College Diplomas are Meaningless. This is How to Fix Them. Design specs for upgrading the communications device formerly known as the sheepskin

The College Diploma: Time for an Upgrade? | New Republic

College Diplomas are Meaningless. This is How to Fix Them. Design specs for upgrading the communications device formerly known as the sheepskin

Students get financial aid at highest rate since WWII

Students get financial aid at highest rate since WWII

Most of the increase in student aid is coming from federal sources. Last year, 57% of undergraduates received some form of federal aid, including grants, loans and work-study funds, up from 47% four years earlier. Over the same period, the percentage of undergraduates receiving state aid or help from their college remained relatively flat, at 15% and 21%, respectively.

Shocking Report Explodes Five Myths About American Education

Shocking Report Explodes Five Myths About American Education

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Prolonged Attack on Public Education and Unions Leaves Teaching Profession Woeful

Prolonged Attack on Public Education and Unions Leaves Teaching Profession Woeful | Common Dreams

Prolonged Attack on Public Education and Unions Leaves Teaching Profession Woeful

CGS 2009 Enrollment & Degrees report released

CGS 2009 Enrollment & Degrees report released

The enrollment of new students at U.S. graduate schools increased 5.5% in 2009, according to the annual CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees.

Growth in both first-time and total enrollment was higher for men than for women, reversing long-term trends. Additionally, for the first time ever, women earned the majority of doctorates in 2008-09.

Women Earn More Doctorates Than Men - Newsweek

Women Earn More Doctorates Than Men - Newsweek

In 1970–71, for example, only 9 percent of business majors were women; by 1984–85, their proportion was 45 percent. Recent data indicate that women now represent about 58 percent of all undergraduates.

Between 1970 and 2000, the number of women in graduate and professional schools was also rapidly expanding. By the '90s, women were earning the majority of master's degrees, and over the last 10 years, became the majority in both medical and law schools.

Women Earn More Doctorates Than Men - Newsweek

Women Earn More Doctorates Than Men - Newsweek

Things have changed since then. This week a new enrollment study by the Council of Graduate Schools confirmed that American women are now earning more doctoral degrees than men. Based on the most recent graduation data, 28,962 women earned Ph.D.s during the 2008–09 academic year, compared with 28,469 men. The report notes that men continue to dominate in engineering, mathematics, and the physical and computer sciences.

Mind - Research Upends Traditional Thinking on Study Habits - NYTimes.com

Mind - Research Upends Traditional Thinking on Study Habits - NYTimes.com

But individual learning is another matter, and psychologists have discovered that some of the most hallowed advice on study habits is flat wrong. For instance, many study skills courses insist that students find a specific place, a study room or a quiet corner of the library, to take their work. The research finds just the opposite. In one classic 1978 experiment, psychologists found that college students who studied a list of 40 vocabulary words in two different rooms — one windowless and cluttered, the other modern, with a view on a courtyard — did far better on a test than students who studied the words twice, in the same room. Later studies have confirmed the finding, for a variety of topics.

Mind - Research Upends Traditional Thinking on Study Habits - NYTimes.com

Mind - Research Upends Traditional Thinking on Study Habits - NYTimes.com

Ditto for teaching styles, researchers say. Some excellent instructors caper in front of the blackboard like summer-theater Falstaffs; others are reserved to the point of shyness. “We have yet to identify the common threads between teachers who create a constructive learning atmosphere,” said Daniel T. Willingham, a psychologist at the University of Virginia and author of the book “Why Don’t Students Like School?”

Learning Styles — Psychological Science in the Public Interest

Learning Styles — Psychological Science in the Public Interest

Our review of the literature disclosed ample evidence that children and adults will, if asked, express preferences about how they prefer information to be presented to them. There is also plentiful evidence arguing that people differ in the degree to which they have some fairly specific aptitudes for different kinds of thinking and for processing different types of information. However, we found virtually no evidence for the interaction pattern mentioned above, which was judged to be a precondition for validating the educational applications of learning styles. Although the literature on learning styles is enormous, very few studies have even used an experimental methodology capable of testing the validity of learning styles applied to education. Moreover, of those that did use an appropriate method, several found results that flatly contradict the popular meshing hypothesis.

Learning Styles — Psychological Science in the Public Interest

Learning Styles — Psychological Science in the Public Interest

Our review of the literature disclosed ample evidence that children and adults will, if asked, express preferences about how they prefer information to be presented to them. There is also plentiful evidence arguing that people differ in the degree to which they have some fairly specific aptitudes for different kinds of thinking and for processing different types of information. However, we found virtually no evidence for the interaction pattern mentioned above, which was judged to be a precondition for validating the educational applications of learning styles. Although the literature on learning styles is enormous, very few studies have even used an experimental methodology capable of testing the validity of learning styles applied to education. Moreover, of those that did use an appropriate method, several found results that flatly contradict the popular meshing hypothesis.

Kindergarten dilemma: Hold back to get ahead? - Health - Kids and parenting - msnbc.com

Kindergarten dilemma: Hold back to get ahead? - Health - Kids and parenting - msnbc.com

As with research on the early benefits of redshirting, research on long-term benefits is mixed. One 2006 study published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics looked at age at kindergarten entrance in an international sample of children and found the youngest kids in each grade lagged behind in test scores through eighth grade, though the gap shrank over time. The researchers also found that the oldest kids in each grade were about 10-percent more likely to go to a four-year college than younger peers.

Another study, this one published in 2010 in the journal Economics of Education Review, found very different results. In this study of American students, age at kindergarten entry had no effect on wages, employment, homeownership, household income, or marital status as an adult. The researchers also found no evidence for an effect of age on college enrollment.

Taxonomy of Effective Teaching Practices

Uncommon Schools

Taxonomy of Effective Teaching Practices

But what makes a good teacher?

Building a Better Teacher - NYTimes.com

But what makes a good teacher? There have been many quests for the one essential trait, and they have all come up empty-handed. Among the factors that do not predict whether a teacher will succeed: a graduate-school degree, a high score on the SAT, an extroverted personality, politeness, confidence, warmth, enthusiasm and having passed the teacher-certification exam on the first try. When Bill Gates announced recently that his foundation was investing millions in a project to improve teaching quality in the United States, he added a rueful caveat. “Unfortunately, it seems the field doesn’t have a clear view of what characterizes good teaching,” Gates said. “I’m personally very curious.”

Building a Better Teacher

Building a Better Teacher - NYTimes.com

William Sanders, a statistician studying Tennessee teachers with a colleague, found that a student with a weak teacher for three straight years would score, on average, 50 percentile points behind a similar student with a strong teacher for those years. Teachers working in the same building, teaching the same grade, produced very different outcomes. And the gaps were huge. Eric Hanushek, a Stanford economist, found that while the top 5 percent of teachers were able to impart a year and a half’s worth of learning to students in one school year, as judged by standardized tests, the weakest 5 percent advanced their students only half a year of material each year.

The Associated Press: More school: Obama would curtail summer vacation

The Associated Press: More school: Obama would curtail summer vacation

That makes poor children almost totally dependent on their learning experience at school, said Karl Alexander, a sociology professor at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, home of the National Center for Summer Learning.

Disadvantaged kids, on the whole, make no progress in the summer, Alexander said. Some studies suggest they actually fall back. Wealthier kids have parents who read to them, have strong language skills and go to great lengths to give them learning opportunities such as computers, summer camp, vacations, music lessons, or playing on sports teams.

"If your parents are high school dropouts with low literacy levels and reading for pleasure is not hard-wired, it's hard to be a good role model for your children, even if you really want to be," Alexander said.

Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Results (CA Dept of Education)

Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Results (CA Dept of Education)

API Reports - Academic Performance Index (CA Dept of Education)

API Reports - Academic Performance Index (CA Dept of Education)

The Reading Literacy of U.S. Fourth-Grade Students in an International Context Results From the 2001 and 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS)

The Reading Literacy of U.S. Fourth-Grade Students in an International Context Results From the 2001 and 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS)

The results show that the average reading comprehension score of U.S. fourth-grade students in 2006 was higher than the average score of students in 22 of the 44 other countries and educational jurisdictions that participated in the PIRLS assessment. Ten countries and educational jurisdictions had average scores higher than the scores of U.S. students; average scores of students in the remaining 12 countries and educational jurisdictions were not significantly different from the scores of U.S. students.

Math Gains Reported for U.S. Students - NYTimes.com

Math Gains Reported for U.S. Students - NYTimes.com

American fourth- and eighth-grade students made solid achievement gains in math in recent years and in two states showed spectacular progress, an international survey of student achievement released on Tuesday found. Science performance was flat.