New Teachers' Academic Ability on the Rise, N.Y. Study Shows
By Sarah D. Sparks
The academic strength of new teachers has been getting better, not worse, for the last decade, according to a new longitudinal study of educators in New York state.
Moreover, academically strong teachers are becoming more equitably distributed across all public schools—both high- and low-poverty—that serve the Empire State's 2.7 million public K-12 students.
Parenting Tips for Literacy Development: The Positive Effects of a Text-Messaging Program for Preschool Parents
New Stanford program helps district leaders drive change
"District leaders need to steer large and complex organizations toward the key social goal of providing excellent educational opportunities for students. Many education leaders have had little opportunity to learn the strategic leadership skills that can help them with this difficult task," said Susanna Loeb, professor of education at the GSE and faculty co-director of EPEL.
Loeb said the hope with EPEL is to provide the educational opportunities and also a place for superintendents and other district leaders to learn from each other.
"With new standards and a new system of accountability in California, the challenge today is particularly intense," she said. "Our aim is the bring the resources of Stanford to help them meet their goals."
Can a text message help bridge the ‘word gap’ for low income children?
Researchers have found that sending parents a simple text message that includes tips for improving their child’s literacy can have a positive effect.
Studies show that by age four, kids from low-income households will hear 30 million less words than their more affluent counterparts, who get more quality face-time with caretakers. That means the already disadvantaged are falling behind before the academic race has even begun. Educators have so far been largely unsuccessful when it comes to finding ways to bridge the so-called “word gap.”
When Texting Helps Kids Read
Parenting is complex. Every decision mom and dad make has a ripple effect. And it’s near impossible to measure success. In an attempt to help simplify the whole thing, Susanna Loeb and Ben York — a professor and researcher respectively at Stanford’s Center for Education Policy Analysis — designed a program that sends parents of preschoolers in a low-income San Francisco school district weekly tips on how to improve their children’s literacy. The initiative is designed to fit within the lives of families, rather than adding yet another burden. “We have to make so many choices, and we often don’t know what to do in the moment,” Loeb says. Ready4K! takes away the guesswork.
Helping the Poor in Education: The Power of a Simple Nudge
Two researchers at Stanford University, Eric P. Bettinger and Rachel Baker, analyzed an innovative counseling program in which a professional academic coach calls at-risk students to talk about time management and study skills. The coach might help a student plan how much time to spend on each class in the days approaching finals, for example. The results are impressive, with coached students more likely to stay in college and graduate. This program is more expensive than texting — $500 per student, per semester — but the effects persist for years after the coaching has ended.
Can nudges help younger children? Susanna Loeb and Benjamin N. York, both also at Stanford, developed a literacy program for preschool children in San Francisco. They sent parents texts describing simple activities that develop literacy skills, such as pointing out words that rhyme or start with the same sound. The parents receiving the texts spent more time with their children on these activities and their children were more likely to know the alphabet and the sounds of letters. It cost just a few dollars per family.
CEPA faculty score high marks on The 2015 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings
The 2015 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings were released this week and record number of CEPA faculty scores high marks on the list. Of the 200 education scholars ranked, 11 CEPA affiliate faculty and faculty made the list: Eric Hanushek (15), Martin Carnoy (24), Michael W. Kirst (31), Caroline Hoxby (33), Susanna Loeb (51), Sean Reardon (62), Rob Reich (94), Thomas Dee (119), Mitchell Stevens (127), Edward H. Haertel (154), Eric Bettinger (161)
More People With Higher SAT Scores Are Going Into Teaching
The study, published last week in the journal Educational Researcher, looks at the average SAT scores of newly certified and hired teachers in New York state over the past 25 years. In analyzing the data, researchers found that average SAT scores for teachers began rising around 1999 relative to the rest of the population. The researchers caution that SAT scores are an imperfect measure of intelligence, though they contain useful insight.
Texting parents with tips boosts pre-K language skills, study says
Children from low-income families typically have fewer opportunities to develop language skills than middle-class children, which creates learning gaps evident on the first day of kindergarten.