Study shows capital at home matters more than capital at school

Study shows capital at home matters more than capital at school A study published in Research in Social Stratification and Mobility finds that family social capital, described as the bonds between parents and children, such as trust, open lines of communication, and active engagement in a child's academic life, is a more significant factor than the qualities of the school itself with regard to a child's academic achievement. Using data from the National Longitudinal Education study and structural equation modeling, researchers examined whether the social capital of the home and school social capital (such as extracurricular activities and the ability of teachers to address the needs of individual students) have differing effects on children's academic achievement. Results show that capital from each context promotes achievement, but that students with high levels of family social capital but low levels of school social capital performed better in school than students with high levels of school social capital and low family social capital. Family social capital continues to have a stronger influence on children's academic achievement, even after controlling for socioeconomic status and other demographic characteristics.

Can cash incentives lead to positive outcomes for teens? Using a randomized control trial research design, MDRC is conducting an evaluation of the Opportunity NYC-Family Rewards program. Implemented in 2007, this program offered monetary incentives to families living in poverty for education, health, and workforce participation and job-training activities, with the ultimate goal of breaking the cycle of poverty. In MDRC's most recent report, researchers examine how parents and their teenage children were affected by Family Rewards two years into the program. Their analyses focus on the differences between a treatment group and control group in areas such as time use, mental health, and risky behaviors, as measured by surveys. Findings of their study show that Family Rewards: Changed how teenagers spent their time. For a subgroup of academically proficient teenagers, it increased the proportion of those who engaged primarily in academic activities and reduced the proportion who engaged primarily in social activities; Increased parents' spending on school-related and leisure expenses and increased the proportion of parents who saved for their children's future education; Had no effects on parents' monitoring of their teenage children's activities or behavior and did not increase parent-teenager conflict or teenagers' depression or anxiety; Had no effects on teenagers' sense of academic competence or their engagement in school, but substantially reduced their self-reported problem behavior, such as aggression and substance use; Did not reduce teenagers' intrinsic motivation by paying them rewards for school attendance and academic achievement. MDRC's next report on Family Rewards will examine the results after three years of the program; a final report will include two years of post-program follow-up.

Text messaging does not affect children's grammatical development Researchers from Coventry University in England carried out a longitudinal study to investigate whether "text speak" had any detrimental impact on grammatical development and other related literacy and language skills over the course of a year. They assessed the spelling, grammar, understanding of English, and IQ of three groups of children and young people (83 primary school children, 78 secondary school children, and 49 undergraduates), and compared those skills with a sample of their text messages. There was no evidence of any significant relationships between poor grammar in text messages and their understanding of written or spoken grammar. For the primary school children, there was an association between punctuation errors in text messages and spelling ability. Children who made fewer punctuation errors when texting tended to be better at spelling and quicker to process writing than those who made more errors in their text messages. For the undergraduate group, there was some evidence of a link between punctuation errors in text messages and the spelling ability and grammatical understanding of participants. However, this link was weak, and researchers concluded that it was probably related to children's IQ score.

Does school entrance age matter? Researchers in Croatia explored the relationship between the age that students begin school and school achievement. They found only a weak relationship in the lower grades of primary school, and at the end of primary schooling the effects are no longer evident. The study looked at the achievement of fourth- and eighth-grade students in 844 primary schools in Croatia. Students were divided into groups of younger and older school entrants based on the difference between their year of birth and the year of school entry. In the fourth grade, older entrants performed slightly better in all subjects than those who were younger when they entered school, but these differences in achievement were very small (effect sizes ranged from 0.02 to 0.07). By the eighth grade, there was no difference in achievement between younger and older entrants in the majority of subjects. However, contrary to the fourth grade sample, in the subjects where differences in achievement were found, the younger school entrants outperformed the older school entrants, but the effect sizes were again very small (effect sizes ranged from 0 to 0.12). In both samples, school entrance age explains less than one percent of the variance in school achievement in different subjects.

Effective classroom management practices

Effective classroom management practices As we mentioned in a special message last week, the fall issue of Better: Evidence-based Education magazine covers the important topic of classroom management. This issue presents a wide range of views and evidence about classroom management from international experts, providing both practical insights and evidence to ultimately enhance our children's learning experience, their contribution to their own learning, and their own long-term outcomes. Articles include: Good instruction is good classroom management Am I the only one struggling with classroom management? Dealing with classroom management problems The full issue is available to subscribers. If you have not already subscribed toBetter, you may do so on the Johns Hopkins University Press website. Subscriptions include electronic access to all archived issues. We have covered a range of topics, from reading, math, and science to effective uses of technologyand health and well-being.

Study investigates inquiry-based science curricula This study published in the October issue of Research in Science Educationmeasures the effects of higher level, inquiry-based science curricula on students at primary level in Title I schools. The sample included approximately 3,300 K-3 students from six schools who were assigned to experimental or control conditions (N = 115 total) on a random basis according to class. Students in the experimental condition were exposed to concept-based science curriculum that emphasized "deep learning" though concept mastery and investigation, whereas control classes learned science from traditional school-based curricula. Using standardized measures of achievement, researchers found that all ability groups of students benefited from the science inquiry-based approach to learning that emphasized science concepts, and that there was a positive achievement effect for low socio-economic young children who were exposed to such a curriculum. Related to this topic, the Johns Hopkins School of Education's Center for Research and Reform in Education completed a review of research in May on effective programs for elementary science. Results of the review support the use of inquiry-oriented programs without science kits, which help teachers to learn and use generic processes such as science-reading integration in their daily science teaching. Use of inquiry-oriented science kits such as FOSS, did not show any benefits for science learning. Limited research on technology approaches such as BrainPop showed positive impacts.

Home computer use improves children's academic performance A paper in Oxford Review of Education examines the link between children's home computer use and their academic performance in reading and math. The study uses data from the nine-year-old cohort of the Growing Up in Ireland survey and a multiple regression model to estimate the effect of home computer use on reading and math test scores, and finds that computer use is associated with increased scores. This result holds after controlling for multiple determinants of school performance, and there is no significant difference in effect for the amount of use. In addition, the study investigates the effects of different types of computer use and finds that surfing the internet for fun, doing projects for school, and emailing are associated with higher reading and math test scores. Children who are permitted to use the computer unsupervised tend to have higher test scores in math, and instant messaging and downloading music or watching movies are negatively associated with both reading and math test scores. However, while these results indicate significant association with academic performance, the study is not able to establish the direction of causation definitively.

Neuromyths in education Possessing greater general knowledge about the brain does not appear to protect teachers from believing in "neuromyths" - misconceptions about neuroscience research in education. A study reported in Frontiers in Educational Psychologyfound that teachers who are interested in the application of neuroscience findings in the classroom find it difficult to distinguish pseudoscience from scientific facts. They tested 242 primary and secondary school teachers in the UK and the Netherlands with an interest in the neuroscience of learning, using an online survey containing 32 statements about the brain and its influence on learning, of which 15 were neuromyths. Results showed that on average, teachers believed 49 percent of the neuromyths, particularly myths related to commercialized education programs like Brain Gym. One of the most commonly believed myths was "Individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style (e.g., auditory, visual, kinesthetic)," which was believed by over 80 percent of teachers in the study. Although loosely based on scientific fact, these neuromyths may have adverse effects on educational practice, and the study concludes that there is a need for enhanced interdisciplinary communication to reduce such misunderstandings in the future and establish a successful collaboration between neuroscience and education.

Good teachers get results

Good teachers get results Everyone knows that a good teacher makes a difference, but establishing who the good teachers are, and what difference they make, has long been a problem. A new study by economists at Harvard University attempts to answer these questions. They analyzed the school records and earnings information for 2.5 million children, and found that, when a high "value-added" teacher joins a new school, results for their class improve. Having a high value-added teacher (in the top 5%) for one year raises a child's cumulative lifetime income by $50,000. How this information is used is clearly a matter of policy, but any system that aims to reward good performance while supporting or punishing poor performance would need to be carefully designed and tested. An interesting article about the study can be found on the Shanker Institute's blog.

Should we be trying to reduce class sizes? Class size has long been a hot topic. As populations increase and funding decreases, pressure on class size is likely to grow. A research review from the UK's Department for Education considers a number of issues around this topic, including the impact of class size on educational outcomes. The authors found a number of benefits from smaller classes, such as individual students being the focus of the teacher's attention for longer. However, previous research has shown that reducing class size is beneficial when classes are as small as around 15 students. According to the UK report, available evidence suggests that class size reduction policies are not the best option in terms of value for money to raising student achievement compared to others options such as increasing teacher effectiveness.

Are low and middle income children ready for school? We see a lot of research into the school readiness of the poorest children, but what about those from low- to middle-income (LMI) families? The Resolution Foundation in the UK has published a new report that uses data from the Millennium Cohort Study to explore this, and found that LMI children are five months behind their more affluent peers on vocabulary skills when they begin school and exhibit more behavior problems. A number of factors were found to influence achievement for this group, including parental education, which was shown to be a powerful predictor of school readiness for these children. The challenge is how to break this cycle, and research-based parenting programs are one possibility.

Time to think about prevention Should we put a fence at the top of the hill or an ambulance at the bottom? Instead, how about an ounce of prevention? That is the topic of a recent blog post from Robert Slavin, Director of Johns Hopkins School of Education's Center for Research and Reform in Education. On his new Education Week blog, "Sputnik: Advancing Education through Innovation and Evidence," he writes, "There are good reasons to invest in proven educational programs at all levels and in all subjects, but when proven programs also reduce government expenditures within a few years, even the most bottom-line oriented administrator or legislator should see the need to invest in proven prevention."

NO MÁS EXCUSAS. PODEMOS LOGRAR QUE TODOS LOS NIÑOS LEAN

No More Excuses: We Can Get All Children Reading

Posted: 14 Nov 2011 04:33 AM PST

Everyone reading this blog knows how important it is that every child become a confident, skilled, and motivated reader.The latest NAEP results, released this month, remind us that there are far too many children who do not read well, that disadvantaged and minority children are overrepresented among poor readers, and that the inequalities in academic outcomes by race and class--our most serious social as well as educational problem--begins with reading inequalities in the early grades. Everyone knows that children who don't read well will incur huge expenses over time in remediation, special education, repeated grades, and ultimately delinquency, dropout, and unemployment.

Everyone reading this blog also knows that we know how to ensure success for virtually every first grader. Imagine that your job were to ensure the reading success of every child in a Title I school by the end of first grade, and you had flexible resources to do it. You'd make sure kids had language-rich preschool and kindergarten experiences, learned phonemic awareness and letter sounds in kindergarten, and were taught using proven kindergarten- and first-grade reading programs that emphasized systematic phonics, comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary. Recognizing that even with the best of teaching not every child will succeed, you'd provide tutoring for kids who are struggling in first grade. You would test children's vision and make sure they had eyeglasses if they needed them. You'd check their hearing and general health, and would make sure that all of these problems are solved as well.

You'd help teachers use effective strategies such as cooperative learning to motivate and engage kids with reading and effective classroom management methods to further build motivation and make effective use of time. You'd use technology, such as embedded multimedia, to add motivation, build skills, and individualize for students' needs. You'd constantly assess children's progress in reading and respond right away if they are found to be falling behind in any way.

Understanding that parents are a key partner, you'd encourage and help them read with their kids, build vocabulary, and develop a love of reading. You'd also work with parents to help ensure that all children attend school every day, and are healthy, well nourished, and have enough sleep.

You'd provide your staff with extensive professional development, give them regular opportunities to share ideas and solve problems with each other, and constantly monitor the quality of every part of your strategy. And, when your staff runs into problems that are not being solved with current approaches, you'd experiment with alternative solutions.

Each element of this strategy has substantial evidence of effectiveness in increasing reading performance.
If you did all of these things, and if the entire school system were focused on making sure that they were done in every elementary school, could anyone doubt that reading failure would be greatly reduced, if not eliminated?
Yet this rather obvious set of actions is far from what actually happens in most Title I schools. Title I elementary schools have funding for precisely this kind of work, and because they receive a lot of federal money, these schools are particularly responsive to federal policy. This is an area in which federal policy could make a substantial difference. Federal policies sometimes focus on aspects of reading, but do not facilitate the comprehensive approach needed to get every child to succeed.

Many problems of education are very complex, and the right solutions are not immediately apparent. In contrast, reading for every child is dead simple. Solutions are known. Wouldn't it make sense to focus attention on this critical, solvable problem?
- Robert Slavin

¿Cómo hacer que todos los niños aprendan Lecto-escritura?

Top-Rated Programs Key Findings Limited Evidence Programs Review Summary Other Programs Review Methods

Which elementary reading approaches have been proven to help struggling readers to succeed? To find out, this review summarizes evidence on six types of programs designed to improve the reading achievement of children having difficulty in learning to read:

• One-to-One Tutoring by Teachers (TT) such as Reading Recovery, Auditory Discrimination in Depth, Early Steps/Howard Street Tutoring, and Targeted Reading Intervention.
• One-to-One Tutoring by Paraprofessionals and Volunteers (T-Para/ Volunteers) such as Sound Partners, SMART, and Book Buddies.
• Small Group Tutorials (SGT) such as Corrective Reading, Quick Reads, Voyager Passport, and PHAST Reading.
• Classroom Instructional Process Approaches (CIP): Effects for low achievers were reported for programs such as Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition, PALS, Direct Instruction, and Project Read.
• Classroom Instructional Process Programs with Tutoring (CIP+T): Effects for low achievers were reported for Success for All.
• Instructional Technology (IT): Effects for low achievers were reported for programs such as Jostens/Compass Learning, Fast ForWord, and Lexia. 

Full Report
Slavin, R.E., Lake, C., Davis, S., & Madden, N. (2009, June) Effective programs for struggling readers: A best evidence synthesis. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University, Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education.

Additional source:
Slavin, R.E., Lake, C., Davis, S., & Madden, N. Effective programs for struggling readers: A best evidence synthesis. Educational Research Review (2010). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2010.07.002

Links

Full Report  (PDF, 2 MB)
Educator's Summary  (PDF, 464 KB)

Educator's Guide  (PDF, 584 KB)

Key components of successful coaching

Key components of successful coaching  Head Start CARES (Classroom-based Approaches and Resources for Emotion and Social Skill Promotion) is a large-scale, national research demonstration to test a one-year program to improve pre-kindergarteners' social and emotional readiness for school. To facilitate the delivery of the program, teachers attended training workshops and worked with coaches throughout the school year. In this report from MDRC, researchers present lessons learned from Head Start CARES about coaching social-emotional curricula in a large and complex early childhood education system. Key findings include: Successful coaches exhibited a combination of skills in three important areas: knowledge of the program, general coaching and consultation skills, and knowledge of and experience in early childhood development and/or teaching. Incorporating coaching into day-to-day practices requires flexibility and is necessary for implementation success. Site-level administrators must be actively engaged in supporting and supervising coaching as well as general implementation processes.

What makes for an effective summer reading program?  This study from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences tested the effectiveness of a summer reading program on improving student reading comprehension for economically disadvantaged grade 3 students reading below the 50th percentile nationally. As part of the program, students were sent a single shipment of eight books matched to their reading level and interest area during the first part of the summer. The shipment was followed by six weekly reminder postcards. Findings showed that the summer reading program did not have a statistically significant impact on student reading comprehension. However, the authors note that the study's conclusions are constrained by several aspects of the program's design, including that the program lasted just one summer and did not include teacher instruction and parent involvement. In previous studies, programs with these components were found to be effective.

It's not all about the money The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) has published a new PISA in Focus review analyzing the results of their PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) study. It explores whether money "buys" improved performance for a country, and finds that higher expenditure on education does not guarantee better student performance. National wealth is important up to a point, and this research focuses on countries above a certain baseline. But, for relatively high-income economies, the success of the country's education system depends more on how educational resources are invested, than on the volume of investment. Investing in teachers and having high expectations for all students are cited as particularly important characteristics.

Later intervention can help with problem behavior A special issue of the Journal of Children's Services focuses on working with children and their families to reduce the risks of crime and delinquent behavior. One article, co-written by the Institute for Effective Education's Tracey Bywater, emphasizes that, in addition to programs for younger children, programs aimed at older children can also be effective. The authors found that there are increasing numbers of effective programs for children ages 9-13 that aim to reduce current or future involvement in criminal or delinquent behavior. These include school, family, and community programs.

Sleep and test scores: is there a connection?

Sleep and test scores: is there a connection? A new study has concluded that there is an optimum amount of time for children and young people to sleep in terms of how well they perform in school, and more is not necessarily better. The research, published in the Eastern Economic Journal, used data from 1,724 elementary and secondary students to explore the relationship between sleep and performance on standardized tests. Findings showed a statistically significant relationship between the two, with the most beneficial amount of time varying by age. This ranged from 9-9.5 hours for 10-year-olds to 7 hours for 16-year-olds.

Writing about reading makes a difference A recent meta-analysis from the Harvard Education Review has shown that writing about something they have read improves students' understanding of the text, as well as their reading fluency and word reading. To reach this conclusion, the authors reviewed findings from 92 studies on the topic. They focused on studies that had an experimental or quasi-experimental design; involved a treatment group that wrote about what they read, were taught to write, or increased how much they wrote; and included at least one reading measure that assessed the impact of the writing treatment or condition.

Policies to help disadvantaged students  New research from the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) looks at international data to explore how disadvantaged students can best be supported, and the findings emphasize fairness and inclusion. Recommendations include using teaching practices that are known to make a difference for low-performing students, eliminating grade repetition, deferring any student selection or ability grouping until the later secondary years to avoid exacerbating inequities, and attracting, supporting, and retaining high-quality teachers.

What works in science education? The U.S. Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse is now conducting reviews of research on interventions designed to improve the science achievement of K-12 students. This new area will identify research-based interventions that have been shown to be effective in teaching the content, practices, and skills of life science, Earth and space science, and physical science. The first intervention report in this area looks at the research on Chemistry That Applies and the second report examines the research on ThinkerTools.

Examining the effects of reform strategies The Consortium on Chicago School Research has released a new report that examines five different reform models initiated by Chicago Public Schools in 36 elementary and secondary schools identified as chronically low performing. The reform models, implemented between 1997 and 2010, involved strategies such as staff replacement, leadership replacement, governance replacement, and change in attendance rules (see Table 1 on page 3 of the report for specific models and their key elements). Findings showed that elementary and middle schools that were part of the turnaround effort made significant improvements in test scores compared with similar schools that did not; however, large improvements did not occur immediately in the first year. In contrast, high schools that underwent reform did not show significant improvements in absences or percentages of ninth graders considered "on track" to graduate over matched comparison schools.

Are ambitious children more resilient?

Traditional teaching methods may be putting off math students Traditional teaching methods, where the teacher stands at the front and dictates to the class, may be affecting students' attitudes toward math, suggest researchers at the University of Manchester. The initial findings of the Economics and Social Research Council-funded study were presented at the British Educational Research Association's annual conference. More than 13,000 11- to 16-year-old students and 128 teachers at 40 secondary schools across England were asked to complete questionnaires detailing the kind of activities they experienced in math lessons. Traditional activities such as copying the teacher's notes from the board and being asked questions by the teacher were most frequently cited, ahead of alternative learning approaches such as using media-like magazines and videos in class. Students who reported a more traditional teaching experience in their lessons also named math as their least favorite subject. The results of a 2009 review from the Johns Hopkins School of Education's Center for Research and Reform in Education, Effective Programs in Middle and High School Mathematics: A Best-Evidence Synthesis, found that the most successful programs for teaching math focus on changing daily teaching practices, particularly the use of cooperative learning methods, and encourage student interaction.

RAND Corporation: focus on K-12 education A new report from the RAND Corporation describes recent RAND work related to K-12 education, including teacher pay for performance, measuring teacher effectiveness, school leadership, school systems and reform, and out-of-school time. Headlines include: No evidence that incentive pay for teacher teams improves student outcomes Incorporating student performance measures into teacher evaluation systems (Recommendations include: (1) promote consistency in the student performance measures that teachers are allowed to choose, and (2) use multiple years of student achievement data in value-added estimation, and, where possible, use average teachers' value-added estimates across multiple years.) First-year principals in urban school districts: how actions and working conditions relate to outcomes (A key finding of this study was that teacher capacity and cohesiveness were the school and district conditions most strongly related to student outcomes.) When viewing the report online, each headline links to the corresponding RAND report on the topic.

Are ambitious children more resilient? Can career aspirations at age seven provide valuable insights into children's emotional state and their ability to overcome difficult family circumstances? A Centre for Longitudinal Studies working paper examines the role of young children's career aspirations in the association between family poverty and emotional and behavioral problems. Using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, researchers tested a path model linking family poverty and maternal qualification to children's emotional and behavioral problems via their career aspirations. The findings suggest that career aspirations are related to maternal qualifications but not family poverty or behavioral problems. Family poverty is significantly associated with behavioral problems, but is moderated by career aspirations. More ambitious children from poor backgrounds are less likely to have behavior problems than equally disadvantaged seven-year-olds who have lower career aspirations.

Two programs for at-risk children meet "near top tier" evidence standard The Top Tier Evidence initiative, a resource used by federal officials to identify social programs meeting the Congressional Top Tier evidence standard, has identified Child FIRST and Parent Management Training - the Oregon Model (PMTO) as "Near Top Tier." The initiative's expert panel (1) found evidence from well-conducted randomized controlled trials that these programs produce sizable reductions in child maltreatment and juvenile crime, respectively; and (2) believes that each program needs just one additional step to qualify as Top Tier - a replication trial to confirm the initial findings and establish that they generalize to other sites. The evidence summary for Child FIRST can be seen here and the evidence summary for PMTO can be seen here.

New study finds technology improves grammar learning

New study finds technology improves grammar learning Hand-held technology can help to improve elementary students' learning of grammar, according to a new study by researchers at the Institute for Effective Education (IEE). A randomized evaluation of the use of Questions for Learning (QfL), a technology-enhanced, self-paced learning tool, was conducted in more than 40 elementary schools. In QfL, each student responds to progressively more difficult questions that are presented on wireless hand-held devices at the rate that the student answers them. This allows both more advanced and weaker students to answer in a private way at a pace appropriate to them. Students in classes who used QfL showed significant gains in grammar compared with students in the control group. This improvement was greater in schools that used QfL at least three days each week and for low- and average-achieving students. If these results held over a school year, these students would make between three and four months of additional progress. Both teachers and students enjoyed using the strategy for formative assessment, believed it improved student achievement in grammar, and would recommend its use for other students and for other subjects.

What works and what doesn't for boys vs. girls Child Trends has completed two new research briefs that examine programs and strategies that work, as well as don't work, for each gender:  What Works for Female Children and Adolescents: Lessons from Experimental Evaluations of Programs and Interventions What Works for Male Children and Adolescents: Lessons from Experimental Evaluations of Programs and Interventions Each brief synthesizes findings from rigorously evaluated social interventions for youth. The outcome areas explored include academic achievement, delinquency, mental health, reproductive health, and social skills. One key finding for both boys and girls was that including parents in interventions in some way led to desirable impacts for mental health outcomes. On the other hand, for reproductive health, one-on-one interventions led to positive impacts for females, but experiential learning activities that included group activities were often effective for boys. In addition, while social skills training interventions were not successful for female children and adolescents in reducing externalizing behaviors (e.g., aggression), in many cases for males, these types of interventions were successful.

Controversy about New York voucher study In a previous issue of Best Evidence in Brief, we reported on a longitudinal, randomized evaluation of a voucher program in New York by Chingos and Peterson. A Best Evidence in Brief reader informed us about a criticism of this study by Sara Goldrick-Rab. The original study reported a positive effect of receiving vouchers to attend private schools on college attendance for African American students but not for Hispanic students, and there were no effects of vouchers overall. Goldrick-Rab notes that the African-American-Hispanic differences in treatment effects were not significant, and there was a serious problem among the African-American subsample: Students in the voucher group, despite random assignment, had parents who were significantly more likely to have gone to college themselves. Goldrick-Rab's conclusion is that the study should be reported as "Vouchers Don't Work," while Chingos and Peterson conclude "Yes they do, if only for African Americans." There is support for both positions, but clearly, replication is needed.

Effects of Reading Recovery last through the end of elementary school The Reading Recovery annual report for the UK shows that 11-year-old children who received Reading Recovery at age six matched their classmate's progress for the following six years, through the end of elementary school. Reading Recovery, which is also available in the U.S., is designed to help low-achieving first graders improve to age-expected levels. The report shows that in 2011-12 - the first year that enough Reading Recovery children had reached the end of elementary school and completed the UK's Key Stage 2 national assessments  - 78 percent of children who had completed the program achieved Level 4 or above in their reading assessment, and 67 percent achieved the same in writing (by age 11, the national expectation for most children is to achieve Level 4). Nearly all children achieved Level 3 or above, with 95 percent achieving this level in their reading assessment and 98 percent in writing.

Education Nation follow-up Robert Slavin, director of the Center for Research and Reform in Education, recently took part in NBC's 2012 "Education Nation" summit in New York City. During the event, Slavin participated in an interview with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan about turning around low-performing schools. They discussed whole-school reform and Success for All, a program Slavin co-founded. NBC featured Success for All and its partnership with Wells Academy in Steubenville, Ohio as one of ten Education Nation case studies. In addressing the success at Wells Academy, Duncan said of Success for All's i3 Scale Up award, "We've invested $50 million in helping Success for All expand. Why? It's not a gift. It's an investment because they have good results." Slavin was also featured in an MSNBC interview with Thomas Roberts: Poorest children among highest performers at Ohio school. To read more about Slavin's experience at Education Nation, visit his blog post Yikes and 'Aww' at Education Nation.

El dormir adecuadamente y el estudio

Dos estudios: En el primero se muestra que los adolescentes que duermen poco tienen más posibilidades de tener dificultades de aprendizaje. En el segundo muestra que si duermes menos de 6 horas o más de 11, también tendrás dificultades en el aprendizaje. Es decir, dormir mucho no hace bien, y tampoco dormir poco.
To study or to sleep?
The amount of time spent studying may not matter if the student has not had enough sleep, according to research published in Child Development. This longitudinal study examined the effect that varying amounts of study and sleep had on teenagers' studies the following day. The results suggest that regardless of how much a student generally studies each day, if they sacrifice sleep time to study more than usual they will be more likely to struggle in class, or on an assignment or test, the following day. This problem becomes increasingly prevalent over time, the study proposes, because students are more likely to sacrifice sleep time for study time in the latter years of high school.

A further study in this area, reported in Better: Evidence-based Education, adds to the evidence that the amount of sleep a teenager gets (too much or too little) affects academic performance. It finds that teenagers who sleep seven hours a night tend to have the highest test scores, while teenagers who sleep for less than six or more than 11 hours tend to perform poorly on tests.

El Cerebro en Ejercicio

El Cerebro en Ejercicio

Publicado por: Aimee Verdisco - 25 de Junio de 2012, 10:40 am

Una avalancha de artículos recientes demuestra la relación beneficiosa entre el ejercicio y la fuerza cerebral. Lo que el ejercicio hace para los músculos, según parece, lo hace también para el cerebro, según nuevas investigaciones. Y cuanto mejor acondicionado esté el cerebro, mejor funciona.

La explicación básica, que se conoce desde la década de 1930, es más o menos la siguiente. El ejercicio aeróbico ayuda al corazón a bombear más sangre al cerebro y al cuerpo; más sangre significa más oxígeno, lo cual conduce a una mejor nutrición de las células del cerebro y a una mejor actividad cognitiva (Carmichael, 2007). Pero las relaciones subyacentes siguieron siendo un complejo misterio. ¿Dónde comienza todo? ¿En el cerebro? ¿En los músculos? ¿O quizás en algún otro lugar?

El Cerebro en Ejercicio | La educación de calidad es posible

Mejorar Comunicación y Mate usando Storytelling

Érase un problema de matemáticas: Historias y Aprendizaje
Robert SlavinPublicado: 24 de mayo 2012 05:03 PM PDTÉrase una vez, había un niño de cuarto grado pelirrojo llamado Ned. Ned se aburría en la escuela, y no sacar buenas notas. Su mamá estaba enojada con él, su maestro le rogó, y Ned quería a favor de ellos, pero él sólo no podía conseguir lo suficientemente interesado en la escuela para poner en el esfuerzo suficiente como para realmente tener éxito.Voy a volver a la pelirroja Ned en un momento, pero se detienen por un momento y pregúntate: ¿No estás interesado en Ned? ¿No se centra en un estudiante en particular, aunque sea de ficción, mucho más interesante que mis blogs habituales que comienzan con el dilema de la política y la práctica?Los niños (como los adultos) les encantan los cuentos. Viven en un mundo social, donde hablar de cada uno de otros amigos, otros familiares, maestros, estrellas del rock y estrellas de cine es una actividad a tiempo completo. Cada creador de contenidos de televisión o una película lo sabe, por supuesto, porque la narración eficaz es su especialidad.¿Cómo pueden las escuelas aprovechar el interés de los niños en los cuentos? El aprendizaje cooperativo se ha demostrado que ayuda, ya que involucra a los estudiantes de los propios mundos sociales con su aprendizaje.Con el apoyo de Inversión federal de la Universidad Old Dominion en Fondo de Innovación (i3) aumentar premio, Éxito para Todos está experimentando ahora con la adición de historias de maestros de instrucción y actividades de aprendizaje cooperativo. Hemos creado breves videos con títeres, personajes atractivos y animaciones para complementar la enseñanza. Tenemos pruebas de que esto mejora el aprendizaje en lectura y están estudiando una estrategia similar en matemáticas en Inglaterra. Viñetas breves de vídeo se muestran en las pizarras interactivas en los puntos designados en las clases de los maestros.Mirando a los estudiantes y profesores que utilizan estos vídeos incrustados es emocionante. Niños resonar con los videos y los profesores los utilizan como punto de referencia en sus clases. Creemos que este enfoque particular en las matemáticas está haciendo una diferencia, pero que continúan estudiando el método para estar seguro. Mientras tanto, está claro que sin duda es la participación de los niños, modelando el aprendizaje cooperativo y la solución de problemas, y la adición de la magia de la narración de cuentos para la enseñanza de matemáticas.
Así que no te estás preguntando qué pasó con Ned? Por suerte, el maestro Ned adoptó un programa que utiliza los vídeos incrustados y la investigación cooperativa de aprendizaje probada, y Ned está emocionado acerca de la escuela, comprometido con sus compañeros, y la sensación de éxito. Si eres como la mayoría de los niños, ahora te acuerdas de la historia de la pelirroja Ned mucho más tiempo que usted recordará el resto de este blog. Tiene que haber una manera de utilizar las historias justamente de esta manera ayudar a todos los Neds por ahí que son más propensos a aprender si integrar el aprendizaje en las historias.

---

Once Upon a Math Problem: Stories and Learning Posted: 24 May 2012 05:03 AM PDT Once upon a time, there was a red-headed fourth grader named Ned. Ned was bored in school, and he didn't get good grades. His mom was mad at him, his teacher pleaded with him, and Ned wanted to please them, but he just couldn't get interested enough in school to put in enough effort to really succeed. I'll come back to red-headed Ned in a moment, but stop for a moment and ask yourself: Aren't you interested in Ned? Isn't focusing on a particular student, even if he's fictional, a lot more interesting than my usual blogs that begin with dilemma of policy and practice? Kids (like adults) love stories. They live in a social world, where talking about each other, other friends and family, teachers, rock stars, and movie stars is a full-time activity. Every creator of TV or movie content knows this, of course, because effective storytelling is their stock in trade. How can schools take advantage of children's interest in stories? Cooperative learning has been proven to help, because it engages students' own social worlds with their learning. With the support of Old Dominion University's federal Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) scale up award, Success for All is now experimenting with adding stories to teachers' instruction and cooperative learning activities. We've created brief videos with puppets, appealing characters, and animations to supplement teaching. We have evidence that this improves learning in reading and are studying a similar strategy in math in England. Brief video vignettes are shown on interactive whiteboards at designated points in teachers' lessons. Watching students and teachers using these embedded videos is exciting. Kids resonate to the videos and teachers use them as a point of reference in their lessons. We believe that this particular approach in math is making a difference, but we are continuing to study the method to be sure. In the meantime, it is clear that it certainly is engaging the kids, modeling cooperative learning and problem solving, and adding the magic of storytelling to math instruction. So aren't you wondering what happened to Ned? Luckily, Ned's teacher adopted a program that uses embedded videos and research proven cooperative learning, and Ned is now excited about school, engaged with his peers, and feeling successful. If you're like most kids, you'll now remember the story of red-headed Ned a lot longer than you'll remember the rest of this blog. There has to be a way to use stories in just this way to help all the Neds out there who are more likely to learn if we embed learning in stories. Editor's Note: Robert Slavin is Chairman of the Board of the Success for All Foundation For the latest on evidence-based education, follow me on twitter: @RobertSlavin - Robert Slavin