Eye on Research

This weekly Eye on Research feature focuses on education-related scholarship. The section is supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation.

Advocates for researchers and statisticians are at odds with federal education officials and their advisers over the best way to shield the National Center for Education Statistics from political interference. June 16, 2008

Educators, parents, and communities should make a more concerted effort to help rudderless youths find a clear direction and purpose as they enter adulthood, suggests a new book. June 9, 2008

As Reading First nears the six-year mark, no clear empirical picture has emerged of how well the federal program is doing nationally to bring struggling readers to proficiency. June 3, 2008

Yale University researchers are pilot-testing an assessment for identifying gifted and talented children that taps intellectual skills other than those captured by traditional intelligence tests. May 20, 2008

Preliminary findings suggest that in three states where voters decided to replace bilingual education with structured English immersion may be producing less-than-stellar results. Updated: May 30, 2008

As value-added research designs gain in popularity and undergo increasing scrutiny, experts are beginning to wave cautionary flags about how best to make use of them in education. Updated: May 6, 2008

The California Dropout Research Project was created in part to help determine how many students quit school before they graduate. April 28, 2008

A project at Stanford University works with local communities to collect data from multiple child-serving agencies to inform policy and program decisions. April 22, 2008

Grassroots organizing efforts are driving a boost in parent involvement, more-equitable distribution of funding, and better academic achievement, according to researchers from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. Updated: April 16, 2008

The Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education specializes in calculating and comparing the long- and short-term costs—and probable payoffs—of different educational strategies that promise to improve students’ lives. April 8, 2008

The U.S. Department of Education is reviewing a less stringent set of rules for maintaining federal security and protecting the privacy of people who take part in federally subsidized research. March 28, 2008

A new volume of research papers makes the case that innovations aimed at giving families more say in where their children go to school can be whatever their architects make of them. Updated: March 25, 2008

New research suggests that having to hire substitutes affects more than just a district’s finances. March 18, 2008

Training in the arts might contribute to improving the general thinking skills of children and adults, a study concludes. March 7, 2008

Observers are trying to divine what the upcoming political shifts in Washington might mean for the U.S. Department of Education’s effort to make education an “evidence based” field. March 4, 2008

Smaller classes may help some students, but not all, research shows. Updated: March 6, 2008

According to a new survey, 77 percent of students and more than 80 percent of teachers and parents say homework is important or very important. February 15, 2008

Experts are beginning to contend that the case is growing stronger for physical activity's link to improved brain function. February 12, 2008

An ambitious project run by two universities is the largest, most comprehensive and representative study to date of children’s development in rural America. February 5, 2008

In an era when the U.S. Supreme Court is putting sharp limits on race-conscious student-assignment policies, the guidance from an upcoming book is bound to draw detractors. January 29, 2008

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching will soon have a new president with a strong national reputation as a precollegiate education researcher. January 18, 2008

Research from a recent wave of K-8 conversions suggests that determining what kind of grade configurations are best for students is still a complicated and unsettled matter. January 15, 2008

Few studies have examined whether culture-based instruction affects the achievement of language-minority students, despite its popularity with many educators. January 8, 2008

A forthcoming research review analyzes school-based programs designed to foster children’s social and emotional skills. December 18, 2007

While it may sound like a given that added learning time can translate to better test scores, research suggests that whether it does remains an open question. December 11, 2007

Implicit in some of the coverage was the hopeful idea that many children eventually grow out of the disorder. But that’s not exactly true. December 3, 2007

Students who regularly attend top-notch after-school programs end up academically far ahead of peers who spend more out-of-school time in unsupervised activities, a study found. November 27, 2007

The Brookings Institution has unveiled a volume of studies on the potential effects of the federal law’s various provisions on this vulnerable population of students. November 8, 2007

Students from low-income households could constitute more than half of K-12 enrollment in public schools nationally within 10 years, a report contends. November 2, 2007

At schools that are part of the New Century High Schools initiative, 78 percent of students graduate in four years, compared with 58 percent at the city's other high schools. October 26, 2007

Researchers are developing tools and techniques to improve the academic achievement of students who are most likely to suffer from negative stereotypes in the classroom. October 23, 2007

Children with disabilities may face challenges in maintaining healthy body weights, including a lack of outlets designed to help them engage in physical activity. October 16, 2007

Producing work that educators actually want to use is the raison d’être for an ambitious national research-and-development program known as the Strategic Education Research Partnership. October 9, 2007

More than 30 years’ worth of studies of elementary-level peer-tutoring programs suggests that both the tutor and the tutee learn better when they teach each other. October 2, 2007

The job of school boards is being redefined, and weakened, by changes taking place at the national, state, and local levels. September 24, 2007

A new book tells a cautionary tale about large high schools that are divided up into smaller subunits. September 18, 2007

Four research centers are working on classifying learning disabilities and improving understanding of interventions for children with reading problems. September 10, 2007

Studies find that ‘highly qualified’ definitions differ broadly across states. September 4, 2007

The National Charter School Research Project has spent three years trying to bring a neutral perspective to the contentious charter school debate. August 23, 2007

The research base on successful turnaround strategies in education is too new and too thin to be of much help to schools, scholars say. August 14, 2007

The U.S. Education Department's statistics arm, citing budget and staffing constraints, won't take part in a 2008 study of physics and upper-level-math performance. July 26, 2007

Studies suggest that recruits have higher college-entrance examination scores and degrees from choosier colleges. July 16, 2007

At a research workshop hosted by the National Academies, scholars debated what students need to know for future employment. June 13, 2007

Experts estimate that only three states have looked to see if "supplemental educational services" are boosting students’ scores on state tests. June 12, 2007

Recent studies have shown that a computer-based training program developed in Sweden helps sharpen the “working memory” skills of children and teenagers with ADHD. June 4, 2007

Policymakers and educators are urged to become better ‘consumers’ of knowledge born from studies in education research. May 21, 2007

The Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration program effectively died in 2006, but a new study offers a fitting epitaph for the program: Models matter. May 14, 2007

College and university programs that prepare the nation’s education researchers suffer from mission muddle, a lack of common and rigorous standards, and inadequate resources. May 7, 2007

Peggy McCardle has kept a lower profile than that of her predecessor, G. Reid Lyon, which observers say reflects a changing tone in debates over reading instruction methods. May 1, 2007

Some children are helped, but others become distracted by in-class "manipulatives." April 24, 2007

July 6, 2008 | Receive RSS RSS feeds

Advertisement

New! Free Content on edweek.org

More free content is now available on edweek.org than ever before. Get free access to news, chats, blogs, newsletters, and much more.

Advertisement

Sponsored Advertiser Links

EW Archive