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Saturday, March 22, 2014

This Week's Education Research Report 3-22-14 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2



THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT





Survey of America's Public Schools Reveals Troubling Racial Disparities
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released today the first comprehensive look at civil rights data from every public school in the country in nearly 15 years, the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) from the 2011-12 school year. This is the first time since 2000 that the Department has compiled data from all 97,000 of the nation's public schools and its 16,500 school

MAR 20

Georgia’s Educational Innovations Don't Meet Needs of Students from Immigrant Families,
Even as the children of immigrants represent a growing share of Georgia’s youth (ages 16-26), the state’s ambitious education reforms often fail to target this group of U.S.-born and foreign-born students — many of whom have lower high school graduation rates and face greater barriers to adult education and public college enrollment, a new Migration Policy Institute (MPI) report finds.In Education

MAR 19

AmeriCorps Program Demonstrates Significant Impact on Student Reading
A rigorous third-party evaluation of the nation's largest AmeriCorps tutoring program has found that elementary students tutored by AmeriCorps members achieved significantly higher literacy levels than students without such tutors, and that the impacts were statistically significant even among students at higher risk of academic failure.                                                            
Strategies for Teaching Common Core to Teens With Autism Show Promise
Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000148 EndHTML:0000014590 StartFragment:0000002929 EndFragment:0000014554 SourceURL:file:///Users/jdk/Desktop/h.doc Scientists at UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) report that high school students with autism can learn under Common Core State Standards (CCSS), boosting their prospects for college and employment. Newly published recommendations f
Community College Transfers as Likely to Earn a BA as Four-Year Students, Despite Credit Transfer Roadblocks
Without Restrictive Credit Transfer Policies, BA Attainment Would Rise from 46% to 54%Students who begin their postsecondary education at a community college and successfully transfer to a four-year college have BA graduation rates equal to similar students who begin at four-year colleges, according to new research published today. That rate would actually increase – to 54 percent from 46 percent
Grit, a disposition toward perseverance and passion for long-term goals, explains variance in novice teachers’ effectiveness and retention
Surprisingly little progress has been made in linking teacher effectiveness and retention to factors observable at the time of hire. The rigors of teaching, particularly in low-income school districts, suggest the importance of personal qualities that have so far been difficult to measure objectively. This study examines the predictive validity of personal qualities not typically collected by scho
Rise in Inexperienced Teachers in Public School Classrooms: Causes, Consequences, and Promising Responses
 The high number of inexperienced teachers in public school classrooms is a largely unrecognized problem that undermines school stability, slows educational reform, and, new research suggests, hurts student achievement. These are among the findings of a report released today by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. “Beginners in the Classroom: What the Changing Demographics
Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Progress Report
Forty-five states have signed on to the Common Core and most are busy implementing the standards, albeit with some political resistance. How is it going? Admittedly, the Common Core era is only in the early stages—new tests and accountability systems based on the standards are a couple of years away—but states have had three or four years under the standards. Sufficient time has elapsed to offer
Little evidence that the homework load has increased for the average student
This year’s Brown Center Report on American Education updates a study on homework presented in the 2003 Brown Center Report. That study was conducted at a time when homework was on the covers of several popular magazines. The charge then was that the typical student’s homework load was getting out of control. The 2003 study examined the best evidence on students’ homework burden and found the cha
The Community College Route to the Bachelor’s Degree
 It is well established that students who begin post-secondary education at a community college are less likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than otherwise similar undergraduates who begin at a 4-year school, but there is less consensus over the mechanisms generating this disparity. This study explores this issue using national longitudinal transcript data and propensity-score methods. Inferior aca

MAR 18

Simple changes to homework improved student learning
Modifying homework procedures improved outcomes without altering curriculumA new study offers evidence that simple and inexpensive changes to existing courses can help students learn more effectively.The study from Rice University and Duke University found that making a few changes to homework assignments in an upper-level undergraduate engineering course at Rice led to improved scores on exams. T
Career and Technical Education Report Not All Its Cracked Up to Be
A recent report purporting to highlight effective models of career and technical education doesn’t deliver on its stated objective, according to a new review released today.Worse still, the report reinforces the harmful mindset that considers career and technical education (CTE) as somehow in conflict with college preparatory curricula, writes reviewers Marisa Saunders and Jaime L. Del Razo.The re

MAR 14

Students' grades and health improve with later high school start times
Later high school start times improve student grades and overall health, according to a new University of Minnesota study, released today. The three-year project, using data from more than 9,000 students attending eight high schools in three states, found that, when switching to a later start time:    * attendance, standardized test scores and academic performance in math, English, science and soc
Bullying Raises Kids' Suicide Risk
Children and teens involved in bullying -- victims and perpetrators alike -- are more likely to think about suicide or attempt it. And cyber bullying appears more strongly linked to suicidal thoughts than other forms of bullying, a new research review finds.The findings "establish with more certainty that bullying is related to suicide thoughts and attempts," said study lead author Mitch