Focus on: Reseach

Education Week's coverage of the the latest findings and trends in the increasingly influential and contentious field of education research.

Project Yields Gains for New Zealand’s Maori Pupils
Like the United States and many other countries around the world, New Zealand has been stymied for decades by achievement gaps between students of different ancestry. In New Zealand’s case, concern centers on students who are Maori, members of tribes that inhabited its islands hundreds of years before Capt. James Cook put them on the map in the 1700s. June 6, 2006 – Education Week

U.S. Teacher-Licensing Debate Found to Echo In Asia
A recent study compares the licensing and training processes that elementary and secondary teachers undergo in the United States and five Asian nations—China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand—as well as Hong Kong. April 25, 2006 – Education Week

Project to Vet Think Tanks’ Work With Eye Out for Ideological Bias
A just-launched project will review education reports released by private think tanks for the quality of their research, methodology, and conclusions, using expert academic reviewers. March 21, 2006 – Education Week

Path to Classroom Not Linked to Teachers’ Success
The certification pathway that New York City teachers took to their classrooms seemed to have little relationship to how effective they were in raising students’ scores, concludes a study that matched some 10,000 teachers with six years of test results. March 21, 2006 – Education Week

Scholar Finds Gold in Special Brand of Urban Humor
One researcher has found that non-traditional teaching techniques that draw on popular urban culture may be an effective way to help disadvantaged black students master complex literature in the classroom. February 14, 2006 – Education Week

Scholars Seek Best Ways to Assess English-Learners
Simplifying test questions so that they avoid unnecessarily complex English is the best way for states to include English-language learners in large-scale testing, according to the most prominent researcher on testing accommodations for such students. January 10, 2006 – Education Week

Teacher Logs Reveal How Class Time Is Really Spent
When it comes to documenting what goes on in classrooms, education scholars tend to fall in two camps. On one side are researchers who send in paid observers, usually graduate students, to meticulously track the goings-on, like proverbial flies on the wall. In the other camp are those who go the cheaper—but less accurate—route of surveying teachers once a year or so. November 15, 2005 – Education Week

Scholars Eye ‘Signature’ Method of Teacher Training
Anyone who has ever seen movies like “The Paper Chase”and “Legally Blonde” can picture what goes on in a law school classroom. The routine, repeated in law schools throughout the country, calls for an instructor to stand at the center of a semicircle of desks and pepper individual students with questions based on assigned readings of legal cases or statutes. There are no such trademark practices, however, for preparing teachers. October 11, 2005 – Education Week

Classroom Gestures Studied for Effects on Learning
A small but growing cadre of researchers is taking a close look at the gestures people make and the role that they play in the classroom. September 7, 2005 – Education Week

Researchers Design New Ways to Gauge Arts Spillover
Researchers say the old “Mozart makes you smarter” studies asked the wrong questions and used measurements too narrow to capture arts learning’s full range of benefits. June 7, 2005 – Education Week

Harvard, Boston Educators Team Up on Test-Data Book
In an unusual collaboration, faculty members and students from Harvard University’s graduate school of education have teamed up with educators from the Boston school system to write a book on how to use data to improve instruction. April 26, 2005 – Education Week

Report: Boys’ and Girls’ ‘Well-Being’ Tracks Closely
The differences between boys and girls is one of the hottest research topics around. But a group of Duke University researchers suggests that, at least when considering the youths’ overall well-being, there’s not much difference at all. March 22, 2005 – Education Week

Two-Way Language Immersion Grows in Popularity
Promising results from research on two-way language-immersion programs have pumped up the popularity of such programs in recent years. February 15, 2005 – Education Week

Brain Research Invoked to Explain Teens’ Behavior
Most educators and parents know, without the aid of science, how volatile teenagers can be: placid one moment, a stick of dynamite the next. But a recent book by a psychologist—and former high school teacher and school counselor—takes the conclusions from scientific studies of the adolescent brain and turns them into practical advice. January 11, 2005 – Education Week

Researchers Target Impact of Television Violence
To help children distinguish between real and imaginary violence, the National PTA has for years promoted a school-based workshop called “Taking Charge of Your TV.” Among other goals, the program aims to help parents and educators talk with children about what they see on television. November 16, 2004 – Education Week

Teaching Mathematics Requires Special Set of Skills
New research on mathematics teachers suggests that having “mathematical knowledge for teaching” matters for students’ learning. October 12, 2004 – Education Week

Major Study to Identify What Good Leaders Do Right
Researcher Kenneth Leithwood is confident that education leaders affect student learning. But he's just as adamant that not enough is known about how they do so. And that's something he hopes to help change. September 22, 2004 – Education Week

Tracking the Exercise-Achievement Link
Research PageWhen the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School opened its doors in 1998, founder Linda Moore faced a challenge common to many schools, especially in poor urban areas: how to provide students with enough physical activity. Includes the column, "Scholarly Citings." September 20, 2004 – Education Week

Researchers Explore Ways To Lower Students’ Stress
Findings in a new report reveal relaxation techniques led to marked decreases in blood pressure levels for students who took part in a study. May 26, 2004 – Education Week

Report Questions Wisdom Of Separate Middle Schools
Research Page The nation's middle schools have far to go to dispel their reputations as an educational "Bermuda Triangle," a report released last week by a prestigious think tank suggests. March 17, 2004 – Education Week

In 'Lesson Study' Sessions, Teachers Polish Their Craft
An urban K-8 school in New Jersey's 24,000-student Paterson district is among the first in the United States to embrace an increasingly popular learning-improvement technique from Japan. February 11, 2004 – Education Week

Researchers Eye Technology's Effects on Achievement
Research PageBy awarding $15 million in grants, as well as publishing a new guide, the federal government is advocating that states conduct better, more-rigorous research about education issues. January 7, 2004 – Education Week

Education School Courses Faulted As Intellectually Thin
Research Page Fourteen of the nation's most prestigious education schools offer teacher preparation that is at best uneven and at worst intellectually thin and ineffectual. So says researcher David M. Steiner, an education professor at Boston University, after reviewing more than 200 course outlines from 16 schools. November 12, 2003 – Education Week

Online Master's Program For Teachers Shows Promise
Research Page A master's program in science education offered by Lesley University is promising something some teachers want: guidance on how to put national standards for teaching science into action. June 4, 2003 – Education Week

Question of Teacher Turnover Sparks Research Interest
Research Page A phenomenon once hidden behind the phrase "teacher shortage," teacher turnover has moved into the spotlight of public-policy discussions with the help of new research. April 30, 2003 – Education Week

Studies Illuminate Self-Defeating Behavior By Students
Research Page According to a growing number of psychologists who specialize in studying motivation, some students purposely goof off or procrastinate to avoid looking "stupid" in front of teachers or classmates—even if it means undermining themselves in the process. March 26, 2003 – Education Week

Adding It All Up
Studies suggest that the new mathematics curricula are promising, but more research is needed on important questions. Includes: "Math Resources." February 19, 2003 – Education Week

Lunchtime Can Teach Appetizing Lessons, Scholar Says
Research Page Caught up with trying to preserve as much classroom time as possible, schools don't realize that lunch is an opportune time to build a sense of community and foster social skills, says Karen Evans Stout. January 15, 2003 – Education Week

Studies Back Lessons In Writing, Spelling
Research Page Adults may wince at painful childhood memories of penmanship lessons and spelling tests. A small but growing number of studies, though, suggest that systematically teaching handwriting and spelling might actually help some students write more and do it better. Includes a research column, "Scholarly Citings." November 20, 2002 – Education Week

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