New research from Vanderbilt University has found students benefit more from being taught the concepts behind math problems rather than the exact procedures to solve the problems. The findings offer teachers new insights on how best to shape math instruction to have the greatest impact on student learning.
The research by Bethany Rittle-Johnson, assistant professor of psychology and human development at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College and Percival Mathews, a Peabody doctoral candidate, is in press at the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
“Teaching children the basic concept behind math problems was more useful than teaching children a procedure for solving the problems – these children gave better explanations and learned more,” Rittle-Johnson said. “This adds to a growing body of research illustrating the importance of teaching children concepts as well as having them practice solving problems.”
In math class, teachers typically demonstrate a procedure for solving a problem and then have children practice solving related problems, often with minimal explanation for why things work.
“With conceptual instruction, teachers explain a problem’s underlying structure. That type of instruction enables kids to solve the problems without having been taught specific procedures and also to understand more about how problems work,” Matthews said. “When you just show them how to do the problem they can solve it, but not necessarily understand what it is about. With conceptual instruction, they are able to come up with the procedure on their own.”
The study also examined whether having the students explain their solution to problems helped improve their learning. To test this, the researchers used the conceptual teaching approach with all students, and had one group explain their solution while the other did not. They found no discernable difference in performance between the two groups. While self explanation has been found to be beneficial in previous studies, Rittle-Johnson and Matthews found that when the students were given a limited time to solve the problem, the benefit disappeared. This led them to suggest that part of the benefit of self explanation may come from the extra time a student spends thinking about that particular problem.
“Self explanation took more time, which left less time for practice solving the problems,” Matthews said. “When time is unlimited, self-explanation gives students more time to repair faulty mental models. We found conceptual explanation may do the same thing and make self-explanation less useful.”
Rittle-Johnson is an investigator in the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development and in the Vanderbilt Learning Sciences Institute. The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Education.
For more information about Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development, ranked the No. 2 education school in the nation in 2008 by U.S. News & World Report, visit http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu.
It Pays to Compare: Comparison Helps Children Grasp Math Concepts
Comparing different ways of solving math problems is a great way to help middle schoolers learn new math concepts, researchers from Vanderbilt and Harvard universities have found.
“We found that comparing different ways to solve a problem helped middle-school students become more flexible problem solvers and better understand the concepts behind the methods,” Bethany Rittle-Johnson, assistant professor of psychology and human development at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College and co-author of the new research, said.
Newswise — Rittle-Johnson and her colleague and co-author, Jon Star, assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, also found that comparing different solution methods was more effective than comparing different problems solved using the same solution. “Overall, students should not just learn one way to solve a math problem; rather, they should learn multiple ways and be encouraged to compare the benefits and drawbacks of each,” she said.__The findings are summarized in two studies, one recently published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology and the other in press at the Journal of Educational Psychology.
“In U.S. math classes, teachers typically demonstrate a procedure for solving a problem and then have children practice solving related problems,” Rittle-Johnson said. “Students have very few opportunities to compare different ways to solve problems and tend to solve problems in a single way with limited understanding of why the way works.”
In the new studies, Rittle-Johnson and Star found seventh and eighth graders who compared two different ways to solve equations were both more accurate and more flexible in how they solved equations. The benefits of comparison were most pronounced when the examples being compared differed on key features.
They saw the same effect when fifth graders were working on problems that involved estimation.
“In a past study, we found that seventh graders who compared two different ways to solve equations were both more accurate and more flexible in their equation solving. In our recent studies, we found similar benefits for fifth graders learning about estimation,” Rittle-Johnson said.
English Learners in Boston Public Schools
in the Aftermath of Policy Change
In 2002, Massachusetts voters approved a referendum against the continuance of Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) as a method of instruction for English language learners. The study undertaken by the Mauricio Gaston Institute at UMass Boston in collaboration with the Center for Collaborative Education in Boston finds that, in the three years following the implementation of Question 2 in the Boston Public Schools, the identification of students of limited English proficiency declined as did the enrollment in programs for English; the enrollment of English Learners in substantially separate Special Education programs more than doubled; and service options for English Learners narrowed. The study found that high school drop-out rates among students in programs for English Learners almost doubled and that the proportion of English Learners in middle school who dropped out more than tripled in those three years. Finally, although there have been some gains for English Learners in both ELA and math MCAS pass rates in 4th and 8th grade, gains for English Learners have not matched those of other groups and as a result gaps between English Learners and other BPS populations have widened.
Full report:
http://www.gaston.umb.edu/articles/2009%20Final%20ELL%20Report_online.pdf
DROPOUT CRISIS CONTRIBUTES TO SUBSTANTIAL ECONOMIC LOSSES IN CALIFORNIA CITIES
The California Dropout Research Project Releases Dropout Profiles for 17 California Cities Featuring Local Dropout Data, Economic Impact and Benefits to Reducing Dropouts
The California Dropout Research Project (CDRP) has released City Dropout Profiles for 17 cities in California. The City Dropout Profiles provide data for each of the 17 cities on the number of middle and high school dropouts from 2006-07, the economic losses to the community, and benefits to reducing the number of dropouts by half, specifically economic savings and decrease of violent crimes. The losses and benefits were calculated using CDRP research documenting the economic impact of dropping out on earnings, unemployment, health, crime, and public assistance. The CDRP also released a companion dropout profile for the state of California. To access the State and City Dropout Profiles, visit http://www.lmri.ucsb.edu/dropouts/pubs_cityprofiles.htm.
The cities featured in this series include: Berkeley, Chula Vista, Fresno, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Modesto, Oakland, Pasadena, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Ana, Santa Barbara and Stockton.
“The data linking dropout rates to violent crime and economic losses makes clear that the dropout crisis is everyone's problem--and that whole communities will benefit from coming together to ensure that all students graduate high school with the courses and skills necessary to succeed in college and in life," said Roberta Furger, Education Program Coordinator, PICO California. PICO California (www.picocalifornia.org) is part of the PICO National Network of faith-based community organizations representing 450,000 families in 73 cities throughout the state working to create innovative solutions to pressing community issues including developing effective and sustainable strategies for increasing graduation rates.
Highlights from the State Report include:
• California’s public schools produced one dropout for every three graduates
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• 123,651 students dropped out of grades 7-12 in 2006-07
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o Even if half of all dropouts eventually graduate, the remaining half would contribute to more than $24 billion in economic losses to the state over their working lives
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• Reducing the number of dropouts by half would generate about $12 billion in savings to the state and would reduce the number of homicides and aggravated assaults by more than 14,000 per year
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The State and City Dropout Profiles are the latest in a series of 42 research reports, policy and statistical briefs on California’s dropouts conducted by CDRP, a research program based at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Last year, the CDRP policy committee – composed of researchers, policymakers and educators – released a state policy agenda identifying short-term and long-term recommendations for improving California’s high school graduation rate.
Full report:
http://www.lmri.ucsb.edu/dropouts/download.php?file=policyreport.pdf
Related report:
http://www.lmri.ucsb.edu/dropouts/download.php?file=statisticalbrief-11.pdf
State Legislators Consider Bill to Restrict Florida Virtual School Despite Growing Enrollment
Legislation to limit course offerings and funding for the state-run Florida Virtual School (FLVS) is making its way through the state Senate despite the fact that the online education program continues to see dramatic increases in enrollment, especially among minority students, according to a new article published in the summer issue of Education Next and available online.
In the 2008–09 school year, approximately 84,000 students will complete 168,000 half-credit courses, more than a tenfold increase since 2002-03, points out Bill Tucker, managing director at Education Sector and author of the Education Next article. Between June 2007 and July 2008, African-American enrollments grew by 49 percent, Hispanic enrollments by 42 percent, and Native American enrollments by 41 percent.
The legislation under consideration would eliminate enrollment in any elective courses through FLVS as well as funding for any courses beyond a standard six periods. FLVS officials have warned that the provision could cut enrollment by as much as 24 percent.
“If this bill passes, students would no longer have an option to take electives, including some AP courses, beyond those offered at their traditional schools nor could they enroll in extra courses to catch up on graduation requirements,” Tucker said.
FLVS is a supplemental education program that allows students to customize their learning. Students attend brick-and-mortar schools and take FLVS courses in addition to their traditional classes. The school employs more than 715 full-time and 29 adjunct teachers -- all Florida-certified and “highly qualified” under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Given the school’s flexible pacing, there isn’t a set class size, but full-time teachers are limited to 150 students each.
While the vast majority of FLVS students come from district schools (82 percent in 2007-08), the school is open to charter, private, and home-schooled students. Students choose an accelerated, traditional, or extended pace for a particular course, taking extra time if needed to review and receive additional guidance on lessons. Additionally, FLVS students don’t have to wait for the semester to begin to start their learning; they can choose the month in which they would like to start.
With its focus on customized learning, online education in the United States is growing at a fast pace: According to the North American Council for Online Learning, enrollment in online courses in 2000 totaled 45,000. In 2007, enrollments reached 1 million, about 70 percent of which were for high school courses.
Popularity of online education courses is also growing. According to a 2008 national survey conducted by Education Next and the Harvard Kennedy School Program on Education Policy and Governance, more than two thirds of American parents say they would be willing to have their children take some of their high school courses over the Internet. And in most instances, the American public supports public funding for online courses that high school students take for credit. The breadth of their support, however, depends on the purpose of the online education. A majority favor funding for high schools offering advanced courses for students online and for high schools that offer rural students a broader range of courses online. A plurality of 40 percent support funding online classes that help dropouts gain credits.
Full report:
http://media.hoover.org/documents/ednext_20093_12to18.pdf
Progress At Risk: California’s Budget and the Implications for Teaching Quality
The state and national budget crises have resulted in radical cuts in funding for California schools. Overall reductions in the recently enacted state budget approximate 15%, with school expenditures decreasing from $51.6 billion to $43 billion in less than two years. One way policymakers tried to soften the blow to school districts was to afford them substantial flexibility in the use of school funding. Funding that was designated for certain students or uses can now be spent on “any education purpose.” Now the scope and nature of education services for students and teachers, once connected to state requirements, are the subject of local discretion and collective bargaining agreements.
School districts immediately will be faced with a series of very tough decisions. Perhaps the most challenging and far reaching of these will relate to education equity and teaching quality. In this CenterView, we focus on issues and questions that are beginning to emerge for Californians as they struggle to offer students instruction necessary to meet our state’s rigorous academic standards. There are no easy answers as policy makers, local educators and other school community members roll up their collective sleeves and work to mitigate the damage done to their schools by this budget crisis. But careful monitoring of district response to cuts and adjustments in programs and personnel practices could supply information helpful to rebuilding and even strengthening California’s public school sys tem.
Progress in Peril
In recent years, California has made significant strides in addressing both education equity and teaching quality. The numbers of underprepared teachers have finally dropped to levels that existed prior to the introduction of class size reduction in 2006, when, virtually overnight, school districts hired nearly 20,000 new teachers. Many of those teachers were underprepared and most ended up in schools with high numbers of poor and minority students. After more than a decade of carefully designed teacher recruitment, retention and development initiatives, California has reduced the number of underprepared teachers by nearly 27,000. As a consequence of the budget crisis, these successful strategies are now at grave risk.
Full Report:
http://www.cftl.org/centerviews/april09.html
Reengaging High School Dropouts
Early Results of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program Evaluation
High school dropouts face daunting odds of success in a labor market that increasingly rewards education and skills. This report presents very early results from a rigorous, independent evaluation of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program, an intensive residential program that aims to “reclaim the lives” of young people ages 16 to 18 who have dropped out of school. ChalleNGe currently operates in more than half the states. About 75,000 young people have completed the program since the early 1990s. MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, is conducting the evaluation, along with the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood. Private foundations and the U.S. Department of Defense are funding the evaluation.
The 17-month ChalleNGe program is divided into three phases: Pre-ChalleNGe, which is a two-week orientation and assessment period; a 20-week Residential Phase built around eight core components designed to promote positive youth development; and a one-year Postresidential Phase featuring a structured mentoring program. During the first two phases, participants in the program live at the program site, often on a military base. The environment is described as “quasi-military,” though there are no requirements for military service.
The evaluation uses a random assignment research design. Because there were more qualified applicants than slots, a lottery-like process was used to decide which applicants were admitted to the program. The young people who were admitted (the program group) are being compared over time with those who were not admitted (the control group); any significant differences that emerge between the groups can be attributed to ChalleNGe. About 3,000 young people entered the study in 10 ChalleNGe programs in 2005-2006.
Early Results
About 80 percent of the program group started the program, two-thirds completed the Pre-ChalleNGe Phase, and about half graduated from the Residential Phase. A survey administered about nine months after the members of the program and control groups entered the study — not long after ChalleNGe graduates began the program’s Postresidential Phase — found that:
• The program group was much more likely than the control group to have obtained a high school diploma or a General Educational Development certificate (GED). At the time of the survey, 46 percent of the program group had a diploma or a GED, compared with about 10 percent of the control group.
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• The program group was more likely than the control group to be working and attending college; members of the control group were more likely to have returned to high school. For example, just over 30 percent of the program group versus 21 percent of the control group reported that they were working full time.
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• The program group reported better health and higher levels of self-efficacy and were less likely to have been arrested.
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It is too early to draw any conclusions about the long-term effects of ChalleNGe. Nevertheless, the early results suggest that partway through their ChalleNGe experience, young people in the program group are better positioned to move forward in their transition to adulthood. Results from an 18-month survey will be available in late 2009.
Full report:
http://www.mdrc.org/publications/512/full.pdf
Research Shows National Service Program Enlisting Tutors Over Age 55 Produces Big Gains in Student Learning; Rigorous Study Finds Students With Experience Corps Tutors Make 60 Percent More Progress in Critical Reading Skills Than Students Without Tutors
Tutoring children in and after school isn't new, but how much does it really help in critical areas like reading? Rigorous new research from Washington University in St. Louis shows significant gains from a national service program that trains experienced Americans to help low-income children one-on-one in urban public schools.
The central finding: Over a single school year, students with Experience Corps tutors made over 60 percent more progress in learning two critical reading skills - sounding out new words and reading comprehension - than similar students not served by the program.
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis conducted a randomized, control-group study of Experience Corps, a national program that engages Americans over 55 in helping struggling students learn to read, to assess its effectiveness. The two-year, $2 million study, funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies, is one of the largest of its kind, involving more than 800 first, second and third graders (half with Experience Corps tutors, half without) at 23 elementary schools in three cities.
"The difference in reading ability between kids who worked with Experience Corps tutors and those who did not is substantial and statistically significant," said Nancy Morrow-Howell, the lead researcher and a professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University.
"This research shows that Experience Corps tutors can increase student reading skills," said Jean Grossman, an expert in youth mentoring programs and evaluation design at Princeton University and Public / Private Ventures. "That's great news for parents, children, educators and the many people of all ages who want to respond to President Obama's call to service and want to know that their efforts will make a significant difference."
Other key findings from the Washington University research:
- Experience Corps tutors were able to improve young students' reading comprehension, one of the toughest skills to affect for struggling readers. Few other studies of tutoring interventions for beginning readers have demonstrated improvement in reading comprehension, a critical building block for literacy development.
- As an intervention, Experience Corps compares to smaller class size. Students with Experience Corps tutors get a boost in reading skills equivalent to the boost they would get from being assigned to a classroom with 40 percent fewer children.
- Experience Corps works for all students, including those farthest behind. Experience Corps tutors delivered similarly significant results for students regardless of gender, ethnicity, grade, classroom behavior or English proficiency (25 percent of tutored children use English as a second language). Half of all students referred to Experience Corps tutors struggle so much with reading that they are at or below the 16th percentile nationwide.
- Teachers welcome Experience Corps. Teachers overwhelmingly rate Experience Corps as beneficial to students, while reporting that it represents little or no burden to them.
- Experience Corps is beneficial for the older adults themselves. Experience Corps members perceive that the program has a positive impact on students and on their relationship with students, an important ingredient as research shows that better student-tutor relationships are associated with better reading outcomes. In addition, studies by researchers at Washington University and Johns Hopkins have shown that working with young students improves the health and well-being of the adults themselves.
"The What Works Clearinghouse, which connects educators with effective practices and interventions in education, has reviewed over a hundred reading programs, and few of them have the type of impact on reading that Experience Corps does," notes Mark Dynarski, director of the clearinghouse, who is also a member of the study's advisory panel and a vice president at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Experience Corps has 2,000 tutors helping 20,000 students in 23 U.S. cities, including Annapolis, MD; Baltimore City and County; Beaumont, TX; Boston; Cleveland; Evansville, IN; Grand Rapids, MI; Marin, CA; Mesa, AZ; Minneapolis; New Haven, CT; New York City; Oakland, CA; Philadelphia; Port Arthur, TX; Portland, OR; Revere, MA; San Francisco; St. Paul, MN; Tempe, AZ; Tucson, AZ; and Washington, DC.
"Experience Corps works because Experience Corps members are carefully screened and trained to support local literacy instruction," said Lester Strong, the program's CEO. "Plus most Experience Corps members come from the neighborhoods where they serve. They know these kids, they believe in these kids, and they see a future in them."
"Experience Corps puts a growing national resource, experienced Americans, to work on a pressing national need - giving all students the reading skills they need to succeed," Strong continued. "There's no shortage of older adults - nearly 10,000 Americans turn 60 every day - and no shortage of kids who need help - half of our urban students never graduate from high school. We could be doing so much more to put these two generations together."
To download a copy of the research findings, please go to http://csd.wustl.edu/Publications/Documents/RP09-01.pdf .
About the Research
In 2006, researchers at the Center for Social Development at Washington University's Brown School of Social Work were awarded a grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies to evaluate the effects of the Experience Corps program on student reading outcomes. Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MPR) provided data collection services.
Three school systems agreed to be part of the study, and 23 schools in Boston, New York City and Port Arthur, Texas, participated. At the beginning of the school year, teachers referred all students who needed assistance with reading. More than 1,000 students were referred, and parental consent to participate in the study was obtained for 81 percent of those referred. Those students were then randomly assigned to work with an Experience Corps tutor for one academic year or to a control group. All students were tested at the beginning and end of that academic year.
The Experience Corps program tutored 430 of these students, and 451 were in the control group. There were 332 first, 304 second, and 186 third graders, and 420 males and 402 females in the final data set. Analysis of pretest data collected by MPR showed that the Experience Corps students and control groups were equivalent on all measured characteristics.
The program succeeded in delivering the intervention to a large number of the students. About half of students received 30 to 49 sessions, and the mean number of sessions was 45. Three-quarters of the students received over 35 sessions, which represents about one session a week throughout the program period. When including only the students who received at least 35 sessions, a criterion that was chosen to indicate that the students received the intervention as intended, the effects appear to be stronger.
Data for the study came from three sources: interviews with the students, assessments completed by teachers, and school records. MPR interviewers assessed reading ability at the beginning and end of the school year in face-to-face interviews with the students. Standardized reading tests were used: the Woodcock Johnson word attack subscale (WJ-WA), which tests students' ability to sound out new words; the Woodcock Johnson passage comprehension subscale (WJ-PC), which tests reading comprehension; and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary test (PPVT-III), which tests vocabulary acquisition for young children.
At the beginning and end of the academic year, teachers completed assessments of grade-specific reading skills and classroom behavior. At the end of the year, school records were abstracted to ascertain demographics and other student characteristics, and tutors rated the quality of their relationships with students.
Study: Privatized Philly schools did not keep pace
Public middle-grades schools placed under private management in 2002 as part of a state-run overhaul of the Philadelphia School District did not keep pace with the rest of the city's public schools, according to a study published in the American Journal of Education.
The study, which tracked schools through 2006, found that test scores had improved in the privatized schools, but scores in the rest of the city's public schools improved at a much faster rate, leaving the privatized schools in the dust.
"By 2006, the achievement gap between the privatized group and the rest of the district was greater than it was before the intervention," says study author Vaughan Byrnes, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University. "Both groups improved, but the privatized schools improved at a slower rate."
Philadelphia became a national proving ground for public school privatization in 2002 when Pennsylvania state government officials took over the city's schools. As part of the restructuring effort, 45 of the worst performing schools were turned over to Edison Schools Inc. and several other private education management organizations. The rest of the city's schools remained under the control of the Philadelphia School District, which instituted its own reform efforts.
Byrnes' study analyzed reading and math scores from the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test from 1997 to 2006 at 88 middle-grades schools. Most of the schools had either grades 6-8 or a K-8 configuration. The data allowed Byrnes to look at trend lines before and after the state intervention in both privatized and non-privatized schools.
"The schools placed under private management were significantly worse off than the rest of the district in 1997," Byrnes says. "But our data show that they were gaining on the rest of the district from 1997 to 2002—before the takeover." After the takeover, improvement at the privatized schools accelerated, but the rest of the district accelerated faster. As a result, the privatized schools were further behind the rest of the district by 2006 than they were before the takeover.
Byrnes says his results are consistent with previous research on Philadelphia school reform efforts.
Supporters of privatization have responded to previous critical findings by arguing that improvement in the privatized schools is stunted because these schools were the worst in the district. But this study casts serious doubt on that argument, because according to Byrnes' data, the privatized schools were not the district's worst.
"Five of the absolute worst schools in the district were restructured but remained under public control," Byrnes said. "Those schools did much better after 2002, outpacing the privatized schools, and perhaps even the rest of the district. That rules out the argument that the privatized schools improved more slowly because they were worse to start with."
Byrnes says that his study was not able to address potential differences in funding between the district and privatized schools.
"[T]here is no way to know whether the total per pupil funding was more or less in the district schools or the EMO (privatized) schools," Byrnes writes. "Therefore, the financial context of the school privatization is an issue that we were unable to examine here."
Middle school youth as young _as 12 engaging in risky sexual activity
HOUSTON – (April 8, 2009) – Middle school youth are engaging in sexual intercourse as early as age 12, according to a study by researchers at The University of Texas School of Public Health.
Christine Markham, Ph.D., assistant professor of behavioral science at the UT School of Public Health, and colleagues examined sexual risk behaviors among middle school students in a large southeastern U.S. urban public school district.
“This is one of the few school-based studies conducted with this age group to look at specific sexual practices in order to develop more effective prevention programs,” Markham said. “This study shows that although most seventh graders are not engaging in sexual risk behaviors, a small percentage are putting themselves at risk.”
In the study, Markham and colleagues defined sexual intercourse as vaginal, oral or anal sex. According to their research, by age 12, 12 percent of students had already engaged in vaginal sex, 7.9 percent in oral sex, 6.5 percent in anal sex and 4 percent in all three types of intercourse.
Markham said, “These findings are alarming because youth who start having sex before age 14 are much more likely to have multiple lifetime sexual partners, use alcohol or drugs before sex and have unprotected sex, all of which puts them at greater risk for getting a sexually transmitted disease (STD) or becoming pregnant.”
The study found one-third of sexually active students reported engaging in vaginal or anal sex without a condom within the past three months, and one-fourth had four or more partners. The more experienced students in all three types of intercourse were more likely to be male and African-American.
“We need to develop prevention programs that address the needs of students who are not yet sexually active in order to promote skills and attitudes to help them wait until they are older to have sex,” Markham said. “And we need to provide skills and knowledge related to condoms and contraception for youth who are already sexually active.”
The study recommends that sexually active students also need to receive accurate and factual information and services related to STDs and pregnancy testing, as well as skills for future abstention and risk reduction for those who intend to remain sexually active.
More than one-third of youth in the study reported engaging in precoital touching behaviors. Among the students who engaged in precoital behavior, 43 percent reported having engaged in sexual intercourse.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 80 percent of the 435,427 births to mothers ages 15 to 19 were the result of unintended pregnancies. According to the National Vital Statistics Report, birth rates among Hispanic and black teens remain higher than other racial/ethnic groups, including rates among those ages 10 to 14.
In 2000, youth between the ages of 15 and 24 accounted for 9.1 million or 48 percent of all new STD cases, according to a report by the CDC. Minority youth also are disproportionately affected. The CDC’s 2006 STD Surveillance Report stated that minority racial and ethnic populations had higher rates of STDs when compared to whites and, although black teens represent only 17 percent of U.S. teenagers, they account for 70 percent of HIV/AIDS cases reported among teens. “We need more research to develop effective interventions, in particular for youth of color living in underserved areas,” Markham said.
“A common misperception among adolescents is that oral or anal intercourse is not as risky for STD transmission,” said Markham. “But transmission of non-viral and viral STDs can occur through all three types of intercourse when condoms are not used.”
These findings clearly indicate the need for open discussion about sexual health at the middle school level, Markham said. “It is critical that health education teachers and school nurses feel comfortable addressing these issues with their students and that their efforts are supported by parents and the school administration,” she added.
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