The Schools for Children Notebook

Expanding Learning Time

Ted Wilson — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:51:00 -0400

Under enormous pressure to prepare students for a successful future—and fearful that standard school hours don’t offer enough time to do so—educators, policymakers, and community activists are adding more learning time to children’s lives.

“This issue is hot right now,” said Bela P. Shah, a senior program associate for after-school initiatives at the National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education, and Families. “There’s a real understanding that we have to do more, and that everyone has to take responsibility for it.” Read more:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/09/24/05narmain_ep.h28.html?tmp=1582788128

Exercise Seen as Priming Pump for Students’ Academic Strides

Ted Wilson — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 09:50:00 -0500

This article appeared in Education Week and describes work being done linking physical activity to improved brain functioning in students.

Snooze or Lose

Ted Wilson — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:21:00 -0400

Despite how persuasive all this science is, somehow it still seems like a huge leap of faith to consider giving back an hour of our children’s lives to slumber. This article explores the implications of overextending children to the point of their losing sleep.

http://nymag.com/news/features/38951/index4.html

10 Boys Club ... bridging the achievment gap

Ted Wilson — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 08:54:00 -0400

Several boys were chosen at the beginning of the last school year as they entered the fourth grade to participate ...

Funding special education

Ted Wilson — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 09:06:00 -0400

The drumbeat about what is and what is not appropriate when it comes to providing educational services to children with disabilities ... or what is and what is not appropriate when talking about the funding of those services ... continues to pound on our sensibilities. The rancor and distrust that pervades the system threatens to further divide those in 'general education' and 'special education'. The latest salvos are reflected in the accompanying links:

The first article is another in a series in the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB119119804628944307-lMyQjAxMDE3OTAxMTEwOTE4Wj.html.

The second is taken from a Boston-area TV report on problems and solutions relating to rising special education costs: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/investigative/14223930/detail.html

A Young Mind in a Growing Brain

Ted Wilson — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:19:00 -0400

In his widely quoted 1997 article “Education and Neuroscience: A Bridge Too Far?” John Bruer argued that, despite substantial progress in brain research, trying to use its discoveries to shape education policy is both uninformative and misleading. Two new books by prominent scientists, The Learning Brain and A Young Mind in a Growing Brain, take on the formidable challenge of beginning to build this bridge by linking advances in our understanding of the biology of brain maturation to phenomena in other domains, namely education and psychological development. Read more at http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=632

Mainstreaming Disabled students

Ted Wilson — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:27:00 -0400

The rush to mainstream disabled students into the general student body is alienating teachers and driving some of the best from the profession. It has become a little-noticed but key factor behind teacher turnover, which experts say largely accounts for a shortage of qualified teachers in the U.S.

http://online.wsj.com/page/2_1287.html

Restraint in Schools

Ted Wilson — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:18:00 -0400

As public schools come under pressure to teach more children with behavioral disabilities, the use of restraint and seclusion has become a contentious issue. Faced with laws that make it more difficult to expel or suspend misbehaving special-education students, educators say they need to use harsh tactics sometimes to protect other children and teachers.

The danger comes when schools turn methods designed for extraordinary circumstances into routine disciplinary tools. The result can be a vicious cycle of punishment and rebellion, hurting the very children who were supposed to benefit from attending a mainstream school.

The link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118375070827459396-search.html?KEYWORDS=restraint&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month

Study of Kids Brains: What is 'Normal"?

Ted Wilson — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 14:30:00 -0400

This summer, brain experts funded by the National Institutes of Health are finishing the largest systematic clinical study ever of the neurobiology of youth. In a $30 million project, researchers in six cities have been combining brain scans, psychological profiles, medical exams and intelligence tests gathered from hundreds of healthy children to answer a fundamental question about brain development that nags parents and pediatric practitioners alike: What is normal?

Follow this link to read more: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/article_print/SB118367417694058522-lMyQjAxMDE3ODAzOTYwNzk0Wj.html

Is Math Innate—and Are We Teaching it the Wrong Way?

MFB — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 10:00:00 -0400

Children are able to solve approximate addition or subtraction problems involving large numbers even before they have been taught arithmetic, ...

Schools, Test Scores—and Real Estate

MFB — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 22:00:00 -0400

An article in the New York Times looks at the connection between schools, test scores, and housing prices.

Lots of News On Children and Sleep

MFB — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 09:00:00 -0400

A major conference of Sleep (SLEEP 2007, the 21st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies) has produced a number of papers on the sleep issue and children. Some highlights:

• A study of of the University of Wichita looks at poor sleep hygiene and behavior problems--snoring is strongly associated with cognitive/inattention problems, hyperactivity, perfectionism, ADHD index, and restless and impulsivity. Read more here.

• A study from the University of Louisville looked at how sleep loss affects attention in children. By assessing brain waves associated with attention, researchers created a model that could accurately predict the degree of attention loss associated with sleep deprivation. More here.

• Sleep restriction may affect children's speech and language. Another paper from Louisville researchers show that the even mild sleep loss produces marked deficits in children's development and functioning. More here.

"Mindfulness," Meditation, and Tibetan Chimes in the Classroom

MFB — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 09:34:00 -0400

The New York Times offers a look at the growing use of meditation for the purposes of self-regulation and concentration in the classrom....

Mindfulness, while common in hospitals, corporations, professional sports and even prisons, is relatively new in the education of squirming children. But a small but growing number of schools in places like Oakland and Lancaster, Pa., are slowly embracing the concept — as they did yoga five years ago — and institutions, like the psychology department at Stanford University and the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, are trying to measure the effects.

During a five-week pilot program at Piedmont Avenue Elementary, Miss Megan, the “mindful” coach, visited every classroom twice a week, leading 15 minute sessions on how to have “gentle breaths and still bodies.” The sound of the Tibetan bowl reverberated at the start and finish of each lesson.

The techniques, among them focused breathing and concentrating on a single object, are loosely adapted from the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, the molecular biologist who pioneered the secular use of mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts in 1979 to help medical patients cope with chronic pain, anxiety and depression. Susan Kaiser Greenland, the founder of the InnerKids Foundation, which trains schoolchildren and teachers in the Los Angeles area, calls mindfulness “the new ABC’s — learning and leading a balanced life.”

At Stanford, the psychology department is assessing the feasibility of teaching mindfulness to families. “Parents and teachers tell kids 100 times a day to pay attention,” said Philippe R. Goldin, a researcher. “But we never teach them how.”

Read the article here..

Sibling Relationships and Depression

MFB — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:00:00 -0400

New research from the Brigham and Women's Hospital suggests that quality of sibling relationships has more to do with depression ...

Transporting special education students

Ted Wilson — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 09:34:00 -0400

A Massachusetts Pilot study will attempt to address escalating costs of transporting special education students to 'out-of-district' placements. The study will utilize mapping software in an attempt to consolidate routes. The story is reported on local television:

http://wbztv.com/seenon/local_story_162145100.html

Social Class and Academic Performance

MFB — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 08:32:00 -0400

The British newspaper, The Guardian, has an article describing the results of a recent study on class and school ...

Shaping the Reading Field; the impact of early pioneers

Ted Wilson — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 14:25:00 -0400

This new book, edited by Israel and Monaghan, provides a rich compendium of information about the evolution of research into the field of reading. Noteworthy among the sections is the chapter on Walter Fenno Dearborn, namesake of Dearborn Academy in Arlington, MA. The establishment of this school in 1949 was one of Walter Dearborn's proudest accomplishments because "it provided a place for Dearborn and the teachers (at Lesley College) to apply the research he did at Harvard in an authentic setting." http://www.reading.org/publications/bbv/books/bk598/ . The work being done today at this school continues to exemplify the importance of Dearborn's early focus on the complexities involved with reading.

When Should A Kid Start Kindergarten?

MFB — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:25:00 -0400

An article in the New York Times Magazine offers a detailed look at how trends in kindergarten cut-off ages are affecting the quality of the kindergarten education and the experiences of young children in kindregarten classrooms. The author reports on recent research that teases out the effects of "relative age" and shows that children who are among the youngest relative to their peers may struggle academically and socially. The author also questions the increasing academic focus of kindergartens throughout the nation and explores these effects on young children. A must-read for parents of young kids!

Local Organizations Join to Strengthen Massachusetts Community Colleges

sally — Wed, 30 May 2007 09:59:00 -0400

News from the Boston Foundation
For Immediate Release: Local organizations join to strengthen community colleges in Massachusetts ‘

Achieving the Dream,’ a national initiative comes, to Massachusetts with support from three foundations.

Four community colleges from Massachusetts will be selected later this spring to receive funding as part of Achieving the Dream, a multiyear national initiative created to strengthen the ability of community colleges to help students of color and low-income students earn degrees and certificates by using data to close achievement gaps. The four colleges will be selected on the basis of a Request for Proposal process. Selections are expected to be complete by early June.A collaborative of three foundations and TERI (The Education Resources Institute) has pooled resources to contribute a total of $3.5 million over five years to support Achieving the Dream in Massachusetts.

The initiative will be supported by the Boston Foundation, the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation, the Lloyd G. Balfour Foundation in addition to TERI. Initial grants of $50,000 to four community colleges in the state will be followed by additional funding for implementation grants of up to $400,000 apiece over four years. The national effort was developed by the Lumina Foundation and eight national funding partners.

The selected community colleges will use the awards to strengthen their institutional research capacity to address student achievement gaps, test new techniques for helping students perform well at school, and improve their outreach to communities, businesses and the public. The colleges will also develop a public policy strategy to address important systemic changes needed to benefit all Massachusetts community colleges.

“Community colleges stand at the intersection of education and workforce development and play a critical role in both of these sectors,” said Paul S. Grogan, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation. “The use of data and shared best practices is a powerful strategy for progress. This initiative is an important opportunity to shape these institutions to meet the very real challenges of the 21st century knowledge economy.”

Grogan cited the recent Understanding Boston report, Massachusetts Community Colleges: The Potential for Improving College Attainment, published earlier this year by the Boston Foundation Senior Fellow Mary Lassen, which described current challenges and opportunities for the region’s community colleges, and the role they can play in shaping the workforce critical to the region’s continued ability to thrive.

“An associate degree can be the gateway to the middle class,” said Kerry Sullivan, Senior Vice President, Bank of America, speaking on behalf of the Balfour Foundation. “The earning power of an individual with an associate degree is considerably higher than that of a high school graduate. The body of knowledge and lessons learned that Achieving the Dream brings to Massachusetts will provide enormous help and insight as our community colleges re-focus on student achievement, thus enabling more students to reap the economic benefits of a post-secondary education.”

The significance of community colleges for young people seeking to move into the national economy was underscored by the head of the Lumina Foundation.

“I cannot overstate the importance of helping community college students succeed,” said Martha D. Lamkin, President and CEO of Lumina Foundation for Education. “Community colleges enroll almost half the nation’s undergraduates and the students they serve often have few other options for higher education. With today’s jobs requiring more and more postsecondary education, the role of these institutions is more vital than ever.”

The head of TERI spoke to the power of working together with the other Massachusetts and national partners on the project.

“Collaboration is critical for improving student success,” said Willis J. Hulings III, CEO of TERI. “We’re pleased to partner with these renowned foundations to bring Achieving the Dream to Massachusetts. This is in line with TERI's nearly 25 years of work as a nonprofit organization to promote educational opportunities for individuals of all backgrounds.”

In the first year of the program, the four colleges selected will receive grants and the services of a data coach and a data facilitator, to begin to collect and analyze student data in an open and rigorous way, to establish a basis for improvements in the practice and the culture of the institution. The data collected will then form the basis for public policy advocacy for systemic change at the state level to benefit all community colleges in Massachusetts. Professional assistance will be provided by a number of national providers.

All of the colleges within the national Achieving the Dream network—a total of 82 institutions in 15 states—will be connected to encourage the sharing of best practices and effective public policy strategies. Criteria for selection include demographic and geographic information as well as preparation by the candidate schools for the Achieving the Dream project.

Of the four schools to be selected in Massachusetts, one must be in Boston, and one must be in the western part of the state. In each case, one-third of the selected schools student body will be men and women of color, or one-third must be economically disadvantaged. Other criteria include:

The identification of a core team to lead campus work, including the college president, someone currently responsible for institutional research, the chief student services officer, and a faculty member with responsibility in key areas, such as mathematics or English;
A strategy for involving others in the college and in the community;
A description of the commitment of the president or chancellor, core team members and the Board of Directors to the goals of Achieving the Dream, including a commitment to creating a “culture of evidence,” that includes the use of student performance and attainment data;
A description of the college’s willingness to take part in the national database, the evaluation of the program, and the Achieving the Dream learning community;
A description of three ongoing strategies that reflect the institution’s commitment to increasing student attainment and some evidence of the impact of these strategies on student outcomes;
An assessment of the way participation in Achieving the Dream will help the college improve student outcomes;
A description of how the college will integrate the Achieving the Dream with other institutional planning processes.

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The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation, with assets of over $830 million. In 2006, the Foundation and its donors made more than $70 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of $71 million. The Foundation is made up of some 850 separate charitable funds established by donors either for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes. The Boston Foundation also serves as a major civic leader, provider of information, convener, and sponsor of special initiatives designed to address the community’s and region’s most pressing challenges. For more information about the Boston Foundation, visit www.tbf.org or call 617-338-1700.

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TERI (The Education Resources Institute), a nonprofit organization in Boston, Massachusetts was founded in 1985 and promotes educational opportunities for all through its college access and loan guarantee activities. TERI is a national leader in promoting strategies for improving college access. The company manages college access programs that target low-income individuals and those who are the first generation in their families to attend college. TERI is also the managing partner of the Pathways to College Network, an alliance of over 30 nonprofit organizations and funders committed to advancing college access and success for underserved students. For more information: www.tericollegeaccess.org or www.teri.org.

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The Lloyd G. Balfour Foundation was established in 1973. The Foundation's three primary focus areas reflect Mr. Balfour's strong affinity for the employees of the Balfour Company, his commitment to the City of Attleboro, Massachusetts, and his lifelong interest in education. Bank of America, Trustee of the L. G. Balfour Foundation, is responsible for the management of the Foundation’s assets and the administration of its grantmaking program.

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The Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation is a private family foundation devoted to strengthening the capacity of individuals, families and organizations in Hampden County by strengthening the quality of education for children and youth; ensuring the well-being of at-risk children, youth, and families; and enhancing the management, leadership and governance capabilities of nonprofit organizations in order to assist them in achieving their diverse missions. Established in 1970, the foundation makes grants in a wide variety of fields, and is particularly dedicated to the educational success of children and youth.

The Boston Foundation info@tbf.org
75 Arlington Street
10th Floor
Boston, MA 02116

Bullying Behavior Among Childen with Special Needs

MFB — Fri, 25 May 2007 17:00:00 -0400

Although it is never appropriate to stereotype particular behavioral traits, researchers have discovered that children with both autism and ADD ...

'Teaching Gap' Exists Among US And Asian Math Teachers, Study Says

MFB — Fri, 25 May 2007 12:29:00 -0400

Compared to math teachers in the high-achieving nations of Hong Kong and Japan, teachers in the United States offer less ...

Parents' Mediation Skills Help Kids Resolve Conflict

MFB — Thu, 24 May 2007 17:00:00 -0400

Parents' mediation skills help children learn to better understand and resolve conflicts, according to a new study.

The study examined ...

Learning To Make Good Decisions

MFB — Thu, 24 May 2007 12:00:00 -0400

Carnegie Mellon researchers show that teaching good-decision making skills has a positive impact on the quality of a person's life...

New research suggests a method to improve an individual’s quality of life is to teach them better decision-making skills.

People who do well on a series of decision-making tasks involving hypothetical situations, tend to have more positive decision outcomes in their lives, say decision scientists at Carnegie Mellon University and the RAND Corp.

The results suggest that it may be possible to improve the quality of people’s lives by teaching them better decision-making skills. The study is being published in the May issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and will be presented May 25 at the Association for Psychological Science’s annual convention in Washington, D.C.

The paper marks an important step forward for decision science, because it shows that tasks developed to study decision-making errors in psychological labs can be used to gauge decision-making ability in real life. The study also shows that, although decision-making competence is correlated with verbal and nonverbal intelligence, it is still a separate skill.

“Intelligence doesn’t explain everything. Our results suggest that people with good decision-making skills obtain better real-life outcomes, even after controlling for cognitive ability, socio-economic status and other factors,” said Wändi Bruine de Bruin, a researcher in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon and the lead author of the study.

Kids' Brain Grow Up Faster Than Previously Thought

MFB — Thu, 24 May 2007 09:00:00 -0400

A major new report from NIH and the Boston Children's Hospital suggests that

Contrary to previous belief, children appear to approach adult levels of performance on many basic cognitive and motor skills by age 11 or 12. This is according to a new study coordinated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Some of the behavioral data validate trends seen in other studies; for example, they show that family income has an impact on a child’s IQ and social behaviors. But the lack of evidence for dramatic cognitive growth during adolescence was a surprise.

Read more about the many discoveries made in the course of this study here..

High Quality Early Child Care May Reduce The Risk for Depression

MFB — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:34:00 -0400

Children of low income families benefit from quality educational child care as the involvement appears to protect children against the negative effects of their home environments.

The early intervention, for young children from infancy to age 5, appears to make a difference in decreasing symptoms of depression in early adulthood.

The report, from the FPG Child Development Institute (FPG) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, uses data from the Abecedarian Project, a longitudinal study begun in 1972 in which 111 high-risk children were randomly assigned to early educational child care from infancy to age 5 or to a control group that received various other forms of child care.

The study is published in the May/June 2007 issue of the journal Child Development.

Saliva Holds Clue to Chronic Bullying

MFB — Tue, 15 May 2007 22:57:00 -0400

Hormones in children's saliva may be a biological indicator of the trauma kids undergo when they are chronically bullied by ...

Middle School Manages the Mayhem of the Tween Years

MFB — Sun, 13 May 2007 14:00:00 -0400

The New York Times has complete an excellent series on the challenges of middle school education. Read the last article ...

Why Classrooms Might Need High Ceilings

MFB — Sat, 12 May 2007 14:25:00 -0400

A University of Minnesota study reveals that ceiling height affects how people think.

Joan Meyers-Levy, a professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, suggests that the way people think and act is affected by ceiling height.

Meyers-Levy and co-author Rui (Juliet) Zhu, assistant professor of marketing at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia and a Carlson doctoral alum, found that, depending on the situation, ceiling height will benefit or impair consumer responses. The paper "The Influence of Ceiling Height: The Effect of Priming on the Type of Processing People Use," will be published in the August issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.

"When a person is in a space with a 10-foot ceiling, they will tend to think more freely, more abstractly," said Meyers-Levy. "They might process more abstract connections between objects in a room, whereas a person in a room with an 8-foot ceiling will be more likely to focus on specifics."

While the reasearch was done to provide information for the marketing industry, encouraging abstract thinking is also critical in the learning environment.

Parents Fight Back Plans to Change Milton Academy

MFB — Sat, 12 May 2007 14:05:00 -0400

Milton Academy is in the midst of a strategic re-alignment that has stirred emotion and and intense protest on the part of parents. The controversy is discussed in the Boston Globe here.

Parents have hired a consultant, raised millions, and started a website in protest of what appears to be a possible elimination of Milton's K-8 program.

Could the Season of Conception Affect a Child's Academic Future?

MFB — Wed, 09 May 2007 10:00:00 -0400

A study out of Indiana University School of Medicine suggests that babies conceived in the summer do not, when they get older, perform as well on standardized tests as peers conceived in other seasons. The researcher, Paul Winchester, MD, believes this is due to neonatal pesticide exposure.

Read more here.