Third graders who had the arts integrated into their regular curriculum showed remarkable improvement on standardized test scores

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Third graders who had the arts integrated into their regular curriculum showed remarkable improvement on standardized test scores, researchers have announced. They described what they called an “astonishing” 87-point average gain on the state standardized reading test for third graders in 2010-11.

The Developing Reading Education with Arts Methods, or DREAM, program is in its third year of operation in 10 school districts, funded by a nearly $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, and led by California State University San Marcos and the San Diego County Office of Education.

It trains third- and fourth-grade teachers to integrate the arts into their lessons and sends artists into the classroom to provide weekly coaching.

“By using everything from performance to puppetry, CSUSM faculty helped local elementary school teachers create lessons to boost reading,” said CSUSM President Karen Haynes. “The results are why we are all here today. Standardized test scores for students in the program improved nearly 90 points in just two years … Clearly, using theater to teach literacy is an especially effective tool and one that deserves continued exploration.”

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Number Rockets intervention had a positive effect on math achievement in grade 1

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A new study, Evaluation of Number Rockets: A Tier-2 Intervention for Grade 1 Students at Risk for Difficulties in Mathematics, found that the Number Rockets intervention had a positive effect on math achievement in grade 1, without having a negative effect on reading achievement. Comparison students received regular core mathematics instruction but no additional support.

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High school students test best with 7 hours' rest

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Whether or not you know any high school students that actually get nine hours of sleep each night, that’s what federal guidelines currently prescribe.

A new Brigham Young University study found that 16-18 year olds perform better academically when they shave about two hours off that recommendation.

“We’re not talking about sleep deprivation,” says study author Eric Eide. “The data simply says that seven hours is optimal at that age.”

The new study by Eide and fellow BYU economics professor Mark Showalter is the first in a series of studies where they examine sleep and its impact on our health and education. Surprisingly, the current federal guidelines are based on studies where teens were simply told to keep sleeping until they felt satisfied.

“If you used that same approach for a guideline on how much people should eat, you would put them in a well-stocked pantry and just watch how much they ate until they felt satisfied,” Showalter said. “Somehow that doesn’t seem right.”

In the new study, the BYU researchers tried to connect sleep to a measure of performance or productivity. Analyzing data from a representative sample of 1,724 primary and secondary school students across the country, they found a strong relationship between the amount of sleep youths got and how they fared on standardized tests.

But more sleep isn’t always better. As they report in the Eastern Economics Journal, the right amount of sleep decreases with age:

The optimal for 10-year-olds is 9 – 9.5 hours
The optimal for 12-year-olds is 8 – 8.5 hours
The optimal for 16-year-olds is 7 hours

“We don’t look at it just from a ‘your kid might be sleeping too much’ perspective,” Eide said. “From the other end, if a kid is only getting 5.5 hours of sleep a night because he’s overscheduled, he would perform better if he got 90 minutes more each night.”

The size of the effect on test scores depends on a number of factors, but an 80-minute shift toward the optimum is comparable to the child’s parents completing about one more year of schooling.

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