News
Girls' bias awareness didn't boost interest in science careers
Girls who learned about occupational gender discrimination had a greater belief in the value of science and increased self-efficacy in science, but no increased interest in science careers, says a study in Psychology of Women Quarterly.
To test whether learning about gender discrimination would increase girls' interest in science careers, researchers randomly assigned 158 middle-school girls to two intervention programs aimed at increasing girls' interest in science; the sample was racially diverse. All girls attended a four-hour conference that featured sessions by female scientists and hands-on activities.The experimental condition included a one-hour session on gender discrimination, the other did not.
Contrary to expectations, girls who attended the conference showed a decrease in the egalitarian attitudes toward women in science, the researchers report. However, girls who received the gender discrimination information showed no change. Girls who received information about gender discrimination may have showed increased self-efficacy because it led them to reinterpret the past negative feedback they received, the researchers say. The experimental condition also increased the girls' beliefs that science is a worthwhile subject of study, the researchers write. (Psychology of Women Quarterly Volume 31, 2007, pp. 262-269)
Characteristics of homeschooled children
Boys and girls are equally likely to be homeschooled but age makes a difference in which children are homeschooled, says a study in the Peabody Journal of Education. From age 5 to 10, the likelihood of homeschooling decreases, then beyond age 10 it begins to increase, according to this analysis of state data and the National Household Education Survey (NHES).
The initial decline as children reach age 10 can be explained by the increasing level of difficulty in the subject matter or children's increasing need for social contact with their peers, writes Eric Isenberg from Mathematica Policy Research. The increase beyond age 10 may be due to the increasing importance of special needs in adolescents.
More educated mothers are more likely to homeschool younger children, but not older children. Older children are more likely to be homeschooled for behavioral reasons or special needs. In general, families choose to homeschool for both academic and religious reasons. About 1 million children are being homeschooled, according to this data. (Peabody Journal of Education Volume 82, Number 2-3, pp. 387-409)
Oral vocabulary and reading comprehension
Children's oral vocabulary predicted concurrent reading comprehension and exception word reading but not text reading accuracy, nonword reading or regular word reading, reports a study in Scientific Studies of Reading.
Most research has focused on the role that phonological skills play in the development of reading, the researchers say, but it is difficult to dismiss the idea that oral vocabulary plays a role. The English study of 83 students who were 8-9 years old analyzed the results of a battery of tests assessing children's vocabulary and component reading skills.
One of the surprising findings is that vocabulary plays a role in recognition of words with inconsistent spellings, the researchers note. (Scientific Studies of Reading, Volume 11, Number 3, 2007, pp. 235-257).
Behavior sheet improves behavior in high school math
Freshman math students' conduct and engagement in class improved with a teacher's use of a behavior-monitoring sheet that was signed by parents, reports a study in a recent issue of Education.
The teacher reported students' daily level of conduct (well-behaved, somewhat behaved, needs to improve, disruptive), level of engagement (fully engaged, mostly engaged, somewhat engaged, not engaged) and homework grades on a behavior-monitoring sheet that was sent home twice a week. If students did not return the sheet within two days with the parents' signature, the teacher called the parents and informed them of the students' homework assignments as well as of the student's conduct and engagement.
Use of the behavior-monitoring sheet in this randomized, controlled study of 52 students resulted in better homework grades for the intervention group. Based on parent and student surveys, the use of the behavior monitoring sheet also resulted in more parental involvement. (Education, Fall 2007, pp. 34-43.)
School/class effects more important in high school Differences among high schools and high school classes are more important to high school achievement than differences among primary schools and classes, according to a Finnish study recently published in the British Educational Research Journal.
At the primary-school level, differences among schools and classes have short-term consequences for their students' achievement, but in the longer term, the effects of the differences die out rather quickly, write the authors of the Centre for Educational Effectiveness and Evaluation and the Centre for Methodology of Educational Research in Belgium.
The study was based on data from the Longitudinal Research Project in Secondary Education (LOSO-project), which followed a cohort of 6411 secondary education students through school and for 3-4 years after secondary school. Primary school data was traced for 5927 students. Researchers controlled for six student characteristics, including socioeconomic status, intelligence scores and language spoken at home. Multilevel modeling techniques were employed to investigate the immediate and the long-term effect of the primary schools and classes.
The results "do not imply that primary schools and classes are not important in students' educational careers," the authors caution. "An accumulation of positive (or negative) school/class effects may produce a greal academic advantage (disadvantage) over the years." (British Educational Research Journal, June 2007, pp. 419-440)
Classroom practices of high-expectation teachers
Teachers with high expectations of students make more teaching statements in the classroom than teachers with low expectations of students, finds a British Journal of Educational Psychology study. They take more time to orient children to the topic of the lesson and to link it to previous lessons and knowledge, the researchers report.
As well as providing more regular feedback to students, high-expectation teachers also tend to ask more questions and more open questions than teachers with low expectations of students. Teachers that were categorized as "average-progress" teachers in an earlier study tend to ask more closed questions, the researchers report.
This study piggybacked on an earlier study that rated teachers' expectations for students based on student achievement at the beginning and end of the school year. In this study, researchers observed and audiotaped the classroom practices of 12 primary school teachers from eight different schools in New Zealand who has been designated as low-expectation, high-expectation or average-progress teachers.
When students gave incorrect answers to questions, high-expectation teachers were also more likely to rephrase the question and provide students with additional support to help them arrive at the correct answer, the study reports, implying that use of best teaching practices may account for some student gains. (British Journal of Educational Psychology, June 2007, pp. 289-306)
Most college prep students not prepared
Only 26% of last-year's graduating seniors who took the core college prep curriculum were fully prepared for college, according to ACT, an Iowa State testing organization.
"High school core courses too often lack the rigor they need to adequately prepare students for college-level work, according to ACT's new report, Rigor at Risk. The report suggests that many students lose momentum during their last two years in high school. ACT is urging schools to improve the quality and rigor of their core course offerings.
New database shows 70% graduation rate
Only 70% of students nationwide earned diplomas in four years as of 2003, according to statistics from a new online database unveiled by First Lady Laura Bush and national education leaders this month. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said the data show that half of the nation's dropouts come from a small group of largely urban "dropout factories "where graduation is a 50-50 shot or worse."
According to the Washington Post, Spellings scolded state and local education officials for masking the problem by publishing inflated graduation rates based on bad math. Most states continue to estimate the graduation rate based on the number of students known to have dropped out, but few public high schools track every student who drops out.
The new database, compiled by Education Week, tabulates graduation data by tracking the size of a high school class from freshman year to graduation day.
Federal reading program has conflicts, report saysOfficials who gave states advice on which teaching materials to buy under a federal reading program had a clear conflict of interest, according to a report compiled by Senate Education Committee Chairman Edward M. Kennedy, D_Mass.
The report details how officials contracted by the government to help run the program were at the same time drawing pay from publishers that benefited from the initiative, according to Associated Press.
The report adds new detail to an investigation by the Education Department's inspector general who had found the the Reading First program favored some programs over others and that federal officials and contractors didn't guard against conflicts.
Regular screening needed for students born prematurelyBabies born moderately early -- eight to four weeks premature -- are more likely than their full-term peers to struggle in kindergarten and grade school, say researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.
The results, which contradict conventional wisdom, highlight the importance of regular development screening for this group to identify problems early, the researchers say.
More than 80% of the 500,000 preterm infants born annually in the United States are born within this window of 32 and 36 weeks gestation
Maryland teaches students about homosexuality
Six middle and high schools in Montgomery County are at the center of a national debate on whether homosexuality should be taught in the classroom.
According to the Washington Post, attention in the comparatively liberal community was focused recently on whether large numbers of students would exercise their right to opt out. Supporters of the program cited statistics showing that 91% of 901 students offered the four-week program participated. Only 4% opted out; the remainder were absent or failed to return the permission slip.
Opponents argued that their children were too young, that the program promoted homosexuality, and that there were other more important uses for the time.
Columbus replaces reading teachers with math and science specialists
In an effort to improve proficiency-test scores, the Columbus Public Schools plans to eliminate the positions of 183 reading-intervention teachers and replace them with math and science specialists next year. According to the Columbus Dispatch, the math and science teachers will focus on working with fourth- and fifth-graders several days a week. "The focus of this is early intervention," said district spokesman Jeff Warner. "We're not de-emphasizing literacy," he said. "We are adding emphasis to math and science."
But Timothy Shanahan, president of the International Reading Association, noted that "to do really well in math and science you've got to be able to read." Based on the Ohio Graduation Test last school year, 84.5% of sophomores were proficient in reading, 72.3% were proficient in math and 48.6% were proficient in science.
More children with disabilities to take alternative testMore children with disabilities will be able to take alternative tests under a change to No Child Left Behind approved by the Bush Administration. The change, outlined in final regulations April 4, would triple the number of children who can take tests that are easier than those given to most students under the 2002 law, according to Associated Press.
Currently, some 10% of special education students--those with the most serious cognitive disabilities--can take simplified, alternative tests and have the results count toward a school's annual progress goals.
Under the new rules, another 20% of children with less serious disabilities could take alternative tests. The new tests will be tougher than those given to children already exempted, but easier than those given to most students. The change means that about 3% of the total school population will now be given alternative tests.
Black students suspended more in North CarolinaBlack students account for a disproportionate share of suspensions in one major North Carolina school district, and state data show that the racial gap is widening. Black students who comprised 43% of Charlotte-Mecklenburg's school population last year, accounted for 78% of suspensions. They were more than six times as likely as white students to be suspended in 2005-06, an increase from previous years. The increase comes in the wake of the district's decision to suspend fewer students for minor violations.
Ralph Taylor, the district's safe schools director told the Charlotte Observer. "We have a lot of kids who are involved in gang activity, and they bring that stuff to school and they get in trouble for it." Taylor, who is African American, stressed that "I don't think by any means that it's somebody singling black kids out."
K-8 schools don't make significant difference
Students in K-8 schools performed no differently than students in traditional grade 6-8 middle schools, say researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The multi-year study of Philadelphia schools by Douglas and Margaret MacIver analyzed test scores and students' academic progress in the three middle school years. "District after district is getting misled by thinking our K-8 schools are doing better than the middle schools," MacIver said.
More kindergarten students repeating More Texas students are repeating kindergarten since Texas began using standardized testing to improve performance in the schools in 1993. Students take their first test in third grade.
The San Antonio Express reports that "It is not clear whether the emphasis on standardized testing performance alone has led to more 5-year-olds repeating kindergarten in the state. Nationally, the retention rate has remained flat. Many early childhood experts call the practice ineffective and confidence-sapping for young children. "What is clear in Texas," the newspaper reports, "is that those who teach the youngest children are feeling pressure to prepare their students, not for first grade or even for second, but for third grade, when students take the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills for the first time."
Cursive improves SAT essay scoresThe lost art of penmanship may help students improve their SAT scores. Tara DiMilia, a spokeswoman for Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum, which trains teachers around the country to help students learn, told the Deseret Morning News that only 15% of the nearly 1.5 million students who took SAT exams last year wrote their essays in cursive, which takes less time. She says 85% of students who did use cursive had higher test scores than their peers.
Ethan Reid, director of a private school in Utah that has always taught handwriting, said she supports the renewed emphasis on penmanship because "it creates visual memory and develops visual recall, which is critical for effective reading skills." Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum uses tools like wood blocks, puppets, songs and even dances to help students learn to write.
Illinois wants to re-enroll dropoutsGetting dropouts to go back to school is the focus of a series of five public hearings to be held in Illinois in the coming months.
According to data from the 2000 Census, there are more than 210,000 dropouts between the ages of 16 and 24 in the state. The state legislature created a task force of legislators, agency officials and members of the public to make recommendations to the governor and the General Assembly about re-enrolling dropouts.
A preliminary report will be published early next year. The task force also will consider how to fund dropouts' re-entry into the classroom. The cost of helping students who have dropped out to complete high school is about $10,000 a year.
Given that many inmates in the state prison system are dropouts and that the cost of incarceration is an average of $25,000 per year per inmate, legislators say the cost of helping students return to school is minimal by comparison.
Preschool screening detects reading problemsNew diagnostic tests, available in computerized versions, do a good job of identifying reading problems in preschool children before they even begin to read, says the National Early Literacy Panel.
The tests measure a child's ability to recognize differences between sounds, knowledge of letters and accumulation of basic vocabulary and language skills. One such interactive test, developed by the National Center for Learning Disabilities, is available online at getreadytoread.org.
Increased preschool screening to identify children at risk for severe reading problems will be recommended by The National Early Literacy Panel later this year when it publishes its findings. The National Early Literacy Panel, a committee of experts convened by a consortium of federal agencies, has found that the tests, when given to 3- and 4-year-olds, predict later reading problems as effectively as they do when they are given to kindergartners and first graders.
Dr. Susan Landry of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston told The New York Times, the panel also will recommend some shifts in teaching techniques when it publishes its findings later this year.
These include having at-risk children spend more time in small groups that address their specific weaknesses; emphasizing skills like blending sounds (C+AT=CAT) and training parents to reinforce school lessons, Landry says.
Maine wants to use SATs for NCLB testingThe State of Maine wants to use the SAT to assess whether 11th graders meet state education standards, but the U.S. Department of Education says the SAT is not an appropriate assessment of standards under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
The state of Maine is challenging the U.S. Department of Education on its determination that the SAT is not an appropriate assessment. Maine education officials maintain that the decision to use SATs as an assessment tool was made "after careful deliberation and considerable consultation" and based on "supporting statements, reports and initiatives issues from the USDE and the White House, as well as from respected research institutions."
The state is submitting supporting evidence that the test aligns with its standards.... Click here for release.
More students get tutoring servicesMore students are taking advantage of tutoring services that schools must offer if they have failed to meet performance standards for the last three years, reports the General Accounting Office (GAO) in one of four reports it issued this summer on implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
Participation among eligible students increased from 12 to 19 percent between school years 2003-2004 and 2004-2005, and the number of recipients also increased, due in part to a rise in the number of schools required to offer low-income students supplemental educational services (SES). While state monitoring of schools' efforts to implement SES has been limited in past years, more states reported conducting on-site reviews andother monitoring activities during 2005-2006.
Among the challenges are timely and effective notification of parents and attracting providers to serve certain areas and students, such as rural districts or students with disabilities. The GAO report "No Child Left Behind Act: Education Actions Needed to Improve Local Implementation and State Evaluation of Supplemental Educational Services" was one of 4 reports issued by the agency this summer.
The other three reports looked at measuring academic growth and assessing progress of students with limited English proficiency. Click here for report.
Vanderbilt to study financial incentives in educationVanderbilt University has won a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to study the impact of performance incentives in schools. The first project of the National Center on Performance
Incentives will test impact of bonuses in Nashville schools and its impact on individual behavior and institutional dynamics. Click here for release
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