Tara Parker-Pope reports on a study which examines the benefits of allowing students to choose their own books for summer reading. Researcher Anne McGill-Franzen noted ”If those books get them into reading, that has great repercussions for making them smarter….Teachers and middle-class parents undervalue kids’ preferences, but I think we need to give up being so uptight about children’s choices in books.”
Archive for the ‘Academics’ Category
Any book is a summer must-read for kids
Monday, August 9th, 2010Six ways to raise a smart kid
Monday, July 12th, 2010Lynn O’Shaughnessy, contributor to moneywatch.com, reports on a new study that finds “a strong correlation between the number of books a family owns and a child’s academic track record.” O’Shaughnessy also reports on a study by Freakonomists Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, who determined six factors for a child’s success in school.
The six positive factors for a child’s success in school are:
- The child has educated parents.
- The parents have high socioeconomic status.
- The parents are involved in the PTA.
- The mother was at least 30 at the time of her first child’s birth.
- The parents speak English at home.
- The child has many books at home.
Unable to write clear, cogent sentences
Thursday, June 10th, 2010Kara Miller, professor of English at Babson College and contributor to the Boston Globe, writes on the inability of college students to write clear, cogent sentences and its costly implication for the digital age.
Using social media to pick a college
Monday, January 18th, 2010Josh Catona, writer for Mashable, The Social Media Guide, gives 10 ways to use social media to pick a college. Catona recommends visiting sites such as College Prowler, Unigo, Communiversity and Rate My Professor where you can hear from current students about issues that matter to incoming freshman and go beyond the basic statistics.
Newsweek’s high school ranking
Monday, August 3rd, 2009In a web exclusive, Newsweek has published a controversial high school ranking of the top 1500 high schools in the US. ”Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2008 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 6 percent of public schools measured this way.”
Should high schools bar students from AP classes?
Thursday, July 30th, 2009Jay Matthews, creator of the Newsweek high school ranking, writes an editorial for the Washington Post on the policies of some high schools that bar the average student from college-level courses and tests. Matthews makes the argument that these courses and tests prepare the average student for the rigor of college with great results but the debate continues.
Interest in AP courses grows
Monday, April 6th, 2009The Journal Times’ David Steinkraus reports on the increasing interest in AP courses and the value of a more rigorous course load.
“A study recently produced by the College Board shows that students who take AP courses do better in college, and those who take both the courses and the exam do even better. The College Board also produces the AP tests — so there is a question about its own study — but that study fits into a pattern of other work and the experiences of local school and college staff.”
College students expect A’s and B’s
Monday, March 30th, 2009This New York Times article reports that students have come to expect good grades at the college level and their professors are responding to this sense of entitlement with growing frustration.
The 4 R’s?
Thursday, February 26th, 2009The New York Times reports on research which ”suggests that play and down time may be as important to a child’s academic experience as reading, science and math, and that regular recess, fitness or nature time can influence behavior, concentration and even grades.”
8th grade algebra requirement blocked in California
Monday, January 5th, 2009Joanne Jacobs reports that “California’s school board decided all eighth graders should be tested in algebra by 2012 in accordance with state standards. But a Superior Court judge has blocked mandatory algebra. The state superintendent, local school boards, administrators and the teachers’ union say California doesn’t have enough qualified math teachers to get everyone ready for algebra in eighth grade.”