Recently, Tom Vander Ark reviewed the literature on early college high school for the Fordham Institute. Excerpts of his piece appear below: Ten years ago I called early college high schools the best philanthropic initiative in education that never scaled. But the idea keeps chugging along gaining steam with policy and practice innovations. It’s now Read more about Early College: The Little Reform Bundle That Could[…]
Writing for Chalkbeat, Matt Barnum has compiled eight lessons the sector has learned from education research in 2019. Excerpts of his piece appear below: Education research is hard to keep up with, and often enough, it’s hard to even understand. It seems like there are more caveats than clear conclusions, findings are “mixed,” and one Read more about Eight lessons we learned from education research in 2019[…]
GripTape asserts that learner agency—defined as the ability to make intentional choices about and take an active role in the course of one’s own learning—is the key to a self-reinforcing cycle of learning and development. After two years spent working directly with more than 400 young people nationwide designing and testing approaches to solve this Read more about Griptape Releases Learner Agency Framework[…]
Kevin Mahnken, writing for The 74, recently selected 14 charts from research conducted in 2019 that have changed the way we look at education in America. These charts help illustrate important studies into school funding disparities, college dropout rates and shifting public opinion. And with a minimum of verbiage, they let the reader know what Read more about 14 Charts That Changed the Way We Looked at America’s Schools in 2019[…]
Recently in Getting Smart, Michael Niehoff wrote about 10 transformational practices that educators can lead. Excerpts of the piece appear below: If educators allow politicians, researchers and pundits to take charge of the evolution in education, it will be delayed and implemented with less clarity. It’s time for teachers to be change agents, thus owning Read more about 10 Inevitable Education Evolutions Educators Can Lead[…]
A team of current and former Stanford University researchers studied whether racial and ethnic segregation at school still matters today by looking at 350 million test scores across nearly every school in the United States from the 2008-09 school year to the 2015-16 school year. The study looked at student test performance in math and Read more about Poverty levels in schools key determinant of achievement gaps, not racial or ethnic composition, study finds[…]
BrainFutures recently released a report that makes a clear case for integrating proven brain fitness programs into all U.S. classrooms. Over a decade of research has shown that evidence-based programs can improve students’ executive function skills and prosocial behaviors, which are more accurate predictors of academic readiness and life success than IQ or any other Read more about Brain Fitness and Executive Function: Evidence-Based Interventions[…]
Scientists know a lot about effective learning and teaching. In the past several decades, cognitive psychologists and other learning researchers have performed thousands of studies on effective learning and teaching practices. In some cases, research findings have gone against conventional wisdom or common practice. For example, varied practice (in terms of the variety of problems Read more about What Do Teachers Know About The Science of Learning?[…]
Building on a previous randomized experiment of the impact of Early Colleges (ECs) (Berger et al., 2013), the American Institutes for Research (AIR) has released a new follow-up study that assesses the longer-term impacts of ECs on students’ postsecondary outcomes 6 years after expected high school graduation. Using data from the National Student Clearinghouse, researchers Read more about Early-College High School Students More Likely to Earn Postsecondary Degrees[…]
Recently for The Hechinger Report, Jill Barshay provided an overview of scientific research that finds that content knowledge is crucial to effective critical thinking. Portions of the piece appear below: Critical thinking is all the rage in education. Schools brag that they teach it on their websites and in open houses to impress parents. Some Read more about Scientific research on how to teach critical thinking contradicts education trends[…]
Reducing chronic absence and developing conditions for learning are instrumental to improving outcomes for students and can be improved through policy reform and leadership. Schools and educators have the power to improve both student attendance and conditions for learning. A new Hamilton Project data interactive, “Chronic Absence: School and Community Factors,” examines the factors that Read more about What are the factors that affect learning at your school?[…]
State testing systems are in transition. Buffeted by anti-testing sentiment on the left and right, budget battles, and renewed debates over the role that testing plays, the recent, unprecedented push for states to collaborate on high-quality, standards-aligned assessments has given way to an increasingly fragmented marketplace. A new report from FutureEd Senior Fellow Lynn Olson Read more about The New Testing Landscape: How State Assessments Are Changing Under ESSA[…]
Recently in NCEE’s blog, Marc Tucker asked a compelling question: Is the United States employing the right approach to education research? The evidence points to an answer of no. Excerpts from the piece appear below: Many years ago, in 1971, I (Tucker) was asked to join the White House unit set up to plan for Read more about Education Research: Does the United States Have the Right Model?[…]
Researchers from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, D.C. have released a new report, “The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth.” Adolescents—young people ages 10 to 25—make up nearly one-fourth of the U.S. population. Drawing upon recent scientific advances, the report finds ample evidence that adolescence offers great promise: Read more about The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth[…]
When teachers visit families at home and ask, “What are your hopes and dreams for your child,” chronic absenteeism goes down, test scores go up, and teachers change their own mindsets. Studies from Johns Hopkins University and RTI International evaluated Parent Teacher Home Visits model in use in 700 communities in 27 states & D.C. Read more about Trio of Studies Confirms Benefits from Teachers’ Visits to Students’ Homes[…]
“Investigating Causal Effects of Arts Education Experiences,” reports on a first-of-its-kind arts education experiment from Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research. The authors, Daniel H. Bowen of Texas A&M, and the University of Missouri’s Brian Kisida, find measurable academic, social, and emotional outcomes associated with arts education for elementary and middle school students. Bowen Read more about New Evidence Bolsters the Argument for Arts Education[…]