Zorg

The AP (1/26) reports that, according to a recent study, "female elementary school teachers who are concerned about their own math skills could be passing that along to the little girls they teach." This insecurity, the researchers say, could be a factor in perpetuating the continuing gap between men and women "in some areas of math achievement." Sian L. Beilock, a University of Chicago associate professor in psychology and one of the study's authors, said that "young students tend to model themselves after adults of the same sex, and having a female teacher who is anxious about math may reinforce the stereotype that boys are better at math than girls." Janet S. Hyde, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, praised the study. Hyde noted that "girls who grow up believing females lack math skills wind up avoiding harder math classes."

        The Los Angeles Times (1/26, Kaplan) reports, "First- and second-graders whose teachers were anxious about mathematics were more likely to believe that boys are hard-wired for math and that girls are better at reading," according to the study's findings. Further, "the girls who bought into that notion scored significantly lower on math tests than their peers who didn't." The researchers noted that "the gap in test scores was not apparent in the fall when the kids were first tested, but emerged after spending a school year in the classrooms of teachers with math anxiety. That detail convinced researchers that the teachers -- all of them women -- were the culprits."

        "Researchers said the next step is to determine what teachers did or said to transfer their anxieties," the Chicago Tribune (1/26, Mack) reports. Beilock said, "There are lots of questions to be answered about what's going on in the classroom." Levine added that "the x-factor did not appear to be teachers' knowledge of the subject, but rather 'their feeling about the discipline.'" The study, "Female Teachers' Math Anxiety Affects Girls' Math Achievement," appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

        Researchers speculated that "increasing math requirements for elementary education programs could help alleviate math anxiety in elementary school teachers, thereby influencing girls' math achievement," the USA Today (1/25) "Science Fair" blog reports. The blog notes, "Women make up 90 percent of elementary school teachers in the United States." HealthDay (12/25, Thomas) also reported the story.

The Washington Post (1/26, Turque) reports that a spokesperson for D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee said that Rhee will make a statement Tuesday morning regarding comments she made "that appear in the February issue of 'Fast Company' magazine." Rhee "faced mounting pressure Monday to explain her statement...that some of the 266 teachers laid off in last October's budget cuts 'had sex with children,' hit them or were chronically absent without authorization." D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray said the claims were "alarming and deeply troubling." He has "set a Wednesday deadline for Rhee to provide each instance since July 1, 2007 -- the beginning of the chancellor's tenure in the District -- in which a teacher who sexually assaulted or hit a child was reported to the D.C. police department or Child and Family Services Agency, as required by law." And, he wants "to know what actions were ultimately taken."

        In the Washington Post (1/25) the Answer Sheet blog, Valerie Strauss wrote, "What was she thinking," regarding Rhee's comments. According to Rhee, the statement she made to "Fast Company magazine was something she had already told the D.C. Council." Strauss said, "I can't figure out if Rhee actually likes stirring up controversy or just muddles her way into it -- or both -- but in this instance, whether it was a hasty remark she didn't intend to make or an intentional bomb, I don't see a good way out."

Tennessee's Commercial Appeal (1/25, Roberts) reported that Memphis City Schools is increasing emphasis on math and science "in several elementary schools." Linda Sklar, head of optional schools in the city system, said, "We're encouraging students to understand the connections between traditional subjects and the real world and making them critical, reflective thinkers." There will be a STEM "optional [elementary] school" and a K-8 school with a focus on media arts and public service. The programs beginning this fall will begin in middle and high schools and will be open to all students who meet requirements. Meanwhile, the school system also plans to open "an International Baccalaureate program in schools that feed into the Ridgeway High IB program...as early as 2011."

The Los Angeles Times (1/26, Kelly) reports that after a parent "called the principal of Oak Meadows Elementary School" to complain that an entry in dictionaries available at the school was "too [sexually] explicit," the dictionaries "were immediately pulled off the shelves and 'temporarily housed off location' until a committee could determine their suitability for children." District Spokeswoman Betti Cadmus emphasized, "The dictionaries have not been banned." Still, "a panel of parents, teachers and administrators will" determine if the dictionaries are appropriate for the school curriculum. The panel will "meet later this week to comb the dictionary for potentially graphic words or definitions and issue a report within a month."

The Grand Rapids (MI) Press (1/25, Reinstadler) reported that preschool "saves Michigan taxpayers mountains of money and increases revenues -- about $1.15 billion over the past 25 years, according to the first comprehensive study of the state's programs for children from birth to 5 years old, to be released today by state Schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan." According to the Grand Rapids Press, "The study, 'Cost Savings Analysis of School Readiness in Michigan,' estimates cost savings and revenue generated from the state's investment in programs that set the stage for school success. ... The study concludes that programs that get kids ready to do grade-level work -- including the state-funded Great Start programs and services, and federally funded Head Start -- reduces the cost of education overall."

The St. Petersburg Times (1/26, Colavecchio, Solochek) reports that with Florida "having already spent $16 billion to reduce class sizes -- and facing a multibillion-dollar budget deficit," Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) is asking "voters to reconsider their 2002 vote in favor of smaller classes. Crist, who in the past has opposed tinkering with the class size amendment, on Monday said he now supports essentially freezing it where it is now -- with mandated caps calculated as school-wide averages." According to the Times, "Superintendents and others say going to the next phase -- caps for every classroom, beginning next school year -- would cost too much, create problems with student enrollment and do little to improve student achievement."

        The Tampa Tribune (1/25, Peterson) reports that Crist "said today he wants to ask Florida voters to freeze school class sizes where they are now without reducing them further. Voters in 2002 approved a constitutional amendment requiring that by fall 2010, each class be limited to a set number of pupils." According to the Tribune, "Most schools already have met the schoolwide enrollment-reduction goals, after spending a total of nearly $16 billion on teachers and other resources. Officials feared they would have to spend billions more to meet more focused class-level requirements."

The New York Times (1/26, A17, Otterman) reports that in New York City, closing underperforming schools, "especially large high schools, has been one of the most controversial hallmarks of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's control of the school system. And it is taking on a new urgency, both in New York and around the country, with the Obama administration putting a premium on 'school turnaround' policies" as a part of the Race to the Top stimulus grant competition. The Times notes that since 2002, New York City "has closed or is in the process of closing 91 schools, replacing them with smaller schools and charter schools. ... This year, the city has proposed phasing out 20 schools, the most in any year."

The Salt Lake Tribune (1/26, Schencker) reports that France is paying three French teachers "to work in Utah schools as part of the state's dual-immersion program this year." On Monday, "Utah education leaders signed an agreement with French officials to continue the cooperation in hopes of bringing more French teachers...from France and eventually sending Utah teachers there to teach English." Utah is the twelfth state to "to sign a memorandum of understanding with a French education system." The state also has "agreements with Spain, Mexico and China, which help supply some of the state's Spanish and Mandarin teachers."

The Washington Times (1/26, Anderson) reports, "A company that serves meals to 2½ million schoolchildren daily in more than 500 districts nationwide, with multimillion-dollar contracts in both Washington, D.C., and Chicago, has a history of marginal quality and food-safety scares amid concerns over the nutritional content of its school menus, according to school and company records." According to the Times, Chartwells-Thompson School Dining Services, "a subsidiary of the Charlotte, N.C.-based Compass Group, owner of Burger King, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, is one of North America's largest school cafeteria operators." And, the Times adds, "Just last year, in the face of Chicago's child-obesity problem, Chartwells defended serving desserts to schoolchildren even as other districts abandoned the practice. Likewise, the company served cheese nachos on a daily basis as a means of getting children to partake in school lunch options."

Education Week (1/27, Robelen) reports that a new study by researchers at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development suggests that "modest gains in student achievement as measured by" the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) "could cumulatively boost the country's gross domestic product by tens of trillions of dollars over the coming decades." Researchers used "economic modeling to relate cognitive skills... to economic growth." According to the report, "The international average on PISA is 500." Researchers predicted that a "'modest goal' of having all 30 industrialized countries in the OECD raise their average scores on PISA by 25 points in the next 20 years would provide an aggregate gain of $115 trillion in GDP 'over the lifetime of the generation born in 2010.'"

     • Send Feedback

     • Email Help

     • Archives