Neag Center Home Page | News & Views
School's out—and what are your kids doing? The answer, according to new data, may vary widely depending on your school's funding and other socioeconomic concerns. While the study found that more than three-quarters of students viewed after-school activities as highly important to them, the quality of after-school programs, as well as their affordability, varied across socio-economic lines:
www.publicagenda.org/press/press_release_detail.cfm?list=59
The other "NBC"—National Board Certification: a new study suggests that students of NBC teachers outperformed their peers on end-of-year math tests, even when other variables were accounted for. The study found that NBCTs were especially effective in helping students with special needs or from diverse backgrounds:
www.cna.org/expertise/education
Sometimes the old ways are the best ways—or at least, the new ways aren't necessarily better. Recently, a major international study showed that students who use computers regularly at school may actually perform worse that students who don't have computer access:
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4032737.stm
Encouraging your students to argue can be a good thing—within reason, anyway. This site discusses some of the benefits of speech and debate programs in honing students' oral and written communication skills and critical thinking ability:
www.urbandebate.org/impact_education
Local control—or out of control? In Iowa, the only state in the nation with no state requirements for high school graduation, some districts set standards that match those required in the 1980s. While state legislators support reforms, many are opposed to taking power away from the districts:
desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041206/NEWS02/412060361/1004
Playing to learn: In Boston, the new Science Park playground mixes physical science with good old fashioned fun! The playground, which is also designed for local color, features a "gravity boat" with pulleys, a block and tackle apparatus, and other fun toys—er, tools—to allow kids to explore the laws of physics. Even the playground's more standard equipment, like swing sets, was also designed with science in mind:
www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2004/12/09/school_plays_to_natural_curiosity
A Year of Languages? This recent article in the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development's Educational Leadership discusses the importance of learning a second language in terms of its benefits to self and to society:
www.ascd.org/cms/objectlib/ascdframeset/index.cfm?publication=http://www.ascd.org/publications/ed_lead/200412/cutshall.html?reid=sb
Take the "tech-tonic"—a new report by the Alliance for Childhood which explores the future role of technology in education and society. With concern about students' ethical and healthy use of technology being an ever-popular topic for discussion, this report outlines many basic concerns—and, refreshingly, offers solutions as well:
www.allianceforchildhood.org
Are your students suffering from "infoverload"—information overload? Tired of "Googling" a topic only to be unable to figure out which sites are worthwhile? Well, infoverload can be a thing of the past for math and science teachers, thanks to two research librarians at Rider University. Their article distills the best of the web and provides a useful resource for teachers whose students are overwhelmed by the undifferentiated mass of results from search engines:
www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/nov04/lackie_congleton.shtml
Another chance to get it right—or not: despite almost a century of research showing that making students repeat a grade fails to improve their performance, many schools still do it. This article takes a look at why schools keep doing something we know doesn't work:
www.asbj.com/current/research.html
Magnets for success: the US Department of Education has recently released "Successful Magnet Schools," the latest in its free series on "Innovations in Education." To learn more or obtain a free copy of the book, visit their website:
www.edpubs.org/webstore/Content/search.asp
With autistic-spectrum disorders on the rise, including among gifted families, interest in understanding the causes of this somewhat chimerical disease has also risen. While many researchers believe that there are genetic markers for the disease, one team in New Jersey may have isolated a gene that plays a concrete role in the disorder:
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/10/041030131949.htm
Homeschooling your child? You're not alone! This article looks at the increasing numbers, and diversity, of parents who've elected to teach their children themselves, and at the new resources available to them not only through the Internet but also a growing number of institutions such as museums that are responding to the homeschooling trend:
www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/education/story/324DBB26891133ED86256F5B00155C5B?OpenDocument&Headline=Home+schooling+is+attracting+mainstream+families&highlight=2%2Cschools
Evolution isn't a foregone conclusion in the minds of many Americans: in the wake of recent debates over the teaching of "intelligent design" and evolution in schools in several states, a recent Gallup poll shows that only about a third of Americans accept as believable the scientific evidence supporting evolution:
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/11/30/MNGVNA3PE11.DTL
Changing times, changing rules: many school districts, like the ones in the Pittsburgh region, may find it difficult to create policies to effectively regulate the use of technology like cell phones in schools: by the time a policy is made, the technology has often changed enough that the rules as stated no longer apply:
www.post-gazette.com/pg/04336/419517.stm
Parents of teens, take note: abstinence-only sex-education programs may be flawed on several levels. A recent survey shows that many such programs, in addition to their intended lack of information on birth control, also provide distorted information about other aspects of reproductive and sexual health, including perpetuating inaccurate and outdating gender stereotypes which could be especially damaging to gifted girls:
www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/12/02/abstinence.education.ap/index.html
All work and no play: in districts where recess has been cut to make more time for test preparation, many parents are fighting for their children's much-needed leisure time:
www.csmonitor.com/2004/1116/p03s01-ussc.html?s=hns
Regular check-ups—for reading: a new report stresses the importance of catching reading problems as early as kindergarten. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/index.htm
Writing gone wrong: despite the emphasis on accountability in math and reading due to NCLB, one of the traditional three R's had been left out in the cold, namely, writing. Schools face few consequences if their students fail to learn to express themselves in print:
www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-11-30-writing-wrongs_x.htm