June ERR #3

A Fit Body Means a Fit Mind

New findings from biology and education research show that regular exercise benefits the brain in numerous ways. Not only can regular workouts in the gym or on the playground improve attention span, memory, and learning, they can also reduce stress and the effects of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and even delay cognitive decline in old age.

Complete report:

http://www.edutopia.org/exercise-fitness-brain-benefits-learning



Why We’re Behind: What Top Nations Teach Their Students But We Don’t

This an in-depth look into the content of education in nine high-performing nations that consistently outperform the U.S. on international assessments, specifically on PISA: Finland, Hong Kong, South Korea, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Netherlands, and Switzerland.Our research found that one common ingredient among these nations is that they are dedicated to educating their children deeply in a wide range of subjects. Why We’re Behind publishes extended excerpts from national curricula, standards, and assessment practices - documents that can offer lessons to individual states that might want to follow these exceptional models. Here are some examples:

• Fourth graders in Hong Kong visit an artist’s studio, study Picasso’s Guernica, and analyze the works of modernist sculptor Henry Moore.
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• Finnish 5th and 6th graders study how the invention of writing changed human life and the impacts of the French Revolution; they trace a topic such as the evolution of trade from prehistory until the 19th century.
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• Seventh graders in Korea are expected to know not just about supply and demand, but about equilibrium price theories, property rights, and ways to improve market function.
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• Japanese 7th to 9th graders “conduct experiment regarding pressure to discover that pressure is related to the magnitude of a force and the area.”
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• Eighth graders from the Canadian province of Ontario are expected to conduct musicians, create compositions, and know music terms in Italian.
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• Dutch 12th graders must know enough about seven events connected to the Crimean War to be able to put them in chronological order.
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• Canadian 12th graders in British Columbia are expected to identify the author of the words: “Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men” and to what Admiral Nimitz was referring when he said: “Pearl Harbor has now been partially avenged.”
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• On a Swiss exam 12th graders write an essay analyzing JFK’s October 1962 proclamation that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Full report:

http://www.commoncore.org/_docs/CCreport_whybehind.pdf


STILL AT RISK. – What Students Don’t Know Even Now

A new survey of 17-year-olds reveals that, to many, the paragraph above sounds only slightly strange. Almost 20 percent of 1,200 respondents to a national telephone survey do not know who our enemy was in World War II, and more than a quarter think Columbus sailed after 1750. Half do not know whom Sen. McCarthy investigated or what the Renaissance was.

Full report:

http://www.commoncore.org/_docs/CCreport_stillatrisk.pdf



Top Researchers: Evidence Points to School Voucher Effectiveness

School voucher programs increase student achievement and satisfy parents, according to four top researchers who spoke out in Washington recently to highlight the findings of key school choice studies.

Considered four of America’s foremost experts on education research, Jay Greene, Grover “Russ” Whitehurst, Patrick Wolf, and Patrick Stewart revealed key data and perspectives yesterday from more than a dozen school choice initiatives.

The discussion was a timely gathering in light of the Congressional debate over the future of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. This program—a federally-funded initiative—allows low-income District families to receive a scholarship to attend a participating private school of their parents’ choice.

In all, the researchers indicated that when it comes to school choice, the results have been overwhelmingly favorable—and plentiful.

“There is more research on vouchers than any other education policy,” Green said,” This research meets standards of quality like publication, peer review, and replication.”

In terms of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program, studies of the program have been closely monitored and are, according to lead investigator Patrick Wolf, “as rigorous as we could make them.” Wolf investigated the program for two independent reports released by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute for Educational Sciences.

Grover “Russ” Whitehurst, who headed IES until moving to the Brookings Institute earlier this year, vouched for the validity of the D.C. research, calling it “an attempt to compare apples to apples, and carefully.”

In terms of results, Wolf said that the D.C. program shows significant achievement gains among students, as well as extremely high parental satisfaction rates.

Parents of students in the D.C. program, Wolf said, “viewed private schools as safer, more orderly, and more disciplined.” Wolf said that students who were offered vouchers demonstrated 3.7 months of additional learning in reading than their public school peers.

Patrick Stewart, a researcher who conducted extensive evaluations of families in the D.C. program, concurred, saying that the program has also led to “increase involvement by parents because of increased involvement by private schools” to engage them.

Stewart said that a reading of school choice research must include factors that complement student learning, such as feelings of safety. The parents in the D.C. program care about test scores and school success but equally want to “find a safe place for their children.”

Reviewing the overall body of research on school choice programs—18 exist across 10 states and the District of Columbia—Greene said that no studies have demonstrated that school vouchers have a negative impact on student learning, with most studies showing “a higher level of achievement in students.”

“The evidence clearly suggests that voucher programs help kids who participate and also help kids who don’t,” Greene said, referencing the benefits of competition resulting from school choice programs.

Whitehurst cautioned that policymakers should analyze data before making decisions about the future of programs, and that advocates on both sides of the school choice debate should not “cherry-pick” positive or negative aspects of reports to make their cases.

“It would be good if people who oppose vouchers—regardless of the evidence—would say why they really do oppose them,” Whitehurst said, adding that supporters must live by the same credo.



New Global Education Research Program Created



The Global Education Research Program is an initiative that will analyze and measure the impact of technology on students’ educational experiences at various levels, ranging from first grade through higher education, both inside and outside the classroom.

Educational institutions have embraced using technology such as PCs, multimedia materials and interactive white boards in the classroom over the past decade to help students develop 21st century skills and to connect administrators and streamline district operations. The new Lenovo initiative aims to gain a complete view of the role and impact of technology in all aspects of the learning environment. The research will benefit Lenovo’s existing and future education customers and programs by helping to outline clear actions and best practices for national, provincial and local governments to improve their use of technology in education. The Program kicks off during Lenovo’s 12th annual Think Tank education conference hosted this year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, NC on June 1-3.

Lenovo Taps Top Education Talent to Drive Research

Lenovo has leveraged its global network of customers and partners to create a network of education centers that will contribute the best practices in education and across all disciplines, in and out of the traditional classroom. Initial program participants include the following centers:

University of North Carolina Center for Faculty Excellence, Chapel Hill, NC – The University's established faculty center will immediately begin developing and evaluating new faculty development strategies necessary to support instructional innovation. Beginning September 2009, UNC faculty will be awarded grants from Lenovo to research the efficacy of technology in teaching, learning and assessment.

Institute for International Leadership, Honolulu, HI – Going live in July 2010, the Institute for International Leadership will bring together top schools in the U.S. and China to foster a multinational, multilingual online learning framework driven by technology. The Institute will promote leadership development in academics and in public service for secondary school students and teachers and encourage international collaboration.

Tiger Woods Learning Center, Anaheim, CA – Launched in February 2006, the Tiger Woods Learning Center is a one-of-a-kind life experience custom built for underserved youth. The Center is technology-rich, innovative and motivates students who are imaginative, engaged and planning their paths to college and a career. This after school campus, designed to inspire career exploration, serves members in grades five through twelve. Classes include forensic science, robotics, engineering, aerospace, video production and marine biology.

The Lenovo Global Education Research Program will conduct both quantitative and qualitative studies using an updated set of criteria defined by the consortium and that are relevant to the skills students must possess to be successful in today’s society. Each center will be led by members of the center as well as an esteemed body of academic advisors and Lenovo education practice experts.

Lenovo is developing the Global Education Research Centers in partnership with Microsoft and Intel.

Building Upon a Foundation Based on PC Technology

At the core of the Global Education Research Program are Lenovo PCs which have been in classrooms for many years. Lenovo works with more than 400 colleges, universities and schools for 1:1 PC deployments across the U.S. and as part of the ThinkPad Universities program. Lenovo tailors its PC solutions to fit their needs with options such as the ThinkPad Ultimate Academic PC Program. This program packages ThinkPad laptops powered by Intel® Centrino® 2 Processor Technology with Microsoft Vista Ultimate, Microsoft Office Ultimate and other software for an affordable solution. Lenovo also works with thousands of primary and secondary schools to integrate PC technology into curriculums with laptops, desktops and recently with netbooks, such as the IdeaPad S10e netbook designed for education. Lenovo also offers schools information and services regarding the U.S. federal economic stimulus solution.

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June ERR #2

Large Gender Gap in Teens Interested in Computing as a Career; NSF-Funded Study Confirms Low Interest Among Girls, But High Interest Among College-Bound African American and Hispanic Teens

An interim report issued by ACM (http://www.acm.org/) and the WGBH Educational Foundation (http://www.wgbh.org/) as part of a project to improve the image of computer science among high school students confirms a significant gender gap among college-bound students in their opinions of computing as a possible college major or career. The research, funded by the National Science Foundation, found that 74 percent of boys - regardless of race or ethnicity - reported that a college major in computer science was a "very good" or "good" choice for them, but only 10 percent of girls rated it as "very good" choice and 22 percent rated it as "good." The report, which covers the first phase of the New Image for Computing (NIC) initiative, seeks to answer why interest in studying computer science in U.S. colleges and pursuing computer-related careers is declining.

"We know that the number of computer science majors is not meeting projected workforce needs," said John White (ttp://www.acm.org/about/bios#Executive percent20Director), ACM CEO and co-principal investigator for the project. "Many factors contribute to the low interest in computer science, but the image of the field is a key element in current perceptions among this population."

The gender gap extended to computer science as a potential career choice as well as a field of study. From a selection of 15 possible careers, computer science came in fourth among the respondents with 46 percent rating it "very good" or "good." However, while 67 percent of all boys rated computer science highly as a career choice, only nine percent of girls rated it "very good" and 17 percent rated it "good."

In an unexpected finding, the research showed little racial/ethnic differentiation in young people's attitudes toward computer science. In fact, computer science was held in high regard by college-bound African American and Hispanic boys, but these two groups remain underrepresented in both academia and the computer science workforce. The reported concluded that the image issue might not apply in these cases. ACM and WGBH indicated they would seek separate support to explore this finding further.

The report, based on a nationwide online survey of 1,406 college-bound teens in late 2008, was developed in response to a UCLA study (http://www.heri.ucla.edu/) that found the number of undergraduates choosing a computer science major was down 70 percent from 2000 - 2007. In addition, a 2007 Computer Research Association (CRA) Taulbee Survey (http://www.cra.org/govaffairs/blog/archives) reported double-digit declines in enrollments for graduate degrees.

NIC is currently in the first stage of a planned multi-phase project aimed at understanding the attitudes held by high school students toward the study of computing in college and potential computing careers. The project will also create a set of market-tested messages that resonate with young people to reshape the way computer science is portrayed and perceived by that age group.

White cited a finding from a 2006 conference sponsored by the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (http://www.acm.org/education) that 80 percent of today's college freshman - the very students that grew up with computers - said they had no idea what computer science majors actually do. "The results of this initiative will provide us with the tools to turn around the misplaced notions and lack of information that surround the world of computing and reinforce the critical and exciting role computing plays driving innovation in a global economy," said White.

For more information on this report and survey results, visit the ACM Web site http://www.acm.org/membership/NIC.pdf





U of Minnesota study says confusion reigns over whole-grain claims in school lunches



While most nutrition experts agree that school lunches should include more whole-grain products, a new study from the University of Minnesota finds that food-service workers lack understanding and the resources to meet that goal.

The study, which involved school food-service directors from across Minnesota, appears in the current issue of the Journal of Child Nutrition and Management. Because they serve so many meals to children each day, school food-service directors have a major influence on students' food choices and in turn their overall health, the authors note.

Most experts recommend at least three servings of whole-grain foods a day, but American children fall far short of that goal, averaging about one serving per day.

The U of M researchers found that while food-service workers are aware of the health benefits of whole-grain foods, they aren't always sure whether a food product meets whole-grain criteria. The directors also cited higher costs and difficulty finding vendors who sold whole-grain products.

The latest study is part of an ongoing series in which researchers from the university are measuring awareness of whole grains and testing ways to incorporate them into children's diets, particularly in school nutrition programs.

"The goal is to remove confusion surrounding the definition of a whole-grain food and to provide simple standards to follow when ordering whole grain products for school meals," said Len Marquart, the project's lead researcher and an assistant professor in the university's food science and nutrition department. "This will require working together--enhanced communication among vendors, distributors and manufacturers along with key players in government, industry and school foodservice."



Diploma Isn't the Final Solution to the Dropout Crisis

Recent graduates from Philadelphia's public high schools had higher employment rates and higher annual earnings than their classmates who dropped out, but many of them still did not have incomes above the federal poverty line, according to a new study from the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University. The report suggests that although it is essential to increase high school graduation rates, "without additional postsecondary education, the effect of a high school diploma on lives and livelihoods may be rather limited."

"Untapped Potential: Early Labor Market Outcomes of Dropouts and Graduates from Philadelphia's Public Schools," by Johns Hopkins' researchers Ruth Curran Neild and Christopher Boccanfuso, looks at employment and earnings in Pennsylvania's formal economy for students in Philadelphia's Classes of 2000-2005. The full report is available at http://www.every1graduates.org/UntappedPotential/index.html .

The study shows that only 35 percent of the dropouts from the classes of 2000 to 2005 had any earnings in Pennsylvania in 2006, compared to almost half of the graduates. "For those dropouts who were employed, work was typically episodic and annual incomes low: The average employed dropout worked just 25 weeks during the year, earning just more than $9,000," according to the study. Those with diplomas averaged approximately $12,000 in annual income during 2006. Both dropouts and graduates with no postsecondary education were most likely to be employed in restaurants, security and janitorial services, and institutions that provide care for the elderly, ill and disabled.

Despite the importance to the city of knowing how its recent graduates and dropouts fare in the labor market, it is difficult to access these data. This new research draws on a unique data set that merges student academic records from the School District of Philadelphia and quarterly data on employment and earnings kept by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. The report was prepared for Project U-Turn, a citywide campaign to resolve Philadelphia's high school dropout crisis.

"Untapped Potential" reports on the same cohorts of students described in "Unfulfilled Promise," a 2006 report on high school graduation rates in Philadelphia issued by Johns Hopkins and Project U-Turn. This new study provides two views of labor market outcomes: a description of employment and earnings in 2006, the most current year for which data is available, and an examination of the work experiences of the class of 2000 over multiple years. The report also provides detailed data on employment and earnings by race/ethnicity and gender. Among dropouts, African American and White females were most likely to be employed in Pennsylvania's formal economy. The lowest rates were for Asian males and females, but these groups had the highest mean earnings.

As students move into early adulthood, the earnings differential by education increases. High school graduates experience greater earnings growth than dropouts, but the upward slope is much steeper for those with at least some postsecondary education. Further, six years after their anticipated high school graduation date (June 2000), employed dropouts were still weakly attached to the formal labor market, working during an average of 26 weeks.

"'Untapped Potential' illustrates that students in the School District of Philadelphia who did not progress to postsecondary education after high school were marginally more prepared than high school dropouts for Pennsylvania's 21st century labor market," said study author Boccanfuso. "That the gap in annual earnings between individuals with postsecondary education and those without expanded over the six years studied demonstrates that the effects of education on earnings were both significant and long lasting."

Because of this, the report urges schools and communities to think seriously about not only keeping students on the path to graduation but also helping them make a successful transition into postsecondary training and the work world.



Post-High School Outcomes of Youth with Disabilities up to 4 Years After High School



This report uses data from the third wave of data collection from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2) to provide information on youth with disabilities who had been out of secondary school up to 4 years in several key domains, including: (1) postsecondary education enrollment and educational experiences; (2) employment status and characteristics of youth's current or most recent job; (3) productive engagement in school, work, or preparation for work; (4) household circumstance (e.g., residential independence; parenting; and aspects of their financial independence); and (5) social and community involvement. The NLTS2, initiated in 2001 and funded by NCSER, has a nationally representative sample of more than 11,000 students with disabilities.



Full report:

http://ies.ed.gov/ncser/pdf/20093017.pdf

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June ERR #1

Retained elementary students often do not get special education plan


Many children who are retained in kindergarten, first or third grade for academic reasons do not subsequently receive a document outlining the individualized special education services they should receive, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Each year, 5 percent to 10 percent of American students are retained at the same grade level, according to background information in the article. One in 10 students age 16 to 19 have repeated a grade. "Some of these students may require special education services at the time they are retained, in subsequent years or both," the authors write. "One approach to supporting a child with low academic achievement is the provision of special education services, as indicated in an Individualized Education Program (IEP). An IEP is a legally binding document describing a child's special education services and is developed after the child has undergone a special evaluation and has been determined eligible for services."

Eligibility for an IEP varies from state to state, but under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, every American child has the right to an evaluation. Michael Silverstein, M.D., M.P.H., of Boston Medical Center, and colleagues studied 380 children nationwide who were retained in elementary school for academic reasons (300 in kindergarten or first grade and 80 in third grade). The children were followed up through fifth grade.

Of the children retained in kindergarten or first grade, 40 (12.9 percent) had an IEP on record during the year they were held back, 60 (18.2 percent) received an IEP in the next one to five years and 210 (68.9 percent) never received an IEP. Twenty (18.9 percent) of the third-graders had an IEP during or before the year they were retained, 10 (8.8 percent) received one in the next one to two years and 60 (72.3 percent) never received one.

Children retained in kindergarten and first grade were less likely to have an IEP if they had a high socioeconomic status or lived in the suburbs rather than rural areas. "Among kindergarten/first grade retainees with persistently low academic achievement in math and reading, as assessed by standardized testing, 38.2 percent and 29.7 percent, respectively, never received an IEP," the authors write.

"Although debates about the value of grade retention abound, the practice, in and of itself, has never been demonstrated to be an effective intervention relative to subsequent academic achievement or socioemotional adjustment," the authors write. "Therefore, some experts in the field believe that retention should be accompanied by focused individualized assessments of children's special education needs. Although our results do not definitely demonstrate that retained children have been denied their rights to such assessments, they raise the question of whether the potential special education needs of retained children, particularly those who demonstrate persistent academic difficulties, are being addressed consistently."



Nation's Schools Failing to Assess Teacher Effectiveness, Treating Teachers as Interchangeable Parts

Study Describes “Widget Effect,” Which Prevents Schools from Recognizing Excellence, Providing Support, or Removing Ineffective Teachers

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, U.S. Representative George Miller (D-CA) Join in Call for Overhaul of Teacher Evaluation Systems and Policies Governing Use of Evaluation Ratings

The New Teacher Project

America’s schools operate in a policy environment that assumes all teachers are the same, according to a comprehensive study by The New Teacher Project (TNTP), a national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that all students get excellent teachers. Though a teacher’s effectiveness is singularly important to student success, schools do not distinguish great teaching from good, good from fair, or fair from poor, and a teacher’s effectiveness in helping students to succeed academically almost never factors into critical decisions such as how teachers are hired, developed or retained.

This pervasive indifference to teacher performance is fundamentally disrespectful to teachers and gambles with the lives of students. It means that excellent teaching goes unrecognized, hard-working teachers who could improve are ignored, and poor performance goes unaddressed.

The Widget Effect: Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in Teacher Effectiveness is the product of an extensive and collaborative research effort to quantify this fundamental problem and offer solutions for school districts and policymakers.

“Effective teachers who are fairly compensated are vital ingredients in the reforms our schools need,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “Schools need to have evaluation systems that fairly and accurately identify effective teachers.”

"If we expect every child to receive a world-class education, we must provide teachers with the fair compensation and opportunities they deserve," said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. "This includes a thorough and meaningful evaluation process. Education is key to a lasting economic recovery; building a professional, well-rewarded and appreciated teaching workforce is in the best interest of both our students and our economic future."

The two-year research project spanned four states—Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois and Ohio—and 12 diverse districts, ranging in enrollment from 4,000 to over 400,000 students. TNTP analyzed survey responses from over 15,000 teachers and 1,300 principals, and data from more than 40,000 teacher evaluation records. Advisory panels in each state—including over 50 district and state officials and 25 teachers’ union representatives—actively informed the research, and panel members’ written responses to the study are available, unedited, on the report website (www.widgeteffect.org).

The study illustrates that teacher evaluation systems reflect and codify the “Widget Effect”—the tendency of school districts to treat teachers as essentially interchangeable—in several major ways:

• All teachers are rated “good” or “great.” Less than 1 percent of teachers receive unsatisfactory ratings, even in schools where students fail to meet basic academic standards, year after year.
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• Excellence goes unrecognized. In districts with more than two ratings, 94 percent of teachers receive one of the top two. When superlative ratings are the norm, truly exceptional teachers cannot be formally identified. Nor can they be compensated, promoted or retained on a systemic basis.
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• Professional development is inadequate. Almost 3 in 4 teachers did not receive any specific feedback on improving their performance in their last evaluation.
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• Novice teachers are neglected. Low expectations for beginning teachers translate into benign neglect in the classroom and a toothless tenure process.
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• Poor performance goes unaddressed. Half of the districts studied have not dismissed a single tenured teacher for poor performance in the past five years. None dismiss more than a few each year.
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“Improving instructional quality is the cornerstone of successful school reform,” said Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen. “This report clearly shows that states must revisit their evaluation of educators - just as we have revisited assessments for students - to ensure great results. Every teacher deserves to have an evaluation process that will strengthen their skills in the classroom.”

According to the study, the Widget Effect is deeply ingrained in the fundamental policies that determine the composition and quality of the nation’s teacher workforce. To reverse the Widget Effect, evaluation systems must generate accurate and credible information about each teacher’s effectiveness in realizing student academic success. This information must then be used drive professional development and inform decision-making throughout the school district. Effective teaching must be recognized; ineffective teaching must be addressed. The study offers four major recommendations:

• Adopt a performance evaluation system that fairly, accurately and credibly differentiates teachers based on their effectiveness promoting student achievement.
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• Train administrators and other evaluators in the teacher performance evaluation system and hold them accountable for using it fairly and effectively.
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• Integrate the performance evaluation system with critical human capital policies and functions such as teacher assignment, professional development, compensation, retention and dismissal.
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• Address consistently ineffective teaching through dismissal policies that provide lower-stakes options for ineffective teachers to exit the district and a system of due process that is fair but efficient.
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“Enacting these common-sense recommendations will require uprooting decades of ingrained complacency about teacher performance,” said Daniel Weisberg, a study co-author and Vice President of Policy for TNTP. “But we can’t afford to wait. When an excellent teacher leaves, an entire school suffers. When a poor performer remains year after year, whole classrooms of children fall behind, sometimes forever. This is happening every day, in thousands of schools around the country. We have to stop treating teachers like widgets.”

Taken together, the recommendations represent a comprehensive approach to improving instructional effectiveness and maximizing student learning. But the study emphasizes that they cannot be implemented piecemeal; adopting some while ignoring others will not reverse the Widget Effect or close the achievement gap that has long disadvantaged poor and minority students.

“The current political climate creates an incredible opportunity for districts and states to tackle the Widget Effect head on,” said Ariela Rozman, CEO of The New Teacher Project. “President Obama and Secretary Duncan are putting an unprecedented focus on teacher effectiveness, and the economic recovery package includes substantial education funding for states and districts to implement new policies on this issue. Now it is up to everyone committed to the success of our students – teachers, administrators, policymakers – to turn a new page on an old problem. It’s time to treat our teachers like the professionals they are – if we care about the success of our students, we have to start caring about the success of their teachers.”

The Widget Effect: Our National Failure to Acknowledge and Act on Differences in Teacher Effectiveness is available at:



http://www.widgeteffect.org/downloads/TheWidgetEffect.pdf





Gender, Culture, and Mathematics Performance


Sociocultural Factors Determine Math Success, Not Gender


Using contemporary data from the U.S. and other nations, the authors of this study address 3 questions: Do gender differences in mathematics performance exist in the general population? Do gender differences exist among the mathematically talented? Do females exist who possess profound mathematical talent?

In regard to the first question, contemporary data indicate that girls in the U.S. have reached parity with boys in mathematics performance, a pattern that is found in some other nations as well.

Focusing on the second question, studies find more males than females scoring above the 95th or 99th percentile, but this gender gap has significantly narrowed over time in the U.S. and is not found among some ethnic groups and in some nations. Furthermore, data from several studies indicate that greater male variability with respect to mathematics is not ubiquitous. Rather, its presence correlates with several measures of gender inequality. Thus, it is largely an artifact of changeable sociocultural factors, not immutable, innate biological differences between the sexes.

Responding to the third question, the authors of this study document the existence of females who possess profound mathematical talent.

Finally, the authors of this study review mounting evidence that both the magnitude of mean math gender differences and the frequency of identification of gifted and profoundly gifted females significantly correlate with sociocultural factors, including measures of gender equality across nations.

Full study: (This item requires a subscription to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.)

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/06/01/0901265106.full.pdf+html?sid=f5139f7e-6026-44d4-b0a8-5dbaafd3b28b



Longer high-stakes tests may result in a sense of mental fatigue, but not in lower test scores



Spending hours taking a high-pressure aptitude test may make people feel mentally fatigued, but that fatigue doesn't necessarily lead to lower test scores, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. If anything, performance might actually improve on a longer test, the study found.

"The experience of fatigue during testing does not appear to be, in and of itself, detrimental to test performance," said co-authors Phillip Ackerman, PhD, and Ruth Kanfer, PhD.

The study, in the June Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, stemmed from concerns that when taking longer tests over several hours in one sitting, students would feel increasingly fatigued, and, in turn, perform worse. High-stakes tests are typically used for admission to college and to regulated professions such as medicine, law and accounting.

Cognitive fatigue -- a sense of being mentally worn out or exhausted -- is actually only partly determined by the length of the test, according to the research. Some people simply seem to feel it more than others in situations that demand prolonged concentration and mental effort.

In the study, 239 freshman college students from the Atlanta area took three different versions of the SAT Reasoning Test. Under conditions simulating the actual exam, with start times of 8 A.M. on three consecutive Saturdays, the students completed tests specially constructed for three different durations: 3.5, 4.5 and 5.5 hours. (The current SAT is 3.75 hours of testing over a 4.5-hour session. In this study, the short version of the test had one less of the verbal, math and writing sections; the long version had one more of each. Otherwise, the tests were the same.) Students received a cash bonus if they beat their previous SAT scores.

Before, during and after each test, students completed a questionnaire designed to asses their mood, emotions, confidence, subjective fatigue and more. As expected, the longer they worked on a test, the more the students reported mental fatigue. At the end of 5.5 hours of testing, students reported high levels of fatigue.

However, even though students reported greater fatigue for longer tests, their average performance for both the standard and long tests was significantly higher than for the short test. In fact, the short-form average score was 1,209 out of a possible 1,600; the standard-form average score was 1,222; and the long-form average score was 1,237. Scoring was weighted to make performance comparable across the different length tests.

"A difference of 28 points, as shown between the short and long sessions, would be meaningful, especially if a student's on the borderline for an admission cutoff," Ackerman said.

So why do some test-takers report more fatigue? Personality comes into play, Ackerman and Kanfer found. Students who reported more fatigue for the long tests also were likely to report more fatigue for the standard and short tests. They even were more likely to report fatigue before they started the tests. The students' fatigue was less related to how much sleep they had the night before than to individual differences in stable clusters of personality traits, such as achievement motivation and competitiveness (less fatigue) and neuroticism and anxiety (more fatigue).

In other words, test length may not matter; some people are just plain more likely to feel testing fatigue. "Fatigue appears to be more about the individual's expectations of and prior experience with testing than about the length of the test," Ackerman concluded.

The authors said that there is much to learn about how students regulate their effort to achieve higher scores despite longer test sessions. "One possibility is that more students respond to feelings of fatigue by increasing rather than decreasing their effort," said Ackerman.

Given the increasing reliance by schools, employers and certification boards on long high-stakes tests, Ackerman and Kanfer hope that knowing that cognitive fatigue probably won't hurt scores will encourage more students to take these tests, which serve as gateways to opportunity. However, the authors suggest that future test-takers complete entire practice tests in a single sitting, so that they know how they might feel when they take the actual test.

(Full text of the article is available at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/xap152-ackerman-kanfer.pdf)

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