“Double-dose” algebra has positive long-term effects

A new study focuses on “double-dose” algebra, in which struggling students are given twice as much instructional time as they would normally receive. The study examined the impact of Chicago Public School's double-dose algebra policy on such longer-run outcomes as advanced math course work and performance, ACT scores, high-school graduation rates, and college enrollment rates. Using data that track students from 8th grade through college enrollment, the researchers analyzed the effect of this innovative policy by comparing the outcomes for students just above and just below the double-dose threshold. These two groups of students are nearly identical in terms of academic skills and other characteristics, but differ in the extent to which they were exposed to this new approach to algebra. Comparing the two groups thus provides unusually rigorous evidence on the policy’s impact.

This study provides the first evidence of positive and substantial long-run impacts of intensive math instruction on college entrance exam scores, high school graduation rates, and college enrollment rates. The resaarchers also show that the intervention was most successful for students with relatively high math skills but relatively low reading skills. Although the intervention was not particularly effective for the average affected student, the fact that it improved high school graduation and college enrollment rates for even a subset of low-performing and at-risk students is extraordinarily promising when targeted at the appropriate students. In this case, those were students with only moderately low math skills but below-average reading skills.

This double-dose strategy has become an increasingly popular way to aid students struggling in mathematics. Today, nearly half of large urban districts in the United States report double math instruction as the most common form of support for students with lower skills. The central concern of urban school districts is that algebra may be a gateway for later academic success, so early high-school failure in math may have large effects on subsequent academic achievement and graduation rates. With the current policy environment calling for “algebra for all” in 9th grade or earlier, effective and proactive intervention is particularly critical for those who lack foundational mathematical skills. A successful early intervention may be the best way to boost students’ long-term academic success.

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Low literacy rates in pre-teen girls significantly predict child-bearing among teenagers in the US

Supporting previous research, it has been confirmed that independent of other influences, low literacy rates in pre-teen girls significantly predict child-bearing among teenagers in the US, according to a new study presented at the American Public Health Association's 140th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

This is the first research of its kind to analyze the possible link with literacy among US pre-teens and teen child-bearing. The team of researchers, from the University of Pennsylvania, found a connection between 12,339 girls' seventh-grade reading scores enrolled in Philadelphia Public Schools, to subsequent birth records between 1996-2002.

Findings of their analysis showed that girls with less-than-average reading levels were two and a half times more likely to give birth in their earlier teens, compared with those that had average reading levels.

Twenty-one percent of girls with below-average reading levels had one live birth during the six-year examination period, while three percent of girls with below-average reading levels had two or more live births within that period.

On the other hand, only 12 percent of girls with average reading skills had one live birth and one percent had two or more live births. Of the girls with above average reading skills, five percent had one live birth and 0.4 percent had two or more live births.

This study also measured racial inconsistencies in literacy as a factor to teenage pregnancy. A higher percentage of African American and Hispanic girls had below-average reading skill group.

Also, the results of low literacy on risk of giving birth as teenagers was greater in Hispanic and African American girls than those who identified themselves as white. The authors suggest that poor reading skills in early grades are much harder to change, and foretell later decisions to quit formal education.

Rosemary Frasso, PhD, researcher at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, says:

"It is quite possible that adolescent girls who experience a daily sense of rejection in the classroom might feel as though they have little chance of achievement later on in life. Our findings underscore the role of literacy as its own social risk factor throughout the life-course."


The investigators conclude that health care professionals involved with pre-teen girls should evaluate literacy when giving contraceptive and other reproductive health services to this population. Previous studies have recommended prevention programs, such as sexual health education, contraceptive use, and the distribution of free condoms in schools.

This study will appear in the February 2013 addition of Contraception.

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Anxiety About Math Activates Pain Networks In Brain

Fear of math can activate regions of the brain linked with the experience of physical pain and visceral threat detection, according to research published Oct 31 by Ian Lyons and colleagues at the University of Chicago in the open access journal PLOS ONE.

The researchers found that in individuals who experience high levels of anxiety when facing math tasks, the anticipation of math increases activity in regions of the brain associated with the physical sensation of pain. The higher an individual's math anxiety, the more such neural activity was increased.

According to the researchers, "We provide the first neural evidence indicating the nature of the subjective experience of math-anxiety."

Previous research has shown that other forms of psychological stress, such as social rejection or a traumatic break-up, can also elicit feelings of physical pain. However, the current study examines the pain response associated with anticipating an anxiety-provoking event, rather than the pain associated with a stressful event itself.

This new research suggests that simply anticipating an unpleasant event may be associated with the activation of neural regions involved in processing physical pain. The authors say their results indicate that it is not the performance of a mathematical task that elicits this reaction, but merely the anticipation of math. These results provide a potential neural basis for the observation that individuals with high math anxiety tend to avoid math-related situations, including avoiding classes or math-related careers.

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