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Karl L. Alexander is the John Dewey Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins. His "Beginning School Study" is one of the longest-running education studies in the country. His data confirms the existence of what is called the "summer slide," or the fact that urban poor children fall behind academically during the summer months while more affluent kids make academic gains. His studies have often been cited by policy makers who make a case for year-round schooling, summer school and quality summer camp programs for low-income kids beginning as early as first grade. America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007 Compared to national statistics for the previous year, there has been an increase in the percentage of children living with at least one working parent and the percentage of children living in households classified as food insecure has declined. High school students were more likely to have taken advanced academic courses and the percentage of young adults who completed high school has increased. The adolescent birth rate has dropped to a record low. These findings are described in detail in America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007, the U.S. government's annual report that monitors the well-being of the Nation's children and youth. The report is a compendium of the most recently released federal statistics on the nation's children, issued by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. It presents a comprehensive look at critical areas of child well-being. These encompass family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health. For the report's 10th anniversary, the Forum members revised the structure of the report, adding two new sections: Physical Environment and Safety, and Health Care. Nine new indicators were also added. These include indicators on child maltreatment, oral health, drinking water quality, lead in the blood of children, child injury and mortality, adolescent injury and mortality, sexual activity, college enrollment, and asthma. Economic Circumstances In 2005, 78.3 percent of children had at least one parent working year round, full time—up from 77.6 percent in 2004, but below the peak of 80 percent in 2000. The report states that this percentage has remained relatively high, given the historical context of the early 1990s, when the percentage was 72 percent. The report noted that secure parental employment reduces the occurrence of poverty and its attendant risks on children. Because most parents obtain health care for themselves and their children through their employers, a secure job for a parent can be important for determining if a child has health care. "Secure parental employment may also enhance children's psychological well-being and improve family functioning by reducing stress and other negative effects that unemployment Education In 2004, students were more likely to have taken advanced academic course work in mathematics, science, and foreign languages than they were in 2000. In 2004, 50 percent of graduates had taken at least one advanced mathematics course (defined as a course above Algebra II), up from 45 percent in 2000 and almost double the 1982 percentage of 26 percent. The percentage of students taking an advanced science course also increased, from 63 percent in 2000, to 68 percent in 2004. In foreign languages, 35 percent of high school graduates had taken a year three, year four, or advanced placement course in 2004, up from 30 percent in 2000 and double the percentage in 1982 (15 percent). In 2005, 88 percent of young adults ages 18–24 had completed high school with a diploma or an alternative credential such as a General Education Development (GED) certificate. This was a 1 percentage point increase from 2004 and a 4 percentage point increase from 1980. In 2005, 69 percent of young adults who had completed high school enrolled in a two- or four-year college in the fall of the year they completed high school. By comparison, in 1980 only 49 percent of students who completed high school enrolled immediately after completing school. To see full report: http://www.childstats.gov/pubs.asp Left Behind By Design: Proficiency Counts and Test-Based Accountability
A new study coauthored by University of Chicago economist Derek Neal provides information about the NCLB’s impact. Using Chicago public school data, the authors compared test-score outcomes among students before and after the implementation of NCLB. By measuring the performance of students tested under NCLB relative to control groups that are similar with respect to prior achievement, they are able to isolate the effects of NCLB on test scores of specific student groups: The conclusion: “Many low-achieving students in Chicago appear to have done better on ISAT under NCLB than they would have otherwise, and as we note above, this is true regardless of the average level of performance in a given school. However, for at least the bottom 20% of students, there is little evidence of significant gains and a possibility of lower than expected scores in math. If we assume that similar results hold for all elementary grades now tested under NCLB, we have reason to believe that at a given point in time there are more than 25,000 CPS students being left behind by NCLB.” To see the full, excellent report: http://www.aei.org/docLib/20070716_NealSchanzenbachPaper.pdf The Learning Season: The Untapped Power of Summer to Advance Student Achievement “While research into the educational effects of summer programs is still in its early stages, the evidence to date suggests that high quality academic enrichment programs can decrease and perhaps eliminate summer learning loss for low-income children. Given this powerful evidence, why is the learning faucet still turned too low (or even off) during the summer? …If, as a society, we leave the “learning faucet” turned off for the summer, the testscore gap between economically advantaged children and their less financially well-off peers will continue to grow. Schooling matters, and while schools can improve, the research says that they are already doing their job to a large extent—that is, helping all children learn. However schools cannot help when their doors are closed and when family resources become learning resources. As a result, children with less access to opportunity lose out. Summer deserves attention because, when the season begins, learning ends for many children. More important, the summer months represent a unique slice of time, when children can learn and develop in myriad ways that will help them in school and far beyond. Summer learning is not just about retaining information; it is about problem-solving, analyzing and synthesizing information, generating new ideas, working in teams, learning to be with all kinds of people—all skills that help build learning in a broad way [3], and can, at a time when schools are narrowing the curriculum, lend breadth to student learning…. The racial, ethnic, and income gaps in test score results apparent in schools reflect deep divisions in our broader society: differences in access to social networks that are linked to economic and civic success. They also result from differences in the level of bias faced by some students in their educational environments. Changing these results requires not only changing schools, but also creating new, meaningful, ongoing experiences for children outside of school, including during the many hours of the long summer. Clearly, out-of-school experiences are not a panacea for larger inequities in our society that must be addressed, but summer learning offers an important, and largely untapped, lever for change in the ongoing efforts to create a level playing field for all our children. In a participatory democracy and demanding global economy, this endeavor is an imperative. “ Executive Summary: http://www.nmefdn.org/uploads/Learning_Season_ES.pdf Full Report: http://www.nmefdn.org/uploads/Learning_Season_FR.pdf School Prevention Programs Help Kids Recognize Abuse School-based sexual abuse prevention programs can teach children to recognize mistreatment and might increase self-protective behaviors, according to a new review of studies. However, the programs have a downside: they could heighten anxieties, making children more fearful of strangers, the review cautions. “It was a concern that anxiety may be increased as we found in the review, but we were pleased that there was an increase in knowledge,” said lead reviewer Karen Zwi of Sydney Children’s Hospital in Australia. “The important issue is whether – in a real life situation – a child could utilize this knowledge.” The aim of the systematic review was to determine whether school-based sexual abuse prevention and education programs are effective, if they protect children and if they might cause unintentional harm. The review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic. The Cochrane reviewers analyzed 15 studies that included school-age pupils and high school students living in Canada and the United States. The education programs covered topics such as how to identify potential abuse, “good touch” vs. “bad touch” concepts and who to tell if abuse occurs. The studies employed a variety of teaching strategies to educate the children, from films and lectures to puppet shows and role-playing. One study found that children who participated in an education program were less likely to go with a simulated abductor than children who had not (21.5 percent vs. 47.6 percent). Nine studies found that children who received sexual abuse prevention education demonstrated greater knowledge of the subject compared to children in a control group. “Child sexual abuse is a serious problem for school-aged children worldwide,” the reviewers write. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a 2004 state and local Child Protective Services study found that 10 percent of U.S. children reported being victims of sexual abuse. However, the review notes that there is no “consistent definition of sexual abuse.” Some prevention programs define abuse as “instances of sexual body contact” with a child while others consider abuse “any sexual behavior in a child’s presence,” the review said. Experts say most cases of sexual abuse go unreported. Moreover, the Cochrane reviewers said without a uniformly accepted definition, it is difficult to know how often sexual abuse occurs, especially in countries where there have been few studies conducted. “Rates [of abuse] may vary between countries because of differences in how child abuse is reported rather than true differences,” Zwi said. “The important point is that child abuse is generally under-reported. This is because child sexual abuse is a difficult diagnosis to be certain of, and because many children are reluctant to declare their abuse for a range of reasons.” Joan Duffell, director of partnership development for the Committee for Children, said school-based prevention programs could help children know when to report abuse. The Seattle-based nonprofit organization develops classroom programs that focus on topics such as youth violence, child abuse and personal safety. Schools should be diligent to select programs known to be effective, she said. The Cochrane reviewers’ caution about prevention programs increasing a child’s anxiety toward strangers is an outcome that is to be expected, Duffell said. “A hypothesis among researchers is that in a small percentage of children we do know their anxiety level will increase, but studies have shown that these same kids are the ones who will get anxiety from any educational program. If it’s fire prevention, they’ll be scared of fire, if it’s traffic safety, they’ll be afraid of crossing the street,” Duffell said. Zwi KJ, et al. School-based education programmes for the prevention of child sexual abuse (Review). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2007, Issue 3. The Cochrane Collaboration is an international nonprofit, independent organization that produces and disseminates systematic reviews of health care interventions and promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of interventions. Visit http://www.cochrane.org for more information.First of Its Kind Report on How Children with Brain Tumors Perform at School While children who have had brain tumors perform worse in school than healthy kids, grades in foreign language are the most affected and girls have a harder time than boys in getting good grades, according to a study published in the July 17, 2007, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers say this is the first time the actual grades and subjects of brain tumor survivors have been reported. “These results will help us identify brain tumor survivors who are at greatest risk for school failure and may need remedial help as early as possible,” said study author Päivi Lähteenmäki, MD, PhD, with Turku University Hospital in Turku, Finland. For the study, researchers compared the ninth grade report cards of 300 children with previous brain tumors, which had been treated with surgery or radiation therapy, to 1,473 healthy children living in Finland. The study found the average grades of children who have had a brain tumor were significantly lower in each school subject, and differed most in foreign language, especially for girls. More than 58 percent of female patients received grades below an eight (four = fail, 10 = excellent) in foreign language compared to 38 percent of healthy children. “It appears verbal performance is the area most seriously affected for brain tumor survivors.” said Lähteenmäki. “This may be a reflection of a diminished ability to learn new information.” Lähteenmäki says girls may be more sensitive to the adverse effects of radiation therapy, which has been regarded as the main cause of cognitive decline. The study also found 94 percent of brain tumor survivors completed the ninth grade of Finnish comprehensive school at the usual age. “These results are encouraging, considering a prior study in the United States showed brain tumor survivors were significantly less likely to finish high school compared to their siblings,” said Lähteenmäki. Brain tumors are the second most common form of cancer occurring in childhood, and the leading cause of cancer-related illness and death in this age group.The British school curriculum has been corrupted by political interference, according to a new report from independent think-tank Civitas. The same may well apply here. The traditional subject areas have been hi-jacked to promote fashionable causes such as gender awareness, the environment and anti-racism, while teachers are expected to help to achieve the government's social goals instead of imparting a body of academic knowledge to their students. The contributors to The Corruption of the Curriculum show that no major subject area has escaped the blight of political interference. Michele Ledda shows how issues of race and gender ('external criteria that have more to do with biology than literature') trump the love of language in the works of literature that students are given to study. The anthology of poetry produced by the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) divides poetry into two groups: poetry from different cultures (16 poems) and a further 48 poems from British poets, of which 32 are post-1950: 'The whole tradition of English poetry from its origins to 1914 is represented by 16 poems while modern poetry has three times as many… A British pupil can go through the school system and get the top marks in English and English Literature without knowing that Spenser, Milton or Pope ever existed, but having studied Carol Ann Duffy twice, both at GCSE and A-level. With all due respect to Carol Ann Duffy, she is on the syllabus, not because she is a greater poet than Milton, but because she is more "relevant", dealing as she does with very contemporary issues such as disaffected learners.' (p.18) Educational apartheid David Perks reveals, in his chapter 'What Is Science Education For?', that, whilst professing to want to encourage more pupils to study science, the DfES has introduced a new science curriculum that will probably have the opposite effect. The new approach, introduced last September, conflates the three disciplines of chemistry, physics and biology into 'scientific literacy', which has more to do with media studies than hard science. Students are asked to discuss issues such as global warming and GM crops, based on media coverage, and to consider whether or not scientists can be trusted: Three independent reviews of the new science curriculum showed that students who have been exposed to it are less likely to trust scientists and less likely to want to continue science at A-level (pp.116-7). Independent schools are refusing to do the new science GCSEs since, as Dr Martin Stephen, High Master of St Paul's puts it, there is 'a terrifying absence of proper science', and are opting for the IGCSEs, which largely maintain the three separate disciplines, and which state schools cannot take. This is creating what David Perks calls 'a kind of educational apartheid' (p.126), under which pupils at state schools are less likely to proceed to science at A-level and undergraduate level. Shirley Lawes identifies the same 'educational apartheid' in the teaching of languages. Two years ago the DfES decided that state schools need not teach foreign languages beyond Key Stage 3, with the result that, in over 70 per cent of state schools, languages are no longer compulsory after Year 9. The predictable result is that 30 per cent of all new young modern language undergraduates now come from independent schools (pp.87-8). Part of the reason that so many young people decide to drop languages is that they are presented as a functional skill with the assumed practical purpose of getting a job. 'They reduce foreign language study to a functional skill that teaches the sort of thing you find in a "get-by" phrase book' (pp.92-3), whereas, taught properly: 'The study of foreign languages has the potential of … providing a window on the world by enriching people's lives and opening them up to other cultures and literatures… learners of foreign languages move beyond their parochial, subjective experiences, to appreciate cultural achievements that have spread beyond national boundaries and are part of universal human culture.' (pp.93-4) A fraction of the truth Simon Patterson shows how the teacher's timetable is now so minutely controlled by Whitehall that maths teachers are obliged to return to concepts such as fractions again and again in different years, without ever having the time to ensure that students can grasp them and move on: History without dates Chris McGovern describes the way in which history is now taught as the New History, that is to say, history without any sense of narrative or chronology, taught through a filter of politically correct perspectives (pp.83-5): 'Children jump around in time between, for example, Vikings and Victorians, Ancient Greeks and Tudors… There is no longer any requirement at all to teach about any specific personality from the past. Nor is there any requirement to teach about any specific event - other than within a world history context for one unit.' (pp.64 & 68) One leading educational publisher produces a history book tailored to the requirements of the National Curriculum that mentions the Duke of Wellington in connection with Peterloo but not Waterloo (p.75). Unsurprisingly, those who have been subjected to the New History have only the haziest ideas about who did what in history. One survey found that half of young people questioned did not know that the Battle of Britain took place in World War II, and thought that either Gandalf, Horatio Hornblower or Christopher Columbus led the battle against the Spanish Armada (p.61). This ignorance of history has consequences for the stability of a multi-racial society: 'To know the history of one's country is a birthright. It tells us who we are and how we got here. It tells how our shared values came into being. A people that does not know its history is a people suffering from memory loss, amnesia- a damaging illness.' (p.61) Geography and global citizenship Alex Standish describes how geography has become a vehicle for teaching global citizenship, with environmentalism as its central theme: '… global citizenship education is tied to specific non-academic values that tend towards the replacement of knowledge with morality as the central focus of the curriculum. Thus global problems are not presented as issues to be interrogated for truth, knowledge and meaning, with a view to students developing ideas about the potential courses of social and political action. Instead, the solution is to be found in the personal realm and is presented as a given: that people need to adhere to a new global values system that encourages them to consume less, have fewer children, take public transport rather than drive their cars, be less money-grabbing, support charities, and so forth. Such an approach is no substitute for educating pupils to interpret the world for themselves.' Students are told to 'Think global, act local' - which misses out the national sphere of political action to solve problems. This misleads young people because 'there is no world government, nor global body for citizens to hold to account' (pp.47-8), and the only way in which children can be treated as political subjects in their own right is by 'redefining the meaning of politics from social change to a concern with identity' (p.48). However, by setting out to change the way in which children feel about things, in the interests of 'deep citizenship', teachers may be giving themselves a dangerously wide remit: 'If the personal consciousness of individuals is no longer a place of freedom in education, then they are no longer free moral beings.' (p.51) In his introduction to the book Frank Furedi defines the corruption of the curriculum as: 'the erosion of the integrity of education through debasing and altering its meaning' (p.5). He describes how issues of pedagogy have been subordinated to social engineering and political expediency, as 'Britain's cultural elites prefer to turn every one of their concerns into a school subject' (p.4). Obesity, sex education, black history and gay history crowd the timetable. Alan Johnson thinks that by teaching environmentalism and persuading children of their impact on climate change we can 'quite literally save the world'. 'Literally save the world! That looks like a price worth paying for fiddling with the geography curriculum!… [However] Those who are genuinely interested in educating children and inspiring them to become responsible citizens will instead look to real subjects, which represent a genuine body of knowledge.' (pp.4-5) Furedi believes that to confront the problems in education we need to (1) depoliticise education - 'Politicians need to be discouraged from regarding the curriculum as their platform for making statements'; (2) challenge the tendency to downsize the status of knowledge and expose the destructive consequences of 'anti-elitist education'; and (3) take seriously the ability of children to engage with knowledge and provide them with a challenging educational environment (p.10). Buy it here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corruption-Curriculum-Robert-Whelan-Editor/dp/1903386594 From High School to College: Removing Barriers for Maine Students This report, known as Barriers II, is funded by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and Bank of America, and it explores the growing gap between college intentions and enrollment. Pan Atlantic SMS Group helped conduct the study. The research involved creation of a statewide data set on college enrollment trends; student interviews at 19 high schools around the state; online and telephone surveys of over 3,000 Maine educators, parents, students, and young adults; and examination of promising practices in dozens of Maine schools and communities. This project is a follow-up to the Mitchell Institute’s 2002 Barriers I study, which looked at the gap between Maine’s strong high school completion rate and its below average college-going rate. Since then, intent among Maine high school graduates to enroll in college has steadily increased, but actual college enrollment has not. Barriers II examines the reasons behind that disparity. Among the report’s important findings:
Colleen Quint, Executive Director of the Mitchell Institute, said, “Our report describes many promising practices already in place at some Maine schools, colleges, and communities that are helping more students realize their college aspirations. We hope that others will be inspired to implement these strategies in their own communities.” The report’s eight “Ways to Make a Difference” are recommended action steps for Maine, which include exposing students to college – starting at an early age – and getting businesses involved in supporting college aspirations. The report also makes specific recommendations about financial aid and financial planning. Full Report: http://www.mitchellinstitute.org/pdfs/Barriers2FullReport.pdf Study: 'Green' Education at Schools Is in Poor Shape A few weeks ago, several school principals gathered excitedly at the Environment Ministry to receive their "green accreditation," certifying that their schools are committed to educating their pupils to protect the environment. To win accreditation, a school must devote at least 30 hours to environmental studies, make intelligent use of resources including water and energy, and operate a program involving community-oriented activity. Green accreditation has been awarded so far to 90 schools and 25 kindergartens. But while the phenomenon is growing, a new study claims that the levels of pupils' knowledge and commitment to the environment are still in desperate need of improvement. The findings, by Maya Negev and Gonen Sagi, researchers at Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, will be reported on tomorrow at the Knesset, during an environmental-awareness day being held there. In their study, entitled "Environmental Literacy in the Israeli School System," Negev and Sagi examined the knowledge, positions and conduct of 7,635 pupils in grades 6 through 12 at 182 schools. Citation: http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p124952_index.html To see full article: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/882111.html Improvement Following ADHD Treatment Sustained in Most Children But linked problems persist into adolescence -- Major follow-up study Most children treated in a variety of ways for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) showed sustained improvement after three years in a major follow-up study funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Yet increased risk for behavioral problems, including delinquency and substance use, remained higher than normal. The study followed-up children who had participated in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (MTA). Initial advantages of medication management alone or in combination with behavioral treatment over purely behavioral or routine community care waned in the years after 14 months of controlled treatment ended. However, Peter Jensen, M.D., Columbia University, and colleagues emphasized that “it would be incorrect to conclude from these results that treatment makes no difference or is not worth pursuing.” Their report is among four on the outcome of the MTA study published in the August, 2007 Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP). “We were struck by the remarkable improvement in symptoms and functioning across all treatment groups,” explained Jensen. After three years, 45-71 percent of the youth in the original treatment groups were taking medication. However, continuing medication treatment was no longer associated with better outcomes by the third year. “Our results suggest that medication can make a long-term difference for some children if it’s continued with optimal intensity, and not started or added too late in a child’s clinical course,” added Jensen. For the followup study, a multi-site research team evaluated, at ages 10-13, 485 children from the original MTA study, the first major randomized trial comparing different treatments for ADHD, published in l999. That study found that intensive medication management alone or in combination with behavioral therapy produced better outcomes than just behavioral therapy or usual community care. Ratings from families and teachers favored the combination treatment, which allowed for somewhat lower medication doses. Also, the careful management of medication by MTA physicians produced better outcomes than medication provided through usual community care sources. After the 14 months of assigned treatments ended, families were free to choose from treatments available in their communities. To understand why the initial advantage of medication wore off, the researchers examined medication use patterns that emerged after formal treatment in the study ended. They found that children who had been assigned to intensive behavioral treatment were more likely to begin taking medication, while those who had been taking medication were more likely to stop. For example, among children originally in the behavioral treatment group, the incidence of high medication use increased from 14 to 45 percent. In a secondary analysis of the data that searched for possible explanations for the findings, in the same issue of the JAACAP, researchers led by James Swanson, Ph.D., University of California at Irvine, reported finding substantial individual variability in responses to medication. They identified three groups of children with different patterns of response. One group, about a third of the children, showed a gradual, moderate improvement; a second group, about half of the children, showed larger initial improvement, which was sustained through the third year; a third group, about 14 percent of the children, responded well initially, but then deteriorated as symptoms returned during the second and third years. Swanson and colleagues suggested “trial withdrawals” for some children to determine if they still need to take medications. Another report by Swanson and colleagues in the same issue of the JAACAP confirmed an earlier finding from the MTA study that taking medication slowed growth. A group of 65 children with ADHD who had never taken medication grew somewhat larger – about three-fourths of an inch and 6 pounds more, on average – than a group of 88 peers who stayed on medication over the three years. Growth rates normalized for the children on medication by the third year, but they had not made up for the earlier slowing in growth. In a fourth article, Brooke Molina, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues reported that, despite treatment, the children with ADHD showed significantly higher-than-normal rates of delinquency (27.1 percent vs. 7.4 percent) and substance use (17.4 percent vs. 7.8 percent) after three years. Earlier evidence of lower substance use rates among children who had received intensive behavioral therapy had lessened by the third year. “These findings underscore the point that ADHD treatment for one year does not prevent serious problems from emerging later,” noted Molina. The follow-up of the MTA sample will continue as the participating children go through adolescence and enter adulthood.Children's Ability to Describe Past Event Develops Over Time In the first study to examine how children talk about the time-related features of their experiences--when, how often, in what order events occur--researchers have found intriguing changes as children grow older. The study’s findings may have implications for understanding these aspects of cognitive development as well as for questioning child witnesses and victims. The study was conducted by researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the University of Cambridge. It appears in the July/August 2007 issue of the journal Child Development. The researchers analyzed forensic interviews of 250 4- to 10-year-old children who were alleged victims of sexual abuse, focusing on the kinds of references to time they made when describing these real-life events. The children made increasing numbers of references to time-related characteristics of experienced events as they grew older, the researchers found. However, witnesses under 10 seldom mentioned specific times or dates, or what happened before reported events or actions. There were dramatic increases to such references at the age of 10. References to the sequence of events or parts of events were most common, and their increase with age may be related to children’s developing capability to elaborate. Children were more likely to mention time spontaneously when asked to recall what happened than when they were asked specific recognition questions. This is pertinent because information retrieved from memory by recall is much more likely to be accurate than information retrieved in response to questions that ask children to select among options offered by the interviewer (such as “Did he …"” or “Was it x or y"”). The children remembered the times of past events by making references to clock times, events that occurred in the same time frame, or the calendar, the researchers found. While older children were capable of using both short- and long-scale time patterns (such as time of day and day of the month), younger children mostly referred to short-scale time patterns (such as time of day), or they anchored the events to familiar activities (such as “when I returned from school”). These findings have important implications for forensic interviews, where the ability to provide information about the number of incidents, the time of occurrences, and the sequence of events may allow suspected victims and witnesses to define specific episodes of allegedly experienced crimes. This ability increases children’s competence as witnesses and the prospect that their cases will be pursued in the criminal justice system. In addition, awareness that children acquire some temporal skills late in their development may discourage attempts to discredit child witnesses when they fail to provide the requested time-related information. “By helping forensic interviewers to recognize children’s capabilities and limitations, our findings may also encourage interviewers to seek essential temporal information using age-appropriate techniques,” according to Yael Orbach, staff scientist at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the study’s lead author.High School Theater Program Helped Strengthen Adolescents' Emotional Development A unique study found that adolescents’ emotional skills were strengthened through a high school theater program. The study appears in the July-August 2007 issue of the journal Child Development. Researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign conducted open-ended interviews and observations to gain an in-depth understanding of one setting—a high school theater program. Ten teenagers were interviewed every two weeks over a three-month period while the theater group rehearsed a musical. Two adults who led the production also were interviewed biweekly. In addition, the researchers observed the rehearsals weekly. During the rehearsals, teenagers reported frequent emotional experiences, including disappointment, anger, anxiety, and exhilaration. The program provided a culture that helped them learn to respond constructively to the events and feelings associated with these different emotions, the researchers found. The adults provided models and helped the teens cultivate strategies to manage strong emotions. The youth learned from repeatedly using these strategies to employ positive emotions to motivate their work; they also learned how to manage their own and others’ negative emotions. The theater setting supported this process by putting the youth in situations in which emotions were likely to occur because the expectation of hard work created stress and tension. Moreover, intense emotions were accepted and discussed openly with a climate of concern for others. The adults and youth alike stated shared beliefs about the importance of emotional experience, and the adolescents drew on the models and ideas of the culture as they learned about the dynamics of emotions in themselves and in groups. The researchers also found that the young people were very actively engaged in the process of emotional learning. In the theater setting, they were proactive in learning to manage emotional situations, evaluated experiences and put to use the insights they gained, and actively drew on the ideas and assistance of adults and peers. “The development of ‘emotional intelligence’ is important to adult work and family life, but many young people arrive in adulthood with incomplete emotional skills,” according to Reed W. Larson, professor of human and community development at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and the study’s lead author. “These preliminary findings suggest how, under the right conditions, adolescents strengthen these skills. Although further research is needed, youth programs and schools that provide these conditions may be more likely to facilitate emotional learning. “Status of Adolescent Peer Groups Plays Role in Understanding Groups Influence on Early Teen Behavior Children who are part of the cool group are more likely to be influenced by their friends than children who are friends with peers who are kind, nice, and well-liked. That’s one of the findings of a new study published in the July/August 2007 issue of the journal Child Development. Acknowledging that by early adolescence, peer groups have a significant influence on children’s behavior, researchers at the University of Western Ontario sought to determine whether some peer groups are more influential than others. Specifically, they contrasted the effects of two types of peer group status on youngsters’ deviant, aggressive, and prosocial behavior. The first type of group (group centrality) had children who were cool and popular. The second type (group liking) was made up of the kind, nice children everyone likes. The researchers looked at 526 Canadian children in grades 5 through 8 who reported on their deviant behavior (such as theft and skipping school) and identified peer groups in their grade. The children also were asked to nominate classmates in their grade who were physically aggressive (children who started fights), social aggressive (children who excluded others), prosocial (children who were kind to others), and whom they liked the most and the least. The children, whose average age was 12, identified 116 peer groups. Over a three-month period, the researchers found that the children generally tended to become more similar in behavior to the others in their group. However, this occurred to a much greater extent in popular groups than in well-liked groups. Children’s strong desire to belong to a popular group, together with pressure from group members to conform to group norms, may account for the profound influence of such groups. Group liking affected adolescents’ behavior only when groups were disliked; members of deviant disliked groups became more deviant over time, the researchers found. “Our results have important practical implications,” suggested Wendy E. Ellis, assistant professor of psychology at King’s University College at the University of Western Ontario and the study’s lead author. “Although being a member of a popular group may bring benefits such as positive social behavior and esteem, potential costs include higher rates of risky behavior and social aggression. Preservation of popular status may propel group members beyond the boundaries of acceptable behavior, and high motivation to belong to popular groups may cause group members to resist adult intervention attempts. “In the long-term, however, popular group members may fare better than disliked children in deviant groups who have little exposure to prosocial behavior models and poor social relationships.”Early Behavior Problems Appear to Lead to Peer Rejection and Friendlessness Linked to depression and loneliness in adolescence Behavior problems in the early grades appear to lead to peer rejection and a lack of friends in elementary school. This, in turn, can lead to early adolescent depression and loneliness. Researchers collected information from 551 children beginning when the children were 6 years old and continuing annually until they were 13. They also collected information from the children’s teachers, mothers, and peers. Specifically, teachers and mothers described the children’s levels of anxiety (including a tendency to prefer solitary play and to fear new situations) and their disruptiveness (including physical aggression and hyperactivity) when the children were 6 and 7. Classroom peers reported on the children they liked most and least each year from ages 8 to 11. Children reported how many friends they had each year from ages 8 to 11, as well as their own levels of depression, loneliness, and involvement with delinquent behaviors at ages 12 and 13. The researchers found that children who were disruptive in early childhood were more likely to be rejected and lack friends in elementary school. Anxious children also tended to have few friends, although they were not more likely to be rejected by their peers. The study also found that rejection contributes to the risk that children won’t have friends. Children who are rejected early in elementary school are more likely to lack friends later in elementary school. Student Results Show Benefits of Math and Science Partnerships Improvements shown in nearly every age group when schools partnered with higher education Students' performance on annual math and science assessments improved in almost every age group when their schools were involved in a program that partners K-12 teachers with their colleagues in higher education. While an earlier study tracked schools that began work in the first year of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Math and Science Partnership program (MSP), the most recent study followed more than 300 schools participating in partnerships that began to be funded during the program's second year. Participating school districts found that a significantly higher proportion of students scored at the "proficient" level or higher on state math and science assessments in the 2004-2005 school year than they had in 2003-2004. The only exception was in science at the middle school level, where student performance stayed the same (see accompanying chart). Progress among elementary math students was particularly noteworthy, with student proficiency rising by more than 15 percentage points from one school year to the next. The MSP currently supports 52 such partnerships around the country that unite some 150 institutions of higher education with more than 550 school districts, including more than 3,300 schools in 30 states and Puerto Rico. More than 70 businesses, numerous state departments of education, science museums and community organizations are also partners. "Teachers don't just have to learn more math and science," says Joyce Evans, a program manager in NSF's directorate for education and human resources. "They need to learn to become an expert resource for their colleagues." Established in 2002 to integrate the work of higher education with K-12 and to strengthen and reform mathematics and science education, MSP was enhanced in 2004 with the addition of teacher institutes for the 21st century. While NSF has funded development programs for teachers since the 1950s, the MSP teacher institutes not only have an intense focus on subject matter expertise but also an emphasis on leadership development. More than 3,000 teachers participated in 12 such institutes around the country in the 2006-2007 school year. Typically teachers work intensively with higher education faculty in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines during the summer months to gain deep content knowledge, earn necessary certifications or degrees and receive mentoring from their higher education colleagues. The goal is for participating teachers to become school- and district-based intellectual leaders in mathematics or the sciences. Student outcomes are beginning to parallel growth in teacher knowledge gained from participating in the Teacher Institutes. For example, in the 2005-2006 school year, a population of students with teachers who took part in the Rice University Mathematics Leadership Institute performed better on both the Texas state mathematics assessment and the Stanford 10 mathematics assessment (a national standardized test) than students of non-institute teachers in the same grades at similar schools. Findings of the Houston Independent School District's research and accountability department indicated that students of institute participants outperformed comparison students on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, with the most significant gains noted by low-performing students of institute participants, who made dramatic strides toward reaching the proficiency standards. Students of institute participants also showed growth on the Stanford 10 mathematics assessment, indicating that their learning of mathematics progressed more than that of the general national population. "The institutes are helping us build capacity, bringing teacher-leaders in the STEM disciplines to districts around the country," says Evans. "This will continue to benefit their math and science students."Children's Memory of Long-ago Events May Be More Accurate than Previously Thought Children’s memories of events that occurred long ago may be more accurate than their recollections of events that took place recently. These findings may have implications for cases of child sexual abuse, when children are often the only witnesses. In the past, it has been assumed that because memory tends to fade with the passage of time, children’s reports given a long time after an event are less accurate than reports given soon after the events took place. These findings are from a study that was conducted by researchers at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada and Deakin University in Australia. They are reported in the July/August 2007 issue of the journal Child Development. In the study, 5- and 6-year-olds participated in a classroom activity one or four times and were interviewed twice about the last or only occurrence of the activity. Children who took part in the activity once were more inaccurate when the first interview took place 21 days after the activity than when it took place 3 days after the activity. But the long delay had no effect on the accuracy of reports by children who took part in the activity four times when they were asked about details that were the same in each activity. When questioned 21 days after the last activity about details that varied each time, children with repeated experience were more inaccurate when the second interview took place the day after the first interview than they were when 21 days had lapsed between the two interviews. Thus, the researchers found that the timing of the interviews was more important than the actual delay. The study’s findings show that children’s memories can be accurate even when they are interviewed a while after an event. “Reports from child witnesses should not be automatically dismissed just because the alleged events occurred a long time ago,” according to Kim P. Roberts, associate professor of psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University and the study’s lead author. “In cases involving alleged abuse of children, it may be useful for police to find out if anyone has been talking to children about the abuse (e.g., concerned parents, teachers, etc.) and, perhaps more importantly, when these conversations took place, so that they can assess the risk that children’s memories have been contaminated by false information.” Self-injury Found to Be Common in High-school Students Study suggests teens harming themselves at rates higher than previously suspected Non-Suicidal Self-Injury – the deliberate, direct destruction of body tissue without conscious suicidal intent – is a relatively common occurrence for adolescents in high school, a new study suggests. Led by researchers at The Miriam Hospital and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, nearly half of the teens studied endorsed some form of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) in the past year, most frequently biting self, cutting/carving skin, hitting self on purpose, and burning skin. The research is published in the August 2007 issue of Psychological Medicine. “The findings are important because it suggests that NSSI is more prevalent among adolescents in the general population than previously thought,” says lead author Elizabeth Lloyd-Richardson, PhD, a psychologist at The Miriam Hospital and assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. “If this is the case - it’s essentially a wake-up call to take better notice of these behaviors in the community and learn how to help teens manage stress without harming themselves,” adds Lloyd-Richardson. Researchers decided to explore the frequency and breadth of NSSI engaged in by teens in the community because little is known about self-harming behavior in this particular population. “Although NSSI is commonly encountered in inpatient and outpatient psychiatric and other institutionalized settings, little research has looked at NSSI in community samples,” says Lloyd-Richardson. A total of 633 high school students (grades 9-12) from schools in the southern and midwestern United States voluntarily and anonymously participated in the study by completing a survey administered by the researchers. The survey asked the participants whether they purposefully engaged in 11 different NSSI behaviors in the past year, and if so, the frequency of occurrence. In addition, the survey assessed the motivations for engaging in NSSI behavior. “We were surprised to find that 46 percent of the teens in the study reported injuring themselves in the past year on multiple occasions,” says Lloyd-Richardson. Furthermore, 60 percent of these (or 28 percent of the entire sample) endorsed moderate/severe forms of NSSI including cutting skin, burning skin, giving self a tattoo, scraping skin, or using a pencil to “erase” skin. The researchers note it was important to distinguish between minor and moderate/severe forms of self-injury, since severe forms of NSSI may be predictive of more serious outcomes. Minor forms of NSSI consisted of behaviors such as pulling out hair, biting self, or picking at areas of the body to the point of drawing blood. Moderate/severe self-injurers were more likely than minor self-injurers to report a history of psychiatric treatment and hospitalizations, suicide attempt, and current suicide ideation. Results from the study also indicated that the most common reasons teens in the study engaged in NSSI included “to get control of a situation”, “to stop bad feelings”, and “to try and get a reaction from someone.” “This suggests that adolescents are engaging in NSSI for several reasons, including both regulating their own internal emotional states and trying to manage situations in their environment,” says Lloyd-Richardson. “Once thought of as a phenomenon only found in teens with mental health issues, the results support the notion that many adolescents in the community are self-harming as way to cope with emotional distress.” Accordingly, intervention efforts should be tailored to the individual and contribute to building alternative skills for positive coping, communication, stress management, and strong social support, the authors note. “While there remains few proven treatments for NSSI, understanding the specific motivations behind an adolescents’ behavior – namely to influence the behaviors of others, as well as to manage their own internal emotions as our study shows - allows for the development of an individual treatment plan that could help prevent future episodes,” she says. In this study, no gender, race, or age differences were noted in overall NSSI rates – however, the researchers suggest that future studies examine NSSI in nationally representative samples. They also recommend exploring how NSSI and its functions may change over time, given additional exposure, as well as changes in interpersonal and intrapersonal variables. Lloyd-Richardson adds, “For example, a question that arises is if long-term exposure of repeated NSSI leads to a decreased fear threshold in teens, and therefore, a greater attraction to suicide and death. The answer could lead to significant changes in how we initially treat adolescents who start to exhibit self-harming behavior.” Young Children's Defiance Toward Mothers May Be Part of Health Development At very young ages, children’s defiant behavior toward their mothers may not be a bad thing. This defiance may in fact reflect children’s emerging autonomy and a confidence that they can control events that are important to them. Those are the findings of a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan. The study is published in the July/August 2007 issue of the journal Child Development. To understand how very young children react to being controlled by their parents, the researchers videotaped 119 mostly middle-class mothers as they interacted with their 14- to 27-month-old children. Mothers were asked to have their children avoid a set of attractive toys and, when play time was over, to get their children to help them clean up those toys they had been allowed to use. Based on the taped interactions, the researchers coded children’s behaviors, categorizing them as being defiant, ignoring requests, or being willingly compliant. Children were most likely to be defiant and least likely to ignore requests when their mothers were sensitive and had few symptoms of depression, and when children were positively interested in their mothers during the interaction. Children of sensitive mothers also tended to be highly cooperative. Children with mothers who had symptoms of depression were more likely to ignore requests and less likely to respond with defiance. One reason that some children of mothers with such symptoms develop poorly, the researchers suggested, may be that these children do not develop confident assertion with their mothers, learning instead to be overly passive in the face of obstacles. These results imply that, at ages when parents first ask children to conform to requests and commands, active resistance is not a sign of problems in child development or in relations between parents and children. To the contrary, at these very young ages, children’s active resistance may reflect a healthy confidence in their ability to control events and natural, although immature, attempts to do so. “Although a year or two later, high defiance may be a problem, we found that at this age defiance appeared to be a positive development,” according to Theodore Dix, associate professor of human development and family science at the University of Texas at Austin and the study’s lead author. “It increased with age and was associated with variables research has shown predict favorable outcomes for children.” Talent Development High Schools Earn High Marks from Department of Education Talent Development High Schools, a national reform model developed at The Johns Hopkins University, received the second highest rating for promoting students through school in an independent review by the U.S. Department of Education. As a result, Talent Development will be listed as an effective research-based plan for reducing dropouts by the What Works Clearinghouse, the department's source of scientific evidence on what works in education. The clearinghouse posts only programs that are shown to be effective, according to its strict standards of research. Its report on Talent Development is based on a study in 11 Philadelphia high schools, five of which used the Talent Development reforms for several years and the other six where no reforms were implemented. In this study, Talent Development shows "a statistically significant positive effect," according to the clearinghouse report, posted July 18 on its Web site: The report found that "students using Talent Development High Schools earned an average of 9.5 course credits over the first two years of high school, while comparison group students earned 8.6 course credits. In addition, students at Talent Development High Schools were more likely to be promoted to tenth grade than comparison students (68 percent to 60 percent)." Robert Balfanz, a co-director of Talent Development High Schools and research scientist at Hopkins' Center for Social Organization of Schools, said, "It is heartening to see the growing number of independent reviews and research studies that validate both the Talent Development High Schools' vision of school improvement and its impact on student success. When we get students to attend more frequently, help them close their skill gaps, teach them time management and study skills, engage them in learning by linking it to the real world and provide teachers and administrators the support they need to accomplish this, then we see students passing more courses, being promoted on time and ultimately graduating in greater numbers prepared for adult success." More than 100 high schools in 15 states are using Talent Development. The model uses a college preparatory curriculum for all students, combining a district's curriculum with extra help for those students who start high school below grade level in reading and/or mathematics. Its hallmarks are 90-minute class periods; a separate ninth-grade academy to help students make the transition to high school; special courses to prepare students for demanding high school work; teachers who work in teams; and intense professional development, including in-class coaching, for teachers. Medical Students Respond Positively to Simulated Patient Experience When a vomiting, simulated patient mannequin was rolled into the lecture hall last fall to teach large numbers of first- and second-year Wake Forest University School of Medicine students about the brain and nervous system, Michael T. Fitch, M.D., Ph.D., wasn’t sure what to expect. In the end, he got the results he was looking for. “I really didn’t know what it was going to look like when I started,” said Fitch, an emergency medicine specialist who developed the teaching scenario and conducted a pilot study to determine the simulation’s success in a non-traditional location with a large number of participants. The research is published online today in Medical Teacher and will appear in the August print issue. “It was hard to do and we really wanted to engage the students,” said Fitch. High fidelity patient simulation of this kind has typically been done with small groups to teach clinical patient management and decision-making. What Fitch found through his student survey results is that it was well received in the large lecture setting. Students were overwhelmingly positive and the results will lead to future study of program expansion, he said. Survey results showed that 98 percent of participants rated the correlation to basic science concepts as “very good” or “outstanding,” and 99 percent felt the same way about the presentation. Fitch, whose Ph.D. is in neuroscience and who directs the Emergency Department’s simulation program, was asked by James Johnson, Ph.D., who directs the neuroscience courses taught to first- and second-year students, to develop a simulation to help teach basic science principles. Many medical schools use such computerized simulated patients to teach clinical skills, but Wake Forest is one of the first schools to use this technology in live, large group lecture settings. Fitch organized a team of resident physicians to help him implement the emergency medicine scenario. The clinical simulation containing basic science concepts was presented four times to large groups of 50 students for highly interactive 90-minute simulations. The project used SimMan™, a reproduction of an average-size adult, that makes realistic heart, lung, and bowel sounds and can be programmed to have various medical problems – which students can work to treat. Students can also use SimMan to practice procedures such as giving injections and inserting urinary catheters or breathing tubes. “I figured if we were going to do this, let’s do it big. A lot of time and resources were involved, but we were just overwhelmed by the students’ response to it,” Fitch said. “I look at it like it’s a live-action play. It wasn’t actual real time, but I wanted them to feel like they were in the Emergency Department with me.” Through a guided group discussion to manage the case, students learned about altered levels of consciousness and potential causes of the simulated patient’s symptoms, including stroke, brain injury and hypoglycemia. They learned about the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and how various mediations affect brain cell receptors. Fitch explained that using a live clinical scenario to emphasize basic science learning allows students to understand the clinical relevance of the subjects they are studying. “What I think is really great about the concept is to create a learning environment that engages the students actively – as opposed to passively observing a lecture,” he said. Cognitive Coaching and Writing Cognitive Coaching is a model for conversing about planning, reflecting, or problem resolving. It provides opportunities for structured thinking that allows an individual to achieve clarity of purpose and develop an action plan. The coach uses mediation strategies to explicitly support the other's thinking. The authors believed that Cognitive Coaching's structured approach to planning would improve student writing. Complete article available from here: As the Majority of School Districts Spend More Time on Reading and Math, Many Cut Time in Other Areas Instructional Time for Subjects Not Tested Under No Child Left Behind Has Fallen by Nearly One-Third Since Law Was Passed A majority of the nation’s school districts report that they have increased time for reading and math in elementary schools since the No Child Left Behind Act became law in 2002, while time spent on other subjects has fallen by nearly one-third during the same time, according to a report from the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Education Policy. The report, based on a nationally representative survey of nearly 350 school districts, finds that to make room for additional curriculum and instructional time in reading and math – the two subjects tested for accountability under the No Child Left Behind Act – many districts are also spending less time in other subjects that are not the focus of federal accountability. About 62 percent of districts reported increasing time for English language arts and/or math in elementary schools since school year 2001-02, and more than 20 percent reported increasing time for these subjects in middle school during the same time. Among the districts reporting increased time for English and math, the average increase was substantial, amounting to a 46 percent increase in English, a 37 percent increase in math, and a 42 percent increase across the two subjects combined. Meanwhile, 44 percent of districts reported cutting time from one or more other subjects or activities at the elementary level, including science, social studies, art and music, physical education, lunch and recess. On average, the cuts amounted to about 30 minutes a day. The report, Choices, Changes, and Challenges: Curriculum and Instruction in the NCLB Era, also finds that overall, the decreases represent an average reduction of 31 percent in the total amount of instructional time devoted to these subjects since 2001-02. “What gets tested gets taught.” said Jack Jennings, CEP’s president and CEO. “Under No Child Left Behind, there is reading and math and then there is everything else. And because so much is riding on the reading and math included on state tests, many schools have cut back time on other important subject areas, which means that some students are not receiving a broad curriculum.” The report notes that the increases and decreases are more prevalent in districts that are home to struggling schools. School districts with at least one school identified for improvement under NCLB reported in greater proportions that they had increased time for English and/or math at the elementary and middle school levels and had cut back on time for other subjects since 2001-02 (78 percent) than did districts without schools identified (57 percent). What is Tested is What is Taught In addition to increasing time spent on English and math, many districts appear to be changing their curriculum to provide a greater emphasis on content and skills covered on high-stakes state tests used for No Child Left Behind purposes. In elementary reading, for example, 84 percent of districts reported that they have changed their curriculum “somewhat” or “to a great extent” to put greater emphasis on tested content. Seventy-nine percent of districts made a similar change in middle school English, while 76 percent did so at the high school level. Similarly, 81 percent of districts reported changing their math curriculum at the elementary and middle school levels to more closely match the content of state tests, while 78 percent of districts reported doing so at the high school level. The report is from CEP’s From the Capital to the Classroom series of reports tracking the implementation of the law in its fifth year. Based on five years of research on how the No Child Left Behind Act has affected instruction and curriculum in states, districts and schools, the report includes the following recommendations to ensure that students receive a well-balanced curriculum and adequate instructional time in all core subjects:
To see full report: http://www.cep-dc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=document.show State & Local Education Officials Cite Reading First Policies as Important in Lifting Achievement for Struggling Schools More Than One-Third of Districts Report Lack of Capacity to Take Dramatic Actions for Schools in Improvement Professional development, alignment of curriculum and instruction with tests, and special grants were named by states and school districts as the most effective ways of boosting test scores in schools identified as needing improvement under the No Child Left Behind Act, according to a report from the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Education Policy. The report, Moving Beyond Identification: Assisting Schools in Improvement, also finds that in 2005-06, anywhere from one-third to one-half of districts with schools in improvement lack the capacity to carry out some of NCLB’s more stringent actions with regard to identified schools. For example, 50 percent of districts with schools in improvement lack the capacity to replace all or most of the school staff. Among these districts, 50 percent cite money and 61 percent cite staff as reasons for the lack of capacity to take this action. “Congress can benefit from the valuable perspective of school leaders on what they believe have been most – and least – effective ways to boost achievement in struggling schools.” said Jack Jennings, CEP’s president and CEO. “Interestingly, Reading First programs have proven far more popular than NCLB’s much-discussed school choice and supplemental service options. But a troubling number of districts do not appear to have the money or the manpower to take on more intensive reforms.” The report is from CEP’s From the Capital to the Classroom series of reports tracking the implementation of the law in its fifth year, and is based on a survey of all 50 states and a nationally representative group of nearly 350 school districts, as well as 12 in-depth district case studies. Among the improvement strategies used by states, supports made possible by the Reading First program were rated as very or moderately effective by the greatest percentage of states, including 81 percent of the 48 states offering professional development and 79 percent of the 47 states providing curriculum and assessment materials through the program. And while significantly more district officials rated their own policies important or very important in boosting achievement in reading (69 percent) and in math (71 percent) than give similar ratings to state policies, Reading First policies were again rated highly. Of the districts that received Reading First grants, 69 percent rated its assessment systems as important or very important, while 68 percent gave a similar rating to its instructional program. A third NCLB-related policy, the requirement that schools create improvement plans, was rated important or very important by 64 percent of districts in reading. However, no federal policy was rated as an important contributor to increased student achievement in math. In addition, NCLB policies requiring supplemental education services and public school choice were deemed not at all or somewhat important by more than 90 percent of districts in reading or math, and were cited important or very important by less than 10 percent of districts in either subject. According to the report, 18 percent of districts reported having at least one Title I school listed in need of improvement, relatively unchanged from 20 percent of districts the previous year. A greater proportion of urban districts report having schools in improvement (47 percent) than do suburban (22 percent) or rural districts (11 percent). Based on five years of research of improvement efforts and other aspects of how implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act has affected states, districts and schools, the report includes the following recommendations to improve the way that assistance is provided to struggling schools:
To see full report: http://www.cep-dc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=document.show Creating a Successful Performance Compensation System for Educators Many schools and communities are exploring ways to attract, develop, motivate and retain excellent teachers by providing increased compensation through performance-based pay. Across the country, states, districts and schools have experimented with performance pay for teachers with varying degrees of success. From these real-world experiences, it is clear that a number of crucial elements are necessary to make performance-pay systems work in schools. This report, which reflects the findings of the Working Group on Teacher Quality, outlines some of the most important design elements of successful performance-pay plans and recommendations for implementation. To see full report: Learning a Second Language -- Is it all in your head? Think you haven’t got the aptitude to learn a foreign language? New research led by Northwestern University neuroscientists suggests that the problem, quite literally, could be in your head. “Our study links brain anatomy to the ability to learn a second language in adulthood,” said neuroscientist Patrick Wong, assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders at Northwestern and lead author of a study appearing online today (July 25) at , in Cerebral Cortex. Based on the size of Heschl’s Gyrus (HG), a brain structure that typically accounts for no more than 0.2 percent of entire brain volume, the researchers found they could predict -- even before exposing study participants to an invented language -- which participants would be more successful in learning 18 words in the “pseudo” language. Wong and his colleagues measured the size of HG, a finger-shaped structure in both the right and left side of the brain, using a method developed by co-authors Virginia Penhune and Robert Zatorre (Montreal Neurological Institute). Zatorre and Penhune are well known for research on human speech and music processing and the brain. “We found that the size of left HG, but not right HG, made the difference,” said Northwestern’s Catherine Warrier, a primary author of the article titled “Volume of Left Heschl’s Gyrus and Linguistic Pitch.” Anil K. Roy (Northwestern), Abdulmalek Sadehh (West Virginia University) and Todd Parish (Northwestern) also are co-authors. The study is the first to consider the predictive value of a specific brain structure on linguistic learning even before training has begun. Specifically, the researchers measured the size of study participants’ right and left Heschl’s Gyrus on MRI brains scans, including calculations of the volume of gray and white matter. Studies in the past have looked at the connection between brain structure and a participant’s ability to identify individual speech sounds in isolation rather than learning speech sounds in a linguistic context. Others have looked at the connection between existing language proficiency and brain structure. “While our study demonstrates a link between biology and linguistics, we do not argue that biology is destiny when it comes to learning a second language,” Wong emphasized. Adults with smaller volumes of left HG gray matter need not despair that they can never learn another language. “We are already testing different learning strategies for participants whom we predict will be less successful to see if altering the training paradigm results in more successful learning,” Wong added. According to Warrier, Northwestern research professor of communication sciences and disorders, the researchers were surprised to find the HG important in second language learning. “The HG, which contains the primary region of the auditory cortex, is typically associated with handling the basic building blocks of sound -- whether the pitch of a sound is going up or down, where sounds come from and how loud a sound is -- and not associated with speech per se,” she said. The 17 research participants aged 18 to 26 who had their brain scans taken prior to participating in the pseudo second-language training were previously participants in two related studies published by Wong and his research team. The three studies have identified behavioral, neurophysiologic and, with the current study, neuroanatomic factors which, when combined, can better predict second- language learning success than can each single factor alone. In a behavioral study, Wong’s group found that musical training started at an early age contributed to more successful spoken foreign-language learning. The study participants with musical experience also were found to be better at identifying pitch patterns before training. In a neurophysiologic study -- again with the same participants -- Wong’s team used functional magnetic resonance imaging to observe brain areas that were activated when participants listened to different pitch tones. They found that the more successful second-language learners were those who showed activation in the auditory cortex (where HG resides). The participants all were native American English speakers with no knowledge of tone languages. In tone languages (spoken by half the world’s population), the meaning of a word can change when delivered in a different pitch tone. In Mandarin, for example, the word “mi” in a level tone means “to squint,” in a rising tone means “to bewilder” and in a falling and then rising tone means “rice.” For the study reported in “Cerebral Cortex,” Wong’s 17 participants entered a sound booth after having their brains scanned. There they were trained to learn six one-syllable sounds (pesh, dree, ner, vece, nuck and fute). The sounds were originally produced by a speaker of American English and then re-synthesized at three different pitch tones, resulting in 18 different “pseudo” words. The participants were repeatedly shown the 18 “pseudo” words and a black and white picture representing each word’s meaning. Pesh, for example, at one pitch meant “glass,” at another pitch meant “pencil” and at a third meant “table.” Dree, depending upon pitch, meant “arm,” “cow” or “telephone.” As a group -- and sometimes in fewer than two or three sessions -- the nine participants predicted on the basis of left HG size to be “more successful learners” achieved an average of 97 percent accuracy in identifying the pseudo words. The “less successful” participants averaged 63 percent accuracy and sometimes required as many as 18 training sessions to correctly identify the words. “What’s important is that we are looking at the brain in a new way that may allow us to understand brain functions more comprehensively and that could help us more effectively teach foreign languages and possibly other skills,” said Wong. Hand Gestures Dramatically Improve Learning Kids asked to physically gesture at math problems are nearly three times more likely than non-gesturers to remember what they’ve learned. In today’s issue of the journal Cognition, a University of Rochester scientist suggests it’s possible to help children learn difficult concepts by providing gestures as an additional and potent avenue for taking in information. “We’ve known for a while that we use gestures to add information to a conversation even when we’re not entirely clear how that information relates to what we’re saying,” says Susan Wagner Cook, lead author and postdoctoral fellow at the University. “We asked if the reverse could be true; if actively employing gestures when learning helps retain new information.” It turned out to have a more dramatic effect than Cook expected. In her study, 90 percent of students who had learned algebraic concepts using gestures remembered them three weeks later. Only 33 percent of speech-only students who had learned the concept during instruction later retained the lesson. And perhaps most astonishing of all, 90 percent of students who had learned by gesture alone—no speech at all—recalled what they’d been taught. Cook used a variation on a classic gesturing experiment. When third graders approach a two-sided algebra equation, such as “9+3+6=__+6” on a blackboard, they will likely try to solve it in the simple way they have always approached math problems. They tend to think in terms of “the equal sign means put the answer here,” rather than thinking that the equal sign divides the problem into two halves. As a result, children often completely ignore the final “+6.” However, even when children discard that final integer, they will often point to it momentarily as they explain how they attacked the problem. Those children who gestured to the number, even though they may seem to ignore it, are demonstrating that they have a piece of information they can’t reconcile. Previous work has shown that the children with that extra bit of disconnected knowledge are the ones ready to learn, which suggests that perhaps giving children extra information in their gesture could lead to their learning. Cook divided 84 third and fourth graders into three groups. One group expressed the concept verbally without being allowed to use gestures. The second group was allowed to use only gestures and no speech, and the third group employed both. Teachers gave all the children the same instruction, which used both speech and gesture. After three weeks, the children were given regular in-school math tests. Of those children who had learned to solve the problem correctly, only a third of the speech-only students remembered the principles involved, but that figure rose dramatically for the speech-and-gesture, and the gesture-only group, to 90-percent retention. “My intuition is that gestures enhance learning because they capitalize on our experience acting in the world,” says Cook. “We have a lot of experience learning through interacting with our environment as we grow, and my guess is that gesturing taps into that need to experience.” Cook plans to look into how gesturing could be implemented effectively in classrooms to make a noticeable improvement in children’s learning. “Gesturing does have one clear benefit,” Cook adds. “It’s free.” While California has made substantial progress in easing its teacher shortage and reducing the concentration of the least prepared teachers in the lowest achieving schools, the effort to strengthen schools for all students is hampered by the large number of teachers who leave the profession prematurely. Policymakers at the state and local levels need to do a better job of keeping more talented, skilled and experienced teachers in the classroom. In order to target policy that keeps great teachers in the classroom one might begin with the question: “Why do teachers leave?” Many Californians, or those in education or the policy community, might say that low pay and a lack of respect for the profession fuels high rates of teacher attrition. But new research challenges those assumptions. In A Possible Dream: Retaining California Teachers So All Students Learn, Dr. Ken Futernick of the California State University’s Center for Teacher Quality finds that “critical problems in the teaching and learning environment are literally driving teachers from the classroom.” To see full report: http://www.cftl.org/centerviews/august07.html College Science Success Linked to Math and Same-Subject Preparation Researchers at the University of Virginia and Harvard University have found that high school coursework in one of the sciences generally does not predict better college performance in other scientific disciplines. But there’s one notable exception: students with the most rigorous high school preparation in mathematics perform significantly better in college courses in biology, chemistry, and physics. The work will be published in the journal Science. Authors Robert H. Tai of the University of Virginia and Philip M. Sadler of Harvard University say the findings run counter to the claims of an educational movement called “Physics First,” which argues that physics underlies biology and chemistry, and therefore the traditional order of high school science education – biology, chemistry, physics – should be reversed. “Many arguments have been made for chemistry and physics preparation to benefit the learning of biology,” says Tai, an assistant professor in U.Va.’s Curry School of Education. “On the scale of single cells, many processes are physical, such as neurons ‘firing’ electrically. Also, the complex molecules at the root of life obey chemical laws that are manifested in macroscopic processes. Yet our analysis provides no support for the argu-ment that physics and chemistry principles are inherently beneficial to the study of biology at the introductory level.” “Our findings knock out one of the primary claims of ‘Physics First’ advocates,” says Sadler, F.W. Wright Senior Lecturer in Astronomy in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and director of the Science Education Department at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “Taking more physics does not appear to improve students’ sub-sequent performance in either chemistry or biology courses.” Tai and Sadler surveyed 8,474 students enrolled in introductory science courses at 63 randomly selected four-year colleges and universities across the U.S. The students re-ported on their high school coursework (0, 1, or 2 years) in biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics; this data was then correlated with their ultimate performance in their intro-ductory college science courses. Tai and Sadler subjected this raw data to robust modeling to correct for socioeconomic factors that may advantage some students, including race, parental education level, and mean educational level of students’ home communities, as defined by ZIP code. Not surprisingly, the controlled data indicated that high school preparation in any of the scientific disciplines – biology, chemistry, or physics – boosted college performance in the same subject. Also, students with the most coursework in high school mathematics performed strikingly better in their introductory biology and chemistry courses in college; introductory college-level physics performance also benefited. Conversely, little correlation was seen between the amount of high school coursework in biology, chemistry, or physics and college performance in any of the other disciplines in this trio. “The link between math and biology is not exactly an intuitive one, but biology has become an increasingly quantitative discipline,” Sadler says. “Many high school students are now performing statistical analysis of genetic outcomes in addition to dissecting frogs and studying cells under a microscope.” The current order of high school science education was established in the 1890s, in an attempt to standardize what was then a system of wildly disparate science education in high schools across the U.S. Biology was given primacy in that ordering in part because the late 19th century experienced a flowering of interest in the natural world, and also because it was perceived to be less daunting intellectually than either chemistry or physics. Football-Related Injuries at High School, Collegiate Levels Football, one of the most popular sports in the United States, is also the leading cause of sports-related injuries. During the 2005-06 season, high school football players sustained more than half a million injuries nationally. A study conducted by researchers in the Center for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP) at Columbus Children’s Hospital, is the first to compare injuries among high school and collegiate football players using a nationally representative sample. According to the study, published in the August issue of The American Journal of Sports Medicine, four out of every 1,000 high school football exposures resulted in an injury, while eight out of every 1,000 collegiate football exposures resulted in an injury. Although National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football players were twice as likely to sustain an injury as high school football players, high school football players sustained a greater proportion of season-ending injuries, fractures and concussions compared to collegiate football players. “While football does have a high rate of injuries, injuries don’t have to be just part of the game,” said Christy Collins, MA, research associate in CIRP at Children’s Hospital and co-author of the study. “There are ways to reduce the number and severity of football injuries through targeted interventions. Because we observed high levels of ankle and knee injuries, we recommend increased conditioning of ankles and knees and rule changes aimed at protecting these vulnerable body sites. As most of the injuries to these regions were due to ligament sprains, targeted stretching exercises may also be beneficial.” Running plays were the leading cause of injury in both high school and collegiate football, and in high school they accounted for the majority of season-ending injuries and concussions. Positions with the greatest risk of injury were running backs and linebackers. Dawn Comstock, PhD, CIRP principal investigator, faculty member at Ohio State University College of Medicine and co-author of the study, suggested, “Additional instruction on appropriate tackling and blocking techniques as well as position-specific conditioning may help reduce the risk of injury during running plays.” “Further research is required to identify those players most likely to be injured and examine what types of targeted efforts might prevent those injuries,” said Collins. “Also, there is a need for further analysis in the difference between high school and collegiate-level athletes and why high school players had greater proportions of the more severe injuries.” Data for the study were collected from the 2005-06 U.S. High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study and the 2005-06 NCAA Injury Surveillance System. Collected from this data were the injuries from 100 high school football teams and 55 NCAA football teams.Study Offers Recommendations on School Consolidation and Shared Services School consolidation does not appear to improve student achievement, according to a new report by Indiana University researchers. Neither are meaningful financial benefits consistently generated from consolidation, they said, but sharing certain services may be a route to cutting costs. The latest education policy brief from the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy (CEEP), "Assessing the Policy Environment for School Corporation Collaboration, Cooperation and Consolidation in Indiana," stresses that Indiana schools shouldn't expect an upturn in student achievement if they consolidate districts. Rather, the policy brief recommends administrators focus on operating efficiently within current budget constraints and exploring opportunities for shared services through collaboration. "There are no compelling reasons to consolidate if the expectation is that school corporations are to raise academic achievement," said Terry Spradlin, associate director of education policy at CEEP. "However, there is some research that says -- for especially small and rural school districts -- there are some economic benefits that they, by consolidating, can increase their economies of scale and increase efficiencies." The Indiana General Assembly financed the CEEP research two years ago. Spradlin said the funding grew from renewed interest in consolidation during lean state budget cycles. The state's last major consolidation started in 1959, reducing more than 900 districts to around 400 over 11 years. Since 1970, that number has dropped to 293 school corporations. The state legislature included a provision in the state budget bill passed in the 2007 session to provide money for school corporations to conduct consolidation feasibility studies or examine merging services with other corporations. Spradlin said studies across the country show that another broad consolidation wouldn't necessarily help Indiana schools. But a targeted look at smaller corporations might be worth considering as a next step. "If we looked at perhaps those 20 school corporations in Indiana that have fewer than 750 kids, that may be beneficial," he said. The brief recommends corporations consider pooling resources, particularly by fully utilizing the state's nine education service centers established to assist schools in each region of the state. Spradlin said there could be fiscal benefit if corporations share services in certain areas -- for example, bulk purchasing and insurance pools. "I think they'll be well-positioned to negotiate and generate more competitive policies in those sectors," he said. While the report finds the state is generally doing a good job navigating this highly political issue, it could do more to encourage cost savings. Spradlin said the Indiana General Assembly should help fund implementation plans for school corporations that conduct a consolidation feasibility study. The report also recommends the creation of financial incentives to encourage schools to operate in a fiscally efficient manner. The authors suggest allowing school corporations to keep more of their savings generated from consolidation or shared services and providing them with statutory flexibility in moving savings from one fund to another. The full report may be viewed at http://ceep.indiana.edu/projects/PDF/PB_V5N5.pdf. How the Government Defines Rural has Implications for Education Policies and Practices The Regional Educational Laboratory – Southwest (REL Southwest), run by Edvance Research (formerly run by SEDL), has released research findings which examine the impact of rural definitions on education policies and practices. The research report, How the Government Defines Rural has Implications for Education Policies and Practices, was developed to assist education professionals, business leaders, policymakers and community leaders with evidence-based research that can be utilized to improve student outcomes in rural schools. Clearly defining what rural means has tangible implications for public policies and practices in education, from establishing resource needs to achieving the goals of No Child Left Behind. The research documents national and state definitions, as rural has been defined in various ways in reference to population density, geographic features and level of economic and industrial development. Dr. T. Kenneth James, Commissioner, Arkansas Department of Education, provided his views on the research. “Defining rural is a complex issue. This research provides insight into the education challenges resulting from varied definitions of rural and the potential impact on student achievement. With a great number of students attending rural schools in Arkansas, this research will benefit educators in our state.” A subsequent research study is being conducted by REL Southwest, with scheduled publication in Fall 2007. The study examines the funding implications resulting from the various definitions of rural. REL Southwest, at Edvance Research, is one of ten educational laboratories in the Regional Educational Laboratory Network (REL Network). REL Southwest serves the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas and works for the benefit of over 6.5 million students, over 400,000 teachers in approximately 14,000 schools in grades pre-kindergarten through college in this five-state region. The REL Network encompasses ten geographical regions that span the nation with its primary mission being to serve the educational needs of designated regions. The REL Network uses applied research, development, dissemination, and training and technical assistance to bring the latest and best research and proven practices into school improvement efforts. Educators in the southwest region may obtain technical assistance through the REL Reference Desk by calling 1-877-EDVANCE (1-877-338-2623) or e-mailing technical_assistance@edvanceresearch.com. Founded in 2005, Edvance Research, Inc. is a research enterprise with a mission to be a leader in the advancement of rigorous research, specializing in the education arena. The company is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. www.edvanceresearch.com Click below to access the research report. Severe Trauma Affects Kids’ Brain Function, Say Stanford/Packard Researchers The first study to examine brain activity patterns in severely traumatized children showed their brains function differently than those of healthy children, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. The study hints at the biological underpinnings of the disorder called PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder. It also provides a valuable benchmark with which to assess the effectiveness of potential therapies. “Now we can see some real neurological reasons for the impulsivity, agitation, hyper-vigilance and avoidance behaviors that children with untreated PTSD often exhibit,” said Victor Carrion, MD, child psychiatrist at Packard Children’s. “The fact that their brains appear to be working differently may indicate a deficit for which other areas of the brain are trying to compensate.” Some children with PTSD, for example, cut or burn themselves as a way of coping with their feelings. The researchers found that affected children who had also cut or otherwise injured themselves exhibited unique patterns of activation in a portion of the brain involved in the perception of pain and emotions. It’s not yet clear whether the brain differences are caused by the interpersonal trauma, such as sexual or physical abuse, experienced by the children or if pre-existing differences make some children more susceptible to developing PTSD after traumatic events than their more resilient peers. Carrion, who is also associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford School of Medicine, is the lead author of the research, which was recently published online in the journal Depression and Anxiety. The researchers used an experimental technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to compare brain activation patterns in 16 children with symptoms of PTSD with the patterns seen in 14 age- and gender-matched non-traumatized children as they performed a simple decision-making task. The fMRI analysis detects changes in blood flow and oxygenation that correlate with increased neuronal activity in different regions of the brain. To conduct the test, study subjects were placed inside the fMRI machine — a body-sized, narrow, hollow tube — and then asked to push a button each time a letter other than X flashed on a screen in front of them. Because Xs were introduced only after a string of non-Xs, the test is a good way to measure what’s known as response inhibition, or a subject’s ability to suppress the natural tendency to push the button as soon as any letter appears. Response inhibition is often difficult for children and adults with PTSD. MRI tests can leave some people feeling claustrophobic and frightened and the experience can be particularly difficult for children already struggling with past trauma. Carrion and his colleagues used a special “mock MRI” machine at Packard Children’s to familiarize the study participants to the sights and sounds of the imaging procedure before conducting the real experiment. The researchers found that, although the two groups accomplished the task equally well, they used different parts of their brains to do so. The children with PTSD symptoms showed less activity than their non-traumatized peers in the left middle frontal cortex, an area known to be involved in response inhibition, and more activity in several other areas of the brain including a region involved in emotional awareness known as the insula. “W | ||
