Abstract
Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, formerly called “No Child Left Behind”) is the primary umbrella K-12 federal education law. ESEA includes poverty-related programs, in-service teacher education provisions, and the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act. While the Senate approved a revision of the law in April, some concerns still exist regarding subgroup accountability, particularly for special education students (Samuels, 2015). Some of these controversial issues relate to the cap on the number of students who can take alternate assessments and public school choice. In terms of gifted and advanced students, the Senate proposal included these positive elements:
States would have to disaggregate data by subgroup at each proficiency level, which might draw attention to an “excellence gap” where certain groups are underrepresented among the highest levels of achievement.
Federal funds could be used to prepare teachers in the best ways of teaching gifted and high-ability students.
Title I schools, those with high percentages of low-income students, would need to report how they plan to use the money to identify and teach gifted students.
The Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program, which focuses on gifted students from low-income backgrounds, would continue to receive funds.
Top 20 Principles From Psychology for Teaching and Learning
The Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education that is supported by the American Psychological Association (APA) recently translated research in psychological science for classroom use (APA, Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education, 2015). The validation procedure included (a) clustering 45 identified principles according to key domains of classroom application, (b) examining national blueprint publications related to teaching, and (c) using a modified Delphi to reduce the number of principles. The principles were placed in five areas of psychological functioning: How do students think and learn (Principles 1-8)? What motivates students (Principles 9-12)? Why are social context, interpersonal relationships, and emotional well-being important to student learning (Principles 13-15)? How can the classroom best be managed (Principles 16-17)? and How can student progress be assessed (Principles 18-20)? Along with teacher applications, the 20 principles given below are supported by references and explained in the APA report:
Students’ beliefs or perceptions about intelligence and ability affect their cognitive functioning and learning.
What students already know affects their learning.
Students’ cognitive development and learning are not limited by general stages of development.
Learning is based on context, so generalizing learning to new contexts is not spontaneous but instead needs to be facilitated.
Acquiring long-term knowledge and skill is largely dependent on practice.
Clear, explanatory, and timely feedback to students is important for learning.
Students’ self-regulation assists learning, and self-regulatory skills can be taught.
Student creativity can be fostered.
Students tend to enjoy learning and perform better when they are more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated to achieve.
Students persist in the face of challenging tasks and process information more deeply when they adopt mastery goals rather than performance goals.
Teachers’ expectations about their students affect students’ opportunities to learn, their motivation, and their learning outcomes.
Setting goals that are short term (proximal), specific, and moderately challenging enhances motivation more than establishing goals that are long term (distal), general, and overly challenging.
Learning is situated within multiple social contexts.
Interpersonal relationships and communication are critical to both the teaching-learning process and the social-emotional development of students.
Emotional well-being influences educational performance, learning, and development.
Expectations for classroom conduct and social interaction are learned and can be taught using proven principles of behavior and effective classroom instruction.
Effective classroom management is based on (a) setting and communicating high expectations, (b) consistently nurturing positive relationships, and (c) providing a high level of student support.
Formative and summative assessments are both important and useful but require different approaches and interpretations.
Students’ skills, knowledge, and abilities are best measured with assessment processes grounded in psychological science with well-defined standards for quality and fairness.
Making sense of assessment data depends on clear, appropriate, and fair interpretation. (APA, Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education, p. 1)
Equal Talents, Unequal Opportunities
In the United States, students from low-income families are less likely to reach advanced levels of academic performance than their more affluent peers (Plucker, Giancola, Healey, Arndt, & Wang, 2015). Studies indicate that students from higher-income families are more likely to hear more vocabulary words, participate in extracurricular activities, and attend schools with more experienced teachers and smaller class sizes. A recent report examined state-level and student outcome indicators that are intended to foster academic talent, especially those from low-income families. State-level policy indicators included requirements for identification of advanced learners, requirements for services for identified advanced learners, state acceleration policy, early entrance to kindergarten policy, middle/high school concurrent enrollment with credit received for high school, high school honors diploma, gifted coursework required in teacher and administrator training, state accountability models that include growth measures for high-achieving students or other indicators, participation in international assessments, and annual state education agency monitoring and/or report for gifted education. Student outcome indicators included the percentages of low-income students as compared with all students’ scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Grades 4 and 8 in math and reading. The researchers compiled their database on each variable for each state plus the District of Columbia using online and documentary sources and contacting project staff. They found (a) in most states, attention to advanced learning is incomplete and haphazard; (b) economic conditions appear to drive outcomes in the absence of a comprehensive policy to support advanced learning; (c) no state can claim impressive performance for students from low-income backgrounds although some states have impressive outcomes for their high-performing students; (d) data describing advanced performance are not readily available; and (e) all states could do more to support advanced learning. They recommend that states (a) make their high-performing students highly visible, (b) remove barriers that prevent high-ability students from moving through coursework at a pace that matches their achievement level, (c) ensure that all high-ability students have access to advanced educational services, and (d) hold Local Education Agency (LEAs) accountable for the performance of high-ability students from all economic backgrounds.
International Baccalaureate (IB) Retention and College Graduation Rates
The IB is a non-profit educational foundation that develops and offers challenging programs to more than a million students worldwide. The IB Diploma Programme is one of four IB programs offering an academically challenging curriculum with final examinations preparing students, ages 16 to 19, for success at university and beyond. While previous studies have indicated that the IB curriculum prepares students for college in academic and nonacademic areas, Bergeron (2015) wanted to examine the pathways and outcomes of IB students who earned a diploma. Using the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) student tracker system and the IB student data system (IBIS), she examined the records of 15,680 U.S. students—their rates of postsecondary enrollment, retention, and graduation. She found that 92% of diploma students graduating from U.S. high schools in 2008 enrolled in postsecondary institutions. Of the students who enrolled immediately after high school graduation (78%), 94% enrolled at a 4-year institution. The rate of first-year retention for IB students progressing from the traditional freshman year to sophomore year was 98% with 2-year retention dropping slightly to 96%. Of those who enrolled, 79% graduated within 4 years and 83% graduated within 6 years. IB diploma earners attending private institutions had the highest rates (88% graduated within 4 years and 89% graduated within 6 years). Overall, the results indicated that IB diploma students had notably higher rates of postsecondary enrollment, retention, and graduation than the U.S. national rates.
Higher Education Equity
The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education (Pell Institute) conducts and disseminates research and policy analysis to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for low-income, first-generation, and college students with disabilities. Along with the Penn Alliance for Higher Education of the University of Pennsylvania and Democracy (PennAHEAD), the Pell Institute (2015) published a report examining the status of higher education equity in the United States, changes over time, and policies and practices that promote or hinder progress in creating greater equity in higher education attainment. Their major findings identified these inequities:
Enrollment in higher postsecondary education indicates a very high level of inequality with 81% of 18- to 24-year-olds from the top family income quartile enrolled in postsecondary education in 2012 compared with just 45% of those in the bottom quartile. Although the gap is 36%, it is better than 1970 (74% vs. 28%).
In the United States, 75% of students who did not receive Pell Grants attended a 4-year rather than a 2-year institution, compared with only 55% of Pell Grant recipients.
Average tuition fee at colleges and universities has doubled in constant dollars since 1970; the maximum Pell Grant covers 27% of costs in 2012.
With college costs rising and state and local funds declining, the average cost for students from the bottom income quartile represents 84% of the average family income. The average amount borrowed by students who graduate with a bachelor’s degree has nearly doubled over the past two decades from US$16.500 to US$29,400.
Students from families in the top family income quartile were 8 times more likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree by age 24 than those in the bottom family income quartile (77% vs. 9%).
When compared with other countries, the United States had fallen from 2nd in bachelor’s degree attainment in 2000 to 12th in 2012.
Some of their suggestions for improving these inequities included universal free tuition for community college and the first 2 years of 4-year college, focusing on key transition points for students, partnering with local colleges and universities to provide local scholarships and support programs, and increasing the integration of work and learning (Cahalan, 2015).
On the Web
Music to My Ears
http://www.classicsforkids.com/
This kid-friendly interactive website is a great resource where students can learn about great composers and even compose their own music. Educational Classics for Kids programs can be downloaded as a podcast. Composers can be searched by musical period, timeline, or country. There is a musical dictionary that offers pictures, audible descriptions, and sounds of different instruments. Games such as the Composer Time Machine, Rockin’ Rhythm Master, and Note Name teach youngsters music in a fun way they will love. Also, the site offers teaching resources based on National Standards for the Arts and State Academic Content Standards for Music. This is a great way for the young Mozart to be immersed in classical music!
Forever Remembered: Challenger and Columbia Memorial
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/forever-remembered-shares-enduring-lessons-of-challenger-columbia
To commemorate the lives of the 14 courageous astronauts on America’s first two shuttles, “Forever Remembered” is a memorial on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The Challenger was destroyed a minute after liftoff in 1986. The Columbia was destroyed upon reentering Earth’s atmosphere in 2003. This memorial contains the largest collection of the personal items of both flight crews and also includes recovered hardware from both Challenger and Columbia, never before on display for viewing by the public.
The College Board
High school and even junior high students and their parents should be familiar with this website. There is information on Advanced Placement, the college search, college planning, financial aid, CLEP tests, and the PSAT. There is information on the registration process, how to study, and how to qualify for scholarships with the SAT. There are practice tests, tips for finding the right college, and a checklist for the test day. A study plan for the SAT and information on how to improve your SAT score are all on this website.
Homework Helper
http://www.refdesk.com/homework.html
Students, are you finding yourself needing help with homework? This is a handy site for students in all grades. How does the government work? What are the seven steps of the research process? When did each of our 50 states achieve statehood? Find it all here. There are links to other sites if you need help in reading, writing, math, English, social studies, or science. There is also a list of 100 reference sites to find what you need to get your homework finished!
Notable
A new Educator’s Practice Guide from the What Works Clearinghouse (Star et al., 2015) identifies teaching strategies for improving algebra knowledge. First, algebra teachers should encourage students to make connections between algebraic concepts and the procedures present in problems, helping them recognize how the placement of quantities relative to the operations in problems affects the solution strategy. They should discuss both solved problems that reflect the lesson’s aim and problems that illustrate common errors. Second, teachers should promote process-oriented thinking that focuses on how the student arrives at an answer. Third, teachers should encourage precise communication using mathematical language to help students develop their understanding of mathematics.
In a recent article in the Journal of Educational Psychology, Fernández-Alonso, Suárez-Alvarez, and Muñiz (2015) reported the effects of homework on 7,725 adolescents from Spain. After grades, they found the most important predictor of achievement was autonomy and frequency in doing homework and not the effort or time spent doing homework. The optimum duration of homework was found to be about 1 hr per day. To access the entire article, visit http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/edu-0000032.pdf
Carnevale and Rose (2015) report that the U.S. economy has undergone a transition from an industrial economy centered around high school–educated workers to a postindustrial service economy where workers need to have at least some postsecondary education. From 1967 to 2007, low-skill jobs fell from 39% to 29% of the workforce. College-educated workers in America now make 80% more on average than workers without a college degree. The wage advantage is twice as much as it was 50 years ago.
The
For the past 10 years,