Education Research Report

For back issues of this newsletter, as well as current and back issues of our state newsletters and U.S. Education News, please go to: http://www.queuenews.com/

‘Math Anxiety’ Confuses the Equation for Students

Stellar athletes, successful entrepreneurs, and motivational speakers like to say that pressure makes diamonds. The higher the stakes and the harder the circumstances, the thinking goes, the more likely we are to overcome our fears and doubts and produce results.

If only it were that simple in mathematics.

In recent years, researchers and educators have delved further into the topic of “math anxiety,” or the ways in which students’ lack of confidence in that subject undermines their academic performance. Today, the issue is receiving renewed attention from academic scholars and others, who believe that developing a better understanding of the causes and implications of math anxiety is a key to improving achievement for many students…

To see the complete article: (subscription may be required): http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/02/16/24anxiety.h26.html

Sixth Graders in Middle Schools Fare Worse than Peers in Elementary Schools, Study Finds

Sixth graders placed in middle schools have more discipline problems and lower test scores than their peers who attend elementary schools, according to a study by researchers at Duke University and the University of California, Berkeley.

In addition, the negative effects of grouping sixth graders with older students are lasting and persist at least through ninth grade.

"These findings cast serious doubt on the wisdom of the historic nationwide shift to the grades 6-8 middle school format," said Philip Cook, Duke professor of public policy and economics and an author of the paper.

In the 1970s, less than 25 percent of middle schools included sixth grade. Now, the figure is 75 percent nationwide and 90 percent in North Carolina, which has led the trend toward grades 6-8 middle schools. The shift took place in part due to school population pressures, but also because educators believed it was developmentally appropriate.

"What's been lacking in the debate is any real data on how the school configuration affects student behavior and performance," Cook said. "As it turns out, moving sixth grade out of elementary school appears to have had substantial costs."

Jacob Vigdor and Clara Muschkin, Cook?s colleagues at Duke?s Sanford Institute of Public Policy, and Robert MacCoun of UC Berkeley co-authored the report, "Should Sixth Grade Be in Elementary or Middle School" An Analysis of Grade Configuration and Student Behavior.? The report is available online as a Sanford Institute working paper at http://www.pubpol.duke.edu/research/papers/SAN07-01.pdf

The researchers contrasted sixth graders attending North Carolina's grade 6-8 middle schools with those attending grade K-6 elementary schools. The data pertained to 44,709 sixth-graders in 243 schools in 99 districts.

The sixth graders attending middle school were more than twice as likely to be disciplined as those attending elementary school, after accounting for socioeconomic and demographic differences in the groups. Drug-related disciplinary incidents were nearly four times greater among the middle school group. The pattern continued as the sixth graders advanced through the grades, suggesting the problems were not tied solely to the transition to a new school environment.

In addition, sixth graders in elementary schools improved their scores on end-of-grade exams in math and reading relative to their peers in middle schools, and those gains persisted through ninth grade.

Although the study didn't pinpoint the causes for the differences, the authors concluded that the 6-8 middle school structure brought impressionable sixth graders into routine contact with older adolescents who were a bad influence. Older adolescents are more rebellious and more involved in delinquency, sex, illicit drugs and other activities that violate school rules, the authors noted.

"This points to a general pattern whereby it is better for kids to make transitions later rather than earlier," said Vigdor, a co-author. "Sixth grade is an especially vulnerable time, in the sense that sixth graders display a strong susceptibility to peer influence and the decision to expose them to slightly older or slightly younger students seems to have a lasting impact."

Putting Arizona Education Reform to the Test: School Choice and Early Education Expansion

Preschool enthusiasts say that preschool results in higher student achievement. In her second State of the State address, Arizona governor Janet Napolitano asserted:

The data is simply overwhelming that the combination of quality childcare and full-day kindergarten will reap rewards many times the financial investment we make now. Our children will be better prepared to learn, they will be less likely to drop out of high school, and they will have higher academic achievement if we start them off on a stronger footing.

Arizona policymakers have tried both strategies in recent years, making it possible to empirically examine how successful the strategies have been. Examining test score data from Pima County elementary schools and early education survey data from school districts across Arizona, this study evaluates the relative efficacy of the preschool strategiy.

The data show that students in schools with all-day kindergarten programs have statistically significant higher 3rd-grade test scores, but there is no impact on 5th-grade scores. This finding is consistent with previous research.

The researchers claim that the findings of this empirical analysis demonstrate that early childhood education expansion is an expensive reform that delivers only transitory benefits.

Down load this report, which also includes data on school choice, here: http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/Common/Files/Multimedia/EarlyEdvSchoolChoice.pdf

The National Educational Technology Standards Project

“What students should know and be able to do to learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly digital world …”

In a unique partnership with teachers and teacher educators, curriculum and education associations, government, businesses, and private foundations, International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has responded to calls for educational technology standards, guidelines, and tools with its National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) Project. During the past several years, ISTE has released a number of publications supporting the National Educational Technology Standards. The latest books in this series include NETS•T—Preparing Teachers to Use Technology; NETS Curriculum Series—Multidisciplinary Units for Grades 3–5; and Making Technology Work for You—A Guide for School Administrators. Other NETS books cover a range of topics including multidisciplinary units for Grades PK–2 and teacher assessment.

Current list of ISTE NETS publications and ordering information

The latest draft of new standards is available here:

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/NETS_Refresh_Forum_Meetings/ISTENETS_
Refreshed_S4Jan07.pdf

Please provide feedback to ISTE by completing the survey at www.iste.org/nets-survey

Educator Community and Elementary Student Performance

Students in schools where the staff is working well as a group generally outperform their peers in schools where the staff is not functioning as well. This finding is particularly strong regarding tests of citizenship and across all academic measures for students at high-poverty schools.

Researchers were interested in determining the relationship between varying levels of staff teamwork or group cohesion and student achievement. To determine how much teacher community affected student achievement, they decided to look at group cohesiveness and student achievement in 61 Ohio elementary schools. The researchers used a survey to evaluate group cohesiveness in each school and then mapped those outcomes with student achievement results from the state's 4th grade assessment.

See complete report at: http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/menuitem.6a9dfddd720040bf989ad324d3108a0c/

Improving Instruction for Students With Learning Needs

The challenge of educating students with special learning needs is enormous and daunting. Schools must not only cope with a growing population of students identified as having special needs, but they also face heightened pressure to ensure these students make strides in core academic areas like math and reading. But the challenge is not insurmountable, and exciting new instructional approaches are beginning to show promise. This ASCD SmartBrief Special Report on Improving Instruction For Students With Learning Needs explores the topic in depth, with a focus on identifying successful strategies for education professionals.

One article of particular interest is:

Discarding the Deficit Model

The traditional model of putting resources toward determining whether children have disabilities is often based on ambiguous criteria and has resulted in the over-representation of black and Hispanic children in special education classes. A more progressive model of identifying specific instructional needs at early ages is beginning to emerge, posing a challenge to the deficit approach that has prevailed for so long.

This and several other related articles can be found at: http://www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/menuitem.c00a836e7622024fb85516f762108a0c/

Education Next: With Fewer Nuns and More Competition, Catholic Schools Find New Ways to Fight Declining Enrollments

A new report in the spring 2007 issue of Education Next finds that dramatic changes in the composition of teaching staff as well as competition from public charter schools have contributed to enrollment declines and rising tuition costs in Catholic schools in the United States despite their history of strong educational achievement. Faced with a new educational landscape, many Catholic schools are trying innovative tactics to deal with the challenges.

The rising cost of providing a Catholic education has been affected by the loss of nuns in the classroom, where for years they provided high value at relatively low cost. The ranks of nuns and other minimum-wage religious teachers in Catholic schools have declined by 62 percent in the last five decades. Staff composition has shifted from being some 90 percent female and religious to less than 5 percent; laypeople now make up more than 95 percent of all Catholic school employees. With these changes have come cost increases: Average annual tuition has gone from next to nothing to more than $2,400 in elementary schools and almost $6,000 in high schools.

Although still a bargain by private school standards, Catholic schools must compete with “free,” public charter schools. Charter schools, which now enroll more than one million students and constitute a growing presence in many cities, have drawn students from Catholic schools as well as from traditional public schools. Voucher programs in some cities, however, are proving to be something of an antidote. Since 1996, Catholic schools in Milwaukee have been among the many private schools to benefit from the first state-supported voucher program. In 2005, each of the some 14,000 vouchers passed out in Milwaukee was worth $5,943 at any one of 117 eligible schools, 35 of them Catholic.

“Just as the charter movement offers private schools more competition,” says Peter Meyer, author of the Education Next report, “so the voucher movement levels the playing field for them. As the largest private school system in the country, Catholic schools are most dramatically affected by these changes.”

Demographic shifts have also hurt Catholic schools. As working- and middle-class Americans left inner cities for the suburbs, immigrants from Catholic nations in Latin America and the Caribbean took their place in the downtown churches, but the new groups are poor and lack a tradition of Catholic school support. The United States is still the only country with a formal system of independent Catholic schools.

But, as Meyer reports, despite a growing Catholic population in the United States--from 45 million in 1965 to almost 77 million today, making it the largest Christian denomination in the country--Catholic school enrollment has declined, from 5.2 million students in nearly 13,000 schools in 1960 to 2.3 million students in 7,500 schools. Fifty years ago Catholic schools educated 12 percent of all schoolchildren in the United States; today they enroll less than 5 percent. And almost 14 percent of Catholic school enrollment is now non-Catholic, up from less than 3 percent in 1970.

According to the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), between 2000 and 2006, nearly 600 Catholic elementary and secondary schools closed, a 7 percent decline, and nearly 290,000 students left, almost 11 percent. The largest declines were among elementary schools in 12 urban dioceses (New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Cleveland, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Boston, Newark, Detroit, and Miami), which together have lost almost 20 percent of their students (more than 136,000) in the past five years.

These setbacks have occurred despite the fact that Catholic schools do a better job of educating children than public schools, especially poor and minority students, according to a number of influential studies by researchers at the University of Chicago, Harvard University, Northwestern University, and the Brookings Institution.

Because the Catholic school “system” is actually a loose and decentralized confederation supported, for the most part, by 19,000 parishes in more than 150 dioceses, it has been difficult to coordinate new strategies to respond to the challenges. Catholic schools are now, however, finding innovative ways to fund raise and recruit, including bringing in full-time marketing personnel.

“The public sector is also beginning to realize the true worth of Catholic schools,” says Meyer, “since they are now educating substantial numbers of children for substantially less money than it costs to educate those children in public schools.” The latest NCEA data show the mean tuition and per-pupil cost for Catholic elementary schools to be $2,607 and $5,870; for high schools the numbers are $4,268 and $7,200, well below average public school per-pupil expenditures. More broadly, Meyer writes, the NCEA estimates the value of the Catholic school system’s annual subsidy to the nation at $19.4 billion.

For more on the changing face of Catholic schools, read “Can Catholic Schools Be Saved?” online at www.EducationNext.org.

High Poverty Schools and the Distribution of Teachers and Principals

Although many factors combine to make a successful school, most people agree that quality teachers and school principals are among the most important requirements for success, especially when success is defined by the ability of the school to raise the achievement of its students. The central question for this study is how the quality of the teachers and principals in high poverty schools in North Carolina compares to that in the schools serving more advantaged students. A related question is why these differences emerge. The consistency of the patterns across many measures of qualifications for both teachers and principals leaves no doubt that students in the high poverty schools are served by school personnel with lower qualifications than those in the lower poverty schools. Moreover, in many cases the differences are large.

To see the full report: http://www.pubpol.duke.edu/research/papers/SAN06-08.pdf

Nonprofit Scholarly Publishers Call for Exploration of Open Access Models to Improve Scholarly Communications

Discussions of the concept of open access to scholarly information are increasingly marked by highly charged rhetoric and an unfortunate polarization of opinion. The Association of American University Presses (AAUP) released a statement today outlining the association's perspective on what has become known as open access, and hopes to help steer the debate towards productive solutions that will best serve the entire scholarly community.

“Until quite recently, the debate has centered on one type of scholarly literature, scientific, technical, and medical (STM) journal articles, and one particular definition, entirely free-to-user, of "open access." AAUP believes that the conversation should expand to address the different creation and distribution needs of scholarly literature in all fields and formats, including monographs, and to consider a variety of models for providing open access - all of which entail risks and benefits to the entire system of scholarly communications that are not yet fully understood.

Knowledge carries costs for its production, and requires - in addition to the scholar's own work - knowledgeable editorial selection and careful vetting, and - regardless of a final digital or print format - quality in copyediting, design, production, and distribution. Many universities and scholarly societies have made significant investments in their presses and in the professional expertise of publishing staffs in order to support the spread of knowledge worldwide. Changing the system of scholarly communications requires us to take careful stock of the costs of doing so - not just for presses, but for parent universities, scholarly societies and their members, and all other universities and research institutions that benefit from the distribution of scholarship.

The AAUP recognizes that non-profit scholarly publishers have an obligation to confront the economic, legal, technological, and philosophical challenges to the existing system. Indeed, while proud of their past achievements, university presses and scholarly societies have never been averse to change. Being embedded in the culture of higher education that values experimentation and advances in knowledge, presses have been open to new ways of facilitating scholarly communications. Many AAUP members have begun experimenting with varieties of open access that seek to balance the mission of scholarly exchange with its costs. The AAUP and its member presses welcome the opportunity to participate with all willing partners to expand and strengthen scholarly communications, to serve our mission and to improve the system for all.”

The complete statement is online at: http://aaupnet.org/aboutup/issues/oa/statement.pdf

American Students Failing to Meet Global Standards

American students continue to lag behind students internationally, a trend that is threatening our nation's global standing. Despite spending more than $11,000 per student annually on education, the United States ranks towards the bottom in international testing and is forced to dedicate $16.6 billion each year to remedial education for high school graduates who still lack the skills needed to go on to college or join the work force.

"The American Education Diet: Can U.S. Students Survive on Junk Food?", released today as an action paper by the Center for Education Reform (CER), reveals the shocking state of American education and calls for the necessary reforms to put America back on the path to academic prominence.

"Our current education system refuses to accept change and adjust to the growing global economy," said CER President Jeanne Allen. "If we continue to accept the status quo and act as if nothing is wrong, the effects on our country's economy and culture will be felt for decades. Failure to embrace dramatic education reforms threatens the nation's long-range future as a global power."

"The American Education Diet" looks at U.S. student achievement in math and science, reading, language, history, and cultural studies. It also examines some of the causes and effects of our failing system, including the misappropriation of time and money, teacher quality, grade inflation, dropout rates, and the achievement gap.

Some of the more disturbing findings include:

In 2003, American 15-year-olds trailed most industrialized nations in science and math, according to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Education Indicators 2005, finishing 19th out of 30 nations in science and 21st out of 29 countries in math.
Seventy-one percent of U.S. students told the Public Agenda Foundation that they do the bare minimum to get by.
Seventy-four percent of professors and 73 percent of employers told Public Agenda that American students lack basic grammar and spelling skills. Roughly the same percentages said they also lack the ability to write clearly.
In 2004, over half of those teaching physical science classes (chemistry, physics, earth, or space sciences) are without a major or minor in any of the physical sciences. In high poverty schools, nearly 70 percent were without a major or minor in science.

Last released by CER in 2001, "The American Education Diet" is a composite of evidence compiled by various sources. The action paper finds that American education has not improved in the last five years, and in fact students are falling further behind academically, compared with their international peers.

Click here to download the report: http://www.edreform.com/_upload/CER_JunkFoodDiet.pdf

American Statistical Association Report Offers Guidelines for Use of Statistics in Mathematics Education Research

The "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" (NCLB, now Public Law 107-110) calls for research that "involves the application of rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain reliable and valid knowledge relevant to education activities and programs." An ASA working group, in a series of workshops over a three-year period, reviewed current mathematical research and discussed modern statistical methods that could be applied to such research. The ASA report, Using Statistics Effectively in Mathematics Education Research, offers an outline of guidelines for evaluating and reporting mathematics education research.

A report released recently by the American Statistical Association (ASA) offers an outline of guidelines for evaluating and reporting mathematics education research. The report, Using Statistics Effectively in Mathematics Education Research, is the result of three years of workshops funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and conducted by the ASA's Working Group on Statistics in Mathematics Education Research.

The "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" (NCLB, now Public Law 107-110) calls for research that "involves the application of rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain reliable and valid knowledge relevant to education activities and programs." The ASA working group, in a series of workshops over a three-year period, reviewed current mathematical research and discussed modern statistical methods that could be applied to such research. The process, according to Richard L. Scheaffer, working group chair, "consisted of amazingly frank and deep debates on issues surrounding the important research questions in mathematics education and the statistical methodologies that might be employed to solve them."

The key components of a research program, which are discussed and defined extensively in the report, are:

Generate research ideas: ideas for a good research program come from many sources, and generating ideas is ongoing throughout the research project.
Frame the research program: clarify the goals of the program, define the concepts and constructs involved, conceptualize measurement tools, and consider logistics and feasibility issues.
Examine the research program: the hypotheses generated during the framing phase should be examined in a larger community of subjects within a single institution. The main goal is to establish efficacy so that the research program can move on to studies that have the ability to establish causality.
Generalize the research program: Once small-scale research studies have examined phenomena through observation or intervention and have established the potential for significant effects in the population of interest, more comprehensive studies can be mounted that seek to generalize what has been found in order to obtain additional results through larger studies.
Extend the research program: Once a research program has shown significant effects through a rigorous generalized study, the research can be extended by activities such as syntheses of multiple studies, longitudinal studies of long-term effects, and the development of implementation policy.

The ASA working group was comprised of statisticians and mathematics education researchers to include a broader perspective and provide a more fruitful result. The complete report is available for viewing or downloading via the ASA web site at http://www.amstat.org/research_grants/pdfs/SMERReport.pdf

About the American Statistical Association

The American Statistical Association (ASA), a scientific and educational society founded in Boston in 1839, is the second oldest professional society in the United States. For more than 160 years, ASA has been providing its 18,000 members serving in academia, government, and industry and the public with up-to-date, useful information about statistics. The ASA has a proud tradition of service to statisticians, quantitative scientists, and users of statistics across a wealth of academic areas and applications. For additional information about the American Statistical Association, please visit the association's web site at http://www.amstat.org or call 703.684.1221.

Benefits of More Homework Vary Across Nations, Grades

A study of global homework patterns suggests that the benefits of more homework assignments to boost student test scores may vary widely according to the grade level, the quality of a nation's schools and the perceived value of homework. Therefore, researchers caution that government and education policymakers need to consider the appropriate grade levels and related impact before trying to create overall homework policies for schools.

"Over the past two decades, much of the policy discussion in the U.S. has focused on increasing national test scores to the level of international standards," says Gerald LeTendre, professor of education policy studies at Penn State and lead author of the study. "More standardized testing drives educators to give more homework in order to prepare for these exams. Homework has moved to center stage in the debate over how nations can improve their economic competitiveness by boosting student scores. Yet, national policies aimed at simply increasing homework amounts are unlikely to produce increases in average student achievement scores."

Overall, the data shows that U.S. students receive an average amount of daily homework, compared with other nations. But the percentage of U.S. elementary students with four or more hours per night has risen to 8 percent, well above the 1 percent reported in Japan and 5 percent in Taiwan, two countries considered benchmarks for U.S. students. Five percent of the U.S. middle school students in the survey reported four or more hours of homework per night, compared to 3 percent in Taiwan and 1 percent in Japan.

LeTendre, professor of education policy studies, and Motoko Akiba, University of Missouri, Columbia, analyzed data from the Third International Math and Science Survey (TIMSS) for 1995 and 2003, selecting 18 nations to examine overall trends. They presented their findings at the annual Comparative and International Education Society in Baltimore, Md.

"An overlooked factor is the quality of the education in a nation's public schools," the researchers say. "Some developing nations with fewer resources may see an increase in student achievement with more homework because the homework helps student to catch up in their skills. Students in schools of well-funded nations may not need to spend as much time on homework."

For U.S. schools, the study shows a negative relationship between higher homework amounts and student achievement in elementary schools, and only a very small benefit in middle schools. At the middle school level, the students who did some homework, but not excessive amounts, seem to score the best. The U.S. falls into the "balanced" pattern of homework completion found in many nations where students who do modest amounts of homework (30 minutes to an hour an a half per night) have higher test scores that peers who do no homework or those who study more than four hours per night.

"We may need to know more about the specific relationship between national policies or practices related to homework," the researchers add. "The role of homework in a child's life and a nation's educational policies has been hotly debated, and there is now a significant backlash in the U.S. against homework."

A Guide to International Tests of Student Achievement

Few education stories get as much attention as the periodic ranking of U.S. students on international tests. The headlines are by now familiar: "U.S. Kids Mediocre in Math and Science", “4th and 8th Graders in U.S. Still Lag Many Peers" Surely, the media fascination with these stories is partly driven by our national desire to be number one. But according to many policymakers, business leaders, and analysts, more is at stake than American boasting rights. These individuals argue that the nation's economic future depends directly on our ability to raise our present academic standing, particularly in math and science (Business Roundtable 2005; National Research Council 2005; White House 2006).

Others aren't so sure. These observers assert that the reported failure of American students is exaggerated, claiming that the differences among countries aren't so large. Besides, they say, our top students do just fine compared with their top-scoring peers in other countries.

Still others point to inherent difficulties in trying to make apples-to-apples comparisons across countries and argue that international rankings are not meaningful.

Full study here: http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/site/c.kjJXJ5MPIwE/b.2422943/k.3608/More_than_a_horse_race_
A_guide_to_international_tests_of_student_achievement.htm

What Research Says About the Value of Homework

Whether homework helps students—and how much homework is appropriate—has been debated for many years. Homework has been in the headlines again recently and continues to be a topic of controversy, with claims that students and families are suffering under the burden of huge amounts of homework. School board members, educators, and parents may wish to turn to the research for answers to their questions about the benefits and drawbacks of homework. Unfortunately, the research has produced mixed results so far, and more research is needed. Nonetheless, there are some findings that can help to inform decisions about homework.

What follows is a summary of the research to date:

Full study here: http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/site/c.kjJXJ5MPIwE/b.2466963/k.D3DF/
Key_lessons_What_research_says_about_the_value_of_homework.htm

U.S. Chamber Report Card on Education Says States Failing our Students, Risking our Future

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's bipartisan report on state educational effectiveness shows that America's K-12 schools are failing their students and putting America's future competitiveness at risk.

"We are not making the grade when it comes to preparing students for their future," said Tom Donohue, Chamber president and CEO. "Without real leadership in education reform, our economic future and prosperity are at risk. If companies were run like many education systems, they wouldn't last a week."

Leaders and Laggards: A State-by-State Report Card on Educational Effectiveness graded all 50 states and Washington, DC, on nine broad categories including academic achievement, return on investment, truth in advertising, rigor of standards, and data quality. The report and accompanying recommendations for reform were prepared with John Podesta, CEO of the Center for American Progress and former Clinton White House chief of staff, and Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute. They are available online.

"The business community cannot sit on the sidelines while another generation loses its chance at the American dream," said Donohue. "Young people cannot succeed without a first-rate education and we cannot succeed as a nation without them.

"We must immediately ensure that our students have effective teachers, that all schools use rigorous standards, and that education systems are innovative and employ sound management principles. Without these steps, the wage gap will become a chasm."

Education is critical to the American dream. Unemployment rates for those without a high school degree are 8.1% compared with 2.2% for college graduates. Yet, approximately 40% of all U.S. college students take at least one remedial course, and most students who take remedial courses never earn a college degree.

"The quality of United Stares public education must be significantly improved for all students and most especially for those students who historically have received lesser educational opportunities-students of color, with special needs and/or from low-income families," said John D. Podesta, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress. "We need every student to be a successful learner if we are to maintain a thriving economy in which everyone contributes and succeeds."

To see full report: http://www.uschamber.com/NR/rdonlyres/ej5ny2pjqrdchnsde2sqo2hj2ybch7xf7gw2wjhwbxfvfxvpu7r54syv637naxtxbgqx3q73u74vaa/Resource1.pdf

Research on the Color Red Shows Definite Impact on Achievement

The color red can affect how people function: Red means danger and commands us to stop in traffic. Researchers at the University of Rochester have now found that red also can keep us from performing our best on tests.

If test takers are aware of even a hint of red, performance on a test will be affected to a significant degree, say researchers at Rochester and the University of Munich. The researchers’ article in the February issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General on the effect of red on intellectual performance reveals that color associations are so strong and embedded so deeply that people are predisposed to certain reactions when they see red.

Andrew J. Elliot, lead author and professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, and his co-authors found that when people see even a flash of red before being tested, they associate the color with mistakes and failures. In turn, they do poorly on the test. Red, of course, is traditionally associated with marking errors on school papers.

"Color clearly has aesthetic value, but it can also carry specific meaning and convey specific information," says Elliot. "Our study of avoidance motivation is part and parcel of that."

Four experiments demonstrated that the brief perception of red prior to an important test—such as an IQ test or a major exam—actually impaired performance. Two further experiments also established the link between red and avoidance motivation when task choice and psychophysiological measures were applied.

The findings show that "care must be taken in how red is used in achievement contexts," the researchers reported, "and illustrate how color can act as a subtle environmental cue that has important influences on behavior."

Elliot and his colleagues didn’t use just any color of red. He assessed the colors using guidelines for hue, saturation, and brightness, and purchased a high-quality printer and a spectrophotometer for the research. He was stunned to learn that results from earlier work on color psychology by others didn’t control for saturation and brightness.

The article’s hypothesis is based on the idea that color can evoke motivation and have an effect without the subject being aware of it. "It leads people to do worse without their knowledge," says Elliot, when it comes to academic achievement. In one of the six tests given, for example, people were allowed a choice of questions to answer. Most of them chose to answer the easiest question, a classic example of how to avoid failure.

The researchers believe that "color carries different meanings in different contexts." If the context changes, the implications do, too. Elliot’s next study will focus on physical attractiveness.

Schools Help Hold the Line Against Childhood Obesity, Study Says

Schools do more to help prevent obesity among children than they do to cause it, new research suggests.

A nationwide study found that one measure of obesity rose more than twice as fast when kindergarten and first-grade students were on summer vacation than when they were in school.

And obese children were helped most by being in school: they gained weight no faster than other children did during the school year. It was only during the summer that overweight children gained weight more quickly than average.

“We really can't blame schools for the rise in childhood obesity,” said Paul von Hippel, co-author of the study and research statistician in sociology at Ohio State University.

“The problem is primarily outside of schools.”

The study comes at a time when states are putting increasing pressure on schools to help battle the epidemic of childhood obesity.

As of last August, the University of Baltimore Research Initiative reported 32 states had enacted or proposed legislation regulating vending machines at schools, such as prohibiting certain types of high-fat and high-sugar foods from being sold. At the same time, 37 states have enacted or proposed laws controlling the types of foods and beverages offered during school hours.

While these laws may be helpful and well-intentioned, their impact may be limited, said Douglas Downey, another co-author of the study and professor of sociology at Ohio State.

“When it comes to childhood obesity, schools appear to be more a part of the solution than the problem,” Downey said. “The problem of childhood obesity would actually be much worse if children were not in school.”

The study appears in the April 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. It used data from a survey of 5,380 students from around the country administered by the U.S. Department of Education.

All the students were assessed for their body mass index (BMI), which is a measure of relative obesity that is derived from height and weight. The students' BMI scores were measured at the beginning and end of their kindergarten and first-grade school years. By comparing BMI scores at the end of kindergarten and the beginning of first grade, the researchers were able to assess BMI changes during summer vacation.

The study found that increases in BMI scores grew more than three times faster during the summer as they did during the kindergarten school year, and more than twice as fast as during the first-grade school year.

And it was not just overweight children who did better when they were in school. The results showed that underweight children tended to gain BMI more quickly than their peers did during the school year and more slowly during summer vacation. Meanwhile, obese children benefited the most from attending school as their rate of BMI gain was reduced the most.

In addition, schools seem to help hold the line in racial and ethnic gaps in obesity. Other studies have shown that Black and Hispanic children are most at risk for obesity, and this study confirms that finding. On the first day of kindergarten, Black and Hispanic children already showed slightly higher BMI scores than white children.

But the study showed that the racial and ethnic gaps in BMI scores only grew during summer vacation and not during the school year.

“Schools are a great treatment. They have benefits for all children, and especially for children who need it the most,” Downey said.

Schools probably help limit the spread of obesity because of their structured environment, von Hippel and Downey said. Time spent in class means children's access to food is restricted. The results are consistent with earlier studies suggesting that adults, too, eat more healthily in more structured environments. Adults consume less and gain weight more slowly during the workweek than they do during the weekend or during the winter holidays.

The results don't mean that schools can't do a better job, von Hippel said.

“Schools can ensure that they have healthier choices available in vending machines and continue to improve the nutrition values of lunches,” von Hippel said. “But we shouldn't be surprised if these changes have a relatively small impact on childhood obesity. The major part of the problem is outside school.”

Schools may play a more important role by teaching children how to make healthier choices outside of school, such as limiting portion sizes, favoring healthy snacks, and playing kickball instead of video games.

“We need to change children's behavior after the bell rings at the end of the school day. And that means changing the out-of-school environment or the way that families respond to it,” von Hippel said.

Number of California Schools Facing “Restructuring”

No Child Left Behind’s Controversial Last Consequence – Increases Sharply
California Struggles to Find Effective Remedies

California educators face an uphill battle to improve schools in restructuring – the No Child Left Behind Act’s ultimate sanction for struggling schools – according to a new study from the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Education Policy. The number of California schools facing the sanction nearly doubled in the last year, increasing from 401 schools in 2005-06 to 701 in 2006-07, or roughly 8 percent of California schools.

The study, Beyond the Mountains: An Early Look at Restructuring Results in California, examined the restructuring process in California. Schools are placed in restructuring when they have missed adequate yearly progress (AYP) targets for five or more consecutive years; these schools must undertake reform strategies intended to boost their performance. More than 60 percent of California’s restructuring schools are in urban areas and one-third are in suburban areas – a higher share of suburban schools than in the previous year.

California has more schools facing this mandated reform than most other states not only because it is a large state, but also because it began implementing test-based accountability systems sooner than most states. California started calculating AYP under the federal law that preceded No Child Left Behind.

Of those schools in restructuring’s implementation phase, 207 have failed to make AYP for seven consecutive years, and 10 have failed to make AYP for eight consecutive years. Meanwhile, only 10 schools that were in any phase of restructuring made achievement gains that were sufficient to allow them to exit school improvement in the last year.

Contrary to the assumption behind the U.S. Department of Education’s recent call for disallowing “minor” restructuring strategies in favor of replacing staff or reconstituting the school’s governance structure, CEP’s study finds that California schools that replaced staff were no more likely to increase the percentages of proficient students on state tests than restructuring schools in general. Instead, officials at schools that improved student achievement attributed their success to analyzing school data and tailoring interventions to the needs of the particular school.

The report also finds that few California schools in restructuring converted into charter schools (2 percent) or turned their operation over to an outside entity (10 percent). Instead, 30 percent replaced staff and 89 percent of schools implemented the “undertake any other major restructuring of the school’s governance that produces fundamental reform” option. In California this approach has taken a variety of forms, including designating a district-level coordinator, changing school schedules, hiring coaches to improve instruction, and adding instructional programs to improve achievement for English language learners. The percentages of schools choosing various options do not total 100 percent since some schools used more than one restructuring strategy.

And while many schools elect to engage in a variety of restructuring reform options, the report notes that schools using the “any other” option—and not also replacing staff, turning the school over to an outside entity, or becoming a charter—in 2005-06 were more likely to meet AYP targets in English language arts (ELA) than restructuring schools in general. Of the 164 schools that fit these criteria, 50 percent (or 82 schools) met AYP targets in ELA based on 2005-06 testing, compared with 44 percent of all schools in restructuring implementation. This finding should be viewed with caution, however, because it is based on just one year of data and the types of actions taken under the any-other option varied greatly.

“California is beginning to offer federal and state officials an important look at the impact of restructuring on struggling schools,” said Jack Jennings, president and CEO of the Center on Education Policy. “While it is still too early to tell whether restructuring is working, it is clear from the experience of California and Michigan, the two states we have studied in-depth, that simply requiring schools to replace staff does not guarantee increased student achievement. Rather, success is linked to implementing multiple improvement strategies.”

To understand better California’s efforts, the Center conducted case studies through interviews and document reviews in four school districts and eight schools in restructuring. The case studies show that all the participating schools have implemented teacher team planning time, added teacher or principal coaches and changed their schedules to allow more time for special instruction for struggling students. In addition, all interviewees mentioned they would like to see the law give credit for individual students’ growth, regardless of whether they make AYP. The case study districts and schools include:

Grant Joint Union School District, which includes Martin Luther King, Jr. Junior High School and Grant Union High School;
Oakland Unified School District, which includes Cox Elementary, Highland Elementary, Sobrante Park Elementary and Whittier Elementary;
Palmdale Elementary School District, which includes Yucca Elementary; and
Tahoe-Truckee Joint Unified School District, which includes North Tahoe Middle School.

Over the past three years, the Center on Education Policy has conducted a series of analyses of the school restructuring processes in Maryland, Michigan and California as part of its comprehensive, multiyear study of the No Child Left Behind Act. The reports are all available at:
http://www.cep-dc.org/pubs/beyondmountains/07014%20CA%20Restruct.pdf

To see related articles:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_5321103

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0301/p01s03-ussc.html

Today's High School Students Are Bored in Class

Today's high school students say they are bored in class because they dislike the material and experience inadequate teacher interaction, according to a special report from Indiana University's High School Survey of Student Engagement (HSSSE). The findings, released today (Feb. 28), show that 2 out of 3 students are bored in class every day, while 17 percent say they are bored in every class.

More than 81,000 students responded to the annual survey. HSSSE was administered in 110 high schools, ranging in size from 37 students to nearly 4,000, across 26 states.

According to the director of the project, the reasons high school students claim they are bored are as significant as the boredom itself. Ethan Yazzie-Mintz, HSSSE project director for the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy (CEEP), says the finding that nearly 1 out of 5 respondents (31 percent) indicate he or she is bored in class due to "no interaction with teacher" is a troubling result.

"So, in a high school class, 1 out of 3 students is sitting there and not interacting with a teacher on a daily basis and maybe never," Yazzie-Mintz said. "They're not having those interactions, which we know are critical for student engagement with learning and with high schools."

Some of the key findings include:

Fewer than 2 percent of students say they are never bored in high school.
Seventy-five percent of students surveyed say they are bored in class because the "material wasn't interesting."
Nearly 40 percent felt bored because the material "wasn't relevant to me."

The lack of adult support may play a role in student disengagement from school. While 78 percent of students responding agree or strongly agree that at least "one adult in my school cares about me and knows me well," 22 percent have considered dropping out of school. Of those students who have considered dropping out, approximately 1 out of 4 indicated that one reason for considering this option was that "no adults in the school cared about me."

"The fact that this many students have considered dropping out of high school makes the numbers of dropouts that we actually see across the country -- and the supposed dropout crisis that we have -- not surprising," Yazzie-Mintz said. "I think schools definitely need to pay a lot more attention to what students are thinking and the reasons why they're dropping out."

The high dropout rate may also be related to the finding that half of the respondents said they have skipped school; 34 percent said they had skipped school either "once or twice," and 16 percent said they had skipped "many times." Yazzie-Mintz said the students who skip school are far more likely to consider dropping out and that this finding may suggest a reason for schools to reconsider how they handle discipline for students who skip.

Among the other findings:

Seventy-three percent of students who have considered dropping out said it was because "I didn't like the school."
Sixty-one percent said, "I didn't like the teachers,"
60 percent said, "I didn't see the value in the work I was being asked to do."

Students said activities in which they learn with and from peers are the most exciting and engaging. More than 80 percent of students responded that "discussion and debate" are "a little," "somewhat" or "very much" exciting and engaging, and more than 70 percent responded in this way about "group projects." By contrast, just 52 percent said teacher lecture is "a little," "somewhat" or "very much" exciting and engaging.

The survey found that students aren't spending a lot of time on homework. While 80 percent of the students surveyed indicated that doing written homework is either "somewhat important," "very important" or a "top priority," 43 percent reported spending an hour or less doing homework each week. Similarly, 73 percent of the students said reading and studying for class is either "somewhat important," "very important" or a "top priority." But 55 percent said they spent an hour or less per week reading and studying for class.

Even though students may not be putting in time outside of class, they expect to earn a diploma and go to college. Nearly 3 out of 4 students responded that they go to school for that very reason. Yazzie-Mintz said the lack of time spent studying and reading may work against such a goal.

"Students may not be doing the work to get them to that point," Yazzie-Mintz said. "Or, they're not interested so much in what they're doing in their classes as they are in the goal of getting a diploma and going on to college."

Yazzie-Mintz said the size of the sample certainly means that high schools from across the country can draw some conclusions about their own student bodies. He added that as administrators consider restructuring programs, the HSSSE data can be especially valuable.

"I think this brings critical student voices into reform efforts and into conversations about the structures and practices of individual schools," Yazzie-Mintz said.

Each participating school receives a customized report that compares its results to those of all HSSSE participants nationally. Schools may use the results to make changes that can improve the learning environment for their students.

HSSSE staff do not release information to the public or media about individual schools. However, individual participating schools can choose to release their results.

The entire report is available at: http://ceep.indiana.edu/hssse/

Teachers' Workday Averages 15.5 Hours

Hawaii's public school teachers are putting in an average of 15.5 hours of work per day, much of it on tasks demanded by federal mandates, according to a first-of-its-kind study.

More than half of that time is unpaid, according to the study by a joint committee made up of teacher union and state Department of Education members…

"Our plates are really overflowing, and there's been a clear impact on student achievement," said committee member Karen Shindo, representing the Hawai'i State Teachers Association. "Teachers have been pleading with us, 'Give us the time to teach the kids.' "

The extra duties — mostly administrative — also are leaving teachers less time to respond to the non-academic needs of their students at a time when students have more needs than ever, members of the committee said.

In presenting its findings to a Board of Education committee yesterday, the Time Committee said if teachers were paid for all their extra hours, they'd be earning an extra $63,000 a year, based on the average salary paid the state's public school teachers…

To read the complete article, plus comments, please go to: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070301/NEWS07/703010362

Expert Swims Against Trend of Special Ed Students in Mainstream Classes

Although more schools are enrolling children who have disabilities in regular classrooms, an expert in special education made the radical suggestion yesterday that they be "separated from the general school population and given intensive, relentless instruction."

Dr. Naomi Zigmond, a professor of special education at the University of Pittsburgh, discussed her uncommon views with members of the Learning Disabilities Association of America in a keynote address that kicked off its 44th annual international conference at the Westin Convention Center hotel.

"Because of the pressures for state testing and accountability and a desire to make kids feel normal and to expose them to what everyone else gets, we have been forgetting that special education is supposed to be special," said Dr. Zigmond, who has studied special education for 41 years.

"It's time for unconventional thinking," she said. "Because those things have taken precedence over what special education was invented for and that is to force the education system to provide something special to students with special needs."

Few issues in education generate more debate than the highly emotional question of whether to include special education children in mainstream classrooms.

Federal laws have long supported the idea that all pupils, including those with severe and profound disabilities, should be included and educated in classrooms with nondisabled peers, preferably in schools that they would attend if they weren't disabled.

Dr. Zigmond's views did not necessarily reflect those of her audience.

"I don't believe plunking a learning-disabled kid in a classroom with a teacher who can't meet their needs is beneficial to a student," said Sheila Clark-Edmands, an education consultant from Kennebunk, Maine. "But putting them in a self-contained class with a special ed teacher who's not informed isn't beneficial either”…

To read the complete article, plus comments, please go to: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07046/762290-298.stm

Education Next: New Study Debunks Myth about Special Education Costs

Research refutes claims that special education students placed in private schools are draining public education resources

A new study published in the spring 2007 issue of Education Next refutes claims that rising special education costs are draining resources from nondisabled public education students. In particular, research carried out by the University of Arkansas’s Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters shows that, contrary to recent media reports, placing special education students in private schools at public expense is not causing undue harm to public school budgets.

“It is often tempting for school officials or policy analysts to blame special education for the rising costs and stagnant outcomes of K-12 education,” Greene said. “But the evidence clearly shows that special education in general and private placement in particular are not placing greater financial strains on public schools.”

Greene and Winters’s research reveals that private placement is, in fact, extremely rare, amounting to less than two-tenths of 1 percent of the almost 50 million public school students nationwide in 2004, according to data from the U. S. Department of Education. Private schools served, at public expense, just over 88,000 of the nearly 6 million students with disabilities nationally--less than 1.5 percent. Neither has the percentage of students who are privately placed increased in recent years. In 1989, 1.6 percent of students receiving services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) were educated in a private school setting.

Using data from a recent federal study on special education, Greene and Winters were able to estimate the additional cost involved in placing disabled students in private schools. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s Special Education Expenditure Project, the average cost of a private placement in 2000 was $25,580. By weighting the costs by the type of disabilities among students placed in private schools, Greene and Winters determined that the cost for an average privately placed student would have been $15,117 if he had been served in a public school. The additional cost of $10,463 per student amounts to less than one-quarter of 1 percent of the total education budget of $382 billion for that year.

Greene and Winters say that the higher cost of private placement is probably because a child is generally placed in a private school only when the disability is especially severe. Under IDEA guidelines, a student is to be placed in the least restrictive environment, so, unless the disability is severe, the child will be placed in a public school setting.

More generally, special education costs have not risen faster than the resources available for regular education. Greene and Winters found that from 1977 to 2003 spending on special education services almost doubled, as did total revenue for all public schooling, but that that money covered the special education costs of many more students. Those classified as in need of special education services increased by 76 percent. Moreover, the near doubling in special education costs has not been the result of a rise in rare and expensive disabilities, which have actually experienced a decline, but by increases in the specific learning disability (SLD) category, which is among the least costly to serve. SLD designations grew from 796,000 in 1977 to nearly 3 million in 2003. Special education costs, however, constituted roughly the same share of total public school revenue (8.3 percent) in 2003 as in 1977.

Greene and Winters acknowledge that there are some school districts and states where private placement is more burdensome. In Washington, D.C., for example, privately placed students constitute slightly more than 3 percent of enrollment (as of 2004), representing 15 percent of the school district’s budget. But Washington, D.C., is the exception, say Greene and Winters, not the rule. No other state has more than 1 percent of its students privately placed, and only four states (Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New Jersey) have more than 0.5 percent of their students attending private schools at public expense.

In considering factors that may contribute to this situation, Greene and Winters point out that most D.C. schools already struggle to provide an adequate education to their students. Under federal law, disabled students are entitled to demand private schooling if local public schools cannot provide an adequate education; nondisabled students in D.C. public schools, however, do not have that option. Therefore, the high rate of private placement of disabled students in D.C. may be more a function of the quality of the public schools there than a function of special education per se, Greene and Winters explain.

To see complete study: http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/6018321.html

First Comprehensive Study of K-12 Arts Education in California Schools Finds Vast Majority Fail to Meet State Goals

A landmark study from independent research institute SRI International, for the first time systemically examining the status of arts education in California, reveals that the vast majority of California's schools fail to meet state standards for teaching the arts, and that access to arts instruction varies widely among the state's schools.

The study, “An Unfinished Canvas, Arts Education in California: Taking Stock of Policies and Practices,” commissioned by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, was conducted by SRI’s Center for Education Policy. The Ford Foundation provided additional support for the study. SRI’s research finds that most K-12 schools fail to meet standards that California established in 2001 for teaching the arts in four areas: visual arts, music, dance and theater. Until now, California has lacked comprehensive and reliable information to indicate whether these standards for arts instruction were being met.

Key findings of the study include:

29% of California’s schools do not offer a standards-based course of study in any of the four arts disciplines — music, visual arts, theatre, and dance.
89% of California’s schools fail to offer a standards-based course of study in all four disciplines, falling short of state goals.
61% of schools do not have even one full-time equivalent arts specialist.
Standards alignment, assessment, and accountability practices are uneven in arts education, and often not present at all.
California students lag behind the national average in hours of arts instruction — up to 50% less in music and visual arts instruction at the elementary level.

A statewide survey of 1,800 randomly selected schools, case studies in 13 districts, analyses of statewide databases, and a policy and literature review were among the inputs used to inform the study results and recommendations.

“This important and unprecedented research will provide decision makers with solid data as they consider the future of arts education in California,” said Moy Eng, director of the performing arts program at the foundation. “High quality, sequential arts education does more than help develop a sustained interest in the arts. It fosters the ability of our students to think in new and creative ways.”

“Principals reported multiple barriers to arts education,” said Katrina Woodworth, Ed.D., SRI researcher and principal investigator of the study. “While many identified inadequate funding as the top barrier, most acknowledged that funding alone will not solve the deficiencies in arts education. In many schools, the focus on improving test scores means that schools are allocating the bulk of their instructional time for mathematics and reading at the expense of the arts and other core subjects.”

Added Woodworth, “Principals also noted that elementary classroom teachers often lacked the expertise to teach the arts and that arts specialists were in short supply. With the release of this study, we offer important recommendations to increase student access to arts education to the level envisioned by state policy-makers.”

State arts education funding was significantly increased in the 2006-07 state budget, including $105 million in ongoing funds for a new Arts and Music Block Grant Program; this amounts to less than $16 per student per year. Woodworth noted, “The new funds are unlikely to be sufficient to support new staff positions. However, the funding will provide critical support for districts as they establish the infrastructure to support arts education, provide teachers with much-needed professional development, and purchase materials and equipment.”

“The results of this study provide a needed wake-up call to lawmakers, educators, parents, and the public,’’ said Marshall Smith, director of the education program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. “We know that arts instruction can benefit many aspects of a student’s life, including academic performance. It’s time we take real steps to ensure that all of California’s children receive a quality arts education.”

The state of California has used visual and performing arts standards in schools since 2001. Beginning in 2003, students seeking admission to either the University of California or California State University systems are required to have completed at least one full year of arts coursework in high school.

Full study results and methodology can be viewed at: http://www.sri.com/policy/cep/edreform/ArtsEd.html

Huge Gender Gap in English in England

The proportion of young people reaching at level 5 and over – the expected level for 14-year-olds - in maths rose three percentage points from 2005 to 77% - a 17 percentage point rise since 1997, meaning 104,000 more young people are achieving the expected level.

Science rose two percentage points to 72% - a 12 percentage point rise since 1997, meaning 74,000 more young people are now achieving the expected level.

There was a one percentage point fall to 73% in English – though overall, it has risen 16 percentage points since 1997, meaning 94,000 more young people are now reaching the expected level.

While eight in ten girls reached level 5 or over last year, only 65% of boys did. The gender gap in maths and science is much narrower – at one and two percentage points respectively.

Schools Minister Jim Knight said “It is important to recognise that girls are doing better than boys across the industrialised world. Internationally, teachers and educationalists are wrestling with it and the related societal issues.

“There are no any easy, overnight solutions we can prescribe to address this.

I am determined that we enthuse and engage boys in English but this is about taking a far broader approach in schools and Government than simply using stereotyped ‘fighting and football’ texts.

“That is why we are putting a relentless focus on maximising each pupil’s potential. Only through better targeting of individual learners and driving up the progression of all pupils can we stretch the more advanced pupils and prevent others from falling behind.

“We have invested £990 million over two years specifically for personalised learning, with a further £130 million to promote personalised schools and extended schools. Furthermore, we are investing £10 million in 2007-08 to further improve guidance to schools on supporting boys’ reading and writing, and provide additional small group support and tuition targeted towards schools where the gender gap is largest.

To view the full Key Stage 3 achievement and attainment tables visit: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/

Worthy Goals, Limited Success: Intervention Programs in California

The 1999 Public Schools Accountability Act (PSAA) created a system for summarizing performance on state standardized tests and an intervention program to help schools that were not meeting state-set goals. California's test scores have improved substantially since then, but state-led interventions programs have had little overall effect on this improvement, according to official evaluations.

This 16-page report looks at the history and evaluations of the state's intervention programs. It contrasts those programs with federal requirements, including newly created interventions for school districts, and details how California has layered the federal systems on top of the state's approach. And it looks at the potential impact of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) throughout California as well as the debates surrounding its reauthorization.

To order report: http://www.edsource.org/pub_abs_interventions207.cfm

The Quality Education Investment Act

The Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA) is California’s latest K-12 intervention program to support low-performing schools. The state will allocate close to $2.7 billion through this seven-year program to help these schools meet performance and resource benchmarks. This two-page brief explains the selection and funding processes, details the expectations for schools and districts, and discusses implementation issues.

Download here: http://www.edsource.org/pdf/QEIABrief_0207.pdf

Similar Students, Different Results: Why Do Some Schools Do Better

What schools do and what resources they have for doing it can make a powerful difference in the achievement of students from low-income backgrounds, according to findings from this two-year EdSource study.

Based on a large-scale survey of principals and teachers in 257 California elementary schools serving many low-income students, the initial findings (October 2005) identified four interrelated practices associated with higher API scores and suggested implications for district and principal leadership. Further analysis (April 2006) examined whether a school's API performance related to use of particular curriculum program. In addition, study findings shed light on the relationship between district practices and school performance as well as on the pivotal, and changing, role of the principal. Interviews with a subset of superintendents in participating districts helped illuminate specific approaches schools and districts have used to improve achievement.

Download here: http://www.edsource.org/pdf/simstusumm06.pdf

E-Rate Studies

February 26, 2007

Secretary Margaret Spellings
U.S. Department of Education

Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez
U.S. Department of Commerce

Chairman Kevin Martin
Federal Communications Commission

Dear Secretaries Spellings and Gutierrez, and Chairman Martin:

This week, many people -- Members of Congress, education technology leaders, corporate executives, administration officials and senior staff, state and local educational/library representatives, and national and state association representatives -- will be celebrating a decade of technological progress for public and private schools and public libraries, progress made possible by provisions in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that, when implemented, became to be known as the E-Rate.

The Benton Foundation has conducted multiple research projects on the E-Rate, in partnership with the Joyce Foundation. In February 2000, in collaboration with the Center for Children and Technology, Benton released The E-Rate in America: A Tale of Four Cities. This was one of the first studies of the impact of the then-new federal program, tracing the ideas and political battles that led to its establishment and recounting the practical issues confronting school districts as they sought to benefit from E-Rate resources. The second phase of our E-Rate work culminated in the 2002 release of Great Expectations: Leveraging America’s Investment in Educational Technology. This report continued our investigation into the new program and developed new tools to assist teachers, administrators and policymakers. For the full reports, see the EdTech section at http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=publibrary.

As part of the celebration of the E-Rate’s impact, the Benton Foundation is today releasing two new research papers that highlight the benefits derived from it.
In What Have We Learned From the E-Rate?: An Assessment of E-Rate Performance, Heather E. Hudson explains how the Telecommunications Act of 1996 took an important first step in linking universal service and broadband access. The Act created the E-Rate program as part of the universal service fund to make broadband universally available in every school, classroom, library, and rural health care center in America. The E-Rate has been an enormous success in improving broadband access for libraries and schools. In 1996, only 28 percent of public library systems offered public Internet access. Today, thanks to increased resources and the E-Rate, nearly all library buildings offer public access computing, and 14 million Americans regularly use these computers at no fee. Further, only three percent of instructional classrooms were wired in 1994. As of 2003, 93% of instructional classrooms are wired. Between 1998 (when the E-Rate launched) and 2003, statistics show that classroom Internet access disparities between rural, urban, and suburban schools and high and low-poverty districts have been dramatically reduced.

In When Public Libraries are the Sole Gateway for Those Without Access: Assessing the Performance of Public Libraries Receiving E-Rate Subsidies, Nancy Kranich finds that thanks to the USF’s E-Rate program and other investments, 99% of public libraries are now wired—many with broadband and wireless services—and offer free public access to the Internet. Libraries are now the number one point of access for the public outside the home, school, and work, leveling the playing field for those left behind in the digital age. But the success of the E-Rate program goes well beyond Internet access – it now is helping provide a communication outlet of last resort in a crisis. Both 9/11 and Katrina demonstrated the power of public access broadband in libraries for providing alternative communication channels. Continuing the success of the E-Rate and expanding the goals of universal service to broadband could similarly have broad and unmistakable impacts well beyond just increasing Internet access rates.

But as we mark the success of the E-Rate this week, we also note, with regret, the untimely demise of additional programs that helped make the E-Rate so effective. For ten years, from 1994 to 2004, the Technology Opportunities Program – TOP – supported demonstrations of new telecommunications and information technologies to provide education, health care, or public information in the public and non-profit sectors. We once again need to be supporting innovative applications for harnessing new technologies to advance critical public interest goals.

Community Technology Centers (CTCs) around the country provide low-income, minority, and other disenfranchised individuals free or low-cost public access to technology tools and services, including trainings that may enhance employment opportunities. Federally funded research has demonstrated CTCs to be an effective community-based model, and Congress, in the past, has supported CTCs. However, the elimination of federal support for CTCs has put their work in jeopardy.

These and other cuts signal a dramatic decline in government support for innovative uses of technology to connect communities and opportunities for residents of low-income communities to learn and utilize computer-related skills. As we celebrate the E-Rate’s success this week, let’s not lose sight of additional steps we can take to realize our commitment to ubiquitous, affordable access to the most important technologies of the era.

Sincerely,
Charles Benton

New Report Shows How E-Rate is Connecting Communities and Schools to 21st-Century Academic and Employment Opportunities

From coast-to-coast, from economically challenged inner cities to remote rural areas, students, parents, educators, business leaders and communities have benefited from the E-Rate, a ground-breaking telecommunications program created in 1997 that provides deep discounts on telecommunications, Internet access and internal networking to America’s public and private schools as well as public libraries. A new report, “E-Rate: 10 Years of Connecting Kids and Community,” released today by two education coalitions – the Education and Libraries Networks Coalition (EdLiNC) and the National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training (NCTET) – states that the E-Rate has transformed America’s schools and libraries into modern institutions but that its mission is not yet complete. Released today during a Capitol Hill briefing, the new report indicates that E-Rate supported connectivity allows 100% of public libraries to provide free Internet access to their communities. The report also credits the E-Rate for increasing the overall number of public classrooms with Internet access from 14% in 1996 to 95% in 2005. After 10 years of E-Rate support, more than 90% of classrooms in rural, high-minority and lowincome school districts now have Internet connections, allowing them to leverage modern communication tools to support student achievement. An additional 2,800 private schools have also received support from the E-Rate to support educational goals.

“As this report clearly shows, just a decade after E-Rate first began, more people than ever before are reaping the benefits of the information age. E-Rate has made technology and the Internet accessible for our students, our teachers, and people of all ages through our local libraries,” said Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-WV). “Thanks to E-Rate, we are quickly advancing toward a world where the digital divide will no longer exist.”

The E-Rate was enacted as an amendment to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and represents an expansion of the universal service fund (USF), including Internet access support for schools and libraries for the first time in the USF. The authors of the provision – Senators Jay Rockefeller, Olympia Snowe (R-ME), James Exon (D-NE) and Bob Kerrey (D-NE) – and Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA) understood the importance of providing schools and libraries, particularly those in rural and lowincome urban areas, with access to new telecommunications technology and the Internet’s vast resources. In 1997, the Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved the rules to implement the E-Rate and established a $2.25 billion annual cap for E-Rate discounts. Since its inception, the E-Rate has provided nearly $19 billion in discounted services.

“Information is the key to education and to keeping America competitive in an increasingly global economy. The E-Rate program began a decade ago to provide communities’ public libraries and schools with the communications tools and resources necessary to share information and educate America’s children,” said Senator Olympia Snowe. “While the first ten years of the E-Rate have helped schools and libraries upgrade and build their technology infrastructure, maintaining and upgrading these public institutions will require a continued effort and continued support of the program. Today’s report outlines how essential the E-Rate is to our country’s future.” Over 30,000 applications for E-Rate discounts are filed each year from all corners of the country. School and library discounts, which range between 20% and 90%, are based upon poverty level, with the lowest income applicants receiving the deepest discounts. The report released today highlights a handful of E-Rate recipients.

Ho’okena Elementary School in Hawaii, a community where 70% of the population are migrant farmers who live in homes that lack telephones, let alone computers. The E-Rate has transformed the school’s operations by enabling the school to provide every classroom a working telephone, cable television access and Internet connectivity. The teachers routinely participate in professional development activities offered by the school district via E-Rate supported videoconferencing. According to Kela Luczon, the school’s technology coordinator, “Our kids leave here knowing how to use scanners, digital cameras and email to reach and interact with someone in another country. They have 21st Century skills even though they are not growing up in a 21st Century environment.”

Archdiocese of Boston Catholic Schools, a socio-economically diverse parochial school system where E-Rate support allows up to 6,000 students to engage in distance learning opportunities on a daily basis. Through the high-speed access supported by the E-Rate, students at Cathedral High School, an Archdiocesan school, take online calculus courses for college and high school credit that equip them with the information and communication literacy skills they need to thrive and succeed in post-secondary institutions.

Clark County School District in Nevada has leveraged its E-Rate discounts to establish a virtual high school to support its rapidly growing student population. Using E-Rate supported services, the district’s distance learning program offers synchronous and asynchronous instruction to the district’s over 300,000 public school students. According to Dr. Phil Brody, the district’s Assistant Superintendent and Chief Technology Officer, E-Rate has helped the district provide “the same application or service to all of the students in the district – those at the most affluent school and those at the poorest school – at the same time. It creates an element of equity.”

A full copy of the report is available online at: http://www.edlinc.org/pdf/NCTETReport_212.pdf

Report: Philadelphia District Losing Control

The Philadelphia School District's student disciplinary system is plagued by inconsistencies, high turnover in personnel, and a lack of training, staff and resources -- all leading to a breakdown in procedure and an insufficient transfer of problem pupils out of the schools, according to an independent consultant's report released recently.

Some school personnel have become so frustrated that they have given up carrying out discipline in all but the most serious cases, said the 47-page report prepared by Ellen Green-Ceisler…

Her report describes classrooms where "little or no learning was actually occurring" and "many of the students in attendance were listening to headphones, sleeping, doodling or wandering around the room talking or shouting."

Some administrators estimated that 10 percent to 30 percent of their students were causing the problems, and "numerous teachers" said they spent 40 percent to 50 percent of their time dealing with student disruptions, the report said.

The report…was released six days after a Germantown High School teacher's neck was broken when two students attacked him after he confiscated an iPod…

Green-Ceisler recommended that the 173,000-student district hire a cabinet-level discipline czar to oversee an overhaul and that it revive a safety advisory committee…

(O)fficials contended that the report did not include a wide enough sampling.

However, a separate survey by the district of more than half the 11,000 teachers also found widespread concern about discipline. In the May survey, more than half the respondents said they did not think their schools were addressing discipline issues effectively or consistently to return to regular schools eventually, and other regulations tied the district's hands…

Green-Ceisler said in a memorandum attached to the report that she had interviewed 330 to 340 staff members in administrative, teaching and other positions across the city. She visited 13 of the district's 270-plus schools, those with significant numbers of at-risk students; held three meetings with about 200 school-based teacher union leaders and other staff; and conducted about 20 more interviews with staff from eight additional schools…

She found that discipline worked best in schools with principals who had been in their posts at least five years, and in schools that had well-staffed "accommodation rooms" for problem students who needed time out of regular classroom.

In addition to recommending the hiring of a discipline czar, Green-Ceisler said the district should publish a manual with disciplinary procedures to be distributed to all staff and improve training…

To read the complete article, please go to: http://www.redorbit.com/news/education/858089/report_district_losing_control/index.html

New Study Explores the Nature of Online Learning in K-12 Schools

The Sloan Consortium's (www.sloan-c.org) first ever survey of online learning in elementary and secondary education, "K-12 Online Learning: A Survey of U.S. School District Administrators," predicts rapid growth in online education. The nationwide survey, conducted during the 2005-2006 academic year, finds that almost two out of three (63 %) school districts had one or more students enrolled in either a fully online or a blended course, which combines online learning with traditional face-to-face instruction. The new study estimates that 700,000 K-12 students were engaged in online courses in the 2005-2006 academic year. The complete survey is available at www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/index.asp.

"We are seeing a shift in how our children are learning: from a strictly classroom setting to a culture that includes online learning," said Frank Mayadas, program director, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and president, Sloan Consortium "Districts foresee that over the next two years online enrollments will increase by 19 % and blended enrollments will go up by 23 %."

The Sloan Consortium's K-12 online survey, developed in collaboration with Hunter College and Babson College and funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, consists of responses from 366 public school district chief administrators representing two million students nationwide. It was patterned after a similar study of online learning in higher education.

Survey results show online learning is meeting the specific needs of a range of students including those who need extra help, those who want to take more advanced courses and those whose districts do not have enough teachers to offer certain subjects.

"Perhaps the voices heard most clearly in this survey were those of small rural school districts," said Anthony G. Picciano, professor, School of Education, Hunter College and Graduate Center of the City University of New York. "For them, the availability of online learning is most important in order to provide students with course choices and, in some cases, the basic courses that should be part of every curriculum."

Picciano says these rural districts are potentially good models for districts facing teacher shortages in high-need subject areas such as high school science and mathematics.

Why Children Form Cliques

Children form cliques and exclude others from their social groups for complex reasons according to researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park in a study published in the February edition of Current Directions in Psychological Science.

The researchers examined two models. One model found that rejection occurs because of a child's social awkwardness, including being shy or fearful. Another model found rejection happens because of factors including group dynamics, bias, and prejudice.

As children get older, they're more aware of group dynamics, conventions, and customs.

To see the full study: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/members/journal_issues/cdinpress/killen.pdf

Assets of U.S. Households Would Increase by $74 Billion if All High School Students Graduated on Time, According to Alliance for Excellent Education

If high school dropouts who currently head households in the U.S. had instead earned diplomas, the U.S. economy would benefit from an additional $74 billion in wealth accumulated by families, according to conservative calculations by the Alliance for Excellent Education in its new brief, Hidden Benefits: The Impact of High School Graduation on Household Wealth, funded by MetLife Foundation.

There is a wealth gap between high school dropouts and high school graduates that is even more severe than the better known income gap. Graduating all students, therefore, would increase family wealth (defined as investments that appreciate over time, commonly known as “assets”). This would have provided the approximately 16.5 million families currently headed by high school dropouts with a safety net for times of financial stress and with the increased capacity to invest in higher education, homes, and business enterprises. The nation also would have benefited through greater neighborhood stability, increased civic involvement and voting participation, and reduced need for public assistance.

“Wealth inequality between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ and between African Americans and Hispanics and their white counterparts is increasing,” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. “Policymakers are concerned with reducing poverty and want to help poor Americans and members of racial minorities build the assets they need for true financial security. Congress and the administration need to recognize that targeted and effective investments in secondary school reform that will graduate more students each year is a key strategy for addressing these concerns.”

“Education unlocks the door to personal and professional opportunities, as well as paves the road to financial freedom,” said Sibyl Jacobson, president of MetLife Foundation. “A high school diploma offers lifelong benefits, and we need quality schools to help make certain more young people earn them.”

Hidden Benefits: The Impact of High School Graduation on Household Wealth is available at http://www.all4ed.org/publications/hiddenbenefits.pdf.

2005 United States Census data for households by educational attainment was used to derive the number of households in each state by education level and was then multiplied by the median financial wealth by education level (Gouskova and Stafford, 2005) to derive the total financial wealth of education level by state.

Additional household financial wealth gained by high school graduation was derived by multiplying the number of households headed by an individual with less than a high school degree by the median financial wealth of those households headed by an individual with a high school diploma. The current estimate of the financial wealth of households with less than a high school diploma was subtracted by this number to derive the additional household financial wealth that would be gained by each state and the nation if every household were headed by someone with at least a high school diploma.

It should be noted that this is a conservative estimate, as the calculation does not include the value of housing. Although homeownership may offer the greatest asset-accumulation opportunity for most Americans, the decision was made to exclude the value of homes, because mortgage holders may also have considerable debt associated with the home and since the value of homes may fluctuate in unpredictable ways; developing a firm estimate of the value of this particular asset is complex and outside of the scope of the Alliance’s analysis. That said, since a home is the most valuable asset most families have—and graduates are more likely to be able to afford that investment—the $74 billion figure is likely to significantly understate the potential loss to non-graduates.

Afterschool for the Global Age

Asia Society and The George Lucas Educational Foundation convened a national meeting to explore strategies for expanding internationally themed programming in afterschool and summer learning initiatives. Planned in collaboration with the Afterschool and Community Learning Network and The Children’s Aid Society, this invitational forum brought together representatives from national groups, state and local leaders, and experts in informal learning and youth development. The meeting helped formulate ways to leverage out-of-school time to prepare young people for employment and citizenship in the global age, including innovative uses of community and international connections, project-based learning, and educational technology in the extended learning hours. Participants shared knowledge of model programs and best practices from not only international education but also from afterschool and summer learning initiatives integrating the arts, science, math, and social studies. Attendees considered approaches to international learning beyond school hours from a range of perspectives: as providers, as educators and youth development practitioners, as funders, and as advocates and policymakers. As Terry Peterson, director of the Afterschool and Community Learning Network, stated at the meeting, “While we wait for the formal education systems to respond, there is a giant challenge and opportunity for all of us who care about youth development and afterschool and summer learning to begin to expose our kids to the larger world beyond U.S. borders.”

Three questions discussed at the meeting provide a point of departure for this report:

1. How can extended learning programs and initiatives integrate international content into program design, development, and delivery?

2. What help is available and needed to implement internationally oriented afterschool and summer learning initiatives?

3. How can the afterschool community incorporate an international perspective in policy advocacy?

In addition, these questions were considered in the context of four fundamental concerns in the afterschool field:

meeting the developmental needs of children;
leveraging existing assets and creating feasible approaches;
providing professional support; and
developing funding and resources.

The report, which summarizes and expands upon the meeting, discusses the importance and growth of international education both during and beyond the school day, presents ideas and opportunities for the field, and recommends several action steps. We hope the report will motivate broader discussion and action on promoting global literacy in the extended learning hours. As Jane Quinn of The Children’s Aid Society remarked at the meeting, “Unlike school reform, we don’t have to dismantle an outmoded process. We can create something new, but it’s a new responsibility.”

Michael Levine, Executive Director, and Alexis Menten, Senior Program Associate, Education Department, Asia Society

Download a free copy of this report: http://internationaled.org/afterschoolreport.pdf

Toddler Tests Speak for Themselves

From the first smile to the first word, signs that a toddler is learning to communicate are a source of great joy for any new parent. But a child's inability to develop such skills at an early stage can be a source of angst. A new study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has come up with new tests for pre-schoolers to help recognise potential problems earlier.

According to Professor Shula Chiat and Dr Penny Roy of City University in London, these tests provide new indicators of the likelihood and nature of longer term difficulties, allowing for earlier and more targeted intervention.

"When children are not talking like their peers, parents want to know what the future holds", says Professor Chiat, "but there are no easy answers. Many 2-3 year olds will catch up with their peers within a year or two, but others don't, and the nature of their longer term language and communication problems will vary".

Unlike traditional assessments which focus on language itself, the four new tests probe 'very early processing skills' (VEPS) which are known to underpin language development. Together, they provide new insights into children's early difficulties and how these are likely to unfold. One of the tests assesses children's ability to pick out and remember the sounds of words by asking them to repeat real words and non-words. The remaining three tests target the kind of social and cognitive skills children require to discover the meaning of words.

The new tests were found to be quick, easy to administer and reliable. The different patterns of performance which emerged from a sample of over 200 clinically referred children were related to the type of language and social communication problems evident 18 months later, when children were 4-5 years old. Researchers also validated the contribution of standard clinical assessment for children as young as 2-3, but the new tests provided important additional information about a child's basic processing skills.

Professor Chiat and Dr Roy believe that these tests could make a significant impact on approaches to children with language and communication problems in the pre-school years. They constitute a viable set of assessments permitting early identification of difficulties with the forms and functions of language, and provide a more reliable and earlier foundation for deciding on appropriate intervention than is currently available.

Methodology:

The original sample of over 200 children, recruited from 4 inner London and 3 outer London Primary Health Care Trusts and 2 private clinics, were divided into 3 groups covering the 2-4 age range (Phase 1). Three quarters of the sample were boys. Almost all children were seen at home in two sessions lasting 1-1.5 hours with the pace of task determined by the child. At Phase 2, the children were followed up 18 months later at home and at school. The data collection included parental interviews, covering the child's medical and developmental history and the family's demographic and linguistic background, nonverbal IQ tests, as well as standard language assessments and the 'Very Early Processing Skills' tests.

Undergrad: Kids Learn Words Best by Working Out Meaning

Study by New Jersey Senior Shows Inference Is Best Strategy for Toddlers

Toddlers learn new words more easily when they figure out the words' meaning for themselves, research by a 22-year-old Johns Hopkins undergraduate from Medford, N.J., suggests.

Meredith Brinster's original research, suggesting that learning words by inference is more powerful for 3-year-olds than just being told their meaning, is intriguing and may have important implications for the future of teaching, her faculty adviser said.

"One of the things that is particularly exciting about the work Meredith is doing is its potential to change the way we think about education and learning," said Justin Halberda, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins.

Brinster's work was funded by a Johns Hopkins Provost's Undergraduate Research Award. One of about 45 PURA winners this academic year, Brinster, a senior, will present the results of her research at an awards ceremony held at Johns Hopkins on March 8. A graduate of Shawnee Regional High School in Medford, she will also present at a meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, to be held in Boston March 29 to April 1.

Interested in how very young children learn to attach the names of objects to the objects themselves, Brinster designed a study to measure which word-learning strategy was more effective: direct instruction, in which an adult directly points to and names an unfamiliar object, or inference, in which toddlers use reason (such as process of elimination) to mentally "fasten" an unfamiliar word to an unfamiliar object. Based on previous research, Brinster posited that the young children would learn words more quickly via inference.

According to her preliminary results, she was correct.

"We found that our hypothesis was true, and that inference is better than instruction," said Brinster, a psychology major.

Over the summer, Brinster worked with 100 children, ages 36 to 42 months, who came to the Laboratory for Child Development on the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus. One trial tested how well children learned words through inference, and the other how well they learned through direct instruction.

During the inference trial, Brinster showed the youngsters both familiar and strange objects (for instance, a ball and a plumber's "T" connector). After saying a nonsense word "blicket," for instance), she would ask them to either point to or grab hold of the "matching" item. Since a ball is a "ball," the children might conclude that the unfamiliar object -- the "T" -- was the "blicket".

In the direct instruction trial, the child was simply shown an unfamiliar item and heard the nonsense word.

A short while later, Brinster would invite the children to play with typical, familiar toys in the Lab's waiting area. During the relaxed play period, she would bring out a "blicket" or a "dax" that the children had seen during the trial, and ask the youngsters a question.

"For instance, I might say, I think one of these is called 'blicket,' but I can't remember which one it is. Can you help me? Do you know which one is the 'blicket?'" Brinster said. "This way, I could ascertain how well they learned the word. Once we analyzed all of our data, it was clear that inference worked best."

Halberda, Brinster's mentor, called his student's results "important."

"While we know that active engagement is the key to rapid learning," he said, "Meredith's result suggesting that knowledge gained via a child's own inferences is sometimes more powerful and longer lasting than knowledge gained through instruction may have powerful repercussions for how we teach new material. These implications have yet to be explored, but this first result is tantalizing."

Education Next: Flawed Research by Educational Software Companies Comes at High Cost to Schools

In a rush to meet requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act that instructional materials purchased with federal aid be scientifically proven effective, educational software companies are promoting research that is substandard and often misleading, according to a new report in the spring 2007 issue of Education Next. The vast majority of studies on education products of any kind -- fully 75 percent -- reviewed by the federal government do not meet its scientific standards, warns Todd Oppenheimer, author of the Education Next report.

The nation’s K–12 schools spent nearly $2 billion on electronic curricular products in 2006, up 4.4 percent from the previous year and surpassing the 2.6 percent growth rate of the overall instructional products market for U.S. schools. To keep pace with this growth, and to take continuing advantage of federal education subsidies, many companies pushed through questionable studies supposedly documenting their products’ effectiveness. In fact, a number of companies promoted their “scientific” research very soon after NCLB required it -- an impossible feat, points out Oppenheimer, considering the many years it takes to conduct solid scientific studies.

“As the educational software industry booms, many products are being put to use in schools based on evidence that looks statistically rigorous but isn’t,” said Oppenheimer. “The flaws in this research are significant but hard to find. The deceptions here are therefore poorly understood, both by the products’ sales representatives and by their customers -- school administrators.”

According to the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the primary overseer of research within the Department of Education, scientifically based research fits the following criteria: It randomly assigns its test subjects to comparable groups; it yields reliable, measurable data; if the study makes any claims about what causes its effects, it substantially eliminates plausible competing explanations; its methods are clear enough that other researchers can repeat or extend them; and, finally, the study has been accepted by a peer-reviewed journal or equivalent panel of independent experts. So far, very few commercial programs meet these standards, writes Oppenheimer, although many claim that they do.

“Unfortunately, scientific proof is defined in many ways,” Oppenheimer said. “Experts don’t all agree on what constitutes good research, and while the research community debates this question, the commercial sector has felt free to devise its own interpretations.”

To combat this problem, the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) was created within IES in 2002 to review studies done on instructional products, both electronic and traditional, and rate the quality of their achievement data. As of December 2006, the WWC had gone through 255 studies and put out reviews on 51 products. Notably, 75 percent of the studies did not meet the agency’s scientific standards, even with some reservations.

The real-world experiences with software that school districts are reporting illustrate some dramatic troubles. In July 2001, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) decided to spend nearly $50 million on Waterford Early Reading, distributed by Pearson Digital Learning. Some teachers found the program helpful, but many did not; after several years of use, the district’s own evaluation unit pronounced the program a failure. Pearson prepared a preliminary evaluation of its own for then LAUSD superintendent Roy Romer, full of numbers indicating that Waterford was producing dramatic achievement gains. In light of its own evaluations, however, LAUSD scaled back the Waterford program, using it as more of a sideline specifically for students with learning difficulties.

The WWC has not yet evaluated Waterford, but it is one of the 15 products that IES has elected to study as part of its own evaluation of educational software, using gold-standard methods of scientific research. But the $15 million WWC study, begun in 2003 and due sometime early in 2007, may produce problems of its own, notes Oppenheimer. Ironically, those problems may limit the study’s neutrality and usefulness and leave it vulnerable to further marketing hype, Oppenheime