Education Research Report

Students who aren't on track for college and career readiness by eighth grade are unlikely to attain that level of readiness by high school graduation, according to "The Forgotten Middle," a new research report by ACT, Inc.

The findings suggest the level of academic achievement that students attain by eighth grade has a bigger impact on whether they are ready for college and career by the time they graduate than any single factor examined, including courses taken, grades earned in high school and demographic characteristics such as gender, race, and household income.

"Eighth grade is a critical defining point for students in the college and career planning process," said Cynthia B. Schmeiser, president and chief operating officer of ACT's Education Division. "If students are not on target for college and career readiness by the time they reach this point, the impact may be nearly irreversible."

The findings suggest that few U.S. eighth-graders are currently on target to be ready for college-level work by the time they graduate from high school. Only 16 percent of the recent high school graduates studied in ACT's research had met or surpassed the organization's College Readiness Benchmarks in all four subject areas—English, math, reading, and science—on EXPLORE, the organization's eighth grade assessment of academic skills. Students who meet those benchmarks are on target to be college-ready by the time they graduate from high school. College readiness is defined by ACT as having a high likelihood of earning a "C" or higher in first year college courses in each subject area.

Conversely, the report suggests, being on target for college and career readiness by eighth grade puts students on a trajectory for success in high school and beyond. Among three groups of eighth grade students studied—those who were on target, those who just missed being on target, and those who were more substantially off target—only those who were on target in eighth grade were ultimately ready for college and career by their junior or senior year of high school.

"The implications of this research are clear," said Schmeiser. "If we want to improve college readiness among U.S. high school graduates, we need to intervene before students reach high school, in upper elementary and middle school. The findings impact not only how we prepare students leading up to high school but in what strategic ways we intervene with those who are behind academically in high school. Both elements are critical for ensuring that our high school grads are ready for college and career. Our students deserve it, and our nation demands it."

The need to build the foundation for college and career readiness well before high school is a topic that has at times been overshadowed on a crowded education reform agenda. Perhaps the most notable recent focus on reform has been in U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's education plan, which places significant emphasis on improving high school achievement and graduation rates by reforming education in the upper elementary and middle school grades. The plan would require states to develop early-warning systems that identify at-risk students in grades 5 through 8 and provide interventions that help those students succeed.

ACT's report suggests that the impact of this problem extends beyond college preparation to the U.S. workforce and the economy.

"The skills necessary for entry into the majority of the fastest growing jobs that require a high school diploma and offer a livable wage are comparable to those needed for success in first-year college courses," said Schmeiser. "In the context of our current economic challenges, we should be targeting eighth grade readiness as a key benchmark for our nation's ability to produce a workforce that is ready to succeed and compete in the global economy. The findings suggest we have a long way to go to ensure that outcome."

ACT's longitudinal research followed approximately 216,000 students in the U.S. graduating classes of 2005 and 2006 from eighth grade through high school graduation. All of these students had taken each of the three curriculum-based assessments in ACT's College Readiness System—EXPLORE for eighth-graders, PLAN for 10th-graders, and the ACT college admission and placement exam.

The findings indicate that eighth grade academic achievement is a better predictor of eventual college and career readiness than any other single factor studied, including background characteristics, courses taken in high school, grades earned in high school, or student testing behaviors.

Schmeiser pointed out that high school-level interventions such as taking more rigorous courses, studying harder, and earning higher grades in high school can help to improve students' level of readiness by the time they graduate. But, she cautioned, "Students who aren't on track for readiness by eighth grade will have a very difficult time making up all of the ground they have lost. Without sufficient preparation prior to high school, students can't maximize the benefits of academic enhancements while they are there."

The study also found that improving certain behaviors of middle school students can help increase their readiness for college and career by the time they graduate. Two academic behaviors were found to have the greatest impact on both eighth grade course failure and ninth grade GPA: academic discipline (e.g., good work and study habits) and orderly conduct (behaving appropriately in class).

ACT's report lays out the specific knowledge and skills in English, math, reading, and science that students must attain by the end of eighth grade to be on target for college and career success.

The report also offers several recommendations to educators and policymakers on how to improve college and career readiness among high school graduates, including the following:

· Focus K-8 (kindergarten through eighth grade) standards on the knowledge and skills that are essential for college and career readiness, and make these nonnegotiable for all students.

· Monitor student progress toward college and career readiness beginning in upper elementary school and continuing through middle school, and intervene with students who are not on target to becoming ready.

· Improve students' academic behaviors (homework compliance, attendance, and other aspects of academic discipline).

Increase federal and state support for schools to implement intervention programs that help all students become ready for college and career.

Full report:

http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/reports/ForgottenMiddle.html

Eighth-grade ISAT standards not aligned with high school demands, college readiness

Students need good grades, high schools with strong academic cultures to keep from ‘treading water’

Students who just meet Illinois testing standards in eighth grade have virtually no chance of scoring a 20 or above on the ACT, according to a study released Friday by the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago.

This finding points to a “major misalignment” between the standards set by the state ISAT tests in elementary school and the college-readiness standards expected of all juniors in Illinois high schools as measured by the ACT, which is part of the state’s PSAE exams. It takes a score into the Exceeds Standards category on the eighth-grade ISAT to have a relatively good shot at scoring well on the ACT in eleventh grade.

The study, From High School to the Future: The Pathway to 20, was inspired by a new goal in Chicago Public Schools to have their juniors reach a goal of 20 or above on the ACT. It was based on a longitudinal analysis of more than 40,000 students from three junior classes (2005, 2006 and 2007) in Chicago Public Schools. An ACT score of 20 is actually lower than the state average and college-readiness benchmarks set by ACT, but was seen as a realistic goal for Chicago students because graduates with this score or better have a good chance of being accepted into Illinois state universities.

“Having such low academic standards in eighth grade serves no one well, least of all the students who eke through and then are surprised to find themselves unprepared to do well in high school, let alone college,” wrote John Easton, executive director at the Consortium and the study’s lead author.

“Perhaps we are sending students and schools the wrong message about the adequacy of elementary students academic preparation, especially for the vast majority of students who have their eyes on college in the future.”

To understand the pathway to 20, researchers also tracked back from the ACT to see students’ progress on prior tests. In addition to the ACT, all CPS high school students also take two other tests developed by ACT. These tests, the EXPLORE and PLAN, along with the ACT, make up EPAS—the Education Planning and Assessment System. The EPAS system is now used widely in other Illinois high schools.

The key findings include:

An ISAT math score of 267—the median score for Illinois eighth-graders in 2006--results in about a 26 percent chance of reaching a 20 on the ACT three years later, based on this analysis.

For those students just barely meeting standards (a math score of 246), only 3 percent scored a 20 or above on the ACT. (The analysis focused on ISAT math scores because math is a slightly stronger predictor of the ACT composite than ISAT reading scores, but the relationship holds equally well with reading scores).

For those students who just inch their way into the Exceeds Standards category with a score of 288, the probability of reaching 20 is about 62 percent.

The average ACT score for students who “meet standards” is 17.5 (very close to the CPS average), and a very small portion of them reach 20. Only students in the “exceeds” category have an average ACT score above 20 (average is 23.3), and most of them reach 20.

Students’ ninth-grade EXPLORE composite scores also strongly predict whether they will reach a 20 or better on the ACT. Virtually no students with very low scores (15 and below) on EXPLORE make it to 20 on ACT. About 30 percent of students who scored 16 on ninth grade EXPLORE (the national average) reached 20 on the ACT. Virtually all students with high EXPLORE scores (18 and above) make it to 20 on the ACT.

While previous achievement test scores predict ACT scores, they do not determine them. There are many students who start in the same place but end up different from each other, the study found. It is students’ school experiences that play such a strong role in determining academic achievement.

To understand those school experiences, the report also builds on key findings revealed in recent Consortium research that has delved deeply into other factors that influence students’ success in high school and their college readiness:

In What Matters for Staying On-Track and Graduating in Chicago Public High Schools, the authors show how the academic culture of high schools affect freshman attendance rates, freshman failure rates, and freshman grade point averages. Indicators of positive student and teacher relationships have strong positive impacts on all three student outcomes. In schools where there are strong reports from students on student-teacher trust, freshmen have 2.30 fewer days absent per semester, 0.78 fewer failures per semester, and their grade point averages are 0.23 points higher than students with similar background characteristics (including prior test scores) who attend similar schools.

Students who attend high schools with a strong academic climate and earn better grades gained more than twice as much on the EPAS test as their peers in the weaker schools and with lower grades. When analyzing all students who started with a 17 on the EXPLORE test, those in the first group improved 3.7 points on their ACT, while the second group only gained 1.4 points. “Strong high schools” are those in which relationships between teachers and students are stronger, there is greater academic press on students, students learn that doing well in high school matters for the future, and their teachers encourage and support their interest in going to college and help them get there.

“Simply raising standards for students in CPS or state-wide is not a solution,” Easton writes. “We see very strong students who do not reach even 20 on the ACT. This is a less an indictment of the standards than an indication that there are strong students who are being ill served by their high schools. We should have high expectations for our schools as well as for students. And our expectations for strong performance by all students need to start early in the elementary grades, if not in preschool.”

Founded in 1990, the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago conducts research of high technical quality that influences policy and practice in Chicago and nationwide.

Full report:

http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/publications/Pathway%20to%2020%20Report-final.pdf

Arne Duncan Moves to the National Stage - by Richard Kahlenberg

President-Elect Barack Obama's new choice of Education Secretary, Chicago schools CEO Arne Duncan, is receiving wide praise from various factions of the Democratic Party, and even from some Republicans. Everyone seems to support the choice, from outgoing Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to the National Education Association. Like Obama, Duncan has embraced charter schools and teacher pay for performance, which pleases some, but he's also implemented reforms in cooperation with the local teachers union, and doesn't demonize teacher voice like some do. Moreover, as a big advocate of pre-K programs in Chicago, he recognizes that poverty is the biggest source of the achievement gap, not teacher unions. As Ezra Klein notes in his blog post for American Prospect (http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=12&year=2008&base_name=arne_duncan#111599), Duncan doesn't represent "Switzerland" in the Democrats' education wars; instead, he seems to be someone who will be able to synthesize the best elements of competing factions.

As Duncan moves from Chicago to the national stage, it will be interesting to see whether he will take on a big issue that urban superintendents have limited control over: economic segregation. Duncan's embrace of pre-K programs suggests he understands the need to tackle the number one source of inequality - family poverty - but will he support efforts to address what research finds to be the primary fountainhead of school inequality: the separation of rich and poor students in America's public schools? All the things that people talk about in education - the need for high quality teachers, high expectations, well-disciplined classrooms, active parents etc - are much more likely to be found in middle class than high poverty schools. Will Obama and Duncan seek to reduce the number of high poverty schools the way housing officials have sought to reduce the number of high poverty public housing projects?

Duncan and Obama are both strong supporters of public school choice, including charter schools, which suggests that they understand the need to give students stuck in bad schools the chance to transfer out. But what will be the role of magnet schools - public schools with special themes that are meant to attract economically and racially diverse student bodies?

This question is raised in a fascinating new report from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA (http://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/magnet/the_forgotten_choice_rethinking_magnet_schools.pdf) . In the foreword, Gary Orfield notes that twice as many students (2 million) attend magnet schools as charter schools (1 million) and yet the federal government currently provides $200 million to charter schools and just $100 million to magnet schools. Obama wants to double charter school funding to $400 million. Will he also substantially increase magnet school funding, as Sen. John Edwards suggested during the primaries (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/22/AR2007072200879.html)?

To some, magnet schools and school integration may seem old-fashioned. Back in the heady days of the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. called for the appointment of a cabinet level Secretary of Integration. But today, some believe, the issue is achievement, not integration, which is why charters are in vogue.

Not so fast, say the authors of the UCLA report, Erica Frankenberg and Genevieve Siegel-Hawley. Magnet schools, they note, have a strong record of increasing academic achievement, far stronger than the mixed record for charter schools.

Magnet schools might seem to be a lost cause following the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2007 decision curtailing racial integration plans in Seattle and Louisville, but some 60 U.S. school districts are now using family income rather than race as the primary factor in student assignment (http://www.tcf.org/publications/education/districtprofiles.pdf). This focus on economic status of classmates is even more closely linked to achievement than race, according to numerous studies.

Moving from an urban district to the national arena will entail many changes for the new Education Secretary-designee. Improving on Washington's current strategy of trying to make "separate but equal" schooling work would represent real and lasting reform.

ACM Urges Obama to Include Computer Science as a Core Component of Science and Math Education; Statement Emphasizes Critical Role of Computer Science as 21st Century Skill

As Arne Duncan was announced as the next U.S. Secretary of Education, ACM (the Association for Computing Machinery) issued a set of recommendations supporting the new Administration's stated goal of making science and mathematics education a national priority at the K-12 level, and urging the new Administration to include computer science as an integral part of the nation's education system. The ACM recommendations cite the strong outlook for computer science-related jobs despite extraordinary challenges confronting the nation, and highlight the role of computer science in driving the technology sector, which is expected to continue its ability to make substantial contributions to economic growth in the near future.

"Computing education benefits all students, not just those interested in pursuing computer science or information technology careers," said Bobby Schnabel, chair of ACM's Education Policy Committee (EPC). "But students often do not have many opportunities to engage in rigorous computer science study at the K-12 level," said Schnabel, dean of the Indiana University School of Informatics. "To meet the nation's educational and professional needs in the face of insufficient numbers of undergraduates majoring in computer science, we need to work harder to increase interest at the K-12 level, and to expand the pipeline supplying the necessary workforce for an information-based economy."

ACM CEO John R. White welcomed the Obama team's efforts to increase the pool of students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields and identified key recommendations to address the particular challenges at the K-12 level. "The new Administration can play an important role in strengthening middle school education, where action can really make a difference, to introduce these students to computer science. They can also expand efforts to increase the number of females and underrepresented minorities in this field and expand professional development opportunities for high school computer science teachers."

Among the other recommendations are: a focus on research funding for K-12 computer science education to address many gaps in understanding how students engage this critical field; and a review of how states can better coordinate and improve existing teacher certification requirements, particularly for computer science teachers.

The ACM recommendations cite several challenges to computing education that inhibit students from experiencing the excitement and creativity of the discipline. For example, courses in the fundamentals of computer science often count only as a general elective, not as a college-preparatory elective, making it unlikely that college-bound high school students can afford to explore the field. In addition, as schools have increasingly stepped up the need to integrate, use, and teach information technology, the distinctions have blurred between what is called computer science and what is, in fact, information technology literacy and the use of technology to support literacy.

The ACM recommendations also urge action from federal, state and local policy-makers as well as from the high-tech industry, and scientific and education societies to addressing these pressing issues. The entire statement is available at http://www.acm.org/public-policy/ACM_CS_ED_Transition_Final.pdf

Performance Pay for Teachers: Increasing Student Achievement in Schools with Critical Needs

Guilford County public schools have seen "promising results" during the first two years of Mission Possible, an incentive-pay program for teachers and administrators. That's the assessment of a new John Locke Foundation Policy Report, funded by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation

Teacher and administrator turnover has decreased, the percentage of schools that met No Child Left Behind performance standards increased, and the percentage of students who met North Carolina testing standards increased," said report author Terry Stoops, JLF Education Policy Analyst. "Graduation rates are on the rise, and the school climate has improved considerably."

Guilford County Schools, the state's third-largest public school system, initiated Mission Possible at 22 schools in 2006. Eight more schools joined the program in 2007. Mission Possible offers recruitment and performance incentives for teachers and administrators who work in the county's low-performing and low-income schools. 

"One-time recruitment incentives can be as large as $10,000, and performance incentives range from $2,500 to $5,000," Stoops said. "In its first year of existence, the average Mission Possible performance award was $3,400 per teacher."

Complete report:

http://www.johnlocke.org/site-docs/policyreports/missionpossible.pdf

Teacher Turnover, Tenure Policies, and the Distribution of Teacher Quality - Can High-Poverty Schools Catch a Break?

In recent years education reformers have focused a great deal of attention on strategies for enhancing teacher quality. This attention makes sense, as a growing body of evidence points to the overriding importance of teachers in promoting student achievement. On average, students with a teacher in the top quartile of the talent pool achieve at levels corresponding to an additional two or three months of instruction per year, compared with peers who have a teacher in the bottom quartile.

Putting these numbers in context, this quality differential represents well over a third of the “achievement gap” between students from low-income families and those from families with higher incomes. Thus, consistent assignment to high-quality teachers can substantially lower the barriers to realizing academic success imposed by poverty. In contrast, class size reduction, a popular and expensive policy option, shows much less promise, if any, for addressing achievement gaps.

Because teacher quality is so critical to students’ success in school, gross inequity in the distribution of highly effective teachers should trouble policymakers. If students attending high-poverty schools are far less likely to be assigned effective teachers than students living in more affluent communities, then it would be a pressing matter to increase access to such teachers for economically disadvantaged students. Progress on this issue requires a careful look at the composition and dynamics of the teaching workforce.

A school’s teaching staff is not static. Teachers come and go, and the patterns of their movements between schools and into and out of the profession have undergone radical changes over the past 50 years. Researchers have begun to get a grip on these patterns and their relationship to teacher quality. This report focuses on three pieces of the puzzle: the distribution of teacher quality, teacher turnover, and tenure policies. In other words, who teaches where, who stays and who leaves, and how do tenure policies affect the decisions of teachers and the school districts that employ them?

The report is organized as follows. The first section explains how teacher quality can be measured. The very idea that teacher quality can be measured has its detractors. Some argue, on principle, that teaching is an art or a kind of sacred act that cannot be measured in any way that respects the scope or importance of the work. This point of view, however, does not hold much water in the globally competitive economy, where students need well-developed cognitive skills and where teachers, who are meant to help students develop these skills, absorb the majority of spending on public education. Historically, however, the business of measuring teacher quality has been problematic. The characteristics of teachers that are tracked most carefully are those traditionally important in hiring decisions and compensation systems (e.g., academic major, advanced degrees, years of experience). The term “qualifications” is adopted here to refer to these characteristics, which one estimate finds together explain only about 3 percent of the variation in student achievement. The rise of information technology and the recent boom in state-sponsored achievement tests, largely in response to accountability programs, have afforded researchers and policymakers access to better measures of teacher quality. These so-called “value-added” measures of teacher effectiveness have important limitations, but they hold promise for informing policies that address any inequitable distribution of effective teachers.

The second section explores the distribution of teacher quality. Although qualifications explain only a few percent of the variation observed in student achievement, they provide a reasonable basis for documenting systematic inequity in the distribution of teacher quality. Furthermore, qualifications will remain important in hiring decisions and compensation systems for the foreseeable future. An abundance of evidence suggests that the qualifications of teachers differ, on average, between high-poverty and low-poverty schools. These differences tilt in the expected direction. For example, students in high-poverty schools are less likely than students in low-poverty schools to be assigned a teacher deemed “highly qualified” under the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act.

The third section examines teacher turnover. The term turnover encompasses mobility—teachers leaving one school for another—and attrition, which is defined as teachers leaving the classroom to take up other professional responsibilities, inside or outside of education, or to spend more time with their families. Mobility and attrition are con- founded by teachers returning to the classroom after several years away, a group that includes up to a fourth of newly hired teachers. Some turnover is inevitable; some is desirable. Chronically ineffective teachers should seek employment elsewhere. Instead of leaving the profession, however, such teachers may simply seek a school where their weak performance is less conspicuous. Attrition and mobility of effective teachers exacerbate inequity in the distribution of teacher quality.

The fourth section examines tenure, a term denoting the contractual or statutory job protections conferred on teachers who have completed a provisional phase of employment. Once tenured, a teacher’s employment may only be terminated for cause, and only after prescribed due process procedures have been followed. Tenure began as a countermeasure to various forms of employment discrimination, but successive waves of civil rights legislation have largely usurped this role. This section surveys what little is known about how tenure policies affect the distribution of teacher quality.

The last section concludes the paper by making the case that tenure embodies an important policy lever that ought to be explored. Right now, a good deal of evidence suggests that earning tenure is unrelated to what we value in teachers: their performance in the classroom. In particular, whether teachers can further student achievement is almost completely unrelated to the tenure decision. Given the interplay between teacher turnover, tenure policies, and the distribution of teacher quality, it is worth discussing what role changes in tenure policy could play in efforts to afford low-income students more access to effective teachers.

Read the full report (pdf):

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/12/pdf/teacher_attrition.pdf

The Partnership and National Council of Teachers of English Create New Framework Resource Provides First-of-its-kind 21st Century Skills Classroom Examples

The 21st Century Skills and English Map, a new framework that provides educators with teacher-created models of how 21st century skills can be infused into English classes, was released by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

The map – which demonstrates how the integration of 21st century skills into English curriculum supports teaching and learning and prepares students to become effective and productive citizens in the 21st century – highlights the critical connections between English and 21st century skills.

“This framework, which includes examples taken directly from proven classroom practices, represents an exciting tool for teachers and students as they move toward a 21st century education system,” said Kylene Beers, president of the National Council of Teachers of English. “The map also mirrors the evolving nature of NCTE, as we ensure our organization and members possess the tools and resources that are required for success in the 21st century.”

By providing lesson examples that combine core skills like critical thinking, creativity and innovation with interdisciplinary themes (civic, economic and entrepreneurial literacy and global awareness), the map provides concrete examples of how to align teaching and learning to the demands of the 21st century.

In addition, the map cites specific student outcomes and provides project models that will result in enhanced student achievement in grades four, eight and 12. For example, fourth graders, after reading several folktales and viewing two to three cartoons, write their own contemporary version of a folktale and present them as a stop-motion or Claymation film. This helps students, through typical reading and project work, learn how to communicate new ideas to others and demonstrate originality and inventiveness in schoolwork.

At the eighth grade level, to better impart financial awareness and literacy, students conduct research to answer the question: How much schooling do you need to get the kind of job you would like to have? After investigating salaries, employment outlook and education/training requirements for a variety of possible careers, students create a chart comparing their top three to five choices and write short personal essays explaining how these choices fit their goals. As a result, eighth graders begin to analyze and make complex decisions and learn to identify and ask significant questions to clarify points of view.

To integrate 21st century skills at the high school level, teams of students create a virtual fieldtrip for elementary school students. In addition to creating a video and narration detailing the site, students also research background information and interview appropriate experts such as park rangers, tour guides and historians. The students then use a project management tool to organize tasks, assignments and deadlines. Through this project, students assume shared responsibility for collaborative work and demonstrate the ability to work effectively with diverse teams and creativity to plan an interactive fieldtrip for younger students.

“I commend NCTE and English teachers across the country for providing a framework that shows how the discipline is incorporating 21st century skills,” said Ken Kay, president of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. “This work highlights the Partnership’s mission to develop innovative tools that integrate 21st century skills into curriculum and positively impact student learning.”

The 21st Century Skills and English Map is the second in a series of core content maps designed for educators, administrators and policymakers. The 21st Century Skills and Social Studies Map was released in June, 2008; additional maps will be available for mathematics, geography and science in 2009. All of the Partnership's resources are freely available at www.21stcenturyskills.org.

About the Partnership for 21st Century Skills: The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is the leading advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st century skills into education. The organization brings together the business community, education leaders, and policymakers to define a powerful vision for 21st century education to ensure every child’s success as citizens and workers in the 21st century. The Partnership encourages schools, districts, and states to advocate for the infusion of 21st century skills into education and provides tools and resources to help facilitate and drive change.

21st Century Skills Leadership States include: Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Dakota, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

Full framework:

http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/21st_century_skills_english_map.pdf

Supporting Literacy Across the Sunshine State

A Study of Florida Middle School Reading Coaches

One popular approach to improving student literacy is using school-based reading coaches—specially trained master teachers who provide leadership for the school’s literacy program and offer on-site and ongoing support for teachers so they can improve the literacy skills of their students. While reading coaches are prevalent in many schools across the nation, there is little empirical evidence regarding the nature of coaching and its effectiveness in changing teacher practice and practically no evidence related to coaching effects on student achievement, particularly at the secondary level. Given the increasing popularity of coaching and its significant cost—in terms of financial and human resources—there is a critical need for research in this area.

In 2006–2007, RAND sought to address this research gap by studying a statewide reading coach program in Florida that is situated within a broader state-led literacy policy, the Just Read, Florida! (JRF) initiative. Established in 2001, the JRF initiative’s goal is that all students read at or above grade level by 2012.

To understand Florida’s reading coach program and its implementation and effects at the middle school level, the study examined the following research questions:

How is the reading coach program being implemented by the state, districts, schools, and coaches?

What has been the impact of coaching on teachers’ practice, students’ achievement in reading and mathematics, and other outcomes?

What features of models and practices for reading coaches are associated with better outcomes?

The study included 987 Florida schools serving sixth- through eighth-graders.

The authors analyzed school-level student reading and mathematics test score data from 1998 to 2006 drawn from statewide databases.

Effects were measured by comparing school-level test score gains for several years before and after the reading coaches were hired and by comparing gains in schools that implemented the program to gains in schools that had not yet implemented it.

The study examined effects separately for four cohorts of schools, based on the year the schools implemented the program. The authors reported higher reading and mathematics test score gains for the earliest cohort and higher reading score gains for the third cohort.

Complete report:

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG762.pdf

WWC Quick Review of the Report:

http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/quickreviews/readingcoaches/

The Effect of Parental Education on the Heritability of Children’s Reading Disability

Parental education is a strong predictor of socioeconomic status and children’s educational environment. Nevertheless, some children continue to experience reading failure in spite of high parental education and support for learning to read.

University of Colorado at Boulder psychologists Angela Friend, John C. DeFries and Richard K. Olson examined if genetic and environmental influences on reading disability, the most commonly identified learning disability, interact with level of parental education. In this study, 545 pairs of identical and fraternal twins were selected wherein at least one of the twins in each pair had a reading disability. In addition, the researchers obtained information about the parents’ years of education.

The results, described in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, showed that there was a significant interaction between parents’ years of education and the heritability of reading disability. Children whose parents had higher levels of education tended to have stronger genetic influence on their reading disability than children whose parents had lower levels of education. The researchers concluded that on average, poor instruction or lack of reading practice may often be the main influence on reading disabilities in families with low socioeconomic status, while genes may be the main influence on reading disability among children in families with high socioeconomic status and educational support.

This study has important implications not only for future genetic research, but for national education policies as well. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires that all children reach “grade level” performance on reading and other academic skills by 2014, and assumes that this goal can be met through appropriate education. However, the authors of this study suggest that a more beneficial policy would acknowledge genetic constraints on meeting these standards among some children with reading disability, and honor the functionally important gains they make in reading and other academic skills even if they do not reach grade level.

When scientists take on science education

CSU team reports in Science: Specialized faculty foster undergrad learning, K-12 reform

A greater commitment by science faculty to focus on science education could drive education reform at universities and K-12 schools, according to a new report by a team of five researchers from the California State University (CSU) system and one from Purdue University.

Appearing in today's issue of the journal Science, the report evaluates the role that science professors who specialize in science education play in improving how the sciences are taught.

To illustrate the pressure universities are under to cultivate an effective learning environment, the report cites an earlier study indicating that when college students abandon science as a major, 90 percent of them do so because of what they perceive as poor teaching; and, among those who remain in the sciences, 74 percent lament the poor quality of teaching.

"Ultimately, we need data on science faculty who focus particularly on science education to learn how colleges and universities can make science accessible to everyone," said James Rudd, corresponding author and assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at California State University, Los Angeles.

In addition to Rudd, the study's co-authors are Seth D. Bush, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; Nancy J. Pelaez, associate professor of biological sciences at Purdue University and formerly with CSU, Fullerton; Michael T. Stevens, assistant professor of biological sciences at CSU, Stanislaus; Kimberly D. Tanner, assistant professor of biology at San Francisco State University; and Kathy S. Williams, associate professor of biology at San Diego State University.

The CSU research team studied science faculty who take on specialized roles in their disciplines to reform undergraduate science education, improve K-12 teacher education and preparation and conduct science education research. These "science faculty with education specialties," or SFES, come from various backgrounds.

In a comprehensive survey of the CSU campuses, 59 science faculty were identified as serving in the SFES role. Of those, 47 percent transitioned into the role from a more traditional science-faculty position, with many of them continuing their efforts in basic science research. The remaining 53 percent were hired specifically for the SFES position, and they tended to focus more on science education efforts.

Roughly 40 percent of both types of SFES surveyed noted serious consideration toward leaving the specialized science-education position due to a perceived lack of institutional understanding of the field and to job burnout.

The authors will next expand the CSU study to a national sample.

The success of SFES positions, the research team believes, can be measured by increased numbers and quality of K-12 science teachers and of science majors graduating from colleges and universities; and such increases will need greater collaboration between universities and K-12 education districts, within universities between colleges of science and colleges of education, and internally within science departments.

"The quality of undergraduate and K-12 science education depends on strengthening these collaborations with additional funding and published research on science education," said Rudd.

The CSU is the largest U.S. university system, with an annual enrollment of approximately 450,000 students spread among its 23 campuses – which differ substantially in their history, settings, student populations, enrollment sizes, and level of research orientation.

Has NCLB Narrowed School Curricula?

Middle & High Schools Have Not Shifted Focus to Math & English Elementary Students Have Seen Changes, which Started before NCLB Shift May Be Related to State Laws

Despite public belief to the contrary, pressures from the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) are not causing schools to shift away from teaching social studies, liberal arts, and sciences, according to a new study released by Tisch College’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University. In fact, at the middle and high school levels, curricula have remained constant and in some cases expanded since the federal law was passed in 2001.

In grades one through five, the curriculum has narrowed over the last ten years, with more time devoted to reading and math and less to science, arts, and social studies. These declines, though, began in the 1990s before the passage of NCLB. The trends are the same in private and public schools and in schools with majorities of white and minority students.

“There has been a narrowing of the curriculum in the earlier grades, but you can’t place the blame solely on the shoulders of NCLB,” said report co-author Peter Levine, director of CIRCLE. “If we seek to broaden the K-12 curriculum to include more citizenship and arts education, amending NCLB will not suffice. Local and state policies, public expectations, textbooks, and other factors are also responsible for recent changes in the curriculum.”

CIRCLE analyzed five major federal datasets looking at the how curricula and relevant extracurricular activities have changed at the elementary, middle and high school levels from 1987 to 2005. No evidence was found that middle school or high school curricula have narrowed. At the high school level, there was a slight expansion of the liberal arts curriculum between 1998 and 2004. The proportion of high school students who completed major liberal arts courses grew during this time period, and the proportion of 17-year-old students who took courses such as art, drama and music increased significantly as well.

The fact that private and public elementary schools have narrowed their curricula equally suggests that NCLB is not responsible for the shift of classroom time to reading and math. Curricula have also changed in similar ways in schools that enroll mostly white and mostly minority students. Rural schools, however, have shifted time to English and reading substantially more than urban and suburban schools.

It would also be expected that new teachers would be influenced by current expectations and pressures to emphasize English and math, whereas veteran teachers would more likely maintain teaching priorities from their early days in education. The study found the reverse is true, with newer teachers providing a broader curriculum.

Even though the k-12 curriculum has not narrowed consistently, and even though NCLB is not mainly responsible for the narrowing that has occurred, the curricula may still be too narrow to prepare young people for citizenship. Extracurricular activities such as music, drama, student journalism, and student government, are also too rare.

“The purpose of schools is not only to prepare workers, but also to create an active and egalitarian democracy,” Levine continued. “That mission requires widespread literacy and numeracy. But it also requires specific knowledge of history, government, social issues and current events as well as democratic and civic skills and values. We need to make sure these important areas of study are not lost in school curricula.”

With the new Administration and the next Congress set to discuss the reauthorization of NCLB, the report suggests stakeholders, lawmakers and citizens should give attention to the ways education has changed in the last several decades and consider the following alternative perspectives in the light of hard data about changes in the k-12 curriculum:

· Back to basics. Reading and math are fundamental and we need to focus our attention on these subjects until all students can read, write and calculate.

· The liberal arts. Education today is all about outcomes, and it overlooks the intrinsic value of subjects like history, fine arts, natural sciences, foreign languages and current events.

· Cultural literacy. Studying history, natural science, social science and foreign cultures enhances one’s literacy, and the collective de-emphasis on these subjects is why reading scores are flat, despite increased time devoted to reading/language arts.

· Civic mission. The purpose of schools is not (only) to prepare workers, but also to create an active and egalitarian democracy.

Full report:

http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/Narrowing_Curriculum.pdf

Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools

This Practice Guide was developed by an Expert Panel convened by the Institute of Education Sciences. It is designed to help chronically low-performing schools "turn around" achievement patterns. It offers a set of four research-based recommendations that together constitute a coherent approach to a challenging problem. A summary of the research evidence and a level of evidence rating are provided for each recommendation. This Practice Guide is the foundation for all the Doing What Works content on turning around chronically low-performing schools.

Full report:

http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/practiceguides/Turnaround_pg_04181.pdf

Closing the Education Gap in America's Poorest Neighborhoods

The intersection of King and Story roads in East San Jose, Calif., has long been notorious as gang-infested, violent, and poor - facts that most educators will tell you make it an unlikely location for educational excellence.

But just steps from that infamous corner, on a bedraggled middle school campus that promises nothing better, is a school with test scores that rank it among the best in California. Its students - all neighborhood kids - are unflaggingly polite, offering a handshake and a poised explanation of the day's lesson to a classroom visitor. And although they are only twelve or thirteen years old, virtually all can tell you which university they hope to attend and why. Then they quickly pad back to their desks, lest they fall behind.

This is Heartwood Academy, one of five middle schools and two high schools the KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) charter school network operates in the San Francisco Bay Area, all of which are located in neighborhoods like King and Story and all of which produce similar results. The California schools are part of a network of KIPP schools that have blossomed across the nation since 1999.

This fall, with support from the Hewlett Foundation, the research institute SRI International issued one of the most thorough and ambitious studies to date of the educational approach of KIPP charter schools.

The independent, three-year study, which was based on the Bay Area schools and included Heartwood, rejected charges from some educational quarters that KIPP's success results from "creaming" the best students from the neighborhoods, and affirmed that the schools significantly outperform surrounding public schools on standardized tests. This is the first major study to scrutinize the praise and criticisms associated with KIPP, as well as key challenges facing Bay Area KIPP schools today.

The study also suggested that it was the overall culture of the KIPP schools, rather than any single teaching strategy, that seemed to foster the superior results. Notable features of that culture are uniformly high expectations for student performance, extra time and support for student learning, close tracking of each student's progress, and a philosophy of continuous improvement.

"It is the combination of KIPP's features that makes these schools effective," says Katrina Woodworth, the study's principal investigator. "Other schools or districts looking to emulate KIPP should not pick and choose elements of its approach and expect to see the same results. They must view them as a suite of practices that work together to realize gains in student learning."

Despite Problems, a Model for Others

The SRI study concluded that, despite KIPP's problems of high student attrition and teacher turnover, school districts can learn from its example. The research supports a long-standing goal of the Hewlett Foundation to increase student achievement by finding ways to improve K-12 classroom instruction throughout the country. In most grades, the Bay Area KIPP students made above-average progress compared to national norms, and four out of five KIPP schools outperformed their host districts. At the end of fifth grade, KIPP students at the three Bay Area KIPP schools for which data were available far outperformed their counterparts in other schools in the same districts on California's standardized tests.

Heartwood Academy is the highest-scoring middle school in San Jose's Alum Rock District - even though 60 percent of its students are English learners and nearly 90 percent qualify for free and reduced-price meals. On the most recent tests, 97 percent of its eighth graders proved proficient in science, 96 percent proficient in history, and 91 percent proficient in English. Those scores are comparable to the performance of middle schools in affluent Palo Alto, California, home to Stanford University and some of the highest school test scores in the state.

Moreover, in the three KIPP schools where they were able to draw comparisons, SRI researchers found that students with lower achievement on the standardized tests were more likely to choose KIPP than higher-performing students from the same neighborhood, suggesting that - at least at these schools - cherry-picking does not occur.

SRI's finding comes as no surprise to Sehba Ali, the founder of Heartwood Academy and an early proponent of its approach. Ali met the founders of what would become KIPP, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, while all three were young Teach for America teachers working in inner-city schools in Houston, Texas.

"I realized that the main difference between where I was teaching and the suburban schools was that our kids didn't have the expectation that they would go to college," Ali says. "My kids weren't able to see what the future could hold. It meant doing what their parents did and living in the same neighborhood their parents did."

In the years since Ali met Feinberg and Levin, their vision of KIPP has grown to sixty-five schools in nineteen states that serve more than 16,000 students. In the Bay Area, there are KIPP schools in Bay View Hunters Point and the Western Addition in San Francisco, West Oakland, and San Lorenzo, as well as East San Jose. The growth has been fueled by $40 million in donations by Don Fisher, the founder of The Gap stores, and his wife, Doris.

Forging a Culture of High Expectations

KIPP schools don't have uniform curricula but share a culture of high expectations (consistently enforced through rewards) and rigorous classroom discipline for those who misbehave. Students attend school nine hours per day - until 5:15 p.m. most days at Heartwood - along with summer school and some Saturday classes. Teachers are available to answer students' questions by cell phone until 9:00 p.m. each night. The SRI study also credits close tracking of every student's progress as crucial to the formula.

On the Heartwood campus on a recent morning, the most striking feature might be the quiet. The raucous exuberance typical of class changes at most schools doesn't exist here. The 360 students walk - not run - to their next classroom and line up quietly until they can enter. Most students put a nose in a book as they wait. Teasing, so common a feature of most middle school campuses, is a sufficient offense at Heartwood that the whole campus has been known to shut down to examine it, on the rare occasion when it happens. Student participation in class, judging by raised hands and call-and-response lessons, seems to be something close to 100 percent.

All of which isn't to say there are no challenges.

The school's charter is up for reauthorization this year, and since high performance is no bar to school board politics, Heartwood's fate is uncertain. Attrition of both students and teachers is high. Fully 60 percent of students who entered fifth grade at four Bay Area KIPP schools in 2003-4 left before completing eighth grade. Annual teacher turnover rates have ranged from 18 to 49 percent since 2003-4, and finding enough teachers with the necessary commitment and talent makes scaling up the program to meet the need an open question.

Finally, of course, as always, there is the question of money. California provides as little as half the amount many other states commit per student. Bay Area KIPP leaders need to raise anywhere from $400,000 to $700,000 annually to close the gap between the state and local funds their schools receive and their true operating costs.

And although Ali helped open the first year of a KIPP high school in East Side Union High School District last fall so that the first Heartwood graduates can continue on their path, the shortage of state funding and the high cost of facilities have made it doubtful that KIPP will expand much more in California.

While polls consistently show that Californians place improving education at or near the top of their priorities, they've also shown a striking reluctance to do anything that would provide the additional funding to allow that to happen.

"This study shows that KIPP is effective at increasing student achievement among poor and minority students, a population California is desperately struggling to serve," says Marshall Smith, former director of Hewlett's Education Program. "It would be tragic, indeed, if we found a program that works and the state walked away from it for lack of will."

The report, "San Francisco Bay Area KIPP Schools: A Study

of Early Implementation and Achievement," is available on

SRI International's Web site:

http://policyweb.sri.com/cep/projects/displayProject.jsp?Nick=kipp

The Enhanced Reading Opportunities Study

Findings from the Second Year of Implementation

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a majority of ninth-graders in low-performing high schools begin their freshman year with significant reading difficulties. Poor reading ability is a key predictor of academic disengagement and, ultimately, dropping out.

This report presents findings from the second year of the Enhanced Reading Opportunities (ERO) study, a demonstration and random assignment evaluation of two supplemental literacy programs — Reading Apprenticeship Academic Literacy and Xtreme Reading — that aim to improve the reading comprehension skills and school performance of struggling ninth-grade readers.

The supplemental literacy programs are full-year courses targeted to students whose reading skills are two to five years below grade level as they enter high school. The ERO class, designed to serve 12-15 students, replaces a ninth-grade elective, and it is offered in addition to students’ regular English language arts classes. The programs seek to help ninth-grade students learn and employ the strategies used by proficient readers, improve their comprehension skills, and increase their motivation to read more and to enjoy what they read. For this demonstration, one teacher at each school was trained to teach the literacy program, and she or he exclusively taught the course to four sections of students.

This report focuses on the second of two cohorts of ninth-grade students who participated in the study and discusses the impact that the two interventions have had on their reading comprehension skills.

Key Findings

· On average across the 34 participating high schools, the supplemental literacy programs had a positive and statistically significant impact on students’ reading comprehension test scores (an effect size of 0.08 standard deviation). The average student in the study sample started the year reading at a grade-level equivalent of 4.9. Those students assigned to the ERO classes were reading at a 6.1 grade equivalent by the end of the year, compared with a 6.0 grade equivalent for students in the control group. Even though the students in ERO classes showed improvement in reading comprehension, however, 77 percent of them were still reading at two or more years below grade level at the end of ninth grade.

· The impact of the ERO programs on reading comprehension test scores in the second year of implementation was not statistically different from their impact in the first year of implementation.

· In terms of fidelity of program implementation, the ERO programs as implemented in 26 of the high schools were rated as well aligned to the program models. The program at one school was rated as poorly aligned to its program model. The fidelity ratings in the second year were higher than in the first year, when the programs at 16 schools were rated as well aligned to the program models and the programs at 10 schools were rated as poorly aligned.

· The ERO classes in 23 high schools were up and running within the first two weeks of the school year, and program duration was 9.1 months on average across all 34 high schools. This represents faster start-up and longer duration than in the first year, when none of the ERO classes started sooner than three weeks into the school year, and on average the programs ran for 7.7 months.

The final report from the study — scheduled for 2009 — will examine the impact of the ERO programs on the educational achievement and attainment outcomes of both cohorts of ninth-grade students as they progress through high school.

Full report:

http://www.mdrc.org/publications/503/full.pdf

Acting on Data: How Urban High Schools Use Data to Improve Instruction

Data is a powerful tool to support the goal of maximizing the academic potential of each child. When data serves as the foundation and culture of school systems, curriculum and instruction can be more closely tailored to each student's particular academic needs. NewSchools Venture Fund has published the findings from the final study of a three-part research project exploring the use of data in schools.

The four schools profiled are:

Bolsa Grande High School (Garden Grove Unified School District)

California

Washington High School (Glendale UHSD Unified High School District)

Arizona

YES Prep—Southeast Campus (YES Prep Charter Management Organization)

Texas

North Star Academy (North Star Academy Charter School Management)

New Jersey

Full report:

http://www.newschools.org/files/ActingonData.pdf

Mathematics Achievement of Language-Minority Students During the Elementary Years.

This Issue Brief uses data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) to examine the scores of public-school language-minority students on a mathematics assessment in 1st grade, as well as the gain in their scores between 1st and 5th grades. Scores are reported by three background characteristics--student's race/ethnicity, poverty status, and mother's education--that have been found to be related to achievement.

The findings indicate that language-minority students (English Proficient students and English Language Learners) scored lower on a 1st-grade mathematics assessment than did students whose primary home language was English. Between 1st and 5th grades, there was no measurable difference in gain scores on the mathematics assessment among the three language groups. However, gain score differences within and between the language groups were found by student background characteristics. For example, Asian language-minority students made

greater gains than their Hispanic peers.

To view, download and print the report as a PDF file:

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009036.pdf

Multiple Pathways: 21st Century High Schools that Prepare All Students for College, Career and Civic Participation

Many states are currently developing high school reforms labeled “Multiple Pathways,” built on the fundamental insight that career and technical education – which used to be called “vocational education” – can be academically rigorous. Multiple Pathways policies also allow students to gravitate to schooling themes that are personally relevant, and they hold the potential to substantially improve secondary schooling. The reform, as described in the attached brief and draft legislation, rests on three research-based propositions:

· Learning both academic and technical knowledge is enhanced when the two are combined and contextualized in real-world situations;

· Connecting academics to such real-world contexts promotes student interest and engagement; and

· Students provided with both academic and career education are more likely to be able to later choose from the full range of postsecondary options.

But if poorly designed or enacted, the reform will only maintain the same old vocational education programs or “alternative” schools, continuing discredited practices of ability tracking rather than transforming the comprehensive high school. A well-designed Multiple Pathways reform must include the following four essential components within each and every pathway:

· A college-preparatory academic core that satisfies the course requirements for entry into a state’s flagship public university, using project-based learning and other engaging classroom strategies;

· A professional/technical core well-grounded in academic and real-world standards;

· Field-based learning and realistic workplace simulations that deepen students’ understanding of academic and technical knowledge through application in real-world situations; and

· Additional support services to meet the particular needs of students and communities, which can include supplemental instruction, counseling, and transportation.

This new brief, including proposed statutory language, meets these criteria for designing and implementing effective multiple pathway schools. Such a genuine approach to Multiple Pathways will help to meet the learning needs of a diverse student population and respond to society’s need for a productive workforce and engaged citizenry.

Complete brief:

http://epicpolicy.org/files/MP%20legislation%20Final.pdf

Classroom age composition and developmental change in 70 urban preschool classrooms.

A multilevel modeling approach was used to investigate the influence of age composition in 70 urban preschool classrooms. A series of hierarchical linear models demonstrated that greater variance in classroom age composition was negatively related to development on the Child Observation Record (COR) Cognitive, Motor, and Social subscales. This was true when controlling for class size, general classroom quality, and socioeconomic status at the classroom level and for age, gender, and baseline ability at the child level. Additionally, to address possible concerns related to nonrandom assignment to classrooms, a series of models were run including variance in developmental age (i.e., baseline ability) at the classroom level and at the child level. The results were consistent for chronological age composition and developmental age composition at the classroom level; greater variance in classroom developmental age composition was negatively related to Time 2 scores on the COR Cognitive, Motor, and Social subscales. Furthermore, a cross-level interaction indicated that negative influence of greater variance in classroom developmental age composition was stronger for children older in developmental age. Implications for early childhood education policy are discussed.

Full text:

http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2008-16034-002

Effect of retention in first grade on children's achievement trajectories over 4 years: A piecewise growth analysis using propensity score matching.

The authors investigated the relatively short-term and longer term effects of grade retention in 1st grade on the growth of mathematics and reading achievement over 4 years. The authors initially identified a large multiethnic sample (n = 784) of children who were below the median in literacy at school entrance. From this sample, the authors closely matched 1 retained with 1 promoted child (n = 97 pairs) on the basis of propensity scores constructed from 72 background variables and compared growth of retained and promoted children using Rasch-modeled W scores and grade standard scores, which facilitate age-based and grade-based comparisons, respectively. When using W scores, retained children experienced a slower increase in both mathematics and reading achievement in the short term but a faster increase in reading achievement in the longer term than did the promoted children. When using grade standard scores, retained children experienced a faster increase in the short term but a faster decrease in the longer term in both mathematics and reading achievement than did promoted children. Some of the retention effects were moderated by limited English language proficiency, home-school relationship, and children's externalizing problems.

Full text:

http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2008-16034-001

1.5 Million Homeschooled Students in the United States in 2007

This Issue Brief provides estimates of the number and percentage of homeschooled students in the United States in 2007 and compares these estimates to those from 1999 and 2003. In addition, parents' reasons for homeschooling their children in 2007 are described and compared to 2003. Estimates of homeschooling in 2007 are based on data from the Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey (PFI) of the 2007 National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES).

Full report:

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009030.pdf

Sex difference on spatial skill test linked to brain structure

Men consistently outperform women on spatial tasks, including mental rotation, which is the ability to identify how a 3-D object would appear if rotated in space. Now, a University of Iowa study shows a connection between this sex-linked ability and the structure of the parietal lobe, the brain region that controls this type of skill.

The parietal lobe was already known to differ between men and women, with women's parietal lobes having proportionally thicker cortexes or "grey matter." But this difference was never linked back to actual performance differences on the mental rotation test.

UI researchers found that a thicker cortex in the parietal lobe in women is associated with poorer mental rotation ability, and in a new structural discovery, that the surface area of the parietal lobe is increased in men, compared to women. Moreover, in men, the greater parietal lobe surface area is directly related to better performance on mental rotation tasks. The study results were published online Nov. 5 by the journal Brain and Cognition.

"Differences in parietal lobe activation have been seen in other studies. This study represents the first time we have related specific structural differences in the parietal lobe to sex-linked performances on a mental rotation test," said Tim Koscik, the study's lead author and a graduate student in the University of Iowa Neuroscience Graduate Program. "It's important to note that it isn't that women cannot do the mental rotation tasks, but they appear to do them slower, and neither men nor women perform the tasks perfectly."

The study was based on tests of 76 healthy Caucasian volunteers -- 38 women and 38 men, all right-handed except for two men. The groups were matched for age, education, IQ and socioeconomic upbringing. When tested on mental rotation tasks, men averaged 66 percent correct compared to 53 percent correct for women. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed an approximately 10 percent difference between men and women in the overall amount of parietal lobe surface area: 43 square centimeters for men and 40 square centimeters for women.

"It's likely that the larger surface area in men's parietal lobes leads to an increase in functional columns, which are the processing unit in the cortex," said Koscik. "This may represent a specialization for certain spatial abilities in men."

The findings underscore the fact that not only is the brain structure different between men and women but also the way the brain performs a task is different, said Peg Nopoulos, M.D., a study co-author and professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

"One possible explanation is that the different brain structures allow for different strategies used by men and women. While men appear able to globally rotate an object in space, women seem to do it piecemeal. The strategy is inefficient but it may be the approach they need to take," said Nopoulos, who also is a psychiatrist with University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

"The big question remains whether this is nature or nurture. On the one hand, boys, compared to girls, may have opportunities to cultivate this skill, but if we eventually see both a strong performance and parietal lobe structural difference in children, it would support a biological, not just environmental, effect," Nopoulos added.

Facebook Generation Learning Social, Technical Skills Online

Worried about the amount of time today’s kids spend texting, chatting, blogging, gaming and Facebook-ing? Don’t.

Rather than fear the time young people devote to technological pursuits, there are many reasons for adults to embrace and even facilitate youth engagement with digital media, according to Florida State University’s Lisa Tripp, who was a member of a team of researchers who recently completed the most extensive qualitative study ever done on youth media use in the United States.

“While many adults worry that children are wasting time online, texting or playing video games, our study found that these activities have captured teens’ attention because they provide avenues for extending social worlds, self-directed learning and independence,” she said.

Tripp, an assistant professor in the College of Information, supervised research and data collection at several Los Angeles middle schools that serve primarily low-income Latino youth to find out how the students were using digital media technology both at home and at school. Her research became a part of the Digital Youth Project, a joint effort of the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley.

The three-year study was part of a $50 million project on digital and media learning funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Altogether, researchers involved in the project interviewed more than 800 children and young adults and conducted more than 5,000 hours of online observations. Tripp also is one of the co-authors of the final report on the project, which will be published by MIT Press as a book called “Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out: Living and Learning with New Media.”

Social network sites, online games, video-sharing sites and gadgets such as iPods and mobile phones -- technologies that barely existed 10 years ago -- are now fixtures of youth culture. The researchers found that most young people almost always associate with people they already know in their offline lives through school or sports, but cell phones, instant messaging and social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook allow them to be in nearly constant touch.

A smaller number of young people also use the online world to find information they may not have access to at school or in their local community and to connect with people who share specialized interests in activities, such as online gaming, creative writing, video editing or other artistic endeavors.

By exploring new interests and tinkering with new forms of media, young people are picking up basic social and technical skills, such as how to create a video or game or customize a MySpace page, Tripp said. Young people also can learn a lot through trial and error and from their peers and online communities.

The study found that young people’s learning with digital media is often more self-directed, with a freedom and autonomy that is less apparent than in a classroom setting. The researchers said youth respect one another’s authority online, and they are often more motivated to learn from each other than from adults.

That doesn’t mean adults should stay out of the picture. Quite the opposite, Tripp said.

“I’d like to see adults get more tech savvy and up-to-date with how to use participatory media, such as blogs, wikis, podcasting and social network sites so they can be more actively involved in what children are doing with the media but in a smarter way,” she said. “For example, adults can help create opportunities for young people to learn with media in interesting ways, and they can help teach advanced information and media literacy skills that young people need.”

Schools also need to keep pace with the rapid changes introduced by digital media to stay relevant in the 21st century, according to the researchers’ report.

Tripp is particularly interested in the so-called digital divide that separates low-income U.S. students from their more affluent peers. While increasingly young people from all social classes have opportunities to go online and use new media, the nature and quality of access still varies greatly, she said.

“For many low-income young people, it can be challenging to find time, space and resources to experiment with media and to engage in the media practices that youth tend to find the most meaningful,” she said. “Schools, libraries and after-school programs can help narrow the digital divide or ‘participation gap’ by creating opportunities for young people to experiment with media in more open-ended and self-directed ways.”

New method of scoring IQ tests benefits children with intellectual disabilities

Researchers develop method that provides more accurate view of children's potential

Parents of children with intellectual disabilities have long been frustrated by intelligence quotient (IQ) testing that tells them little to nothing about the long-term learning potential of their children.

That's because these tests are scored according to the mean performance of children without disabilities. The result is that the raw scores of many children with intellectual disabilities are converted into the lowest normalized score, typically a zero.

"We send back these reports that don't tell parents anything about their child," explained David Hessl, an associate professor of clinical psychiatry and a researcher at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute.

Hessl and a team of collaborators have devised a new system of scoring IQ tests taken by children with fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes intellectual disabilities, including autism. The details of the new method are described in a study published online today by the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

"If this new method becomes widely available, we will be able to tell parents something more useful and more accurately diagnose and treat young children who are learning disabled," said Hessl, a physician who cares for children at the M.I.N.D. Institute with fragile X syndrome.

According to Hessl, there is a lot of meaningful variability in the performance of these children on IQ tests.

"We believe that this variability is important information about the relative strengths and weaknesses that these children have," Hessl explained. Frustrated by the lack of sensitivity of IQ tests, Hessl set out to devise a scoring method that would reveal the strengths and weaknesses of each child.

"I knew a more accurate estimation of the potential of these children would make a big difference in their lives," he said.

Hessl worked with fragile X researchers at the M.I.N.D. Institute and Stanford University, as well as a statistician from Pennsylvania State University. The team came up with new normalized scores for 217 children with fragile X syndrome who had undergone IQ testing.

Many of these children had normalized scores of 0 on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, an intelligence test for children between the ages of 6 and 16 that can be completed without reading or writing.

On the new scale, children scored as low as minus 10 on 14 subtests. These included verbal, arithmetic, picture completion and object assembly.

Like normalized scores of children without disabilities, the frequency of the new normalized scores for children with fragile X syndrome followed an expected, bell-shaped distribution.

"These new scores tell us more precisely how a child with fragile x syndrome deviates from the normal population in every sub-test area," Hessl said.

Physicians and parents also need to know that these new scores reflect something about the biology of the children.

So, the research team went on to compare the new normalized scores to a measure of adaptive behavior and a biological measure of the severity of fragile X syndrome. Without a normal copy of the fragile X gene, a vital protein (FMR1 protein, or FMRP) is not made and the result is the onset of characteristic mental disorders, which can range from learning disabilities to severe cognitive or intellectual disabilities, such as autism.

Hessl and his colleagues compared the levels of FMRP in blood from the test subjects to their new scores and found a significant correlation. They found similarly significant correlations between the IQ test scores and scores on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Composite, which measures personal and social skills used in everyday living.

Treatment of fragile X syndrome depends on its manifestations in the individual, and range from behavioral therapy to medication. Widespread use of new normalized scores would allow physicians to better treat their patients, Hessl said.

Psychological Corporation, the publishers of the Wexler IQ test, gave permission for their raw date to be used in the context of research.

"I think we've made a good case for the makers of this test and others to release raw data to researchers so that this method can be applied to other populations with intellectual disabilities," Hessl said.

He is also hopeful that someday soon he will get permission to use his new scoring method when treating his patients. In the future, the publishers of IQ tests should include lower-functioning individuals in their standardization studies, Hessl said.

"This might mean over-sampling those with intellectual disability in order to get more sensitivity, but it would help so many children," he said.

Low-carb diets can affect dieters' cognition skills

Tufts study compared women's cognition on low-carb and reduced-calorie diets

A new study from the psychology department at Tufts University shows that when dieters eliminate carbohydrates from their meals, they performed more poorly on memory-based tasks than when they reduce calories, but maintain carbohydrates. When carbohydrates were reintroduced, cognition skills returned to normal.

"This study demonstrates that the food you eat can have an immediate impact on cognitive behavior," explains Holly A. Taylor, professor of psychology at Tufts and corresponding author of the study. "The popular low-carb, no-carb diets have the strongest potential for negative impact on thinking and cognition."

Taylor collaborated with Professor Robin Kanarek, former undergraduate Kara Watts and research associate Kristen D'Anci. The study, "Low-carbohydrate weight-loss diets. Effects on cognition and mood," appears in the February 2009 edition of the journal "Appetite."

While the brain uses glucose as its primary fuel, it has no way of storing it. Rather, the body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose, which is carried to the brain through the blood stream and used immediately by nerve cells for energy. Reduced carbohydrate intake should thus reduce the brain’s source of energy. Therefore, researchers hypothesized that diets low in carbohydrates would affect cognitive skills.

Study participants included 19 women ages 22 to 55 who were allowed to select the diet plan they preferred -- either a low-carbohydrate diet or a low-calorie, macronutrient balanced diet recommended by the American Dietetic Association. Nine women chose a low-carbohydrate diet and 10 selected the low-calorie diet.

"Although the study had a modest sample size, the results showed a clear difference in cognitive performance as a function of diet," says Taylor.

The 19 dieters completed five testing sessions that assessed cognitive skills, including attention, long-term and short-term memory, and visual attention, and spatial memory. The first session was held before participants began their diets, the next two sessions occurred during the first week of the diet, which corresponded to the week when low-carb dieters eliminated carbohydrates. The final two sessions occurred in week two and week three of the diets, after carbohydrates had been reintroduced for those on the low-carb diet.

"The data suggest that after a week of severe carbohydrate restriction, memory performance, particularly on difficult tasks, is impaired," Taylor explains.

Low-carb dieters showed a gradual decrease on the memory-related tasks compared with the low-calorie dieters. Reaction time for those on the low-carb diet was slower and their visuospatial memory was not as good as those on the low-calorie diet. However, low-carb dieters actually responded better than low-calorie dieters during the attention vigilance task. Researchers note that past studies have shown that diets high in protein or fat can improve a person's attention in the short-term, which is consistent with the results in this study.

Participants were also asked about their hunger levels and mood during each session. The hunger-rating did not vary between participants on a low-carb diet and those on a low-calorie diet. The only mood difference between dieters was confusion, which was higher for low-calorie dieters during the middle of the study.

"Although this study only tracked dieting participants for three weeks, the data suggest that diets can affect more than just weight," says Taylor. "The brain needs glucose for energy and diets low in carbohydrates can be detrimental to learning, memory, and thinking."

U.S. Must Ensure 55 Percent of Americans Earn Postsecondary Degree by 2025 or Risk World Standing: College Board Report

Education Leaders Propose Ambitious 10-Step Agenda to Renew U.S. Educational Preeminence

The United States must take immediate action to reverse its fall from the top ranks of countries with a college-educated workforce. If postsecondary success is not made a national priority, our country’s economic and social health will continue to weaken. This is the pressing message delivered today on Capitol Hill by a College Board commission of influential leaders focusing for the first time on the entire pre-K through college pipeline. The national commission recommends a specific 10-part action agenda to reverse the current trend and promises annual evaluations to track success.

Completed by the College Board’s Commission on Access, Admissions and Success in Higher Education, “Coming to Our Senses: Education and the American Future” notes the alarming decline of U.S. educational attainment among 25- to 34-year-olds and details how the country can regain its competitive edge.

The report provides recommendations to strengthen our education system across the P-20 pipeline, increase the number of students earning postsecondary degrees or certificates and regain our global competitive edge for the 21st century.

The 28-member commission is a nationally representative group of college presidents, university chancellors, admissions and enrollment deans, school counselors and administrators and other education experts who examined demographic, socioeconomic, public policy and education trends that affect college access and success. They recommend actions to address specific areas of weakness while building a renewed education system that will increase current college completion rates and drive the United States toward reclaiming its position as a global leader.

With the goal of ensuring that at least 55 percent of the U.S. population holds a college degree or certificate by 2025, the 10 recommendations took center stage today at a briefing in Washington, D.C., at which the report was officially released.

“In the last 20 years, we have lost critical ground in this country. We once put our faith in creating an educated citizenry, and we have enjoyed the benefits. A nation’s success lies largely on the quality of its human resources. Without well-educated citizens, we will struggle economically and socially,” said Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board. “The action agenda outlined in the report calls on all of us to do our part. We must regain our drive to excel and take the actions necessary to get us back on track as a nation.”

University System of Maryland Chancellor William “Brit” Kirwan, chair of the commission, emphasized the need to act immediately.

“We are fighting the clock now and will regret every moment lost,” Kirwan said. “Other countries have made educational excellence a national priority while we have been satisfied with ‘average,’ and it has cost us dearly.”

The report documents that after having led the world in high school completion rates throughout the 20th century, the United States ranked 21st out of 27 advanced economies. College completion rates have followed a similar pattern: once second in the world for younger workers (ages 25 to 34), the United States now ranks 11th. Additionally, dropout rates for high school students (grades nine through 12) have tripled in the last 30 years.

“The effect of diminished access to postsecondary education has a devastating effect on the lives of individuals seeking advancement and on our collective hopes for advancing our society’s interests and welfare,” said Kirwan.

The targeted recommendations in the report aim to bolster the entire education system, focusing on the need for quality preschool programs, improved middle and high school counseling, stronger dropout prevention programs, progressive teacher recruitment and retention programs, and a more streamlined college admissions process. The agenda also emphasizes the importance of aligning the K-12 system with international standards and college admissions and expectations. Finally, it addresses the college and postsecondary climate with items that specifically tackle college affordability, matriculation and postsecondary opportunities.

To advance the agenda, the College Board will annually evaluate progress and issue a report that tracks national improvement toward the goal of 55 percent of Americans earning a postsecondary degree or certificate, as well as on indicators tied to the 10 benchmarks.

“These are demanding recommendations that will require the commitment of everyone — schools, colleges and universities, parents and students, and state and national leaders — but the dividend will be historic,” Kirwan said. “We must create a system that works, a system that propels all students toward success and rejects anything less.”

Complete report:

http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/coming-to-our-senses-college-board-2008.pdf

Lessons from High Performing Small High Schools in Chicago

For nearly a decade, the Chicago High School Redesign Initiative (CHSRI) has worked to improve educational opportunities for Chicago adolescents by opening and supporting small high schools across the city. While the overall results of the initiative have been mixed, several CHSRI schools have successfully improved students’ outcomes.

This latest research brief in the CHSRI series describes both the practices and characteristics that such high performing CHSRI schools share.

Drawing on qualitative data, authors W. David Stevens, Sue Sporte, Sara Ray Stoelinga, and Alissa Bolz discuss common elements of their classroom environments and reveal similarities in how they organize instructional leadership and improvement activities. By highlighting shared practices across these schools, CCSR hopes to identify general lessons that other schools may use to create productive teaching and learning environments.

Complete report:

http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/content/publications.php?pub_id=127

One Third of California’s Public High School Graduates Now

Eligible for California State University

The California Postsecondary Education Commission has released its University Eligibility Study. The study shows that 13.4 percent of the public high school graduating class of 2007 was eligible for admission to the University of California, and 32.7 percent to the California State University. Eligibility studies are jointly conducted by the Commission, UC, and CSU roughly every four years. They are used by the university systems and policymakers to see if admission requirements are consistent with the state’s 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education. The Master Plan recommends that CSU take freshmen from the top 33.3 percent of graduates and UC from the top 12.5 percent. The study was conducted by contacting public high schools and asking them to provide transcripts for their 2007 graduating class. UC and CSU admission staff reviewed each transcript to see if the courses, grades and test scores would make a student eligible for admission. Nearly 72,000 transcripts were reviewed from 158 public high schools.

The release of the Eligibility Study coincides with budget reductions and enrollment cuts at UC and CSU. UC is facing substantial budget cuts, while CSU, also facing substantial reductions, has confirmed it will cut enrollments by 10,000.

The Commission’s previous study was for the class of 2003. Since then, eligibility for UC has fallen slightly, while CSU eligibility has increased sharply, bringing both figures closer to those recommended in the Master Plan. The CSU eligibility rate was down in 2003, which was the first year to require additional years of history and lab science. Schools have since adjusted course offerings, and the CSU eligibility rate is again close to the Master Plan recommendation.

This year’s results shows the eligibility gap has narrowed slightly between ethnic/racial groups, but eligibility rates for Blacks and Latinos are still below the rates for Asians and Whites. The UC eligibility rate for Whites decreased from 16.2 percent in 2003 to 14.6 percent in 2007. The rate for Asians decreased from 31.4 percent to 29.4 percent, while the rates for Latinos and Blacks were nearly unchanged: 6.5 percent in 2003 and 6.9 percent in 2007 for Latinos; 6.2 percent in 2003 and 6.3 percent in 2007 for Blacks. For CSU, the rate for Blacks, Whites and Latinos increased from 2003 to 2007. For Blacks, the rate increased from 18.6 percent in 2003 to 24.0 percent in 2007; Latinos from 16.0 percent to 22.5 percent; and Whites from 34.3 percent to 37.1 percent. “The gap between ethnic and racial groups appears to be closing, but Blacks and Latinos still lag.

The Eligibility Pool

A total of 350,700 students graduated from California public comprehensive, continuation, and alternative high schools in 2007. Of these, an estimated 46,400 were eligible for UC and 114,400 were eligible for CSU. This is a 20 percent increase from the number of students in the class of 2003 who were eligible for CSU. Eligibility for Latinos, the state’s fastest-growing ethnic group, has increased sharply. The number of Latinos eligible for CSU is up by 55 percent from 2003. However, the gender gap continues to be an issue, as eligibility rates for males continue to be lower than for females. Eligibility for males is about 70 percent of eligibility for females, and this gap is even wider for Blacks and Latinos.

Asian students top latest global math, science study, report Boston College researchers

Students from Asian countries were top performers in math and science at both the fourth and eighth grade levels, according to the most recent reports of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), released by the study's directors Michael O. Martin and Ina V.S. Mullis of Boston College.

In mathematics, at the fourth grade level, Hong Kong SAR and Singapore were the top performing countries, followed by Chinese Taipei and Japan. Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, England, Latvia, and the Netherlands also performed very well. In mathematics achievement at the eighth grade, Chinese Taipei, Korea, and Singapore were followed by Hong Kong SAR and Japan. There was a substantial gap in average mathematics achievement between the five Asian countries and the next group of four similarly performing countries, including Hungary, England, the Russian Federation, and the United States.

In science, students from Singapore and Chinese Taipei were top performers at both grade levels. In science achievement at the fourth grade, Singapore was the top performing country, followed by Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong SAR. Japan, the Russian Federation, Latvia, England, the United States, Hungary, Italy, and Kazakhstan also performed very well. At the eighth grade in science, Singapore and Chinese Taipei again had the highest average achievement, followed by Japan and Korea. England, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hong Kong SAR, and the Russian Federation also performed well. [Note: Full charts at end of release.]

TIMSS is one of the world's most influential global assessments of student achievement in math and science. With more than 60 participants and 425,000 students assessed, TIMSS 2007 also is the largest study of student math and science achievement in the world. Each country sampled approximately 4,000 students in 150 schools. [Note: a list of participating countries is at the end of this release.]

The TIMSS 2007 report also provides data at the fourth and eighth grades for those countries that also participated in TIMSS 1995, 1999 and 2003.

"One of the great strengths of TIMSS is the ability to monitor progress in educational improvement over time," said TIMSS Directors Michael O. Martin and Ina V.S. Mullis of Boston College. "Such trend information is crucial in helping policy makers understand the impact of decisions about investment in education, curricular reform, and initiatives to improve instruction."

As with previous TIMSS reports, TIMSS 2007 data provide invaluable international benchmarks that can be used to help define world-class performance in mathematics and science at the middle or lower-secondary school level. Beyond comparisons in mathematics and science test scores, they said, the reports provide a wealth of information on educational policies and practices around the world, as well as on gender performance, home environment, curriculum and instructional approaches and teacher preparation in math and science.

ABOUT TIMSS

TIMSS, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, is the largest assessment of international student achievement in the world and was the first to provide data about trends in math and science achievement over time.

TIMSS is a project of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) headquartered in Amsterdam, and is directed by the TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center at Boston College in collaboration with a worldwide network of organizations and representatives from the participating countries.

TIMSS 2007 is the fourth in a continuing cycle of international mathematics and science assessments conducted every four years. TIMSS assesses achievement in countries around the world and collects a rich array of information about the educational contexts for learning mathematics and science.

The TIMSS 2007 report involved more than 60 participants: it contains science results for 37 countries and 7 benchmarking participants at the fourth grade and for 50 countries and 7 benchmarking participants at the eighth grade. Each country sampled approximately 4,000 students in 150 schools. Trend data are provided at the fourth and eighth grades for those countries that also participated in 1995, 1999, and 2003.

To inform educational policy in the participating countries, TIMSS also routinely collects extensive background information that addresses concerns about the quantity, quality and content of instruction. TIMSS 2007 offers detailed information about mathematics and science curriculum coverage and implementation, as well as teacher preparation, resource availability and the use of technology.

TIMSS 2007 PARTICIPANTS

Participating countries: Algeria, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bulgaria, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador, England, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Republic of Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Palestinian National Authority, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United States, Yemen. Benchmarking entities include the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec in Canada; Dubai (United Arab Emirates); Basque Country in Spain, and Massachusetts and Minnesota in the United States.

The full TIMSS 2007 reports are available on-line at timss.bc.edu

TIMSS 2007 Data Exhibits Summarizing Principal Achievement Results (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study)

Mathematics Achievement at the 4th Grade

Country Average Scale Score

Hong Kong SAR 607

Singapore 599

Chinese Taipei 576

Japan 568

Kazakhstan 549

Russian Federation 544

England 541

Latvia 537

Netherlands 535

Lithuania 530

United States 529

Germany 525

Denmark 523

Australia 516

Hungary 510

Italy 507

Austria 505

Sweden 503

Slovenia 502

TIMSS Scale Average 500

Armenia 500

Slovak Republic 496

Scotland 494

New Zealand 492

Czech Republic 486

Norway 473

Ukraine 469

Georgia 438

Iran, Islamic Rep. of 402

Algeria 378

Colombia 355

Morocco 341

El Salvador 330

Tunisia 327

Kuwait 316

Qatar 296

Yemen 224

Benchmarking Participants

Massachusetts, US 572

Minnesota, US 554

Quebec, Canada 519

Ontario, Canada 512

Alberta, Canada 505

British Columbia, Canada 505

Dubai, UAE 444

Science Achievement at the 4th Grade

Country Average Scale Score

Singapore 587

Chinese Taipei 557

Hong Kong SAR 554

Japan 548

Russian Federation 546

Latvia 542

England 542

United States 539

Hungary 536

Italy 535

Kazakhstan 533

Germany 528

Australia 527

Slovak Republic 526

Austria 526

Sweden 525

Netherlands 523

Slovenia 518

Denmark 517

Czech Republic 515

Lithuania 514

New Zealand 504

Scotland 500

TIMSS Scale Average 500

Armenia 484

Norway 477

Ukraine 474

Iran, Islamic Rep. of 436

Georgia 418

Colombia 400

El Salvador 390

Algeria 354

Kuwait 348

Tunisia 318

Morocco 297

Qatar 294

Yemen 197

Benchmarking Participants

Massachusetts, US 571

Minnesota, US 551

Alberta, Canada 543

British Columbia, Canada 537

Ontario, Canada 536

Quebec, Canada 517

Dubai, UAE 460

Mathematics Achievement at the 8th Grade

Country Average Scale Score

Chinese Taipei 598

Korea, Rep. of 597

Singapore 593

Hong Kong SAR 572

Japan 570

Hungary 517

England 513

Russian Federation 512

United States 508

Lithuania 506

Czech Republic 504

Slovenia 501

TIMSS Scale Average 500

Armenia 499

Australia 496

Sweden 491

Malta 488

Scotland 487

Serbia 486

Italy 480

Malaysia 474

Norway 469

Cyprus 465

Bulgaria 464

Israel 463

Ukraine 462

Romania 461

Bosnia and Herzegovina 456

Lebanon 449

Thailand 441

Turkey 432

Jordan 427

Tunisia 420

Georgia 410

Iran, Islamic Rep. of 403

Bahrain 398

Indonesia 397

Syrian Arab Republic 395

Egypt 391

Algeria 387

Colombia 380

Oman 372

Palestinian Nat'l Auth. 367

Botswana 364

Kuwait 354

El Salvador 340

Saudi Arabia 329

Ghana 309

Qatar 307

Morocco 381

Benchmarking Participants

Massachusetts, US 547

Minnesota, US 532

Quebec, Canada 528

Ontario, Canada 517

British Columbia, Canada 509

Basque Country, Spain 499

Dubai, UAE 461

Science Achievement at the 8th Grade

Country Average Scale Score

Singapore 567

Chinese Taipei 561

Japan 554

Korea, Rep. of 553

England 542

Hungary 539

Czech Republic 539

Slovenia 538

Hong Kong SAR 530

Russian Federation 530

United States 520

Lithuania 519

Australia 515

Sweden 511

TIMSS Scale Average 500

Scotland 496

Italy 495

Armenia 488

Norway 487

Ukraine 485

Jordan 482

Malaysia 471

Thailand 471

Serbia 470

Bulgaria 470

Israel 468

Bahrain 467

Bosnia and Herzegovina 466

Romania 462

Iran, Islamic Rep. of 459

Malta 457

Turkey 454

Syrian Arab Republic 452

Cyprus 452

Tunisia 445

Indonesia 427

Oman 423

Georgia 421

Kuwait 418

Colombia 417

Lebanon 414

Egypt 408

Algeria 408

Palestinian Nat'l Auth. 404

Saudi Arabia 403

El Salvador 387

Botswana 355

Qatar 319

Ghana 303

Morocco 402

Benchmarking Participants

Massachusetts, US 556

Minnesota, US 539

Ontario, Canada 526

British Columbia, Canada 526

Quebec, Canada 507

Basque Country, Spain 498

Dubai, UAE 489

Obesity among California's low-income teens nearly triple that of more affluent peers

Poor neighborhoods have twice as many fast-food restaurants, fewer parks

California's low-income teenagers have a lot in common: Sugary soda. Fast-food restaurants. Too much television. Not enough exercise. The result: Low-income teenagers are almost three times more likely to be obese than teens from more affluent households, according to new research from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

In California, 21 percent of teenagers living in low-income families are obese, according to the new policy brief, "Low-Income Adolescents Face More Barriers to Healthy Weight." Low-income is defined as having income of less than $19,971 for a family of four or $12,755 for a family of two, according to federal poverty guidelines. In contrast, only 8 percent of teenagers living in families making more than $59,913 (family of four) or $38,265 (family of two) are obese.

California is home to about 480,000 obese adolescents from all income levels. But the high rate of obesity among low-income teens suggests that barriers to healthy behaviors, healthy foods and physical activity not only continue to exist but have grown even larger. Those barriers include high numbers of neighborhood fast-food restaurants and low numbers of parks and other opportunities for physical activity.

"Our neighborhoods are literally making us fat," said Susan H. Babey, one of the policy brief's authors. "We need better strategies and more thoughtful urban planning if we are going to make our towns and cities livable, not just places where we live."

Among other recommendations to combat teen obesity, the policy brief's authors urge city planners to consider zoning ordinances to regulate the number of fast-food restaurants while providing incentives to attract grocery stores and other outlets that stock fresh fruits and vegetables. The Los Angeles City Council recently used data from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research to support such a moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles. The policy brief's authors also called for greater opportunities for physical activity and education, as well as campaigns to promote family dinners and discourage excessive television viewing.

"The disparity in teen obesity prevalence among low-income and more affluent communities should serve as a wake-up call to policymakers," said Dr. Robert K. Ross, president and chief executive officer of The California Endowment, which funded the policy brief. "Where we live plays a critical role in shaping our health status. Elected officials can help improve the environmental factors that contribute to the poor health of Californians through local ordinances and statewide policy."

Among the findings of the policy brief:

· More sugary soda: 67 to 71 percent of low-income teens reported having at least one glass or can of soda on the previous day, compared with 55 percent of more affluent teens.

· More fast food: 46 to 49 percent of low-income teens reported eating fast food on the previous day, compared with 37 percent of more affluent teens.

· Fewer family meals: Up to 11 percent of low-income teens reported that they had never eaten dinner with a parent or guardian during the previous week. The rate is twice that of more affluent teens.

· Fewer opportunities for organized sports: 36 to 37 percent of low-income teens were on a school sports team in the previous year, compared with 49 percent of more affluent teens.

· Less physical activity: Nearly one in five, or 18 percent, of low-income teens did not get at least 60 minutes of physical activity in a week — the minimum amount of physical activity recommended by the 2005 federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

More television: 56 percent of low-income teens watch more than two hours of television per day, compared with 46 percent of more affluent teens.

Later school start times may improve sleep in adolescents and decrease risk of auto accidents

Westchester, Ill. –A study in the Dec. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine shows that after a one-hour delay of school start times, teens increased their average nightly hours of sleep and decreased their "catch-up sleep" on the weekends, and they were involved in fewer auto accidents.

When school started one hour later students averaged from 12 minutes (grade nine) to 30 minutes (grade 12) more self-reported nightly sleep. The percentage of students who got at least eight hours of sleep per weeknight increased significantly from 35.7 percent to 50 percent; students who got at least nine hours of sleep also increased from 6.3 percent to 10.8 percent. The average amount of additional weekend sleep, or "catch-up sleep," decreased from 1.9 hours to 1.1 hours. Daytime sleepiness decreased, as reported by students using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Average crash rates for teen drivers in the study county in the two years after the change in school start time dropped 16.5 percent compared to the two years prior to the change, while teen crash rates for the rest of the state increased 7.8 percent over the same time period.

"It is surprising that high schools continue to set their start times early, which impairs learning, attendance and driving safety of the students," said senior author Barbara Phillips, MD, director of the UK Healthcare Good Samaritan Sleep Center in Lexington, Ky.

A survey concerning the sleep habits of students from an entire county-wide school district in Kansas was distributed before and after a change in school start times. In April 1998, (Year One), a total of 9,966 students (66 percent of the total population of middle and high-school students enrolled in the county) from grades six to 12 completed questionnaires concerning their sleep habits on school nights and non-school nights and various aspects of daytime functioning. In April 1999, (Year Two), 10,656 students (72.8 percent of the total population of middle and high-school students enrolled in the county) filled out the same questionnaire. School times during Year One were 7:30 a.m. for high schools and 8 a.m. for middle schools. In Year Two high schools and middle schools started one hour later at 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m.

Separate crash rates were computed for the county that changed high school start times and for the state as a whole. State-collected measures of collision statistics by age and residence of driver were used to compute crash rates per 1,000 licensed drivers for teen drivers before and after the change in school start times in both the county in which the start times changed and in the rest of the state where start times remained unchanged.

The county crash rates were considerably higher than the rest of the state prior to the change in school start times. According to the authors the elevated crash rates may have been caused by the fact that the study county was in the center of a rapidly expanding metropolitan area. Phillips attributed the decrease in auto accidents after the change in school start times to improved vigilance, as the students were able to get more sleep.

The authors report that both social and biological pressures appear to cause a shift in sleep patterns during the transition to adolescence, with the result that adolescents stay up progressively later. As a result, adolescents get an inadequate amount of sleep due to early school start times, which increases their daytime sleepiness and may in turn increase their odds of crashing their vehicles while driving.

Report: More Children Eating Healthy School Meals During Economic Downturn

More Than 79% of School Districts Report an Increase in the Number of Free School Lunches Served

High unemployment rates and families' proactive efforts to save money have resulted in significantly more students eating lunch at school. According to Saved by the Lunch Bell: As Economy Sinks, School Nutrition Program Participation Rises, a report released today by the School Nutrition Association, nationwide an average of 425,000 more students are participating in free and reduced school lunch programs. More than three quarters of districts surveyed reported an increase in free school lunches provided, meaning the effects are being felt in districts across the country. Because the school-based child nutrition programs are entitlement programs, federal reimbursements will be provided to schools for each meal served; however, the amount of reimbursement provided continues to fall short of the actual costs associated with producing each school meal.

The survey of over 130 school nutrition directors from 38 states found that 79% of districts saw an increase in the number of free lunches served while nearly 65% saw an increase in the number of reduced price lunches served over last year. Participation by students paying the full price for school lunch decreased in 48% of districts, reflecting a potential shift in the economic status of many American families. Almost 60% of survey respondents reported an overall increase in National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participation, with over 69% reporting an increase in participation in the School Breakfast Program (SBP) in spite of a slight decline in school enrollment this school year compared to last school year.

While the report is another indicator of grim economic news, SNA president Dr. Katie Wilson, SNS, emphasized that, "this year, when hunger is more common, more students are able to eat a balanced, nutritious meal at school." Meals served under the NSLP must meet nutrition guidelines based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, therefore no more than 30% of calories can come from fat and less than 10% from saturated fat. School lunches provide one-third of the Recommended Dietary Allowances of protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, calcium and calories over the course of one week of menus. Students who eat school lunches consume fewer calories from fat than students who bring lunch from home, according to research conducted by Dr. Alice Jo Rainville of Eastern Michigan University. Additionally, school lunches contain three times as many dairy products, twice as much fruit and seven times the vegetable amounts compared to lunches from home.

As school nutrition professionals feed the increasing number of students participating, 88% of school nutrition directors reported this past August that the NSLP reimbursement of $2.57 per free lunch served was not sufficient for their program to cover the costs of producing a meal. Based on an estimated average cost to prepare a school lunch (including labor, food and other inputs) of about $2.92, and revenue of anywhere from $2.52 to $2.77 to offset that cost (from federal reimbursements, commodity entitlement and the average price paid for a school lunch) school nutrition programs are experiencing a potential loss of at least $4.5 million per school day based on 30 million school lunches provided. School nutrition directors continue to call on Congress to enact legislation, through an economic stimulus package or child nutrition reauthorization, that would provide an adequate meal reimbursement to ensure nutritious school meals continue to be provided to children.

Any child at a participating school may purchase a meal through the National School Lunch Program. Children from families with incomes at or below 130% of the poverty level are eligible for free meals. Those with incomes between 130% and 185% of the poverty level are eligible for reduced-price meals, for which students can be charged no more than 40 cents. During the current school year, 130% of the poverty level is $27,560 for a family of four; 185% is $39,220). Children from families with incomes over 185% of poverty pay a full price, though their meals are still subsidized to some extent. Local school boards generally set their own prices for full-price (paid) meals, with the national average at $2.08 after many districts raised their meal prices earlier this year. Paid school lunch still represents a bargain when compared to the national average cost to prepare a lunch from home, estimated to be $3.41. School nutrition programs are required to operate their meal services as non-profit programs.

The School Nutrition Association is a national, non-profit professional organization representing more than 55,000 members who provide high-quality, low-cost meals to students across the country. The Association and its members are dedicated to feeding children safe and nutritious meals. Founded in 1946, SNA is the only association devoted exclusively to protecting and enhancing children's health and well being through school meals and sound nutrition education.

How ‘parent-friendly’ are school districts in North Carolina?

This report develops a system to evaluate school districts on how “parent-friendly” they are. In other words, to what extent do North Carolina’s school districts provide children a sound, basic education in a stable and safe school environment that is responsive to the needs of children and the concerns of parents?

Key facts:

* In general, North Carolina’s school districts are not parent-friendly organizations. While a handful of school districts fare reasonably well in the final ranking, the highest score was a 3.5 or a B+.

* School districts in western North Carolina generally fared very well in the ranking, while those in the Triad, Triangle, Charlotte, and northeastern regions fared poorly. Eight of the ten most parent-friendly school districts are located in western North Carolina.

* In general, smaller school districts are more parent-friendly than large school districts. Most of the top-performing school districts enroll between 1,000 and 5,000 students.

* Without the threat of losing its clientele to competitors, many schools and school districts behave like the monopolies they are — focused on strengthening the organization’s position and goals, rather than meeting the needs of students and parents. Genuine accountability to parents begins with school choice.

· Further research will be required to pinpoint the combination of factors that contribute to their success, but district size and high quality administrative or teaching staffs (or both) appear to be outstanding reasons why districts fared well in this ranking.

Complete report:

http://www.johnlocke.org/acrobat/spotlights/spotlight-356_parentfriendlyschools.pdf