Swimming kids are smarter

Children who learn how to swim at a young age are reaching many developmental milestones earlier than the norm.

Researchers from the Griffith Institute for Educational Research surveyed parents of 7000 under-fives from Australia, New Zealand and the US over three years.

A further 180 children aged 3, 4 and 5 years have been involved in intensive testing, making it the world’s most comprehensive study into early-years swimming.

Lead researcher Professor Robyn Jorgensen says the study shows young children who participate in early-years swimming achieve a wide range of skills earlier than the normal population.

“Many of these skills are those that help young children into the transition into formal learning contexts such as pre-school or school.

“The research also found significant differences between the swimming cohort and non-swimmers regardless of socio-economic background.

“While the two higher socio-economic groups performed better than the lower two in testing, the four SES groups all performed better than the normal population.

The researchers also found there were no gender differences between the research cohort and the normal population.

As well as achieving physical milestones faster, children also scored significantly better in visual-motor skills such as cutting paper, colouring in and drawing lines and shapes, and many mathematically-related tasks. Their oral expression was also better as well as in the general areas of literacy and numeracy.

“Many of these skills are highly valuable in other learning environments and will be of considerable benefit for young children as they transition into pre-schools and school.”

States Have Not Yet Shifted Their Focus from Building Education Data Systems to Helping People Like Parents and Teachers Use Them

The Data Quality Campaign’s (DQC) eighth annual state analysis, Data for Action 2012, shows that although states are making progress in supporting effective data use, the hardest work remains. States collect quality data and have enacted policy changes, but they have not yet focused on helping people, especially parents, teachers and students, effectively use data.

 

“States should be commended for their hard work building robust data systems. But it’s time to focus on the people side of the data equation — how this benefits teachers and students,” said Aimee Rogstad Guidera, executive director of the Data Quality Campaign. “State policymakers must actively support a culture in which all education stakeholders are actually using and learning from this crucial information to improve student achievement — not just using data for shame and blame.”

 

Without exception, every state in the country collects quality data extending beyond test scores. Yet no state has taken all of the 10 State Actions to Ensure Effective Data Use, which support making better use of the rich data states now collect. For example:

• 
  States have laid the foundation to link P–20/workforce (P–20W) data systems but lack governance structures with the authority necessary to share appropriate and limited critical data. This deficiency makes it nearly impossible to provide people the data they need to ensure that students stay on track for success in college and careers.
• 
  States are producing reports and dashboards using longitudinal data but are lagging in ensuring data access by stakeholders such as parents; there is more work to do to meet all stakeholders’ needs.
• 
  States are increasingly providing training to help stakeholders use data but have not done enough to build the capacity of all education stakeholders to effectively use data, especially teachers.

However, some states are doing cutting-edge work, proving that these challenges can be addressed now:

• 
  Kentucky has refined providing information to high schools about their graduates’ performance in college and used this information to increase college enrollment rates and reduce remediation rates for Kentucky students.
• 
  Delaware has implemented 9 of the 10 State Actions by leveraging P–20W leadership, state policy, federal opportunities and resources and can now use data to answer important policy questions like which students enroll in postsecondary institutions and whether they get jobs in the field in which they were trained.
• 
  Maine collaborated with stakeholders from critical agencies to build the policy, support and infrastructure to link data systems across the P–20W pipeline, which ensured that data collection, sharing and use are aligned with the state’s broader policy priorities aimed at improving student outcomes.
• 
  Indiana has made great progress ensuring that stakeholders have access to the data they need, developing a web-based portal and college- and career-readiness reports that provide data, resources, and tools for districts, schools, educators and families. Indiana also achieved the greatest growth on the 10 State Actions over the past year, from 3 to 8 State Actions.
• 
  Ohio has developed a strong teacher-student data link (TSDL) that has helped the state generate teacher performance data to share with teacher preparation programs, which provides them the data they need to improve their programs and ensure their graduates are prepared to enter the classroom.

Developing a comprehensive digital strategy

School, district, and state leaders must make critical decisions in the next two years involving digital learning that will shape education for decades, according to a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education. The report, The Nation’s Schools Are Stepping Up to Higher Standards, identifies four key challenges that public school district leaders must systemically address in the next two years and outlines the essential elements for developing a comprehensive digital strategy.

The report and the webinar accompanying its release are the first steps in a major effort by the Alliance to help district leaders make smart, far-reaching decisions about implementing education technology that support teachers and improve student outcomes in K–12 public schools.

“As I travel across the United States talking to district leaders from large urban city centers to the most rural areas of the country, I hear the same thing: ‘We’ve come a long way, but we have so far to go in effectively using technology to benefit student learning,’” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. “If you’re a school or district leader who is considering using education technology and digital learning in your schools, STOP—and go no further—until you have a comprehensive plan that addresses your district’s specific challenges and learning goals for all students.”

The four key challenges identified in the report that all school district leaders need to face include: (1) graduating all students college and career ready; (2) managing shrinking budgets; (3) training and supporting teachers; and (4) dealing with the growing technology needs of society and individual students, especially low-income students and students of color who are most at-risk of being left behind. By employing effective educational strategies that link and improve the “three Ts”—teaching, technology, and use of time—district leaders can create the conditions for whole-school reform and effective instruction, the report finds.

According to Wise and the Alliance, many school districts have already stepped up to address these challenges by developing comprehensive plans for digital learning strategies and will serve as examples to others in the next two years, while other districts are in the process of implementing aspects of digital learning. On the other hand, far too many districts have yet to begin preparation.

“Whatever stage a district is in,” Wise said, “there is real value in taking a self assessment to make sure your district’s technology strategies meet its educational needs, including changing curriculum and instruction.”

The major force driving the need to change is the move by all states to raise academic expectations by requiring students to graduate from high school ready for college and a career. For forty-six states and the District of Columbia, adopting the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) also requires using technology to prepare students for computer-administered assessments in the 2014–15 school year.

If schools and districts adopt a comprehensive digital learning strategy, the effective application of technology assists in the implementation of the CCSS by supporting profound changes to teaching and learning. Technology also plays a critical role guiding educational, administrative, budgetary, and policy decisions by providing constant data about student and school performance to educators, parents, students, and policymakers.

The Alliance, which will be partnering with national membership organizations on this initiative, has identified a framework that will provide education leaders in states and school districts with tools to make good decisions about how technology aligns with the goals and vision for their students. This growing effort, which includes access to a team of experts, a self assessment tool, and other resources, will help districts through a comprehensive planning process around seven interconnected areas within the education system where technology and digital learning can maximize the impact on student achievement:

• academic supports;

• budget and resources;

• curriculum and instruction;

• data systems and online assessments;

• professional learning;

• technology and infrastructure; and use of time.

School Programs’ Success Can Hinge on Principals Going “All In”

When principals go “all in” in terms of supporting school programs, teachers stand a better chance of successfully implementing change, according to new research published by the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Virginia (UVA).

The researchers report in Prevention Science that if school principals lack enthusiasm or show little support, they are actually viewed as a hindrance by teachers, posing “major challenges” to the success of school programs like the Responsive Classroom®, an approach boasting social-emotional learning. Additionally, apprehensive teachers fearing change are more willing to try new approaches in their classrooms if they know they have administrators’ support.

“Implementation matters,” said lead author Shannon Wanless, Pitt assistant professor of psychology in education. “When implementation is weak, school programs are not able to have as strong of an effect as they could. This spurred us to figure out why this integration is weak.”

Together with Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman, principal investigator and UVA associate professor of education, Wanless focused on implementing the Responsive Classroom approach, a program developed by the Massachusetts-based Northeast Foundation for Children, into third- and fourth-grade classrooms. In this model, a sense of community is stressed wherein students use skills like cooperation, assertiveness, and empathy to better achieve their academic goals. Such emotional connectivity is proven to promote a deeper style of learning.

For the study, the Northeast Foundation for Children provided coaches trained in the Responsive Classroom approach who worked alongside teachers and were able to answer questions when needed. Teachers viewed these coaches as important assets for helping them to understand the strategies and making sure the strategies were integrated.

“We’re going through a period when schools have become bombarded with new initiatives and programs,” said Rimm-Kaufman. “Sorting through those and creating priorities has become an increasingly challenging task for our teachers. This work calls attention to the importance of school coaches—and school leadership—in better understanding and implementing those priorities.”

All teachers involved in the study were trained in the Responsive Classroom approach and monitored over two consecutive years. In the first year, the researchers sought to determine the biggest roadblocks to successful implementations. In the subsequent year, the researchers evaluated how school personnel rated one of their own potential roadblocks: principal support.

Year One: High Fidelity

During the first year of the study, the team collected data from only third-grade teachers. Participants in the study hailed from the mid-Atlantic United States, and the number of participating teachers ranged from two to eight in 13 different schools across one district.

The research team looked specifically at the fidelity of implementation—how well the teachers introduced practices in the manner in which they were intended. After the first year of teaching with Responsive Classroom, teachers were asked to reflect on barriers and gateways.

“We found that some teachers were afraid to shift out of what felt tried and true—afraid of the chaos that comes with initially trying new programs,” said Wanless. “However, when they felt a sense of empowerment or support from their administrators, they were more likely to successfully implement the program.”

Wanless said teachers noted that they could tell when the principal was “behind something”—specifically through their motivation, consistency in use of related practices, and the accommodations they provided to teachers. At the same time, a lack of support also was noticeable and viewed as a barrier.

Year Two: Put Me In, Coach

In a subsequent study, the research team decided to take a different look at the rating system. They again focused on principal support, this time studying how the perceptions of this level of support varied amongst those in different roles. There were four raters: principals, teachers, intervention coaches for teachers, and an intervention coach for principals.

All 48 fourth-grade teachers in 13 schools participated during their second year of teaching with the Responsive Classroom approach. Teachers rated their principals’ level of support based on why they thought the principals wanted them to be trained. Coaches rated principals based on indicators such as how often principals initiated contact with them. Principals rated their own involvement with the approach, and principal coaches rated how invested the principals seemed.

The intervention coaches for teachers and principals provided a unique perspective unseen by the teachers or administrators. They could most accurately rate the level of administrator support—or lack thereof.

“The coaches’ ratings were the most predictive of actual implementation of the program,” said Wanless. “This indicates a need to consider changing the way we gather data in schools, including an external person to collect this type of information.”

“The study points to the critical role that school leaders and coaches play in predicting the implementation of the Responsive Classroom approach,” said Rimm-Kaufman. “The work calls attention to the importance of school leadership in producing school change. As with any intervention, this approach only relates to positive outcomes if teachers are actually using the practices in their classrooms. The work helps shed light on what school leaders can do to set the stage for success of new interventions.”

The paper, “Setting-Level Influences on Implementation of the Responsive Classroom Approach,” was published Oct. 14 by Prevention Science.

Youth with autism gravitate toward STEM majors in college — if they get there

It’s a popularly held belief that individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) gravitate toward STEM majors in college (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

A new study, co-authored by Paul Shattuck, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, confirms that view yet finds that young adults with an ASD also have one of the lowest overall college enrollment rates.
The study, “STEM Participation Among College Students with an Autism Spectrum Disorder,” was published online Nov. 1 in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

“STEM careers are touted as being important for increasing both national economic competitiveness and individual career earning power,” Shattuck says. “If popular stereotypes are accurate and college-bound youth with autism gravitate toward STEM majors, then this has the potential to be a silver lining story for a group where gloomy predictions about outcomes in adulthood are more the norm.”

The study provides the first national picture of college enrollment and STEM participation for young adults with an ASD, compared with 10 other disability categories, including learning disabilities; speech/language impairment; intellectual disabilities; emotional disturbances; hearing impairment; visual impairment; orthopedic impairment; other health impairment; traumatic brain injury; and multiple disabilities.

The study found that 34.3 percent of students with an ASD gravitated toward STEM majors. That’s not only higher than their peers in all 10 other disability categories, but also higher than the 22.8 percent of students in the general population who declared a STEM major in college. Science (12.1 percent) and computer science (16.2 percent) were the fields most likely to be chosen by students with an ASD.

But the study also learned that young adults with ASD have one of the lowest overall college enrollment rates when compared with students in other disability categories. Factors such as gender, family income and ability to carry on a conversation played a role in whether or not the individual with ASD attended college.

“Clearly, only a subset of youth with autism will head to college after high school,” Shattuck says. “A low family income puts these young people at a disadvantage even if they are cognitively capable. We need to get better at connecting students with financial aid to help them achieve their highest potential and be contributing members of society.”

The study says the tide may be turning. Advances in early identification and treatment of ASDs are likely to increase college enrollment rates, and with it increased participation in STEM majors.

“More and more children are being identified as having autism,” Shattuck says, “children who grow up to be adults. With the majority of a typical lifespan spent in adulthood, that phase of life is the one we know least about when it comes to autism spectrum disorders.

State Loopholes Stalling Progress of Physical Education Programs

The 2012 Shape of the Nation Report: Status of Physical Education in the USA, released today by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) and the American Heart Association, finds that while 74.5 percent of states mandate physical education in elementary through high school, most still fail to require a specific amount of instructional time and nearly half allow exemptions, waivers and/or substitutions. These "loopholes" reduce the effectiveness of policy efforts to ensure the quality of physical education currently taught in the nation's schools.


"The fact that kids are being deprived of physical education in school is unacceptable, especially in a nation suffering from a childhood obesity epidemic," said Nancy Brown, American Heart Association CEO. "Making physical activity a part of the daily routine is critical to saving the next generation of Americans from heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other serious problems."

The report found that the majority of states mandate that students take physical education (43 states for elementary, 41 states for middle, and 44 states for high school). However, gaps exist in over half of these states. Thirty-three states permit schools and school districts to allow students to substitute other activities for their required physical education credit. Twenty-eight states allow schools or school districts to grant exemptions/waivers for physical education.

Other key findings include:

• Only six states (Illinois, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York and Vermont) require physical education in every grade, K-12.

• Forty nine states plus the District of Columbia have their own state standards for physical education; only Iowa has not adopted state standards.

• Only 26 states (51 percent) require some form of student assessment in physical education.

• Only 30 states (59 percent) allow required physical education credits to be earned through online physical education courses.

• Compared to 2010, twice as many states (28 vs.14) require physical education grades to be included in students' grade point averages.

• Only 14 states (27 percent) require schools/school districts to perform fitness assessments. Only 11 states (22 percent) prohibit the practice of withholding physical activity, including recess, as punishment and prohibit the use of physical activity as punishment for inappropriate behavior or for disciplinary reasons.

NASPE and the American Heart Association recommend that schools provide 150 minutes per week/30 minutes per day of instructional physical education for elementary school children, and 225 minutes per week/45 minutes per day for middle and high school students for the entire school year. Currently, no states follow these nationally recommended guidelines at all levels. The complete list of physical education program recommendations is included in the full report.

In addition to pushing for mandatory physical education in all K-12 schools in the United States, the two associations encourage parents to be more proactive in advocating for school districts and communities to develop and promote the use of safe, well-maintained and close-to-home sidewalks, bike paths, trails, and facilities for physical activity and sport participation. More importantly, parents and other adult role models need to set good examples by being active themselves.

The Shape of the Nation Report, which surveys physical education coordinators in all 50 state education agencies and the District of Columbia, raises awareness and provides data for an ongoing evaluation of the progress made and challenges that remain in physical education policies. This year's Shape of the Nation report includes new elements that address the areas of school physical activity requirements such as recess, classroom physical activity breaks, the use of physical activity as punishment, support for the Safe Routes to School program and local school wellness policies.

Principal plays surprising role in why new teachers quit

Why do so many beginning teachers quit the profession or change schools? Surprising new research finds it’s not a heavy workload or lack of resources that has the most significant effect, but instead the relationship between teachers and their principal.

Peter Youngs, associate professor of educational policy at Michigan State University and lead investigator on the study, said the findings reinforce the need for principals to serve as strong, supportive leaders in their schools.

“The principal isn’t there just to help the novice teacher handle discipline and classroom management,” Youngs said. “What really makes a strong administrative climate is when the principal also knows the academic content well and can work with the beginning teacher on curriculum and instruction.”

Youngs and Ben Pogodzinski of Wayne State University surveyed 184 beginning teachers of grades 1-8 in 11 large school districts in Michigan and Indiana. Their study, published in Elementary School Journal, was prompted by the fact that nearly a third of teachers in their first two years either change schools or quit altogether. This can be particularly harmful to low-income urban schools that have trouble recruiting and retaining teachers, Youngs said.

The study gauged novice teachers’ intent to remain teaching and the factors that might influence that decision. Youngs said he was surprised to learn the frequency with which novices met with their school-assigned mentor teachers did not make them more or less likely to continue teaching.

In fact, the most important factor that influenced commitment was the beginning teacher’s perception of how well the school principal worked with the teaching staff as a whole. This was a stronger predictor of intent to remain teaching than having adequate resources, the amount of administrative duties the teacher had or the size of their workload.

Youngs said the findings point to a potential need for more training for principals in university or professional-development programs.

“The focus,” he said, “would be on how principals could increase their knowledge of setting a healthy, productive school climate and understanding ways that their actions and leadership can impact new teachers’ attitudes and outcomes.”

The Aftermath of Calculator Use in College Classrooms

Math instructors promoting calculator usage in college classrooms may want to rethink their teaching strategies, says Samuel King, postdoctoral student in the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research & Development Center. King has proposed the need for further research regarding calculators' role in the classroom after conducting a limited study with undergraduate engineering students published in the British Journal of Educational Technology.

"We really can't assume that calculators are helping students," said King. "The goal is to understand the core concepts during the lecture. What we found is that use of calculators isn't necessarily helping in that regard."

Together with Carol Robinson, coauthor and director of the Mathematics Education Centre at Loughborough University in England, King examined whether the inherent characteristics of the mathematics questions presented to students facilitated a deep or surface approach to learning. Using a limited sample size, they interviewed 10 second-year undergraduate students enrolled in a competitive engineering program. The students were given a number of mathematical questions related to sine waves -- a mathematical function that describes a smooth repetitive oscillation -- and were allowed to use calculators to answer them. More than half of the students adopted the option of using the calculators to solve the problem.

"Instead of being able to accurately represent or visualize a sine wave, these students adopted a trial-and-error method by entering values into a calculator to determine which of the four answers provided was correct," said King. "It was apparent that the students who adopted this approach had limited understanding of the concept, as none of them attempted to sketch the sine wave after they worked out one or two values."

After completing the problems, the students were interviewed about their process. A student who had used a calculator noted that she struggled with the answer because she couldn't remember the "rules" regarding sine and it was "easier" to use a calculator. In contrast, a student who did not use a calculator was asked why someone might have a problem answering this question. The student said he didn't see a reason for a problem. However, he noted that one may have trouble visualizing a sine wave if he/she is told not to use a calculator.

"The limited evidence we collected about the largely procedural use of calculators as a substitute for the mathematical thinking presented indicates that there might be a need to rethink how and when calculators may be used in classes -- especially at the undergraduate level," said King. "Are these tools really helping to prepare students or are the students using the tools as a way to bypass information that is difficult to understand? Our evidence suggests the latter, and we encourage more research be done in this area."

King also suggests that relevant research should be done investigating the correlation between how and why students use calculators to evaluate the types of learning approaches that students adopt toward problem solving in mathematics.

Academic and Fiscal Benefits of Universal Preschool

This brief is authored by Dr. William Mathis, managing director of the National Education Policy Center, housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education.

There is near-universal agreement among researchers “that high-quality preschool programs more than pay for themselves in economic and social benefits,” Mathis writes. Indeed, high-quality preschool for at least two years has been found to close as much as half the achievement gap. Such preschool participation is also associated with a wide range of more positive adult outcomes, including less drug use, less welfare depen
dency, higher graduation rates, higher college attendance, and higher employment.

Despite these demonstrated outcomes and the increase in children attending pre-school, “in inflation adjusted dollars, overall funding per child served is lower than a decade ago,” Mathis writes. For preschool to reap its proven substantial benefits, lawmakers must assure that the programs are of high quality and are adequately supported.

The brief explains the key elements of a quality pre-school program. It also discusses research findings concerning basic issues such as the entrance age for preschool, comparisons of center-based and home-based programs, and whether preschool should be universal or targeted by socioeconomic group.

Link Found Between Child Prodigies and Autism

A new study of eight child prodigies suggests a possible link between these children’s special skills and autism.

Of the eight prodigies studied, three had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders. As a group, the prodigies also tended to have slightly elevated scores on a test of autistic traits, when compared to a control group.

In addition, half of the prodigies had a family member or a first- or second-degree relative with an autism diagnosis.

The fact that half of the families and three of the prodigies themselves were affected by autism is surprising because autism occurs in only one of 120 individuals, said Joanne Ruthsatz, lead author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus.

“The link between child prodigies and autism is strong in our study,” Ruthsatz said. “Our findings suggest child prodigies have traits in common with autistic children, but something is preventing them from displaying the deficits we associate with the disorder.”

The study also found that while child prodigies had elevated general intelligence scores, where they really excelled was in working memory - all of them scored above the 99th percentile on this trait.

Ruthsatz conducted the study with Jourdan Urbach of Yale University. Their results were published in a recent issue of the journal Intelligence.

For the study, the researchers identified eight child prodigies through the internet and television specials and by referral. The group included one art prodigy, one math prodigy, four musical prodigies and two who switched domains (one from music to gourmet cooking, and one from music to art). The study included six males and two females.

The researchers met with each prodigy individually over the course of two or three days. During that time, the prodigies completed the Stanford-Binet intelligence test, which included sub-tests on fluid reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual spatial abilities and working memory.

In addition, the researchers administered the Autism-Spectrum Quotient assessment, which scores the level of autistic traits. The prodigies’ scores on the test were compared to a control group of 174 adults who were contacted randomly by mail.

Ruthsatz said the most striking data was that which identified autistic traits among the prodigies.

The prodigies showed a general elevation in autistic traits compared to the control group, but this elevation was on average even smaller than that seen in high-functioning autistic people diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome.

Autism is a developmental disability characterized by problems with communicating and socializing and a strong resistance to change. People with Asperger’s are more likely than those with autism to have normal intelligence, but tend to have difficulties with social interaction.

The prodigies did score higher than the control group and the Asperger’s group on one subsection of the autism assessment: attention to detail.

“These prodigies had an absolutely amazing memory for detail,” she said. “They don’t miss anything, which certainly helps them achieve the successes they have.”

Ruthsatz said it was not the three prodigies who were diagnosed with autism who were driving this particular finding. In fact, the three autistic prodigies scored an average of 8 on attention to detail, compared to 8.5 for the entire group of prodigies.

On the intelligence test, the prodigies scored in the gifted range, but were not uniformly exceptional. While five of the eight prodigies scored in the 90th percentile or above on the IQ test, one scored at the 70th percentile and another at the 79th percentile.

“Our findings suggest child prodigies have traits in common with autistic children, but something is preventing them from displaying the deficits we associate with the disorder.”

But just as they did in the autism assessment, the prodigies stood out in one of the sub-tests of the intelligence test. In this case, the prodigies showed an exceptional working memory, with all of them scoring above the 99th percentile.

Working memory is the system in the brain that allows people to hold multiple pieces of information in mind for a short time in order to complete a task.

The findings paint a picture of what it takes to create a prodigy, Ruthsatz said.

“Overall, what we found is that prodigies have an elevated general intelligence and exceptional working memory, along with an elevated autism score, with exceptional attention to detail,” Ruthsatz said.

These results suggest that prodigies share some striking similarities with autistic savants - people who have the developmental disabilities associated with autism combined with an extraordinary talent or knowledge that is well beyond average.

“But while autistic savants display many of the deficits commonly associated with autism, the child prodigies do not,” Ruthsatz said. “The question is why.”

The answer may be some genetic mutation that allows prodigies to have the extreme talent found in savants, but without the deficits seen in autism. But the answer will require more study, Ruthsatz said.

“Our findings suggest that prodigies may have some moderated form of autism that actually enables their extraordinary talent.”

Kids need at least 7 minutes a day of 'vigorous' physical activity

Most aren't getting that


Children need a minimum of seven minutes a day of vigorous physical activity, demonstrates recently published findings by University of Alberta medical researchers and their colleagues across Canada.

"If you watch late-night television, or look in the backs of magazines, you'll see magical ads saying you need just 10 minutes a day or five minutes a day of exercise to stay fit. And for those of us in the medical field, we just rolled our eyes at that. But surprisingly, they may actually be right and that's what this research shows," says co-principal investigator Richard Lewanczuk, a researcher with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the U of A.

"Our research showed children don't need a lot of intense physical activity to get the health benefits of exercise – seven minutes or more of vigorous physical activity was all that was required. But the seven minutes had to be intense to prevent weight gain, obesity and its adverse health consequences. And most kids weren't getting that."

Lewanczuk worked on this study with Jonathan McGavock, his co-principal investigator and former post-doctoral fellow, who now works with the Manitoba Institute of Child Health. They collaborated with Black Gold Regional Schools in Leduc and surrounding communities just south of Edmonton, as well as researchers from the University of Manitoba, Queen's University, the University of Newcastle, and U of A researchers from the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, the School of Public Health, Physical Education and Recreation, and Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences. The team's findings were recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

More than 600 children, between the ages of nine to 17 from Leduc and surrounding areas, wore monitors that tracked their physical activity levels for seven days. These children also had their weight, waist circumference and blood pressure regularly monitored.

Researchers reviewed the data collected through the Healthy Hearts program via Black Gold Regional Schools and determined the children spent almost 70 per cent of their time doing sedentary activities; nearly 23 per cent was devoted to light physical activity; almost seven per cent to moderate physical activity and 0.6 per cent to vigorous physical activity.

Overall, boys were less sedentary than girls. And the more vigorous the physical activity, the less apt the children were to be overweight. Children who were overweight had improved fitness levels and shrinking waist lines when they increased the amount of time spent doing vigorous activities.

Lewanczuk said the team made some other notable findings including the following: there weren't the expected health benefits from doing only mild or moderate activity even if the time spent doing this type of activity increased. What seemed to be critical was taking part in intense physical activity. For kids who took part in vigorous physical activity that lasted longer than seven minutes, their health benefits were significantly better. And the whole notion of being overweight but fit? The team's data didn't support that finding in children. If children were overweight, they were also unhealthy, Lewanczuk says.

"This research tells us that a brisk walk isn't good enough," says Lewanczuk, a professor in the Department of Medicine who has been studying this topic for eight years. "Kids have to get out and do a high-intensity activity in addition to maintaining a background of mild to moderate activity. There's a strong correlation between obesity, fitness and activity. Activity and fitness is linked to a reduction in obesity and good health outcomes."

Getting young children to make vigorous physical activity part of their daily routines is important, especially considering activity levels in the teenage years drop right off, Lewanczuk says. And previously published research from the same group of children shows kids are more active at school than they are at home.

"Quite often the activity levels on evenings or weekends would be almost flat," he says. "We made the presumption that kids were just sitting in front of a screen the whole time."

Lewanczuk hopes the research findings will help schools decide what type of mandatory physical activity is needed.

He praised the school district involved in the study, noting the research wouldn't have been possible without its support.

Paul Wozny with Black Gold Regional Schools said physical activity is always worthwhile and noted that increased moderate to intense activity was closely associated with lower weights from year to year. He said the Healthy Hearts project has truly created "a school and community culture where regular physical activity and healthy nutrition are seen as essential ingredients for students' health, wellness and life-long learning. Everyone is involved – students, their parents, teachers, staff, researchers and the community as a whole.

"We are always striving to improve, so we regularly review the research results to help us fine tune and develop future activity and wellness programming at all of our school communities. Black Gold Regional Schools' Health Hearts project has received both national and international recognition as a world-leading school and community initiative dedicated to the improvement of student cardiovascular health through regular physical activity and multi-stakeholder support."

The primary funders of the research were: the Canadian Diabetes Association and the Alberta Centre for Child, Family and Community Research.

"The Canadian Diabetes Association is proud to be a leading supporter of diabetes research in Canada, investing more than $7 million annually in diabetes research," said Janet Hux, chief scientific advisor for the Canadian Diabetes Association. "The association encourages Canadians to pursue healthy lifestyles in order to prevent and manage diabetes. Dr. Lewanczuk's work provides important new insights that may make enhanced activity more feasible for children and youth."

The Alberta Centre for Child, Family and Community Research added: "Having this kind of evidence should make it easier for parents, schools and daycare programs to do activities with children that will help develop lifelong healthy attitudes towards exercise and activity," stated Alberta Centre for Child, Family and Community Research President and CEO, Robyn Blackadar.

Record Shares of Young Adults Have Finished Both High School and College

Record shares of young adults are completing high school, going to college and finishing college, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly available census data. In 2012, for the first time ever, one-third of the nation’s 25- to 29-year-olds have completed at least a bachelor’s degree.

These across-the-board increases have occurred despite dramatic immigration-driven changes in the racial and ethnic composition of college-age young adults, a trend that had led some experts to expect a decline in educational attainment.

College completion is now at record levels among key demographic groups: men and women; blacks, whites and Hispanics; and foreign-born and native-born Americans.

Also, a record share of the nation’s young adults ages 25 to 29 (90%) has finished at least a high school education. And another record share—63%—has completed at least some college.

Some of the “credit” for recent increases appears to go to the Great Recession of 2007-2009 and the sluggish jobs recovery since. With young adults facing sharply diminished labor market opportunities, their rate of high school and college completion has been rising slowly but steadily since 2007, after having been stagnant during better economic times earlier in the decade.

Changing public attitudes about the importance of going to college to succeed in an increasingly knowledge-based labor market may also have played a role. In 1978, the public was evenly divided over whether a college education was necessary to get ahead in life. Roughly 30 years later, a lopsided majority firmly endorsed the necessity of a college degree. In a 2009 Pew Research Center survey, 73% of American adults agreed that, in order to get ahead in life these days, it is necessary to get a college education. Similarly, when the Gallup Organization asked about the importance of college in 2010, 75% of Americans said a college education is “very important.” In 1978, only 36% said the same.

The nation’s college-age population is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse – today some 44% of 18- to 25-year-olds are non-white, up from 17% in 1971. Historically, Hispanic and black youths have trailed white and Asian youths in educational attainment. That remains the case, but rates for all four groups are rising at a similar pace.

The trends on college attainment are not all positive, however. The recent increases in the U.S. come at a time when other advanced economies are registering similar or greater gains, leading experts and college presidents to question whether the U.S. has been losing its competitive position as the global leader in higher education. In 2011 the Pew Research Center conducted a survey of more than 1,000 college presidents nationwide. Among those college presidents surveyed, only 19% said the U.S. system of higher education is currently the best in the world, and just 7% said they believe it will be the best in the world 10 years from now. A plurality of presidents (51%) described the U.S. system as one of the best in the world.

That same survey also found that college presidents are concerned about the quality, preparedness and study habits of today’s college students. Overall, 52% of presidents say college students today study less than their predecessors did a decade ago; just 7% say they study more.

Why Superintendents Turn Over

Although superintendent turnover can hinder district reform and improvement, research examining superintendent exits is scarce. This study identifies factors contributing to superintendent turnover in California by matching original superintendent and school board survey data with administrative data and information hand-collected from news sources on why superintendents left and where they went. Among 215 superintendents studied beginning in 2006, 45% exited within 3 years.

Using a multinomial framework to separate retirements from other turnover, the authors find that factors such as how highly the school board rates its own functioning and the superintendent’s performance and whether the superintendent was hired internally strongly predict non-retirement exits 3 years later. Short-term district test score growth, however, is uncorrelated. Superintendents who move migrate away from rural districts toward larger, higher-paying districts in urban and suburban locations.

Assistive listening devices may improve dyslexic student reading skills

Children with dyslexia may benefit from wearing assistive listening devices in the classroom, a study suggests. Nina Kraus and colleagues studied 34 dyslexic children who ranged in age from 8 to 14 years. Nineteen of the students wore an assistive listening device, similar to a Bluetooth receiver, throughout the school day for the duration of the school year. The brain responded to sound more consistently in children wearing the devices, the authors report, a finding that could have implications for improved reading skills.

According to the authors, the devices could help improve focus and awareness in children with dyslexia while reducing background noise. The benefits could extend beyond the classroom, the authors propose, by addressing the abnormal sensory representations of speech in children with dyslexia, who have a tendency to misperceive the meanings of similar sounds such as "cat" as "bat" or "pat." Use of assistive listening devices could potentially transform how the nervous system processes sound and help normalize speech comprehension, even in children with pervasive reading impairments, according to the authors.

"Assistive listening devices drive neuroplasticity in children with dyslexia," by Jane Hornickel, Steven G. Zecker, Ann R. Bradlow, and Nina Kraus
10.1073/pnas.1206628109

Gender biases within academic science

Science faculty display subtle gender biases that may contribute to the underrepresentation of women within many fields of academic science, according to a study. Using a randomized, double-blind study design, Corinne Moss-Racusin and colleagues asked a nationwide sample of 127 biology, chemistry, and physics professors to evaluate the application materials of an undergraduate student who was ostensibly applying for a lab manager position. All professors received identical applications, which were randomly attributed to either a male or a female student.

The authors found that the male student was more likely to be hired and offered mentoring opportunities, was rated as more competent, and was offered a higher starting salary compared with the female student with identical credentials. This bias occurred independently of the faculty member's gender, scientific discipline, age, and tenure status. According to the authors, the findings suggest that the female student was less likely to be hired because she was viewed as less competent than the male student.

Additional analyses revealed a pre-existing subtle bias against women that undermined the faculty participants' perceptions and treatment of the female applicant. The findings suggest that the faculty members' bias may be unintentional, stemming from widespread cultural stereotypes about women's competence in science, and could potentially hinder female participation in science, according to the authors.

"Science faculty's subtle gender biases favor male students," by Corinne A. Moss-Racusin, John F. Dovidio, Victoria L. Brescoll, Mark J. Graham, and Jo Handelsman
10.1073/pnas.1211286109

Reading instruction and brain development influence each other

A child's ability to read may largely depend on when that individual's brain circuitry is sufficiently developed yet capable of growth, a longitudinal study reports. Jason Yeatman and colleagues tracked reading proficiency over a 3-year period for 55 children who ranged in age from 7 to 12. Thirty-nine of those children underwent at least three scans measuring development in brain regions associated with reading skills. The measurements focused on white matter, the brain component involved in transmitting signals from one region to another.

While every child's reading skills increased from one year to the next, their skills relative to peers did not vary significantly. Compared with other children, those with above-average reading skills initially had less-developed white matter that increased over the 3-year period. In children with below-average reading skills, however, white matter development declined over time.

The authors suggest that the timing of reading instruction should perhaps take into account when an individual's brain circuitry is adequately developed but retains the potential for further plasticity. This developmental timing might not just rely upon age, but on other factors that can drive the process, such as genetics and prior life experiences. As a result, children in the future may benefit from instruction that is tailored and timed to their particular stages of brain development, according to the authors.


"Development of white matter and reading skills," by Jason Daniel Yeatman, et al.
10.1073/pnas.1206792109

Teacher Absence as a Leading Indicator of Student Achievement

On average, 36 percent of teachers nationally were absent more than 10 days during the 2009-10 school year based on the 56,837 schools analyzed in the dataset

On any given school day, up to 40 percent of teachers in New Jersey’s Camden City Public Schools are absent from their classrooms. Such a high figure probably would not stand out in parts of the developing world, but it contrasts sharply with the 3 percent national rate of absence for full-time wage and salaried American workers, and the 5.3 percent rate of absence for American teachers overall. Certainly, it isn’t unreasonable for Camden residents to expect lower rates of teacher absence, particularly when the district annually spends top dollar—more than $22,000 per pupil—to educate its students. And advocates for students of color, who constitute 99.5 percent of the district’s enrollment, could potentially use these new data from the Department of Education to support a civil rights complaint.

Beginning in 2009 the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education included a new item on its biennial Civil Rights Data Collection survey—teacher absences. Notwithstanding concerns about equity, attention to this issue is appropriate for two reasons:

. First, teachers are the most important school-based determinant of students’ academic success. It’s no surprise researchers find that teacher absence lowers student achievement.
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. Second, resources are scarce, and any excess of funds tied up in teacher absence, which costs at least $4 billion annually, should be put to better use.
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This report uses the Civil Rights Data Collection dataset released in early 2012 to raise questions and drive debate about the subject of teacher absence. This dataset comes from the first national survey to include school-level information on teacher absence. The measure constructed from this information is the percentage of teachers who were absent more than 10 times during the year. The Department of Education calls the measure a “leading indicator,” a reasonable label given the documented relationship between absence rates measured at the teacher level and student achievement. Yet very little is known about the properties of this new school-level measure.

On average, 36 percent of teachers nationally were absent more than 10 days during the 2009-10 school year based on the 56,837 schools analyzed in the dataset. The percentages reported by individual schools range from 0 percent to 100 percent, with 62 percent of the variation in the measure occurring between districts and a third occurring within districts. The latter statistic is significant because all schools within a given district operate under the same leave policies, and teacher absence levels well above a district average may be a symptom of a dysfunctional professional culture at the building level.

State averages on the novel Civil Rights Data Collection measure of teacher absence range from a low of 20.9 percent in Utah to a high of 50.2 percent in Rhode Island. A ranking of states on page 8 raises questions about the wisdom of some states’ teacher absence policies.

This report also notes that teacher absence is yet another item that can be added to the list of ways in which charter schools differ from traditional public schools. Teachers are absent from traditional public schools more than 10 times per year at a rate that is 15.2 percentage points higher than in charter schools.

A school’s grade-level configuration provides some indication of its teachers’ absence behavior. An average of 33.3 percent of teachers were absent more than 10 days in high schools. The corresponding figures for elementary and middle schools are 36.7 percent and 37.8 percent, respectively. In this sense, this novel measure tracks conventional rates of absence constructed from teachers’ daily absence records.

This report also supplies evidence that students in schools serving high proportions of African American or Latino students are disproportionately exposed to teacher absence. Holding constant the grade-level and whether a school is a charter, a school with its proportion of African American students in the 90th percentile has a teacher absence rate that is 3.5 percentage points higher than a school in the 10th percentile. The corresponding differential based on percentages of Latino students is 3.2 percentage points.

With these and other findings, this report seeks to draw attention to the too long-neglected subject of teacher absence. The costs of teacher absence, both in financial and academic terms, can no longer be borne in silence. The abundance of variation in teacher absence behavior, both between districts and within, means that there is room in many districts and individual schools for teachers to have adequate access to paid leave while being absent less frequently.

Difficult Transition from Student to Teacher

"It was the hardest thing I ever had to do, emotionally and mentally." These are not the words we generally associate with a university student who is undergoing teacher training, yet Concordia researcher Anita Sinner has heard similar statements from many such individuals. Every year thousands of students make the transition from student to teacher and the stories of those who struggle are often missing from our conversations.

"Pre-service teachers who experience varying degrees of struggle have few stories against which to compare their experiences when entering the teaching profession," Sinner explains. This magnifies a sense of dislocation in the very profession they seek to dedicate their working lives." By examining the challenges faced by one person transitioning from student to teacher, she hopes to "raise awareness about the stresses of the teaching occupation and works to establish, within teacher culture, alternative perspectives about the profession."

Writing in the peer-reviewed journal, Teachers and teaching: theories and practice, Sinner, a professor in Concordia University's Department of Art Education, offers what she calls a "critique from the inside." She focuses her study on Nathalie, a young woman at the practicum stage of her teacher education.

Nathalie is stimulated in her university classroom, where she is encouraged to "approach teacher education through inquiry, development of interdisciplinary perspectives, collaboration with students and teachers, and ongoing reflective writing and visual expression." Yet, she is stifled in her job-training, which continues to follow an apprenticeship model, where her authority and abilities are questioned- not by the Grade 8 kids to whom she's teaching art, but by the "sponsor-teacher," who is meant to be imparting wisdom, support and guidance.

"It was a very odd relationship," writes Nathalie. "At times I would think maybe she doesn't mind sharing her classroom with me, and then there would always be an incident that reminded me that I'm in her space. Even when she had the opportunity to help me, she wouldn't. It got to the point where she asked me, 'Haven't you ever taken a drawing class?' That was the tone of the practicum."

This disconnect between the university classroom and the grade-school teaching placement represents something of a paradox. "Students like Nathalie learn to be teachers while behaving as if they have already mastered the necessary skills and knowledge. This puts them in a difficult space, where they have a double identity as a student who is also a teacher. That can be very hard to navigate, because the roles subvert one another, which can leave student teachers questioning the ethics of their practicum experiences."

"The existing practices of teacher education leave some pre-service teachers vulnerable to exploitation. The scope of Nathalie's emotional experience raises critical concerns about the apprenticeship model and the value of field experience," Sinner goes on to explain. Indeed her research brings into question whether such job placements are the most productive means to prepare a new teacher for the classroom.

Ultimately, Sinner sees this research as the beginning of a larger study that can encompass more disciplines. "This doesn't just apply to student teachers struggling with practicum experiences. On-the-job training is part of degree requirements in fields including nursing, medicine, social work, law, architecture and engineering. By opening up the dialogue around practical training, we can help the next generation of teachers, lawyers, doctors, engineers and architects become better able to discuss their struggles as they train -- and, in so doing, improve that training experience."

Preschoolers’ Counting Abilities Relate to Future Math Performance,

Along with reciting the days of the week and the alphabet, adults often practice reciting numbers with young children. Now, new research from the University of Missouri suggests reciting numbers is not enough to prepare children for math success in elementary school. The research indicates that counting, which requires assigning numerical values to objects in chronological order, is more important for helping preschoolers acquire math skills.

“Reciting means saying the numbers from memory in chronological order, whereas counting involves understanding that each item in the set is counted once and that the last number stated is the amount for the entire set,” said Louis Manfra, an assistant professor in MU’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies. “When children are just reciting, they’re basically repeating what seems like a memorized sentence. When they’re counting, they’re performing a more cognitive activity in which they’re associating a one-to-one correspondence with the object and the number to represent a quantity.”

Manfra analyzed data from more than 3,000 children from low-income households in order to determine if the children’s reciting and counting abilities in preschool affected their first-grade math scores. He found that students who could recite and count to 20 in preschool had the highest math scores in first grade; however, less than 10 percent of the children in the study could count and recite to 20.

“Counting gives children stronger foundations when they start school,” Manfra said. “The skills children have when they start kindergarten affect their trajectories through early elementary school; therefore, it’s important that children start with as many skills as possible.”

Previous research has shown that, in low-income families, parents often think children’s educations are the responsibility of teachers, while teachers expect parents to teach some essential skills at home, Manfra said.

“These low-income children aren’t learning math skills anywhere because parents think the children are learning them at school, and teachers think they’re learning them at home,” Manfra said. “This is a problem because it gives parents and teachers the idea that it’s not their responsibility to educate the children, when it’s everyone’s responsibility. This is problematic because, when the children enter kindergarten and are at lower math levels, they don’t have the foundational skills needed to set them on paths for future success.”

Parents and teachers should integrate counting into all aspects of children’s daily activities so they can master the skill, Manfra said.

“You can learn anything anywhere, and this is very true for counting,” Manfra said. “When adults read books with children, they can count the ducks on the page. They might count the leaves that fall to the ground outside or the number of carrots at lunchtime.”

Child care providers can be part of the solution for childhood obesity

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys revealed that over 21% of children 2 to 5 years old were considered overweight or obese. Child care settings can serve as a platform to teach children about nutrition in our fight against childhood obesity, as nearly 50% of children in the United States under age 5 are enrolled in child care. In a new study released in the November/December 2012 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, training child care providers about their role in children's healthful eating is an essential component of child care-based obesity prevention initiatives.

This study from Washington State University called the ENHANCE project, looked at 72 child care providers from 45 child care settings before and after a three-hour wellness retreat, and focused on feeding relationships, child nutrition education, and family communication. This forum provided tools and skills for providers to succeed in incorporating obesity prevention and healthful eating promotion within their child care setting. Based on observations and a survey before and one year after the wellness retreat, researchers found child care providers' beliefs related to children's healthful eating and feeding affected classroom practices. For example, if a child care provider felt confident in their ability to provide nutrition information, then they increased their nutrition education efforts and communicated more frequently with families about healthful eating and child feeding.

Jane D. Lanigan, PhD, the lead investigator from Washington State University, says, "Teachers did feel empowered to shape children's food preferences and employed a variety of evidence-based practices during feeding. However, they felt uncertain about managing children's intake or addressing child weight issues with parents. The current study suggests that the child care feeding environment can be improved by helping providers understand the negative consequences associated with feeding practices such as pressuring a child to eat, restricting highly palatable food, and using rewards to encourage children to eat healthful food or increase consumption."

So why is this important for childcare? Dr. Lanigan says, "The potential for early learning professionals to contribute to the childhood obesity solution has yet to be fully realized. The ENHANCE project sought to position obesity prevention within the early learning philosophy of promoting the development of the 'whole child' and help child care providers connect child care feeding practices to children's development of lasting beliefs about healthful eating."

"Incorporating child feeding training into state child care licensure, national certification, or as a requirement for participation in the Child & Adult Care Food Program are potential mechanisms for improving the child care feeding environment and addressing the childhood obesity epidemic."

Classes Taken and Credits Earned by Beginning Postsecondary Students

These Web Tables provide an overview of classes taken and credits earned by a nationwide sample of first-time beginning postsecondary students based on data from the Postsecondary Education Transcript Study (PETS) of the 2004/09 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study. PETS collected transcripts from all the postsecondary institutions students attended, providing a complete 6-year record of students’ coursetaking and credit accumulation. Topics covered in these Web Tables include precollege credits, remedial education participation, withdrawals and repeated courses, and credits earned in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Tables also present credits earned in each year of enrollment and total credits earned by whether students earned a credential.

Beginning K–12 Teacher Characteristics and Preparation

Research on academic achievement has revealed wide variation in teachers’ qualifications and experiences across schools. These Web Tables present the demographic characteristics and teaching preparation, including undergraduate coursetaking and certification, of 2007–08 baccalaureate degree recipients who taught at the K–12 level within a year of completing their bachelor’s degree. The analysis also compares teachers across a number of key characteristics of the schools in which they taught, including the percentage of students who qualified for free or reduced-price lunch, location (rural, sub-urban/town, or urban), race/ethnicity, and sector (public and private).

Early treatment sparks striking brain changes in autism

Also see: Early autism intervention improves brain responses to social cues

When given early treatment, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) made significant improvements in behavior, communication, and most strikingly, brain function, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a new study.

The study was published in the current issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders by Yale Child Study Center researchers Fred Volkmar, M.D., Kevin A. Pelphrey, and their colleagues.

The results suggest that brain systems supporting social perception respond well to an early intervention behavioral program called pivotal response treatment. This treatment includes parent training, and employs play in its methods.

ASDs are complex neurobiological disorders that inhibit a person's ability to communicate and develop social relationships, and are often accompanied by behavioral challenges. Until recently, autism diagnosis typically did not occur until a child was about three- to five-years-old, and treatment programs were geared for this older age group. Today, Volkmar and his team are diagnosing children as young as age one. Pivotal response treatment, developed at the University of California-Santa Barbara, combines developmental aspects of learning and development, and is easy to implement in children younger than age two.

In the current study, the team used functional magnetic resonance imaging — for the first time — to measure changes in brain activity after two five-year-olds with ASD received pivotal response treatment. Study co-author Pamela Ventola used this treatment method to identify distinct behavioral goals for each child in the study, and then reinforced these targeted skills with treatment involving motivational play activities.

The team found that children who received this treatment showed improvements in behavior, and being able to talk to other people. In addition, the MRI and electroencephalogram revealed increased brain activity in the regions supporting social perception.

Their results are from two children, but the researchers are currently conducting a full-scale study of 60 children. Pelphrey said that while both children in the current study received the same type of treatment for ASD, the results were not homogenous because ASD is a multi-faceted disorder that has a unique effect on each child. Some children with ASD function on a higher level than others, for example.

"ASD is a heterogeneous disorder, and research aimed at understanding treatment must address this heterogeneity," said Pelphrey. "Both the children in our current study made progress, but their degree of progress and level of skills at the end of treatment were distinct."

Volkmar sees these results as a first step in a novel approach to treatment planning. "Autism research has come a long way," he said. "These findings are exciting because they show that early intervention works in autism."

Study supports move toward common math standards

A new study analyzing the previous math standards of each state provides strong support for adoption of common standards, which U.S. students desperately need to keep pace with their counterparts around the globe, a Michigan State University scholar argues.

Forty-six states are implementing the Common Core math and reading standards, which nonetheless have come under fire recently by some researchers and would-be politicians.

But William Schmidt, MSU Distinguished Professor of statistics and education, said the Common Core is a world-class set of standards. In his study, published in the journal Educational Researcher, Schmidt found that states whose previous standards were most similar to the Common Core performed better on a national math test in 2009.

“We can’t yet prove anything about the Common Core standards because they’re just now being implemented, but if we look back we find that those states that were closest to the Common Core on average did better on the 2009 NAEP test (National Assessment of Educational Progress),” Schmidt said.

“This is another strong piece of evidence that we are moving in the right direction.”

The study also found that some states previously had Common Core-worthy criteria – such as requiring eighth-graders to understand and apply the Pythagorean Theorem – but essentially let the students and teachers off the hook by having low proficiency standards. Michigan, for example, had high standards but low proficiency guidelines – students could pass the standard math test by scoring less than 40 percent.

Common Core addresses that deficiency with a set of standard proficiency guidelines slated to go into effect with the 2014-15 school year, Schmidt said.

Schmidt’s research refutes a Brookings Institute study that suggested Common Core will have no effect on student performance. But that study, Schmidt said, relied on opinion-based ratings whereas his is a statistical analysis relying on coded-based data.

Some political candidates in Michigan and elsewhere around the nation have criticized the Common Core as federal meddling into state education matters – despite the fact that the Common Core was developed by a coalition of state leaders including the governors.

Beyond the ideological attacks, Schmidt said the Common Core represents a great opportunity for U.S. students to become competitive in the global economy.

“This is probably the best chance we’ve had to improve America’s mathematics education in 50 years if not more,” Schmidt said. “We finally have standards that are comparable to what the top-achieving countries have. It would be foolish for Michigan or any other state to pull back now."

Helping English Language Learners Meet Higher Expectations Associated With Common Core

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) offer great promise for advancing the quality of education and outcomes for all students, but meeting the higher expectations associated with them could prove especially daunting for the rapidly growing population of English language learners (ELLs) who must learn grade-level content while simultaneously trying to master the English language.

A new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education discusses these challenges, highlights initiatives already underway to help ELLs meet these challenges, and outlines how policy and practice must change to help ELLs graduate ready for college and a career.

According to the report, The Role of Language and Literacy in College- and Career-Ready Standards: Rethinking Policy and Practice in Support of English Language Learners, the number of school-age children who spoke another language in the home more than doubled, from 4.7 million (10 percent) to 11.2 million (20 percent) between 1980 and 2009. By 2020, more than half of all public school students are likely to have a non-English-speaking background.

Unfortunately, despite forty years of federal investment in programs for ELLs, these students have not fared well in American schools. According to the 2011 National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) twelfth-grade reading exam, 77 percent of ELLs performed below the basic level, compared to 27 percent of their non-ELL peers; only 3 percent of ELLs scored at or above proficient. Results are similarly discouraging at the state level.

The report attributes the lack of progress at both the federal and state levels to a combination of curriculum design, instruction, and a lack of systemic interventions and other support for ELLs. For example, English as a second language (ESL) programs historically focused on a one-size-fits-all approach that placed a premium on grammar and correctness rather than understanding and communicating ideas. The report argues that such an approach is no longer acceptable in today’s economy where students must obtain deeper learning competencies that include the mastery of academic content plus creative and critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and self-reflection.

The CCSS in English language arts and mathematics, which have been adopted by forty-six states and the District of Columbia, as well as the Next Generation Science Standards, in development in twenty-six states, reflect the skills needed in today’s global economy. The standards also spell out the sophisticated language competencies that students will need to perform in the respective academic subject areas—helping ELLs reach these higher expectations will place new demands on teachers, the report finds. Specifically, teachers must develop a deep knowledge of the vocabulary and language functions of their content area and then structure multiple opportunities in the classroom for students to use language, focusing on discipline-specific concepts rather than overemphasizing syntax and grammar. The burden will be particularly heavy for high school teachers who sometimes struggle to use a range of proven reading and writing strategies within their content areas.

To help all teachers make this transition, the report lists ten key strategies for language and content learning that all teachers must understand given the growing number of ELLs. It also highlights reform efforts already underway such as Formative Language Assessment Records for English Language Learners (FLARE), which is developing a formative assessment system that will provide teachers with practical tools for keeping English learners on track for language development and academic success.

Teachers will not be the only individuals affected, the report notes. Teachers, principals, and district and state leaders will need to re-envision curriculum, instruction, and assessment to help ELLs access grade-level content while building their language proficiency at the same time.

“Improving the performance of ELLs requires teachers to shift their thinking about what effective teaching practice looks like, why students struggle to succeed, and what is needed to improve language and content learning,” said Mariana Haynes, senior fellow at the Alliance for Excellent Education and author of the report. “At the same time, the adoption of new standards provides an opportunity to reimagine the core instruction in high school classrooms that has left large numbers of students—not just those identified as ELLs—struggling to achieve grade-level performance.”

Because the report finds that states bear the primary responsibility for ensuring that teachers and school leaders can provide ELLs with effective language and content-area learning, its recommendations are focused on the state level. It urges states to ensure robust implementation of college- and career-ready standards and call on states to develop and adopt English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards that incorporate the language demands in the college- and career-ready standards. The report also recommends that states support flexible pathways by which ELLs can successfully transition through language development programs and into the regular curriculum. It also asks states to strengthen teacher preparation, improve use of data, and create support systems for students, teachers, schools, districts, and states.

Promising Indications of Changes in Children’s Health

According this report, there are promising indications that when schools implement the Healthy Schools Program, students’ weight, diet, and physical activity improve. In a sample of 21 randomly selected schools participating in the Healthy Schools Program, the evaluators surveyed children in grades 5 through 12 about their diet and physical activity, and measured their body mass index were found primarily among middle school students.

The evaluation found that schools that accessed and participated in more training and technical assistance made the most progress in implementing policies and programs that support healthy eating and regular physical activity among students. The findings have implications for school-based obesity prevention policies being considered and implemented nationwide.

2012 National Survey of School Counselors

This report, True North: Charting the Course to College and Career Readiness, demonstrates that school counselors and their administrators share a vision for their schools and agree on a path to realize it. In the past, the more than 130,000 school counselors nationally have struggled to define their profession. Now, faced with an incontrovertible need to improve student achievement, school counseling is no longer at a crossroads. The 2012 National Survey of School Counselors, supported by a supplemental survey of school administrators, provided powerful evidence that school counselors and their administrators know true north — and they are poised to chart the course of their students’ college and career success.

Key findings:


Counselors in low-income schools are particularly well positioned to lead systemic efforts to promote their students’ college affordability planning.

Comparing counselors at schools with low levels (25 percent or less) of students on free or reduced-price lunches to counselors with high levels (75 percent or more) reveals that counselors at schools with higher numbers of students on free or reduced-price lunches are far better trained, have more support, a greater commitment and greater accountability when it comes to college affordability planning and using student FAFSA completion data to monitor and review student aid reports. Counselors at these more challenged schools are also more likely, in general, to be committed and held accountable to the Eight Components and their specific activities.

Although counselors and administrators agree on the vision for their schools and the path to get there, counselors are struggling to implement the very strategies to which they have expressed commitment, and they do not perceive themselves as succeeding in the areas they identify as important. Students’ college-going rates reflect this need to better target the work of counselors to support student success. The following sections outline three areas of opportunity and challenge to chart the course to college and career readiness: training, accountability and resources.

There is a strong correlation between counselors’ preparation and their students’ outcomes.

Counselors who report being better trained are more likely to work in schools with higher rates of college attendance. While 27 percent of counselors who say they have sufficient training on at least five of the Eight Components work at schools with higher rates of college attendance, only 19 percent of counselors who report sufficient training on four or fewer of the components work at schools with higher rates of college attendance. When looking specifically at college readiness, counselors who feel better trained on how to provide high school students with the right college application materials are more likely to have students who go to college. Though counselors were not asked to specify if they received these specific elements of training during preservice or in-service training, the results indicate a need for improved professional development opportunities throughout

Graduate schools are not preparing counselors to focus on college and career pathways once they work in schools. The majority of school counselors with a graduate degree specializing in school counseling indicate that their graduate school did not adequately prepare them for the challenges they face on a daily basis. When looking at the Eight Components of a college- and career2012 ready framework — which is endorsed by administrators and counselors alike — seven of the eight elements were “inadequately” covered in graduate school. Only one element, “Promote College and Career Assessments” was rated as extensively, or adequately, covered during graduate school by a majority of counselors (56 percent).

Current accountability systems are nonexistent, inconsistent or promote the wrong outcomes.

One-in-five counselors (19 percent) reports that there is no accountability system in place at all at their schools.

Of those systems that are in place, there is little consistency between them. The only item that a majority of high school counselors report being held accountable to is their high school graduation rate, and even then, only a slim majority of 52 percent of high school counselors report this. Between a quarter and a half of counselors are held accountable for the following measures: dropout rates (39 percent), college acceptance rates (39 percent), college application rates (39 percent), student access to advanced classes (38 percent), completion of collegepreparatory sequence of courses (38 percent), and transcript audits of graduation readiness (36 percent). State test scores (29 percent), FAFSA completion (16 percent), and graduate employment rates (11 percent) round out the bottom of the list.

In many cases, counselors are held accountable for activities that either do not directly promote student achievement or are inappropriate for counselors. Counselors are consistently held accountable for tasks that are better suited for other school personnel and pull counselors away from the college and career-going activities they are uniquely suited to provide their students. These accountability measures include: administrative and clerical tasks (69 percent), coordinating tests (60 percent), and disciplinary actions (13 percent). lunches).

Successfully implementing the Common Core State Standards

ASCD has released a new report titled Fulfilling the Promise of the Common Core State Standards: Moving from Adoption to Implementation to Sustainability illuminating activities educators and policymakers at all levels can undertake to successfully implement the Common Core State Standards across the nation. This free report can be found on the EduCore™ site, ASCD’s free repository of evidence-based strategies, videos, and supporting documents that help educators transition to the Common Core standards.

The recommendations included in Fulfilling the Promise of the Common Core State Standards are derived from data gathered from field work, surveys, and educator summits. While focusing on tactics and strategies educators across the nation can use to implement the new standards, this report delves deeper into the needs, input, and activities of educators in four states diverse in location and education practice—Arkansas, Colorado, North Carolina, and Utah.

Based on the data gathered, ASCD has made a number of key recommendations to education leaders that will help them successfully implement the Common Core State Standards in their school systems. Among the recommendations are to

* Transform principals into instructional leaders;
* Listen to educators about their professional learning needs;
* Adopt technology for teaching and learning;
* Align initiatives into comprehensive reforms;
* Make sure educators deeply understand the standards and the key instructional shifts they require; and
* Vet instructional resources for quality and alignment with the standards.

How Strong Are U.S. Teacher Unions? A State-By-State Comparison

This study represents the most comprehensive analysis of American teacher unions’ strength ever conducted, ranking all fifty states and the District of Columbia according to the power and influence of their state-level unions. The study analyzed factors ranging from union membership and revenue to state bargaining laws to campaign contributions. Its metrics included: a unique stakeholder survey and the alignment between specific state policies and traditional union interests. The report sorts the fifty-one jurisdictions into five tiers, ranking their teacher unions from strongest to weakest and providing in-depth profiles of each.

Religiously-affiliated Youth Go Further With School

Sociologists from Brigham Young University and Rice University found religiously-affiliated youth are 40 percent more likely to graduate high school than their unaffiliated peers and 70 percent more likely to enroll in college.

The researchers note that teens' fellow church-goers are an important factor, serving as mentors who help teens set their sights high.

"Youth have a unique chance to form relationships with peers and mentors outside of their classroom at school or their neighborhood at home," said Lance Erickson, the lead study author and a sociologist at BYU. "Mentors especially care for, counsel with and encourage youth throughout their growing years in a way that teachers and parents might not be able to."

Erickson and co-author James Phillips of Rice University studied data from more than 8,379 teens across the country. Some of their findings zeroed in on educational attainment by religious affiliations:

Catholic teens, mainline Protestants and black Protestant congregations are twice as likely as unaffiliated teens to finish high school and about 80 percent more likely to enroll in college.
Jewish and Mormon youths have the highest odds of graduating high school and college enrollment.

Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have long emphasized to youth the importance of higher education as a means of seeking truth and becoming self-reliant. And according to data gathered by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, that message gets through to Latter-day Saint youth. The recent Pew data shows about one-third of LDS adults reared in the faith have graduated from college and another third have completed at least some college. By comparison, national data shows that 28 percent of Americans age 25 and above hold college degrees and 21 percent have completed some college.

And across all faiths, Erickson's new study found that measures of religious participation and spirituality are positively associated with higher educational attainment. Church attendance, for example, was especially predictive of high school graduation, while prayer was more influential for college enrollment.

Interestingly, Erickson and Phillips found mentors with a religious background have essentially the same effect as educators who mentor students.

"Having a non-parent, adult figure who provides positive behavioral encouragement and that a teenager feels comfortable approaching is huge," Phillips said. "Here we see just how far-reaching those religious mentorships are, even to the point of influencing college enrollment as effectively as mentors who are strictly from educational settings, such as teachers or coaches."



The new study appears in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Migraine in children may affect school performance

Children with migraine are more likely to have below average school performance than kids who do not have headaches, according to new research published in the October 30, 2012, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study of 5,671 Brazilian children ages 5 to 12 found that those with migraine were 30 percent more likely to have below average school performance than those with no headaches.

"Studies have looked at the burden of migraine for adolescents, but less work has been done to determine the effect of migraine on younger children," said study author Marcelo E. Bigal, MD, PhD, of Merck & Co. in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

For the study, the students' teachers provided information on students' performance that was the same information provided to educational boards. Teachers also completed a validated questionnaire screening for emotional and behavioral problems and interviewed parents with a questionnaire covering medical history, headaches and other information.

The study found that 0.6 percent of the children had chronic migraine, or migraine on 15 or more days per month, 9 percent had episodic migraine, and 17.6 percent had probable migraine, which meant they met all but one of the criteria for migraine and did not meet the full criteria for any other type of headache syndrome.

The link between migraine and poor performance in school was even stronger for children with migraines that were more severe, lasted longer, or for children with chronic migraine, as well as for those who also had emotional or behavioral problems.

"With approximately one-fourth of school-age children having headaches with migraine features, this is a serious problem, especially for those with frequent, severe attacks that do not subside quickly," Bigal said. "Parents and teachers need to take these headaches seriously and make sure children get appropriate medical attention and treatment."

Early autism intervention improves brain responses to social cues

An autism intervention program that emphasizes social interactions and is designed for children as young as 12 months has been found to improve cognitive skills and brain responses to faces, considered a building block for social skills. The researchers say that the study, which was completed at the University of Washington, is the first to demonstrate that an intensive behavioral intervention can change brain function in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders.

“So much of a toddler’s learning involves social interaction, and early intervention that promotes attention to people and social cues may pay dividends in promoting the normal development of the brain and behavior,” said Geraldine Dawson, lead author and chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks.

“For the first time, parents and practitioners have evidence that early intervention can result in an improved course of both brain and behavioral development in young children,” she said.

Dawson began the study while she was the director of the UW Autism Center. The study was published online Oct. 26 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Forty-eight children, aged 18 to 30 months and diagnosed with autism, either participated in routine community-based interventions or the Early Start Denver Model, which emphasizes interpersonal exchanges and shared participation in activities. The model was developed by Dawson and co-author Sally Rogers, a professor at the UC Davis MIND Institute.

Participants received one of the interventions for about 20 hours each week over a period of two years. For the children randomly assigned to the ESDM group, treatment took place two hours, twice a day, five days a week, by trained interventionists who came to the child’s home. The children got an extra boost from their parents, who were trained to use ESDM strategies during routine exchanges with their child.

The UW Autism Center is recruiting families for studies of children with and without an autism spectrum disorder. Click here for more information.
A previous study found that the ESDM intervention improved IQ, language, and adaptive skills and the researchers wanted to know if the approach also led to brain changes.

After two years of treatment, the brain function of the participants – now about four to five years old – was measured with electroencephalography while the youngsters viewed social stimuli, such as faces, and nonsocial stimuli, such as toys.

“Humans are experts at processing faces, but the brains of children with autism have delays in the ability respond to faces,” said co-author Sara Webb, a UW research associate professor. If the brain can quickly identify a face, she said, then it can build on this to also quickly decide whether the face is of a man or a woman, happy or sad, and familiar or not.

Children in both intervention groups showed similar brain responses to faces as did children in a control group who did not have autism, suggesting that “the high level of intervention in both groups allowed the children with autism to catch up to the children in the control group,” Webb said. “That’s fantastic news.”

Looking at a higher level of brain processing, the researchers studied whether the treatments changed brain measures of attention and cognitive engagement when seeing faces compared with a nonsocial stimulus. Eleven of 15 – or 73 percent – of children in the ESDM group showed greater attention to faces than to toys. In contrast, the EEGs of only five of the 14 recipients of the community intervention, or 36 percent, showed similar activation.

“The ESDM intervention resulted in greater attention and cognition brain activity to social stimuli, and these brain function patterns are more similar to the typical developing group of children,” Webb said.

She stressed not only the importance of receiving intensive early intervention for autism, but that the intervention should focus on enhancing social attention, reciprocal interactions and engagement with a social partner.

Other study authors at UW are Emily Jones, Kaitlin Venema, Rachel Lowy, Susan Faja, Dana Kamara, Michale Murias, Jessica Greenson, Jamie Winter and Milani Smith, as well as Kristen Merkle of Vanderbilt University.

The study was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health and an Autism Speaks postdoctoral fellowship awarded to Jones.

Common Bond Between School Bullies and Their Targets: Alcohol Abuse

A new study out of the University of Cincinnati finds that both school bullies and their victims are likely to abuse alcohol after a bullying episode. Keith King, a University of Cincinnati professor of health promotion, along with Rebecca Vidourek, a UC assistant professor of health promotion, will present early findings of a new study on Oct. 29, at the 140th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in San Francisco.


The study examined bullying, recent alcohol use and heavy drinking episodes among more than 54,000 7th-through-12th grade students in schools across Greater Cincinnati, including the Tristate regions of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. The data was collected by the Coalition for a Drug Free Greater Cincinnati as part of the 2009-2010 Pride Survey on adolescent drug use in America.

Results of the Greater Cincinnati analysis found that more than 38 percent of students were involved in school violent victimization, defined as ranging from verbal intimidation to threatening with and using a weapon.

The study found that school violent victimization was associated with increased odds of recent alcohol use and heavy drinking among males and females and across 7th-12th grades. King and Vidourek say the analysis also found that males, non-whites and junior high school students were more likely to be victimized by bullying.

King adds that junior high and high school students were one-and-a-half times more likely to have abused alcohol if they had been bullied. “The overall effect of victimization and alcohol use did not differ based on sex, age or race. It has an overall impact on their drinking rates and level of intoxication across all categories,” says King.

“Also, bullies and their victims are reporting similar types of activity in relation to their drinking patterns. We believe the alcohol abuse may often be an effort to escape problems and to self-medicate,” says King.

The UC researchers also found that bullies and victims of bullying were less likely to be engaged in positive activities such as school clubs, sports or community and church organizations. “The results of this study mirror our past studies in examining adolescent behavior, and how positive connections with schools, families and their communities can positively and significantly impact the social and emotional health of youth,” says King.

King says future studies will closely examine other adolescent drug use besides alcohol.

The Pride Survey is a national survey that provides an independent assessment of adolescent drug use, violence and other behaviors. The Coalition for a Drug-Free Greater Cincinnati promotes drug-free environments for youth by enhancing partnerships to educate, advocate and support locally-based, community mobilization.