Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Pennsylvania Houses passes new rules for concussions

The Pennsylvania House on Tuesday passed the Safety In Youth Sports Act, which calls for Pennsylvania high school or junior high school athletes who suffer a concussion or brain injury to be cleared by a medical professional trained in concussion management before returning to the sport, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The bill passed by a 169-29 vote.

If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the legislation sponsored by Rep. Tim Briggs (D., Montgomery) also would require athletes and their parents or guardians to sign a concussion and head-injury information sheet before participating in a sport. It also would require coaches to complete a concussion certification course.

"The Safety In Youth Sports Act is the most comprehensive, advanced and reasonable bill in the nation when it comes to concussion management in youth sports," Micky Collins, assistant director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's sports-medicine concussion program, said in a statement

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Obama presses for longer school year

WASHINGTON – Barely into the new school year, President Barack Obama issued a tough-love message to students and teachers on Monday: Their year in the classroom should be longer, and poorly performing teachers should get out.
American students are falling behind their foreign counterparts, especially in math and science, and that’s got to change, Obama said. Seeking to revive a sense of urgency that education reform may have lost amid the recession’s focus on the economy, Obama declared that the future of the country is at stake.
“Whether jobs are created here, high-end jobs that support families and support the future of the American people, is going to depend on whether or not we can do something about these schools,” the president said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show.
U.S. schools through high school offer an average of 180 instruction days per year, according to the Education Commission of the States, compared to an average of 197 days for lower grades and 196 days for upper grades in countries with the best student achievement levels, including Japan, South Korea, Germany and New Zealand.
“That month makes a difference,” the president said. “It means that kids are losing a lot of what they learn during the school year during the summer. It’s especially severe for poorer kids who may not see as many books in the house during the summers, aren’t getting as many educational opportunities.”
Obama said teachers and their profession should be more highly honored – as in China and some other countries, he said – and he said he wanted to work with the teachers’ unions. But he also said that unions should not defend a status quo in which one-third of children are dropping out. He challenged them not to be resistant to change.
And the president endorsed the firing of teachers who, once given the chance and the help to improve, are still falling short.
“We have got to identify teachers who are doing well. Teachers who are not doing well, we have got to give them the support and the training to do well. And if some teachers aren’t doing a good job, they’ve got to go,” Obama said.
They’re goals the president has articulated in the past, but his ability to see them realized is limited. States set the minimum length of school years, and although there’s experimentation in some places, there’s not been wholesale change since Obama issued the same challenge for more classroom time at the start of the past school year.
One issue is money, and although the president said that lengthening school years would be “money well spent,” that doesn’t mean cash-strapped states and districts can afford it.
“It comes down to the old bugaboo, resources. It costs money to keep kids in school,” said Mayor Scott Smith of Mesa, Ariz. “Everyone believes we can achieve greater things if we have a longer school year. The question is how do you pay for it.”
One model is Massachusetts, where the state issues grants to districts that set out clear plans on how they would use the money to constructively lengthen instructional class time, said Kathy Christie, chief of staff at the Education Commission of the States. Obama’s Education Department already is using competitions among states for curriculum grant money through its “Race to the Top” initiative.
“The federal carrots of additional money would help more states do it or schools do it in states where they don’t have a state grant process,” Christie said.
But the federal budget is hard-up, too. And while many educators believe students would benefit from more quality learning time, the idea is not universally popular.
In Kansas, sporadic efforts by local districts to extend the school year at even a few schools have been met by parental resistance, said state education commissioner Diane DeBacker.
“It’s been tried,” she said, describing one instance of a Topeka-area elementary school that scrapped year-round schooling after just one year. “The community was just not ready for kids to be in school all summer long. Kids wanted to go swimming. Their families wanted to go on vacation.”
Teachers’ unions say they’re open to the discussion of longer classroom time, but they also say that pay needs to be part of the conversation. As for Obama’s call for ousting underperforming teachers, National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel said unions weren’t the main stumbling block there, as many education reformers assert.
“No one wants an incompetent teacher in the classroom,” Van Roekel said. “It’s in the hiring, and in those first three to five years no teacher has the right to due process.”
© 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Monday, September 27, 2010

Washington Post: Local universities build programs targeting federal government's growing role in business

The economic downturn may have begun in New York with the collapse of major financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, but for the past couple of years, eyes have been fixed on Washington for a solution.

It's a shift that reflects the city's growing influence over corporate America. From billion-dollar bailouts and financial regulation to federal spending and debate over tax cuts, the government's role in industry and importance as a consumer has expanded.

To capitalize on the trend, local business schools have hired faculty, commissioned research centers and designed entire degree programs that specialize in the intersection of Washington and business, the Washington Post reports. Academic leaders said this serves as a natural means of differentiation for the region's universities, which must compete for top students and tuition dollars in a market that's grown crowded with options.

Georgetown University, for example, has filled faculty positions with former Treasury department officials such as Steven Shafran and Phillip Swagel, who played roles in the government response to the financial crisis. They're among a handful of "professors of the practice," who use industry or government experience to teach modern business dynamics rather than academic theory.

"We have to innovate and determine, quite simply, what are those things we think we can do better than anybody else," said George Daly, dean at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business.

The pressure to differentiate from competitors is being felt broadly by business programs, said Dan LeClair, vice president and chief knowledge officer at the American Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, which accredits business programs around the globe.

Schools face competition from foreign universities, online degree programs and the greater number of schools that now offer business as an academic discipline, LeClair said. His organization alone accredits nine business schools within an hour of the District. If you venture another hour outside the city, the number jumps to 14.

"The basis for differentiation can vary. In this case, location matters," he said of Washington. "In other cases, it might be based on a partnership with another unit on campus. It's not just the trend of the day. My sense is this is a longer-term shift, not just a short-term response to the particular administration that has moved into Washington."

Georgetown's business school recently formed a graduate program coupled with the School of Foreign Service. The university snagged Edward Montgomery, Obama's point person on the automobile industry, earlier this summer to head its Public Policy Institute, and Daly said the school is also considering a partnership built around financial regulation policy and business.

"I really feel that that is sort of emblematic of what the future is like," he said. "In other words, how responsive can schools be to what is going on right now, because it's not simply a matter of getting it right or wrong, but it's a question of how quickly you do so."

Across town at American University, a research center on tax policy is slated to open early next year. Richard Durand, dean of the Kogod School of Business, said the center will also house the school's existing Master of Science in Taxation program.

"Every time you get a new president, there are vast changes in tax interpretation, so what we're really finding is the industry is looking for true experts in very specific areas," Durand said. That's now a driving force in program development, he added. "Let's start with the marketplace and figure out how we build these programs that go beyond just business."

George Mason University in Fairfax added an executive MBA program with courses tailored to the national defense sector. The program hopes to pull adult students from the cluster of government contractors that are also located in Northern Virginia. A cybersecurity management program, developed with the schools of public policy and information technology and engineering, could be approved by next summer.

Roy Hinton, a Chicago transplant and associate dean of executive programs, said he did not fully appreciate the business dynamics unique to Washington when he arrived at George Mason five years ago. They've grown more pronounced since then.

"It just seemed that the best practices in business should be easily translated into the federal sector, and in fact those best practices can be valuable there, but there's more," he said. "There is a whole additional set of processes and ways of doing business that are important."

And ultimately, graduates who land in the public sector -- particularly as hiring in many private industries has stagnated -- could find those skills set them apart from other students. Howard University, for example, has seen a renewed interest in a co-op program with federal agencies and government employers are among the most active recruiters.

"The government agencies historically have kind of sat back and hoped that folks would come to them," said Barron Harvey, the business school's dean. "They're starting to be very aggressive now because they know that they have opportunities and they're seeing a significant increase in the number of applicants."

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Friday, September 24, 2010

Study: Merit pay not linked to student performance

Offering teachers incentives of up to $15,000 to improve student test scores produced no discernible difference in academic performance, according to a study released Tuesday, a result likely to reshape the debate about merit pay programs sprouting in D.C. schools and many others nationwide, the Washington Post reported this week.

The study, which the authors and other experts described as the first scientifically rigorous review of merit pay in the United States, measured the effect of financial incentives on teachers in Nashville public schools and found that better pay alone was not enough to inspire gains.

Advocates of performance pay did not immediately challenge the methodology of the study. But they said its conclusions were narrow and failed to evaluate the full package of professional development and other measures that President Obama and philanthropists such as Bill Gates say are crucial to improving America's public schools.

"Pay reform is often thought to be a magic bullet," said Matthew Springer, a Vanderbilt University education professor who led the study. "That doesn't appear to be the case here. We need to develop more thoughtful and comprehensive ways of thinking about compensation. But at the same time, we're not even sure whether incentive pay is an effective strategy for improving the system itself."

With backing from federal and state governments and private foundations, a growing number of public schools in recent years have embraced the idea of paying teachers, at least in part, on how much they improve student achievement.

Obama has encouraged the movement, through $4.35 billion in federal Race to the Top grants and other federal programs, despite the skepticism of some teachers unions and lawmakers within his party. D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee became a hero in reform circles in part because of her insistence on a teachers' contract that allows performance bonuses. Some Prince George's County teachers also are earning bonuses.

Central to such changes is the idea that teachers should be rewarded when their students achieve outsize gains on standardized tests. That is a major shift from the tradition of determining pay by seniority and credentials such as master's or doctoral degrees.

The study was conducted by the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt. The center, which takes no advocacy position on the issue, was created at the university's highly regarded Peabody College of Education and Human Development in 2006 with a $10 million federal research grant.

In a three-year experiment funded by the federal grant and aided by the Rand Corp., researchers tracked what happened in Nashville schools when math teachers in grades 5 through 8 were offered bonuses of $5,000, $10,000 and $15,000 for hitting annual test-score targets. About 300 teachers volunteered. Researchers randomly assigned half of the participants to a control group ineligible for the bonuses and the other half to an experimental group that could receive bonuses if their students reached certain benchmarks.

Researchers designed the bonuses to be large enough to function as a legitimate incentive for teachers whose average salary, according to a union official, is between $40,000 and $50,000. There were no additional variables in the experiment: no professional development, mentoring or other elements meant to affect test scores. The bonuses, totaling nearly $1.3 million, were funded by businessman Orrin Ingram, according to news reports. A university spokeswoman said Tuesday evening that she could not confirm those reports, and Ingram could not be reached for comment.

On the whole, researchers found no significant difference between the test results from classes led by teachers eligible for bonuses and those led by teachers who were ineligible. Bonuses appeared to have some positive effect in the fifth grade, researchers said, but they discounted that finding in part because the difference faded out when students moved to the sixth grade.

Obama administration officials and a wide range of experts were quick to note that the study did not examine the effect of performance pay in combination with other measures intended to improve teaching.

"While this is a good study, it only looked at the narrow question of whether more pay motivates teachers to try harder," said Peter Cunningham, assistant U.S. education secretary for communications and outreach. "What we are trying to do is change the culture of teaching by giving all educators the feedback they need to get better while rewarding and incentivizing the best to teach in high-need schools, hard to staff subjects. This study doesn't address that objective."

Administration officials say a federal program that backs performance pay in dozens of school systems has grown to $400 million a year, from about $100 million when Obama took office in 2009. Federal officials say a number of such efforts have shown promising initial results; they also are planning a comprehensive review of the program.

Eric A. Hanushek, an expert on the economics of education at Stanford University's conservative-leaning Hoover Institution, said the Vanderbilt study did not address a key question.

"The biggest role of incentives has to do with selection of who enters and who stays in teaching - i.e., how incentives change the teaching corps through entrance and exits," Hanushek said. "I have always thought that the effort effects were small relative to the potential for getting different teachers. Their study has nothing to say about this more important issue."

Erick Huth, president of the Metropolitan Nashville Education Association, a teachers union, said the study raised significant questions about "the extent to which we spend a lot of time trying to develop complex schemes to measure teacher performance and then reward [teachers] based on that performance." He said the study indicates that such efforts "may be a waste of time."

In the D.C. school system, teachers deemed "highly effective" based on test scores and other measures began receiving bonuses this year of up to $10,000, as well as other potential compensation benefits. The performance pay plan, a cornerstone of Rhee's effort to overhaul the city schools, is backed by a new contract with the Washington Teachers' Union and funding from private foundations.

Prince George's is entering the third year of a performance pay program that offers some teachers up to $10,000 based on good evaluations, improved student test scores and other factors. Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said that there is some evidence that teacher retention has improved but that it is too early to say anything about student academic performance.

Staff writers Bill Turque and Michael Birnbaum contributed to this report.

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Monday, September 20, 2010

Trinity survey shows top concerns are bullying, drugs

A Trinity Area School District survey shows that teachers and parents are most concerned about bullying while students are most concerned about drugs.

Superintendent Paul Kasunich explained the 2009-10 survey results during Thursday night's school board meeting.

He said the purpose of the survey was to get a sense of what parents, teachers and students thought about the district.

Kasunich said the results will be posted online at www.trinitypride.org. However, he said, individual responses will not be posted.

He said that there was nothing different in this survey than what he has seen in other district's surveys.

But now the question becomes what to do with the information, Kasunich said.

He plans to institute the nationally-known Olweus Bullying Prevention Program. It's a comprehensive, school-wide program for use in all grades. It's been used in a dozen countries and thousands of American schools, according to the Olweus website.

Kasunich said he also plans to meet with administrators at all levels to determine what else the district can do about drugs and alcohol.

He said the survey will be given every year.

"By addressing these needs and not hiding them, that's how we will get better," Kasunich said.

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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Construction and conversion

Ringgold School Board decided Wednesday night to build a new high school and convert the existing high school into a middle school.
The board vote authorized the district administration and architect to go to the state Department of Education with its proposal. The decision was made by a 7-1 vote. Board member Charles Smith voted against it and board member William Stein was not present.
Board member Donald Bartoe, who is on the facilities, planning and transportation committee, said the focus has been on finding a site and building a middle school, but during discussions the board felt that a new high school might help more people move into the area.
The new high school will be at the existing high school property. The process to build a new high school will take roughly three years, Bartoe said. He said the board has been given cost estimates for the new high school in the high $30 million to low $40 million range, depending on how the board plans to build.
The board will need additional property at the site, but which land will depend on the specific plan approved by the board, he said.
Bartoe said the existing high school will not need a lot of renovation to be converted to a middle school. He said estimated costs are between $500,000 and $1 million for items such as an HVAC upgrade and new boilers. The middle school will hold fifth- through eighth-graders.
The administration offices will be moved into the new high school, which means the existing administration building could be sold, Bartoe said.
When this facilities plan is done, Ringgold will have four buildings, down from eight. The four buildings will be a new high school, a renovated middle school, a renovated elementary school and Gastonville elementary, which is in good condition, Bartoe said.
“Long term, it’s the way to be as cost-effective as possible for taxpayers,” Bartoe said, adding that he hopes it will be the solution for the next 50 years.
Board President Denise Kuhn said the board has been discussing the middle school for the past four to six years. Bartoe and Kuhn both said a new high school would be a selling point to get more people to move into the district.
“It was a decision that made sense,” she said. “Moneywise, it’s more from $38 (million) to $45 (million), but in the long-term, I think it will benefit our residents and our students far greater.”

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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Chartiers-Houston awards bids for renovation project, gym

The Chartiers-Houston School Board on Monday approved bids for the $18.83 million project to renovate the junior/senior high and build a gym.
Business Manager Don Bennett said the bids came in a little higher than anticipated, but that the district still has borrowed enough to cover the costs.
Bennett said the board discussed rebidding the project, but the district architect said the prices would just increase.
The bids were approved on a 7-1 vote. Board member Fred Rockage voted no and board member Richard Caumo was absent.
Bennett said he was not sure when the two-year project would start because the architect is expected to have an updated timeline for next Monday’s meeting. However, he said as much work inside the building as possible would be completed during the summer months to lessen the disruption during the school year.
The approved bids are:
n General construction, Walter Mucci Construction, Inc., $9,909,705;
n HVAC construction, Hranec Sheet Metal, $3,930,500;
n Plumbing construction, Vrabel Plumbing Co. LLC, $1,288,950;
n Electrical construction, A-1 Electric, $1,943,300;
n Food service construction, Commercial Appliance Contract, Inc., $495,251; and
n Asbestos abatement was previously awarded on July 19 to Canfield Development for $145,000.
The board also appointed PSI as the geotechnical inspection and testing services agency for the project for $26,420.
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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Love of language, learning



By Dawn Goodman Staff writer
dgoodman@observer-reporter.com
HOUSTON – Carla Hayes danced on her tip-toes as she urged the boys in her class to sing the alphabet in Spanish.
She sang “A, be, ce,” in a low voice as they sang along.
Then, she called out to the girls, singing in a high-pitched voice for them.
Finally, they all sang in Spanish together.
You could hear the passion, the joy in her voice as she helped her Central Christian Academy fourth-graders learn Spanish.
And you could see how much they enjoyed learning from her.
Perhaps it was because they sensed how much she loved teaching or perhaps it was the way she made learning fun, by singing songs, playing Jeopardy or having the Spanish Super Bowl.
She also said she tries to incorporate culture into her foreign language classes.
“I think that is so important for the kids,” Hayes said.
Just to walk in her classroom and watch her teach, you would never know that 51-year-old Hayes can’t see.
However, she was born blind.
At age 3, she was sent to Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind. She attended the boarding school until the end of her ninth-grade year. As a child, she wanted to grow up and buy the school so she could have all of the Braille books there.
Mainstreaming, which requires special education students to be educated in a general education classroom, kicked in during her 10th-grade year.
Hayes was then the only blind student at Peters Township High School. She described the change as culture shock because Peters Township was much less rigid. She didn’t have to line up for each class. And something else was missing, too.
“There were no Braille books there,” she said.
Still, she found a way to make it work and a high school Spanish teacher helped her love the language.
After graduation, she attended Westminster College as a music major.
She played the saxophone in the band at both schools before college. She even started her own band, BOM, or Band of McMurray. At any given time, she had up to 17 members, who played everything from flutes to drums.
“We practiced and played in churches,” she recalled.
She said students at the school for the blind did not believe she had a band.
“So I said, ‘I’m going to bring them down here,’” she said, laughing. “And I did.”
As much as she loved music, Hayes did not graduate with a music degree. She said the competition at the collegiate level made her start to hate it.
“Music ceased being fun and started being clinical,” she said. “It broke my heart.”
She dropped the music major to keep her love of music. After a short stint as a speech and broadcasting major, she changed to French and Spanish double majors. She also earned an education degree and went on to earn a degree in German from Washington & Jefferson College.
Hayes learned Latin on her own and is now studying Italian.
“The language bug had bitten me, and I couldn’t get away from it,” Hayes said.
She taught French in Peters Township and several languages at the now-defunct Washington Christian School. She taught German at Trinity until she was furloughed. She taught part-time at Fort Cherry.
Hayes also started her own business called Lengua-Learn Communication in 1989. Prior to that, she was tutoring and teaching classes at the library during her periods of unemployment between teaching stints.
She thought she could turn that into a successful business – and she has. She works for companies, training their employees in another language. She teaches homeschoolers and also teaches English as a second language.
She’s the president of the local chapter of the Washington County Council for the Blind and the vice president for Independent Visually Impaired Entrepreneurs.
The same year she started her business, the Central Christian principal approached her about teaching two days a week at the school.
“I’ve been doing both ever since,” she said of running her business and teaching at the school.
Dot Moore, the aide who works with Hayes in class, said she doesn’t just teach students, she talks to students who have issues, she prays with them, she encourages them. She tells them they can call her about homework or problems.
“She reaches out to them as people,” Moore said. “You don’t get that everywhere.”
Central Christian administrator Kate Giacalone said Hayes does not let her disability stand in the way of carrying out her teaching duties.
“It’s a blessing to watch her in action,” Giacalone said. “A true joy.”
Hayes has traveled but said she never wants to move away from the area. She still lives in the home in McMurray that her parents moved into when she was 6 months old. Her mother drives her to and from school.
“I have the connections here,” she said. “I live for the moment in Giant Eagle when one of my students comes up to me.”
Hayes said she loves teaching.
“There’s nothing like the kids to bring a smile to your face,” she said. “These are my kiddos. I’m going to do it as long as the good Lord allows.”

Join the Observer-Reporter’s conversation about education at our blog at http://www.observer-reporter.com/or/behinddesk/.

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Friday, September 10, 2010

Districts have range of requirements for participation

Trinity Area School District would have some of the highest academic requirements for participation in sports and clubs in the area if the school board approves proposed changes to its eligibility policy.
The PIAA has minimum academic requirements that all districts must use for athletic eligibility, but schools may have higher requirements. PIAA regulations say that athletes must pass at least four full-credit subjects, or the equivalent, as of each Friday during a grading period. If not, students are ineligible from the following Sunday through Saturday.
The school board is planning a vote Thursday on whether to increase the requirements to a 2.0 grade point average in core subject areas. The existing policy says students will be ineligible for extracurricular activities if they receive two or more Fs in any subject at the end of a marking period, which was based on the PIAA bylaws.
During a Trinity policy committee meeting this summer, committee Chairwoman Colleen Interval said if students know they need a 2.0 GPA, it may be the added pressure they need to keep their grades up.
A survey of area school districts shows a range of academic requirements for participation in sports and clubs.
Find out more in Saturday's Observer-Reporter

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Thursday, September 9, 2010

Wylandville Elementary wins National Blue Ribbon award

Wylandville Elementary School was named a National Blue Ribbon School because of its high performance.
The Canon-McMillan school was one of 304 schools across the country recognized Thursday by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. The award honors schools whose students achieve at very high levels or have made significant progress and helped close gaps in achievement especially among disadvantaged and minority students.
“Schools honored with the Blue Ribbon Schools award are committed to achievement and to ensuring that students learn and succeed,” Duncan said in a news release. “Their work reflects the conviction that every child has promise and must receive a quality education.”
Find out more in Friday's Observer-Reporter.

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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

NYT: research upends traditional study habits

Every September, millions of parents try a kind of psychological witchcraft, to transform their summer-glazed campers into fall students, their video-bugs into bookworms. Advice is cheap and all too familiar: Clear a quiet work space. Stick to a homework schedule. Set goals. Set boundaries. Do not bribe (except in emergencies).

And check out the classroom. Does Junior’s learning style match the new teacher’s approach? Or the school’s philosophy? Maybe the child isn’t “a good fit” for the school.

Such theories have developed in part because of sketchy education research that doesn’t offer clear guidance, reports the New York Times. Student traits and teaching styles surely interact; so do personalities and at-home rules. The trouble is, no one can predict how.

Yet there are effective approaches to learning, at least for those who are motivated. In recent years, cognitive scientists have shown that a few simple techniques can reliably improve what matters most: how much a student learns from studying.

The findings can help anyone, from a fourth grader doing long division to a retiree taking on a new language. But they directly contradict much of the common wisdom about good study habits, and they have not caught on.

For instance, instead of sticking to one study location, simply alternating the room where a person studies improves retention. So does studying distinct but related skills or concepts in one sitting, rather than focusing intensely on a single thing.

“We have known these principles for some time, and it’s intriguing that schools don’t pick them up, or that people don’t learn them by trial and error,” said Robert A. Bjork, a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Instead, we walk around with all sorts of unexamined beliefs about what works that are mistaken.”

Take the notion that children have specific learning styles, that some are “visual learners” and others are auditory; some are “left-brain” students, others “right-brain.” In a recent review of the relevant research, published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a team of psychologists found almost zero support for such ideas. “The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach within education and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing,” the researchers concluded.

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?”

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.

The brain makes subtle associations between what it is studying and the background sensations it has at the time, the authors say, regardless of whether those perceptions are conscious. It colors the terms of the Versailles Treaty with the wasted fluorescent glow of the dorm study room, say; or the elements of the Marshall Plan with the jade-curtain shade of the willow tree in the backyard. Forcing the brain to make multiple associations with the same material may, in effect, give that information more neural scaffolding.

“What we think is happening here is that, when the outside context is varied, the information is enriched, and this slows down forgetting,” said Dr. Bjork, the senior author of the two-room experiment.

Varying the type of material studied in a single sitting — alternating, for example, among vocabulary, reading and speaking in a new language — seems to leave a deeper impression on the brain than does concentrating on just one skill at a time. Musicians have known this for years, and their practice sessions often include a mix of scales, musical pieces and rhythmic work. Many athletes, too, routinely mix their workouts with strength, speed and skill drills.

The advantages of this approach to studying can be striking, in some topic areas. In a study recently posted online by the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, Doug Rohrer and Kelli Taylor of the University of South Florida taught a group of fourth graders four equations, each to calculate a different dimension of a prism. Half of the children learned by studying repeated examples of one equation, say, calculating the number of prism faces when given the number of sides at the base, then moving on to the next type of calculation, studying repeated examples of that. The other half studied mixed problem sets, which included examples all four types of calculations grouped together. Both groups solved sample problems along the way, as they studied.

A day later, the researchers gave all of the students a test on the material, presenting new problems of the same type. The children who had studied mixed sets did twice as well as the others, outscoring them 77 percent to 38 percent. The researchers have found the same in experiments involving adults and younger children.

“When students see a list of problems, all of the same kind, they know the strategy to use before they even read the problem,” said Dr. Rohrer. “That’s like riding a bike with training wheels.” With mixed practice, he added, “each problem is different from the last one, which means kids must learn how to choose the appropriate procedure — just like they had to do on the test.”

These findings extend well beyond math, even to aesthetic intuitive learning. In an experiment published last month in the journal Psychology and Aging, researchers found that college students and adults of retirement age were better able to distinguish the painting styles of 12 unfamiliar artists after viewing mixed collections (assortments, including works from all 12) than after viewing a dozen works from one artist, all together, then moving on to the next painter.

The finding undermines the common assumption that intensive immersion is the best way to really master a particular genre, or type of creative work, said Nate Kornell, a psychologist at Williams College and the lead author of the study. “What seems to be happening in this case is that the brain is picking up deeper patterns when seeing assortments of paintings; it’s picking up what’s similar and what’s different about them,” often subconsciously.

Cognitive scientists do not deny that honest-to-goodness cramming can lead to a better grade on a given exam. But hurriedly jam-packing a brain is akin to speed-packing a cheap suitcase, as most students quickly learn — it holds its new load for a while, then most everything falls out.

“With many students, it’s not like they can’t remember the material” when they move to a more advanced class, said Henry L. Roediger III, a psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis. “It’s like they’ve never seen it before.”

When the neural suitcase is packed carefully and gradually, it holds its contents for far, far longer. An hour of study tonight, an hour on the weekend, another session a week from now: such so-called spacing improves later recall, without requiring students to put in more overall study effort or pay more attention, dozens of studies have found.

No one knows for sure why. It may be that the brain, when it revisits material at a later time, has to relearn some of what it has absorbed before adding new stuff — and that that process is itself self-reinforcing.

“The idea is that forgetting is the friend of learning,” said Dr. Kornell. “When you forget something, it allows you to relearn, and do so effectively, the next time you see it.”

That’s one reason cognitive scientists see testing itself — or practice tests and quizzes — as a powerful tool of learning, rather than merely assessment. The process of retrieving an idea is not like pulling a book from a shelf; it seems to fundamentally alter the way the information is subsequently stored, making it far more accessible in the future.

Dr. Roediger uses the analogy of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in physics, which holds that the act of measuring a property of a particle (position, for example) reduces the accuracy with which you can know another property (momentum, for example): “Testing not only measures knowledge but changes it,” he says — and, happily, in the direction of more certainty, not less.

In one of his own experiments, Dr. Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke, also of Washington University, had college students study science passages from a reading comprehension test, in short study periods. When students studied the same material twice, in back-to-back sessions, they did very well on a test given immediately afterward, then began to forget the material.

But if they studied the passage just once and did a practice test in the second session, they did very well on one test two days later, and another given a week later.

“Testing has such bad connotation; people think of standardized testing or teaching to the test,” Dr. Roediger said. “Maybe we need to call it something else, but this is one of the most powerful learning tools we have.”

Of course, one reason the thought of testing tightens people’s stomachs is that tests are so often hard. Paradoxically, it is just this difficulty that makes them such effective study tools, research suggests. The harder it is to remember something, the harder it is to later forget. This effect, which researchers call “desirable difficulty,” is evident in daily life. The name of the actor who played Linc in “The Mod Squad”? Francie’s brother in “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”? The name of the co-discoverer, with Newton, of calculus?

The more mental sweat it takes to dig it out, the more securely it will be subsequently anchored.

None of which is to suggest that these techniques — alternating study environments, mixing content, spacing study sessions, self-testing or all the above — will turn a grade-A slacker into a grade-A student. Motivation matters. So do impressing friends, making the hockey team and finding the nerve to text the cute student in social studies.

“In lab experiments, you’re able to control for all factors except the one you’re studying,” said Dr. Willingham. “Not true in the classroom, in real life. All of these things are interacting at the same time.”

But at the very least, the cognitive techniques give parents and students, young and old, something many did not have before: a study plan based on evidence, not schoolyard folk wisdom, or empty theorizing.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 8, 2010

An article on Tuesday about the effectiveness of various study habits described incorrectly the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in physics. The principle holds that the act of measuring one property of a particle (position, for example) reduces the accuracy with which you can know another property (momentum, for example) — not that the act of measuring a property of the particle alters that property.

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Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Expert: School focusing on college prep

The nation’s highest-performing school districts are using college prep classes as the default curriculum for high schools, according to an education expert.
It’s a change that Trinity Area School District Superintendent Paul Kasunich wants to make. However, some Trinity parents question whether eliminating the general track is best for students.
“It’s in line with what leading districts across the country are doing,” said Daria Hall, director of K-12 policy with the Education Trust, a Washington D.C.-based organization that works to close the gaps in opportunity and achievement for students.
Studying the ending of the general track is part of Trinity’s 2010-11 operational plan, though Kasunich says that it may take more than one year.
He said that doesn’t mean that all students will go to college. But it does mean that all students can be challenged more, he said. He said the change will help students be better prepared for their work or education choices after high school.
Hall said last week that there is clear evidence that high schools are not doing a good enough job preparing graduates for college or careers. Employers and college professors say students aren’t ready, she said. Students say if they had known what it was going to be like, they would have worked harder in high school, she said.
She said the work world has changed. There was a time when students could graduate from high school and find a job to support a family, but those jobs don’t exist any more, Hall said.
She said employers say that their workers need more skills. For example, someone installing HVAC systems needs a firm grasp of communication and reading because the manuals are so complex, while workers who install phone lines need geometry, she said.
Whether students are planning for a career right out of school or a college education, they need the same skills in reading, math and science, she said.
She said making college prep the default curriculum means those are the courses students will be scheduled for unless parents, teachers and the student collectively choose otherwise.
Some Trinity parents questioned at a recent public meeting whether students who want to go to college will be held back or whether students who don’t want to go will be frustrated if they are in the same class.
Hall said it’s a tough job for teachers to have students at different levels. She said they will have to “differentiate instruction,” which means teaching the same skill in different ways based on the needs of the child.
“That doesn’t mean dumbing it down,” she said. “It means making sure that all kids get pushed ahead.”
Some kids will need a lot of support to make that progress. For example, if a student is struggling in algebra, that child may need algebra support class for extra time on task, Hall said.
She said it’s essential for students to get the supports they need if college prep is the default curriculum; otherwise, some students will be set up for frustration.
Kasunich said Trinity will take the next year to assess the viability of making college prep the default curriculum and determine the supports necessary for teachers and students.
Hall said San Jose Unified School District in California was a pioneer in college prep default curriculum. She said California had a set of courses students must take to be considered for state universities. A shockingly low number of students were taking those courses, she said.
The district made college prep the default curriculum and saw increases in college readiness, higher Advanced Placement scores and the graduation rate stayed the same, she said.
Karen Fuqua, public information officer for San Jose Unified School District, said last week that the district made the change in 2002 because parents and the community said the district’s expectations were not high enough. There was some concern about whether the dropout rate would increase because of more rigor, but that has not been the case, she said.
“With higher rigor, there hasn’t been a profound impact on the dropout rate,” she said.
Kasunich said he’s not surprised by the results of San Jose’s students. He expects the same at Trinity.
“If you challenge them, they will be more engaged,” he said.
San Jose teachers questioned whether this was the best path until they saw the results, Fuqua said.
“They became believers, too,” she said.

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Thursday, September 2, 2010

Fringe church plans protest at Trinity

Members of the Kansas-based church who believe the deaths of U.S. troops are God’s punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality have planned a protest at Trinity High School in October.
Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka is planning an Interstate 70 GodSmack tour from the church to Washington, D.C., with numerous stops along the way.
It details its itinerary for protests on its website and does not give any specific reason for choosing Trinity, except to say it’s the next stop on the I-70 tour. The protest will occur during the high school’s dismissal on Oct. 4. The church did not respond to an e-mail Wednesday asking why Trinity was chosen for the protest.
However, on its itinerary, the church accuses parents and teachers “across this doomed nation” of raising their children for the devil and said “so-called adults teach the students to be vain, selfish, sinful, violent, lusty, God-hating brats who turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness.”
“I won’t comment on ignorance,” Trinity Superintendent Paul Kasunich said Wednesday when asked about the reasons for the church’s planned protest.
However, he said, the church sent a letter to North Franklin Township police about its constitutionally protected plan to protest at the school.
Kasunich said he doesn’t know why the church picked Trinity. He suspects its because the group is traveling through the region and Trinity is a big district with name recognition along the path being taken.
He said he will meet with North Franklin police to discuss security during the protest. There will be additional security, he said.
The church members have the legal right to protest, but Kasunich said he will not allow protesters to jeopardize the health and safety of students and staff.
The church is known for its members going to the funerals of fallen service members and holding up signs that say “God Hates Fags.”

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