creating single-sex classrooms, is not supported by the data. Instead, Mertz and Kane recommend increasing the number of math-certified teachers in middle and high schools, decreasing the number of children living in poverty and ensuring gender equality.

"These changes would help give all children an optimal chance to succeed," says Mertz. "This is not a matter of biology: None of our findings suggest that an innate biological difference between the sexes is the primary reason for a gender gap in math performance at any level. Rather, these major international studies strongly suggest that the math-gender gap, where it occurs, is due to sociocultural factors that differ among countries, and that these factors can be changed."

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Autism researchers make exciting strides

2011-12-12T16:10:00.000-05:00

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Teaching young children with autism to imitate others may improve a broader range of social skills, according to a new study by a Michigan State University scholar.

The findings come at a pivotal time in autism research. In the past several years, researchers have begun to detect behaviors and symptoms of autism that could make earlier diagnosis and even intervention like this possible, said Brooke Ingersoll, MSU assistant professor of psychology.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Ingersoll said. “I think we, as a field, are getting a much better idea of what autism looks like in infants and toddlers than we did even five years ago.”

In the current study, Ingersoll found that toddlers and preschoolers with autism who were taught imitation skills made more attempts to draw the examiner’s attention to an object through gestures and eye contact, a key area of deficit in autism.

Imitation is an important development skill that allows infants and young children to interact and learn from others. However, children with autism often show a lack of ability to imitate.

The study, which appears in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, analyzed children with autism who were 27 months to 47 months old.

The findings come on the heels of a paper Ingersoll published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science that highlighted recent findings in autism research by U.S. scientists.

While autism is typically diagnosed between the ages of 2 and 3, new research is finding symptoms of autism disorders in children as young as 12 months, the paper found.

“I think there’s a lot of hope that if we can figure out the right behaviors early enough, and intervene early enough, we may be able to prevent the development of autism,” Ingersoll said.

Is it possible to learn high-performance tasks with little or no conscious effort?

2011-12-12T16:03:00.001-05:00

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New research published today in the journal Science suggests it may be possible to use brain technology to learn to play a piano, reduce mental stress or hit a curve ball with little or no conscious effort. It's the kind of thing seen in Hollywood's "Matrix" franchise.

Experiments conducted at Boston University (BU) and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan, recently demonstrated that through a person's visual cortex, researchers could use decoded functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to induce brain activity patterns to match a previously known target state and thereby improve performance on visual tasks.

Think of a person watching a computer screen and having his or her brain patterns modified to match those of a high-performing athlete or modified to recuperate from an accident or disease. Though preliminary, researchers say such possibilities may exist in the future.

"Adult early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning," said lead author and BU neuroscientist Takeo Watanabe of the part of the brain analyzed in the study.

Neuroscientists have found that pictures gradually build up inside a person's brain, appearing first as lines, edges, shapes, colors and motion in early visual areas. The brain then fills in greater detail to make a red ball appear as a red ball, for example.

Researchers studied the early visual areas for their ability to cause improvements in visual performance and learning.

"Some previous research confirmed a correlation between improving visual performance and changes in early visual areas, while other researchers found correlations in higher visual and decision areas," said Watanabe, director of BU's Visual Science Laboratory. "However, none of these studies directly addressed the question of whether early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning." Until now.

Boston University post-doctoral fellow Kazuhisa Shibata designed and implemented a method using decoded fMRI neurofeedback to induce a particular activation pattern in targeted early visual areas that corresponded to a pattern evoked by a specific visual feature in a brain region of interest. The researchers then tested whether repetitions of the activation pattern caused visual performance improvement on that visual feature.

The result, say researchers, is a novel learning approach sufficient to cause long-lasting improvement in tasks that require visual performance.

What's more, the approached worked even when test subjects were not aware of what they were learning.

"The most surprising thing in this study is that mere inductions of neural activation patterns corresponding to a specific visual feature led to visual performance improvement on the visual feature, without presenting the feature or subjects' awareness of what was to be learned," said Watanabe, who developed the idea for the research project along with Mitsuo Kawato, director of ATR lab and Yuka Sasaki, an assistant in neuroscience at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"We found that subjects were not aware of what was to be learned while behavioral data obtained before and after the neurofeedback training showed that subjects' visual performance improved specifically for the target orientation, which was used in the neurofeedback training," he said.

The finding brings up an inevitable question. Is hypnosis or a type of automated learning a potential outcome of the research?

"In theory, hypnosis or a type of automated learning is a potential outcome," said Kawato. "However, in this study we confirmed the validity of our method only in visual perceptual learning. So we have to test if the method works in other types of learning in the future. At the same time, we have to be careful so that this method is not used in an unethical way."

At present, the decoded neurofeedback method might be used for various types of learning, including memory, motor and rehabilitation.

Reading, Math Focus Crowding Out Other Core Academic Subjects

2011-12-09T12:40:00.002-05:00

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New research reveals that two-thirds of educators in the nation's K-12 public schools believe that an overemphasis on English-language arts and mathematics has resulted in denying students a proper focus on other core academic subjects, such as social studies, science, foreign languages, and the arts.

Conducted by the Farkas Duffett Research (FDR) Group on behalf of Common Core, the research is based on a survey of 1,001 third through 12th grade public school teachers that gathered data about teacher behavior and classroom practice. The research was funded by the Ford Foundation and the American Federation of Teachers. A full study based on this research will be released in 2012.

“During the past decade, our public schools have focused – almost exclusively – on reading and math instruction, hoping to fulfill the latest in federal mandates,” said Lynne Munson, President and Executive Director of Common Core. “NCLB clearly identifies our „core curriculum_ as reading, math, science, social studies, and even the arts. But in our efforts to meet AYP, we have abandoned many of these core subjects in pursuit of higher reading and math scores. As a result, we are denying our students the complete education they deserve and the law demands.”

The Common Core/FDR Group survey found:

• Two-thirds (66%) said that academic subjects other than reading and math “get crowded out by extra attention being paid to math or language arts”

• Math (55%) and language arts (54%) are the only two subjects getting more attention, according to most teachers

• In sharp contrast, about half of those surveyed said art (51%) and music (48%) get less attention, with 40% saying the same for foreign language, 36% for social studies, and 27% for science

• 77% of teachers who believe math and language arts crowd out other subjects say this happens across the full student body, with 21% saying it is targeted to struggling students

• The vast majority (81%) of elementary school teachers report other subjects are getting crowded out by extra attention to math or language arts

• About half (51%) of elementary school teachers say struggling students get extra help in math or language arts by getting pulled out of other classes, with the most likely subjects for pull out being social studies (48%) and science (40%)

• Among all teachers who say crowding out is taking place in their schools, virtually all (93%) believe that this is largely driven by state tests

• Almost two out of three teachers (65%) say they have “had to skip important topics in [my] subject in order to cover the required curriculum”

“According to most teachers, schools are narrowing curriculum, shifting instructional time and resources toward math and language arts and away from subjects such as art, music, foreign language, and social studies,” the survey found. Additionally, “most of the teachers surveyed believe that state tests in math and language arts drive curriculum narrowing. They say that the testing regimen has penetrated school culture and caused vast changes in day-to-day teaching,” the survey continued.
other academic subjects. Narrowing is happening throughout the grades but the problem is acute in the elementary grades, with 81 percent of teachers reporting narrowing. It is unbelievable to think that we_re denying even our youngest students the benefits, and excitement, of learning science, social studies, the arts, music, and foreign languages.”

Common Core believes that a child who graduates from high school without an understanding of culture, the arts, history, literature, civics, and language has in fact been left behind. To improve education in America, Common Core creates curriculum tools and also promotes programs, policies, and initiatives at the local, state, and federal levels that provide students with challenging, rigorous instruction in the full range of liberal arts and sciences. Common Core is not affiliated with the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

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Supplemental reading programs work better when aligned with core curricula

2011-12-08T16:32:00.000-05:00

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Students who struggle with reading get an extra benefit from a supplemental reading program when its content is aligned with the students' core reading curriculum, according to a study published in the December issue of the Elementary School Journal.

The findings suggest that supplemental reading programs work best when they mirror core curricula in scope and sequence rather than simply being "layered on top," write the study's authors, Carla Wonder-McDowell, D. Ray Reutzel (Utah State University), and John A. Smith (University of Texas-Arlington).

The study focused on 133 second-graders who had scored in the lowest quartile of a reading assessment test. The students were divided in two groups, with one receiving supplemental instruction that was aligned with the core curricula and the other receiving unaligned supplementary instruction. Both groups were given a pre- and post-test to assess their progress.

"Lesson activities in the aligned … group were designed to reinforce classroom core reading instruction content, delivery, sequence, and pacing," the researchers write. For example, the classroom curriculum specified that phonics instruction begin with short vowel sounds. In the aligned group, the supplemental program was altered to start with short vowels, mirroring the core instruction. In the unaligned group, the students followed an unaltered supplemental program, which started phonics with a mixture of long and short vowels.

Students' test scores showed that while both groups showed significant improvement in reading skills, the aligned group did better. Sixty percent of students in the aligned group scored above the 40th and 50th percentiles, while less than 50 percent of students in the unaligned group scored that high. The aligned group showed greater skill in reading comprehension, fluency, and word decoding.

"This study points to small but consistent advantages for aligning supplementary reading instruction with the classroom core instruction provided to struggling grade 2 readers," the researchers conclude. "To do so requires significant collaboration of classroom teachers and other school service providers to unify the educational experiences of students learning to read."

2,000,000+ in Charter Schools

2011-12-08T13:34:00.002-05:00

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The number of students attending public charter schools across the nation has surpassed two million according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS). Over 500 new public charter schools opened their doors in the 2011-12 school year, an estimated increase of 200,000 students. This year marks the largest single–year increase ever recorded in terms of the number of additional students attending charters.

There are now approximately 5,600 public charter schools enrolling what is estimated to be more than two million students nationwide. The numbers equate to a 13 percent growth in students in just one year, while more than 400,000 students remain on wait lists to attend the public school of their choice. This significant milestone demonstrates increased demand from families who want more high-quality educational options for their children.

“We are very encouraged to see the active role parents are playing to ensure their children receive a high-quality education,” said Ursula Wright, interim CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “The results that charter schools are demonstrating are not only a testament to the hard work of thousands of teachers and charter leaders, but to families demanding more in terms of what a high-quality education means for their individual children.”

The top states that added the greatest number of students over the past year include: California with 47,000 new students; Florida with 23,500 additional students; Texas with 22,000 additional students; and Ohio with more than 12,000 additional students.

California leads the nation in total number of charter schools with 983 schools in
operation, followed by Arizona with 524, Florida with 520, Ohio with 360, and Texas with
284.

In addition to the more than 500 new schools nationwide, roughly 150 public charter schools did not re-open their doors this fall. These schools closed for a variety of reasons, including low enrollment, financial challenges and low academic performance. The closures provide further evidence that the charter school intent works—schools that do not meet the needs of their students should close.

The states with the largest number of school closures include: California (34), Arizona (22), Florida (18), Ohio (14), and Wisconsin (11).

More data

States Need to Improve the Middle Grades

2011-12-08T08:36:00.001-05:00

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States across the South need to take steps now to improve student achievement in the middle grades — considered by many experts to be a critical weak point in public education — or else risk creating a generation of high school students ill-prepared for the 21st century and its changing work force demands, a major new report from the SREB Middle Grades Commission asserts.

Although SREB states have made good progress in early grades achievement in recent years, "when students reach the middle grades, they start to lose momentum — especially in reading and also in math — and often reach the ninth grade unprepared for high school," SREB President Dave Spence said. "Too many give up and drop out."

A New Mission for the Middle Grades: Preparing Students for a Changing World points out that 25 out of 100 rising ninth-graders in the SREB region do not graduate from high school on time. The chance that a ninth-grader is on the way to college by age 19 is less than 50-50. Yet recent research shows the fastest-growing jobs in the years ahead will be those requiring a college degree or technical certificate.

"The middle grades are the make-or-break point of our K-12 public school system. If states are serious about raising graduation rates and preparing more students for postsecondary study, work has to begin now on the middle grades," Spence said.

The SREB Middle Grades Commission was created to craft specific recommendations for change. Chaired by Governor Beverly Perdue of North Carolina (then chair of the Southern Regional Education Board), the 35-member Commission met in 2010 and 2011 and included the heads of state Departments of Education in many of SREB’s 16 member states, state legislators, educators and other state policy-makers.

The report challenges SREB states to jumpstart the stall in middle grades achievement by creating a richer, more active and relevant learning experience that helps middle-graders relate school to their future goals. Among its recommendations, it calls for states to:

- focus the middle grades curriculum on literacy and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) courses.
- identify the middle grades students likely to drop out and intervene with increased learning time and accelerated instruction.
- require middle-graders to complete individual academic and career plans.

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Middle-class elementary students ask for help more than working-class peers

2011-12-07T14:40:00.000-05:00

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Middle-class children ask their teachers for help more often and more assertively than working-class children and, in doing so, receive more support and assistance from teachers according to a study from the University of Pennsylvania.

The findings are reported in the December issue of the American Sociological Review in a paper entitled, "I Need Help!" Social Class and Children's Help-Seeking in Elementary School" by Jessica McCrory Calarco, a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology in Penn's School of Arts and Sciences.

The paper is based on Calarco's dissertation research, a longitudinal ethnographic study of students in one socioeconomically diverse, public elementary school.

For three years, she followed a cohort of students as they progressed from third through fifth grade, observing them regularly in school and interviewing teachers, parents, and students to show that children's social-class backgrounds shaped when and how they sought help in the classroom.

"We know that middle-class parents are better able than working-class parents to secure advantages for themselves and their children, but not when and where they learned to do so, or whether they teach their children to do the same," Calarco said. "My research answers those questions by looking at children's role in stratification--how they try to secure their own advantages in the classroom."

Her study showed that middle-class children regularly approached teachers with questions and requests and were much more proactive and assertive in asking for help. Rather than wait for assistance, the middle-class children called out or approached teachers directly, even interrupting to make requests. Working-class children, on the other hand, rarely asked for help from teachers, doing so only as a last resort. Furthermore, when working-class children did ask for help, they tended to do so in less obvious ways (e.g., hanging back or sitting with their hand raised), meaning that they often waited longer for teachers to notice and respond.

"Teachers want kids to ask for help if they are struggling, but they rarely make those expectations explicit. That leaves kids to figure out when and how to ask for help," Calarco explained.

In another related project, Calarco found that children learn whether and how to ask for help at school, in part, through the training that they receive from their parents at home. She noted that, "unlike their working-class counterparts, middle-class parents explicitly encourage children to feel comfortable asking for help from teachers, and also deliberately coach children on the language and strategies to use in making these requests."

As a result, middle-class children came to school better equipped to secure the support that they needed to complete their assignments quickly and correctly, and also appeared more engaged in the learning process.

Calarco said that while teachers don't mean to privilege some children over others, they tend to be more responsive to middle-class children's help-seeking styles, giving those who ask for help more attention and support in the classroom, and also seeing them as more "proactive" learners.

"What that means is that middle-class kids' help-seeking skills and strategies effectively become a form of 'cultural capital' in the classroom--by activating those resources, middle-class kids can secure their own advantages in the classroom," she explained. "It also means that children play a more active role in stratification than previous research has recognized."

The ASR study concludes that inequalities in education are not just the product of differences in the resources that families and schools provide for children; they also reflect differences in the resources that children can secure for themselves in the classroom.

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STUDENT SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT THREATENED BY ALARMING STATE VARIATIONS IN MEASURING LEARNING

2011-12-07T12:53:00.003-05:00

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Lack of consistency across states creates patchwork of “proficiency” requirements and misleading information on how well students are being prepared for high school, college and careers

U.S. students risk falling behind in science education due to radically inconsistent state definitions of proficiency. While teachers and parents are being told that students are meeting the standard for eighth-grade proficiency set by their state, they may actually be performing at levels substantially below their international counterparts and go on to struggle in high school, college and careers.

A new report, “All Over the Map,” was released today by Change the Equation (CTEq), a network of more than 100 CEOs dedicated to creating widespread literacy in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), at the National Governor Association’s STEM Summit in Durham, N.C. For the first time, researchers put state definitions of “proficiency” in eighth-grade science against a common measuring stick – the 2009 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) eighth-grade science test. NAEP is a project of the U.S. Department of Education that measures student knowledge and achievement nationally.

The results are startling. What one state may deem to be “proficient” may be classified as “basic” or well below grade level in another.

- Fifteen states have set the bar for “proficiency” below NAEP’s threshold for “basic” knowledge.
- Only four states have set the bar near or above NAEP’s bar for proficiency. - Louisiana, New Mexico and Mississippi have more rigorous performance standards for students than states like Connecticut, New York and Maryland that are generally thought to have high-quality, competitive schools.

“Nationally, we do not have a common understanding or agreement of what it means to be proficient in eighth-grade science,” said Linda Rosen, Ph.D., CEO of Change the Equation. “We’re sounding the alarm to say that without meaningful definitions of proficiency, parents and teachers are not getting an accurate picture of student progress. Students can be falling behind and may not know it until it is too late.”

Virginia has the lowest definition of “proficient,” followed by Tennessee, Michigan, North Carolina, Iowa, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Maryland, Texas, Oregon, South Carolina, California and Arizona. All have set their definitions for achievement below NAEP’s standard for “basic” science learning. Just four states—Louisiana, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire—are at or above NAEP’s standard for proficiency.

NAEP defines “basic” as “…partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at each grade,” hardly the learning that students need to put them on a path to success in college-level science.

While parents, teachers and administrators believe that young people are learning, students may actually be in danger of falling behind in science. Two-thirds of the states studied in “All Over the Map” determined that most of their students are proficient in eighth-grade science. But ACT, which administers standardized tests to measure high school achievement and college entrance, found that only 13% of eighth-graders nationally were prepared for college science. And U.S. students are falling behind internationally. U.S. students rank significantly behind 12 other developed nations and significantly ahead of only nine on an international test of 15 year-olds’ achievement in science.

States should set their proficiency targets in science at a place that reflects the demands students will face in a competitive global marketplace. States are already coming together to develop Next Generation Science Standards, which will describe the content students should learn at every grade level. Such content standards are crucial, but they are only half the battle. States’ passing scores on tests that measure students’ mastery of those standards need to signal that students have a strong enough command of science to do well in high school and go on to succeed in college and careers.

“Raising the bar on measuring student achievement will take fortitude as some states see the percentage of proficient students plummet,” said CTEq Board of Directors Chair Craig R. Barrett, Ph.D., and retired CEO and Chairman of the Board of Intel. “Though it may be painful and initially unpopular, we are doing students a disservice if we set the bar low and give them a false sense of achievement that will hinder their learning and growth in school and beyond.”

Working with the respected American Institutes for Research (AIR), CTEq compared the passing scores that states set on their 2009 eighth-grade science tests required by federal law with the scale that NAEP established for its own test. “All Over the Map” examines 37 states for which data was available.

“All Over the Map” is part of CTEq’s “Vital Signs” project, which reports on the condition of STEM learning in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It measures state-by-state performance and digs deeper into the nation’s STEM education challenges.

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Results From the 2011 NAEP Trial Urban District Assessments (TUDA) in Mathematics and Reading

2011-12-07T10:59:00.004-05:00

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Data from the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that students from large cities nationally have made gains since 2009 at both grades 4 and 8 in mathematics and at grade 8 in reading. The Nation’s Report Card: Mathematics 2011 TUDA and The Nation’s Report Card: Reading 2011 TUDA present results for public school students from 21 participating urban districts and from large cities nationally.

District results are compared to results for all students attending public schools in the nation and large cities (i.e., cities with populations of 250,000 or more) overall and by race/ethnicity and eligibility for free/reduced-price school lunch.

Key results from the 2011 NAEP TUDA mathematics and reading assessments include:

In MATHEMATICS in 2011

• Only one of the 21 participating districts (Atlanta) saw higher scores for both fourth- and eighth-grade students in 2011 than in any previous mathematics assessment.

• Three districts have made gains since 2009 at grade 4 only (Austin, Baltimore City, and Philadelphia) and five districts have made gains since 2009 for grade 8 only [Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, the District of Columbia, and Jefferson County (KY)].

• Six districts recorded higher scores at both grades 4 and 8 than the averages for large city schools nationally: Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Hillsborough County (FL), Houston, and San Diego.

• Two districts recorded higher scores than the average for large city schools at grade 4 only: Jefferson County (KY) and Miami-Dade.

In READING in 2011:

• Although the average score for fourth-grade students in large city schools remained unchanged from 2009, it was higher than in 2002.

• The average score for eighth-graders in large city schools was higher in 2011 than both 2009 and 2002.

• None of the participating districts made gains at grade 4 since 2009; only one district (Charlotte) made gains at grade 8 compared to 2009 scores.

• Five districts recorded higher scores at both grades 4 and 8 than the averages for large city schools nationally: Austin, Charlotte, Hillsborough County (FL), Jefferson County (KY), and Miami-Dade.

Complete results and sample questions, and download copies of the reports.

View the full mathematics report for urban districts.

View the full reading report for urban districts.

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State laws mandating P.E., recess linked with increased in-school physical activity among children

2011-12-06T15:58:00.000-05:00

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State and school district-level policies mandating minimum requirements for in-school physical education and recess time are associated with increased odds of schools in those states and districts meeting physical activity recommendations for students, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

"Children spend the majority of their waking hours in school, thus schools are important locations to focus obesity prevention activities, such as increasing physical activity opportunities," the authors write as background information in the article. "The national recommendation for school physical education [PE] – endorsed by the National Association of Sports and Physical Education (NASPE) and the American Heart Association – is that elementary school students be offered at least 150 minutes/week of PE. However, fewer than 20 percent of third grade students in the United States were offered this amount during the 2007-2008 school year."

Sandy J. Slater, Ph.D., and colleagues with the University of Illinois at Chicago, examined the association between state and local school district-level policies requiring or recommending minimum requirements for in-school physical activity and the odds that elementary schools within those states and districts meet the levels of physical activity recommended, with an emphasis on physical education and recess. The authors collected data on existing state PE and recess-related laws and collected data at the local school level through mail-back surveys that included questions on the number of days per week and number of minutes for which PE class was scheduled during a typical week for a third grade student. The study sample included 47 states, 690 districts and 1,761 schools, during the 2006-2007 through 2008-2009 school years.

The authors found that approximately 70 percent of schools included in the analysis offered at least 20 minutes of daily recess, and 17.9 percent offered 150 minutes/week of physical education. The majority of states (83 percent) offered no daily recess law and less than half offered some kind of law addressing the recommended 150 minutes/week of physical education. The authors found that the odds of schools meeting the NASPE recommendation for physical activity increased if they were located in states or school districts having a law requiring 150 minutes/week of physical education.

Schools in states with policies encouraging daily recess had higher odds of having 20 minutes of recess daily, however district policies were not significantly associated with school-level recess practices. The authors also found that adequate physical education time was inversely associated with recess, with schools offering at least 150 minutes/week of physical education being 50 percent less likely to meet recommendations on recess time. Additionally, schools with students of predominantly white race/ethnicity were more likely than all other racial/ethnic groups to have daily recess, and schools with the highest number of students receiving free or reduced-cost lunch were less likely to have 20 minutes of recess daily.

"Our results show that mandating only increased physical education or recess time does not result in more overall physical activity as schools and/or districts appear to compensate for any increased physical activity in one area by decreasing other physical activity opportunities," the authors conclude. "By mandating physical education or recess, policy makers can effectively increase school-based physical activity opportunities for youth."

Growing income and gender gaps in college graduation

2011-12-06T15:00:00.001-05:00

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A new study shows that the gap in rates of college completion between students from high-and low-income families has grown significantly in the last 50 years.

"We find growing advantages for students from high-income families," said University of Michigan economist Martha Bailey, who conducted the study with U-M economist Susan Dynarski. "And we also find that increases in educational inequality are largely driven by women."

Bailey and Dynarski analyzed nearly 70 years of data on postsecondary education from the U.S. Census and the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth. Their findings were included as a chapter in the book "Whither Opportunity? Rising Inequality and the Uncertain Life Chances of Low-Income Children," published this year by the Russell Sage Foundation. They were also issued this month as a working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research (www.nber.org/papers/w17633).

For their analysis, the researchers compared the educational attainment of those born between 1961 and 1964 (who were college age in the early 1980s) to those born between 1979 and 1982 (who were college age in the early 2000s), by family income at the time children were between fifteen and eighteen years old.

They found that 54 percent of those who went to college in the early 2000s and who were from families in the top income category graduated from college, fully 18 percentage points more than college-age students in the same income group twenty years earlier. In contrast, college completion rates for those in the lowest income group increased only slightly over the same period, from 5 percent to 9 percent.

"Growing inequality in college graduation rates happened during a period when education became increasingly important for subsequent earnings," Dynarski said.

The U-M researchers also found that inequality in educational attainment has risen more sharply among women than among men. For those entering college in the 1980s, the gap between men and women was small: about 2 percent more females in the top income group graduated from college than did males; and about 2 percent fewer females in the lowest income group graduated than did males. But for those entering college in the 2000s, the gender gap widened significantly especially at the top of the income distribution, with 13 percent more women than men in the highest income group graduating from college.

This female advantage in educational attainment is not a new phenomenon, the researchers point out. More women than men graduated from college in all birth cohorts since 1950. But the gap has grown recently, with the overall college graduation rate for women now ten points higher than the rate for men, 32 percent compared to 22 percent.

The recent increase in women's college graduation reflects rapid achievement gains among women from upper-income families who have outperformed their brothers, according to Bailey. Why this is the case is not entirely clear.

Whatever the reasons for the growing gender gap in college graduation, the growing income gap has some clear policy implications, according to the authors.

"Inducing more low-income youth into college will not, by itself, serve to close income gaps in educational attainment," they conclude. "Even if rates of college entry were miraculously equalized across income groups, existing differences in persistence would still produce large gaps in college completion."

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Health care, home, school differ for children with special health care needs

2011-12-06T14:39:00.002-05:00

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The first federally funded report to compare children with special health care needs to children without reveals 14 percent to 19 percent of children in the United States have a special health care need and their insurance is inadequate to cover the greater scope of care they require for optimal health.

The report, Children with Special Health Care Needs in Context: A Portrait of States and the Nation 2007, provides an enhanced view of children by illustrating their health, health care, home and family environments, and school and neighborhood environments compared with their peers without special health care needs. It is based on findings from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau.

In the survey, children with special health care needs are defined as those who have one or more chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional conditions for which they require a type or amount of health and related services that is above routine-level care.

The key findings in the report demonstrate critical differences between these groups. While more than 88 percent of children ages 0 to 17 with special health care needs have consistent health insurance coverage, it is less likely to meet their greater health care needs compared with children without special health care needs. The percentage of children with special health care needs who have inadequate health insurance ranges from 20 percent to 38 percent across states.

Additional key survey findings include:

- Children with special health care needs are more likely to be overweight or obese compared to children without special health care needs.
- Children with special health care needs are less likely to be engaged in school and are more likely to have repeated one or more grades compared to their peers without special health care needs.
- Just over one-third (36 percent) of children with special health care needs meet criteria minimum threshold for receiving quality care, which is characterized by having a medical home, adequate health insurance and having at least one preventive visit in the past year.
- Only 23 percent of children with special health care needs live in protective home environments compared to 30 percent of children without special health care needs. A protective home environment includes factors such as eating meals together, limited television watching and whether or not a child is exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke in the home.
- Children with and without special health care needs are similarly likely to live in safe and supportive neighborhoods.

Interactive data from this report can be easily accessed through the Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health website at http://www.childhealthdata.org. The Data Resource Center is a project of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI) housed at OHSU.

More information about the report is available online at http://mchb.hrsa.gov/nsch/07cshcn/. The 2007 National Survey of Children's Health involved a total of 91,642 interviews, about 1800 interviews in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with parents of children less than 18 years old.

About the Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health

The Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health is a project of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI) housed at Oregon Health & Science University (http://www.cahmi.org).

Few Doctors Follow Sudden Cardiac Death Screening Guidelines for Athletes

2011-12-06T12:10:00.001-05:00

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According to a state survey, fewer than 6 percent of doctors fully follow national guidelines for assessing sudden cardiac death risk during high school sports physicals, researchers said at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2011.

The study was based on responses of 1,113 pediatricians and family doctors and 317 high school athletic directors in Washington state.

Less than half of the doctors and only 6 percent of the athletic directors reported that they were even aware of the guidelines. None of the athletic directors said their schools required physicals to comply with all guidelines.

In sudden cardiac arrest, the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating due to an irregular heart rhythm. Without treatment, death occurs within minutes.

"A young person at the peak of physical prowess, dying without any warning -- it's a shocking, tragic and potentially preventable death," said Nicolas Madsen, M.D., M.P.H., lead researcher and pediatric cardiology fellow at Seattle Children's Hospital and the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Recent studies suggest that among the more than 7 million U.S. high school athletes, one out of every 30,000 to 50,000 dies annually from out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest.

The American Heart Association published 12-point sudden cardiac death screening guidelines for athletes in 1996 and re-affirmed them in 2007. They consist of eight medical history questions and four physical exam elements, including listening to the heart and checking blood pressure.

Researchers sent 2,190 survey questionnaires by mail and email to pediatricians, family doctors and athletic directors over two months. The unusually high response rate -- 56 percent to 75 percent -- suggests a compelling interest in the issue, Madsen said.

Physicians were asked questions about pre-sports physicals. Athletic directors were asked about their school's requirements for physicals.

Researchers then used regression analysis and other techniques to determine the level of compliance with national guidelines.

Doctors reported missing several critical questions during screenings:

* 28 percent didn't always ask about chest pain during exercise;
* 22 percent didn't always ask about unexplained fainting;
* 26 percent didn't always ask about a family history of early death;
* 67 percent didn't always ask about a family history of heart disease.

Study results didn't change with the doctor's specialty, level of experience, location or the athletes' school size. Screening frequency and familiarity with the guidelines were linked to greater compliance.

"We need new directions to educate providers and improve policy requirements so patients can actually benefit from these national recommendations," Madsen said.

The doctors and athletic directors unanimously supported adopting a statewide form incorporating national screening guidelines. Parents should ask doctors and schools if a standardized form is being used, Madsen said.

Economic Impact of Virginia Beach City Public Schools

2011-12-06T11:21:00.002-05:00

The Virginia Beach, Va., school district asked a university economist to calculate just what it brings both to the city and the Hampton Roads region in southeastern Virginia.

Here is the Executive Summary of that report with slight edits:

The Virginia Beach City Public School System (VBCPS) has large and significant economic impacts on the economy of the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News Metropolitan Area. Every $1.00 spent and retained in the regional economy from the VBCPS operating budget results in total regional spending of $1.53, and every one direct VBCPS job is associated with another 0.64 jobs in the regional economy. Also, every $1.00 spent and retained from the VBCPS capital budget results in total regional spending of $1.55, and every $1 million of VBCPS capital spending is associated with 12.6 jobs in the region.

More important are the three major outputs of VBCPS: the economic value of degrees awarded, the future reduction in public costs associated with individuals attaining a high school degree, and the impact on local property values and revenues from the academic performance of VBCPS students.

The economic value of degrees awarded by VBCPS is measured as the expected increase in lifetime earnings of high school graduates compared to high school dropouts. For each of the recent five VBCPS graduating classes, this value is calculated as between $800 million and $900 million (in current 2011 dollars). Also, as a result of recent improved academic performance of VBCPS graduates, their increased likelihood of graduating from college is valued at $22 million for the last five graduating classes.

Considerable research has found that individuals graduating from high school are less likely to engage in criminal behavior and are more likely to lead healthy lifestyles compared to high school dropouts. This means highs school graduates reduce future public crime costs and public health costs. For each of the recent VBCPS graduating classes, the reduction in these costs is estimated at between $260 million and $280 million (in current 2011 dollars).

Lastly, VBCPS can impact local wealth – specifically real property values – in two ways. One is through the additional spending that high school graduates create compared to high school dropouts. This impact was estimated to be $60 million in additional regional real property values and $0.5 million in higher regional real property tax revenues for each recent class of VBCPS graduates.

The second and more significant local wealth impact comes from the positive response of residential property values to improved academic performance of VBCPS students. All standard measures of academic performance of VBCPS seniors show improving trends in recent years. Research shows that improved academic performance of public school students has significant positive impacts on local residential property values. Using the results of this research, it is found that VBCPS’ recent improved academic results has cushioned the adverse impacts of the recession on the local residential real estate market. It is calculated that the improved VBCPS test scores between 2007 and 2010 have resulted in City of Virginia residential property values that are between $2.8 billion and $9.5 billion higher compared to the levels without the improvement in academic performance.

The economic impact of VBCPS is summarized as follows:

Inputs
 Every $1 spent and retained in the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News
Metropolitan Area by the VBCPS operating budget results in $1.53 of regional
spending
 Every direct VBCPS job is associated with another 0.64 regional jobs
 Every $1 spent and retained in the region by the VBCPS capital budget results in
$1.55 of regional spending
 Every $1 million spent by the VBCPS capital budget results in 12.6 regional jobs

Outputs
 Each recent VBCPS graduating class generated between $800 million and $900
million in additional lifetime income (2011 $)
 As a result of improved academic performance of recent VBCPS graduates, their
increased likelihood of completing college is valued at $22 million for the last five
graduating classes
 Each recent VBCPS graduating class is associated with a lifetime reduction in public
crime costs and public health care costs of between $260 million and $280 million
(2011 $)
 The additional spending of each VBCPS graduating class adds $60 million to regional
property values
 The recent improvement in VBCPS academic performance is estimated to have
resulted in City of Virginia Beach residential property values that are between $2.8
billion and $9.5 billion higher compared to levels without the improvement in
academic performance.

More Student Data Compiled, Access Still An Issue

2011-12-06T11:08:00.003-05:00

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How can states allocate scarce resources AND improve student achievement without data? The answer is simple: They can’t. States cannot inform these critical policy conversations, or any others for that matter, without effective data use.

This study, States Could Empower Stakeholders To Make Education Decisions with Data . . . but They Haven‘t Yet, by the Data Quality Campaign, points out that while states have built longitudinal data systems and established governance bodies, but these bodies have not yet tackled the full scope of turf, trust, technical and time issues.

Kindergarten Literacy Program: Impacts End 1st Grade

2011-12-06T10:55:00.002-05:00

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Improving the ability of at-risk children to read and comprehend text has been a high priority in education policy over the last two decades. Low levels of reading achievement have been related to low academic performance. One critical factor in reading achievement is adequate vocabulary knowledge. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds often lack general and academic vocabulary to enable them to acquire knowledge and comprehend text when they learn to read.

A study conducted by REL Southeast has found that the positive impacts of a kindergarten vocabulary intervention (PAVEd for Success (K-PAVE)) were not sustained through first grade.

This follow-up study tracked students who were part of the 2010 study’s sample of kindergarten children from the Mississippi Delta to determine whether there were sustained effects on student vocabulary and early reading skills one year later when students were in first grade. The first grade teachers had not participated in the original study and were not using the K-PAVE intervention in their classrooms. The follow-up study found no statistically significant impacts of K-PAVE at the end of first grade on any of three outcomes examined—expressive vocabulary, academic knowledge, and passage comprehension.

The follow-up study also explored whether the kindergarten impacts of K-PAVE varied by student characteristics, such as achievement at the beginning of kindergarten, or the characteristics of schools the students attended. There was a positive and statistically significant impact of K-PAVE on academic knowledge in schools that were not receiving Reading First funding relative to schools with Reading First funding, but there were no other statistically significant differences in kindergarten impacts between subgroups of students or schools.

State Standards, the SAT, and Admission to the University of California

2011-12-06T03:53:00.002-05:00

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A new PACE policy brief, by Michal Kurlaender, University of California Davis, Eric Grodsky, University of Minnesota, Samuel J. Agronow, Saint Mary’s College of California and Catherine L. Horn, University of Huston.

Like most other universities in the country, the University of California (UC) requires that students submit scores from either the SAT or ACT exams as part of their application package. These tests have their origins in the efforts of a handful of elite colleges and universities to expand the socioeconomic diversity and enhance the academic promise of their admissions pools; to reduce the number of tests students must take to apply to college and the burden this places on both prospective students and postsecondary institutions; and to provide a means of comparing students who attend different schools with potentially different grading standards.

Despite the appeal of a nationally standardized college entrance exam, critics have asserted that standardized college entrance exams (and the SAT in particular) suffer from several important flaws. These critics argue that the SAT does a poor job of predicting success in college conditional on student high school grades, is biased against women and under-represented minorities, is coachable and thus advantages more affluent families who can afford to pay for test instruction, imposes an additional hurdle on first-generation college students unfamiliar with the steps they must take to gain admission to a competitive college, and is disconnected from the content and performance standards for state K-12 educational systems.

In an increasingly K-16 policy environment, it is important to consider whether and how tests used to monitor the progress of students through secondary education might serve as a substitute for col¬lege entrance exams in the college admissions process.

This analysis from Policy Analysis for California Education provides important evidence for reconsidering the decision to privilege college entrance exams over state mandated standard¬ized exams for purposes of college admissions at public universities. The analysis in this brief reveals that the CST exam (required for all California high school students in the 11th grade) offers remarkably similar levels of predictive power in determining college performance, and persistence at UC, to that of the SAT.

15,740 pupils in St. Louis would transfer to a County school district if given their choice

2011-12-02T09:54:00.004-05:00

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A recent study completed on behalf of the Clayton, MO School District indicates that about 15,740 (27.8%) of K-12 pupils living in the City would transfer to a St. Louis County school district if given their choice and assuming there was no charge for tuition. The report was completed by Dr. Terry Jones, a noted political scientist and researcher on public policy from the University of Missouri - St. Louis. More than 3,500 of those students would list Clayton as their first choice on where to enroll. Additionally, more than 3,100 of 15,000+ who would transfer have IEPs and would need some level of special education services.

St. Louis schools have been disaccredited, and Clayton is fighting a law permitting students to transfer out of St Louis schools. On Friday, July 16, the Missouri Supreme Court released a decision overturning a summary judgment granted in the School District of Clayton's favor in the matter of Turner v. School District of Clayton. Download a four-page summary of the ruling or review the entire decision, stating that accredited school district must accept students from neighboring, unaccredited school districts.

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New Report: State Oversight of For-Profit Schools Needs Major Improvement

2011-12-01T15:12:00.001-05:00

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As for-profit post-secondary schools have rapidly expanded throughout the United States, state government has frequently failed to challenge for-profit school abuses and fraud. One result? Increasingly, students are left buried under mountains of debt with no prospect for gainful employment. Yet most states have substantive legal recourse against fraud if they choose to step up to the plate to protect citizens. These are some of the major findings of State Inaction: Gaps in State Oversight of For-Profit Higher Education, a report issued today by the National Consumer Law Center's (NCLC) Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project.

"Lack of staff and inadequate or diluted resources contribute to lax enforcement and oversight of for-profit higher education but some states are doing a better job with limited resources," says attorney Deanne Loonin, Director of NCLC's Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project and primary author of the report. "Too often there are conflicts of interest allowing undue influence by the for-profit school industry at the expense of students. Our report offers recommendations for what states can do to better protect their citizens and urges them to do their part to make more efficient use of taxpayer dollars."

NCLC summarizes state regulatory structures and analyzes state levels of resources dedicated to enforcement and oversight of for-profit post-secondary schools. Existing consumer protection laws, relief funds and other options available to assist students who are harmed by fraud or abuses are also reviewed. An overview of initial improvements put in place by several states indicates that it's possible to perform better oversight even with limited resources. However, every state has room for improvement and the report offers 14 recommendations to assist states that wish to better protect students and taxpayers.

This report builds on NCLC's body of work on behalf of vulnerable students harmed by the for-profit higher education industry. For example, NCLC released a report earlier this year that found for-profit higher education loan programs were often more concerned with attracting investors and keeping federal aid flowing than preparing students for gainful employment.

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Connecticut schools graded on student academic performance

2011-12-01T14:33:00.001-05:00

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ConnCAN has released report cards for the 2010-2011 school year, in which more than 1,000 Connecticut schools and corresponding districts received letter grades based on student academic performance.*

The report cards grade schools and districts across the state using students’ Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) and Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) performance in four categories: 1) overall student performance; 2) performance gains (e.g., this year’s fifth graders compared to their performance last year as fourth graders); 3) student subgroup performance; and 4) achievement gap. This is the sixth year ConnCAN has released such report cards.

Click here to find a report card for any school or district in Connecticut.

Earlier this month, the National Assessment Governing Board released 2011 fourth and eighth grade reading and math performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card. According to NAEP, the Nutmeg State continues to have the nation’s largest achievement gap on average. Connecticut’s achievement gap was the largest in seven of 16 categories measured and had one of the top five largest gaps in 14 of the 16 reported categories.

“As we enter what Governor Malloy has dubbed ‘the year of education reform,’ it is more important than ever that we continue to demand full accountability and transparency in Connecticut’s public schools,” said ConnCAN CEO Patrick Riccards. “ConnCAN’s school report cards, Top 10 lists, and Success Story Schools honors give policymakers, practitioners, parents, and taxpayers invaluable information about the performance of all of our public schools. This analysis allows us to have an honest conversation about where we stand and where we need to go from here if we are serious about providing all Connecticut children access to great public schools.”

ConnCAN’s 2011 Success Story Schools are schools that have a combined low-income and minority population of at least 75 percent and at least one subgroup of students (African-American, Hispanic, or low-income) outperforming the state average performance for all students at that school level. This year, 24 schools (14 elementary, nine middle, and one high school) were recognized as ConnCAN Success Story Schools.

Click here to review ConnCAN’s Success Story Schools list.

“As noted in ConnCAN’s analysis of this year’s CMT and CAPT scores, Connecticut as a state continues to struggle with enormous achievement gaps and lagging performance for low-income and minority students,” Riccards said. “But we are seeing pockets of success, where policymakers, educators, and parents are coming together to create exceptional schools that are beating the odds. ConnCAN Success Story Schools honor celebrates that academic progress, showing what is possible and serving as bright spots for state leaders and educators to look to as they develop their education reform agenda.”

ConnCAN also released Top 10 lists of schools in each of five categories: performance gains and improvement (measured in percentage point change), and low-income, African-American, and Hispanic student performance (measured in percent of students at or above goal) for elementary, middle, and high schools.

Click here to review ConnCAN’s Top 10 lists.

*Note: ConnCAN uses the “goal” standard on the CMT and CAPT to set the bar for rating schools because it is the state’s best estimate of students meeting or exceeding grade level expectations. According to the State Department of Education, a student scoring at the “goal” level has the knowledge, skills, and critical thinking abilities that are “reasonable to expect of students” within their grade level.

Evaluation of the Growth Model Pilot Project

2011-12-01T12:25:00.001-05:00

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Final Report

GMPP was initiated to allow states to experiment with adjustments to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) status accountability system, in order to improve the validity of AYP determinations by giving schools credit for students who are making significant growth. The pilot allowed states, districts, and schools to count students who were "on track" to being proficient but not yet there. Under NCLB, such students were not counted as proficient for the purpose of AYP determinations.

The pilot was initiated in November 2005 with the goal of approving up to ten states to incorporate growth models in school AYP determinations. The project was written into regulation in late 2008; now any state may apply to use a growth model meeting certain core principles.

Currently, 15 states are implementing growth models under this authority: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas.

Key findings include:
• Growth models enabled additional schools to make AYP compared to status and safe-harbor rules alone, but the percentages of schools that made AYP because of the growth models were generally not large.
• The impact of growth models varied widely across states.
• Most (but not all) schools that made AYP by status would also have met their reading and math AMOs under a hypothetical "growth-only" model (i.e., one using neither status nor safe harbor but only growth).
• Controlled simulations comparing the impacts of different types of growth models on student and school growth results show that the "projection model" functions in stark contrast with "transition" and "trajectory" models.
• Simulations comparing the results of different growth models using the same data show that projection models have the highest correct classification rates for future proficiency: over 80 percent. These rates are 5 to 20 percentage points higher than trajectory and transition models, depending on the grade level and proximity to the growth model time limit. While the projection model is more accurate, it is theoretically more difficult to implement and to explain to practitioners and parents than the other models.
• Although not an option under the Growth Model Pilot guidelines, growth models not tied directly to proficiency standards could identify a broader contingent of students as making adequate growth than current models. One alternative to the GMPP-permissible growth-to-proficiency models that could be used with vertical test score scales is the difference between proficiency cut scores in successive grade levels.

Supplemental Educational Services & Student Achievement

2011-12-01T12:22:00.000-05:00

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Supplemental Educational Services and Student Achievement in Five Waiver Districts (2011) presents final implementation and outcome findings from the five districts that received waivers to serve as Supplemental Educational Service (SES) providers, despite being identified for improvement, corrective action or restructuring. Federal regulations prohibit school districts identified for improvement or corrective action from serving as SES providers.

The SES waiver pilot program allowed five identified districts to serve as SES providers beginning in 2005–06 (Boston and Chicago), 2006–07 (Hillsborough County, Florida and Anchorage, Alaska), and 2008–09 (Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina). In 2009–10, the pilot was replaced with a more expansive waiver opportunity that allows states to request a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education to approve identified districts or schools as SES providers.

Findings include:
• In the three districts that did not serve as SES providers before the waiver (Anchorage, Charlotte Mecklenburg, and Hillsborough), SES participation rates increased in the first year of the waiver. (Boston and Chicago served as providers prior to receipt of the waiver.)
• There were few demographic or academic differences between students served by district providers and students served by non-district providers.
• Students in three of the five districts demonstrated statistically significantly larger mathematics achievement gains during periods of SES participation than during periods of nonparticipation. In addition, in two districts, SES participation was associated with statistically significant reading gains.
• Averaged across the five districts, the overall association between SES participation and achievement gains was statistically significant in both mathematics and reading, relative to nonparticipation.
• Across the five districts, the achievement gains associated with SES participation relative to nonparticipation did not differ for district and non-district providers for either mathematics or reading.

All five districts reported using multiple communication strategies to reach eligible families, provided balanced information about SES providers, translated information into at least one language other than English, and provided extended enrollment periods.

Potential Impact of Revising the Title I Comparability Requirement

2011-12-01T12:19:00.000-05:00

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This policy brief uses the school-level expenditure data from the Study of School-Level Expenditures to examine the potential impact of revising the Title I comparability requirement to focus on school-level expenditures. The federal Title I program requires that school districts provide services in higher-poverty, Title I schools from state and local funds that are at least comparable to those in lower-poverty, non-Title I schools. The current Title I comparability requirement allows school districts to demonstrate compliance in various ways and does not require comparability of actual school-level expenditures.

Key findings include: An estimated 18 to 28 percent of Title I districts would not be in compliance with an expenditures-based comparability requirement, depending on the specifications of the requirement. However, the estimated cost of complying with an expenditures-based comparability requirement amounts to just 1 to 4 percent of school-level expenditures in affected districts, on average. Low-spending Title I schools and higher-poverty schools would see their per-pupil expenditures rise by an average of 4 to 15 percent.

Low-Income Schools Don't Get a Fair Share of State and Local Funds

2011-12-01T12:13:00.002-05:00

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A new report from the U.S. Department of Education documents that schools serving low-income students are being shortchanged because school districts across the country are inequitably distributing their state and local funds.

The analysis of new data on 2008-09 school-level expenditures shows that many high-poverty schools receive less than their fair share of state and local funding, leaving students in high-poverty schools with fewer resources than schools attended by their wealthier peers.

The data reveal that more than 40 percent of schools that receive federal Title I money to serve disadvantaged students spent less state and local money on teachers and other personnel than schools that don't receive Title I money at the same grade level in the same district.

"Educators across the country understand that low-income students need extra support and resources to succeed, but in far too many places policies for assigning teachers and allocating resources are perpetuating the problem rather than solving it," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. "The good news in this report is that it is feasible for districts to address this problem and it will have a significant impact on educational opportunities for our nation's poorest children."

In a policy brief that accompanies the report, a Department analysis found that providing low-income schools with comparable spending would cost as little as 1 percent of the average district's total spending. The analysis also found that extra resources would make a big impact by adding as much as between 4 percent and 15 percent to the budget of schools serving high numbers of students who live in poverty.

The Title I program is designed to provide extra resources to high-poverty schools to help them meet the greater challenges of educating at-risk students. The law includes a requirement that districts ensure that Title I schools receive "comparability of services" from state and local funds, so that federal funds can serve their intended purpose of supplementing equitable state and local funding.

In recent years a growing number of researchers, education advocates, and legislators have highlighted that by not requiring districts to consider actual school-level expenditures in calculating "comparability of services," the existing comparability requirement doesn't address fundamental spending inequities within districts. Instead, districts can show comparability in a number of easier ways, such as by using a districtwide salary schedule. This masks the fact that schools serving disadvantaged students often have less experienced teachers who are paid less. It also undermines the purpose of Title I funding, as districts can use federal funds to fill state and local funding gaps instead of providing additional services to students in poverty.

For the study, Education Department researchers analyzed new school-level spending and teacher salary data submitted by more than 13,000 school districts as required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. This school level expenditure data was made available for the first time ever in this data collection.

Using the data from the ARRA collection, Department staff analyzed the impact and feasibility of making this change to Title I comparability. That policy brief finds that:

- Fixing the comparability provision is feasible. As many as 28 percent of Title I districts would be out of compliance with reformed comparability provisions. But compliance for those districts is not as costly as some might think—fixing it would cost only 1 percent to 4 percent of their total school-level expenditures on average.

- Fixing the comparability provision would have a large impact. The benefit to low-spending Title I schools would be significant, as their expenditures would increase by 4 percent to 15 percent. And the low-spending schools that would benefit have much higher poverty rates than other schools in their districts.

Russlynn Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights, said that this analysis shows that closing the comparability loophole is within reach and would provide meaningful help to low-income schools.

"Transparency on resource allocation within school districts is critical to ensuring every child has access to the same educational opportunities. These new data highlight that the Title I comparability provision is broken and has failed to provide access to equitable resources, and that it is possible to fix it."

Under President Obama's Blueprint for Reform of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Title I comparability provision would be revised to ensure that state and local funding levels are distributed equitably between Title I and non-Title I schools. Language to reform Title I comparability is also included in the bill to reauthorize ESEA that the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee passed last month.

Chewing Gum Helps Test-Takers

2011-11-30T16:17:00.000-05:00

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Have an important final exam coming up? Maybe your test prep should include chewing some gum.

St. Lawrence University Assistant Professor of Psychology Serge Onyper conducted a study that showed that students who chewed gum for five minutes before taking a test did better on the test than non-gum-chewing students. "Mastication-induced arousal" is credited for the boost, which lasted for about the first 20 minutes or so of testing. Results of the study were published in the journal Appetite.

A "battery of cognitive tasks" was given to the study participants, who chewed gum either prior to or throughout testing. Their performance was then compared with subjects who did not chew gum.

Many studies have shown that any type of physical activity can produce a performance boost; this study points out that even mild physical activity can bring on such a boost.

Chewing gum gave the subjects multiple advantages, but only when chewed for five minutes before testing, not for the duration of the test. Benefits persisted for the first 15 to 20 minutes of testing only. Onyper notes that a possible reason the benefits didn't continue throughout testing may be due to "a sharing of resources by cognitive and masticatory processes."

In other words, you can't chew gum and think productively at the same time.

Onyper was the lead researcher on a study presented earlier this year showing that students who took classes starting earlier in the morning tended to get higher grades, even though they may have gotten less sleep.