K-12 Education News

August 18, 2016

DNA Test Predicts Academic Achievement

Academic Success: Character, Genetics Have Role

Students, Teachers: Watch for Contagious Stress

Genetic Variations Tied to Economic Success

Latest Headlines

updated 8:06pm EDT

Study Suggests Early Learning in Native Language Can Help English Skills

Aug. 17, 2016 — Spanish-speaking preschoolers experience significant improvements in their English skills when they have a good grasp of Spanish letters and numbers, research indicates. In another study, the ... read more

School Quality, Genetics Play Role in Child’s Reading Ability

Aug. 10, 2016 — Natural smarts can only take a child so far if they are also attending a poor school, according to new educational ... read more

Positive Teacher-Student Relationships Boost Good Behavior in Teenagers for Up to 4 Years

Aug. 9, 2016 — The first study to look at the impact of the relationship with teachers on adolescent behavior finds that a positive teacher-student relationship can ... read more

Reducing 'Mean Girl' Behaviors in Classrooms Benefits Boys and Teachers Too

Aug. 2, 2016 — When a targeted program to reduce relational aggression among at-risk girls is shared with the entire classroom, the entire class benefits -- not just the aggressive girls for whom the program was ... read more

Creativity, Intermedial Languages as Bridge to Communicate With Autistic Children

July 28, 2016 — This pioneering research using drama with autistic children started with an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project 'Imagining Autism: ... read more

Developmental Differences in Late Preterm Babies May Not Emerge Until After Age Two

July 25, 2016 — Developmental differences in babies born four to six weeks early may not show up until after they turn two, a new study suggests. At age two, late ... read more

Here's Why Run-Down Schools Trigger Low Test Scores

July 21, 2016 — More than 230 New York City public middle schools were involved in a study that found a chain reaction at work: leaking toilets, smelly cafeterias, broken furniture, and run-down classrooms made ... read more

Higher-Income Students Have an Edge When It Comes to Working Memory

July 20, 2016 — Researchers have discovered important differences between lower and higher-income children in their ability to use working memory, a key brain function responsible for everything from remembering a ... read more

Attention Problems in Early Childhood Can Have Lasting Impact

July 6, 2016 — Children with attention problems in early childhood were 40 percent less likely to graduate from high school, says a new study that examines how early childhood characteristics affect academic ... read more

Helping Children With Autism Transfer New Communication Skills from Home to School

June 22, 2016 — A new study is testing whether an intervention with parents and teachers can help children with autism transfer newly acquired social communication ... read more

Music Therapist Makes Recordings With Heartbeats

Medical Schools Tackle Opioid Painkiller Abuse

Mixing Job Training With Academics in Schools

The CDC Says Ads Are Encouraging Teens To Smoke E-Cigarettes

Are Urban Black Males Shortchanged in Classroom?

Aug. 18, 2016 — Giving special treatment to young urban black males in the high school classroom runs the risk of shortchanging these students academically once they get to college, indicates a new ... read more

Negative Attention from Teachers Can Lead to More Negative Student Behaviors

Aug. 8, 2016 — Researchers have developed a new method for observing and measuring teacher interaction with every child in a classroom. As a result of testing this method within K-3 classrooms, they found that ... read more

Kindergarteners' Mathematics Success Hinges on Preschool Skills

Aug. 4, 2016 — Researchers have discovered that preschoolers who better process words associated with numbers and understand the quantities associated with these words are more likely to have success with math when ... read more

In France, Hiring Biases Slightly Favor Women in Male-Dominated STEM Fields

July 28, 2016 — Women enjoy a slight advantage over men when applying to become science teachers in France, a new study ... read more

Report Identifies Ways to Boost Children's Quality of Life Through Outdoor Learning

July 10, 2016 — Outdoor learning can have a significant and positive impact on children's quality of life but needs to be introduced more formally into the school curriculum in order for its potential benefits ... read more

Need Skills? Corporate Volunteering Programs Not Always Best Place to Acquire Them

June 30, 2016 — Corporate volunteering programs are widely credited by business leaders and volunteers for giving participants valuable work-related skills. A new study suggests there is some truth to these claims, ... read more

Blue-Collar Training in High School Leaves Women Behind

June 29, 2016 — What's the best way to prepare high schoolers for jobs in the 21st century? Education leaders and the general public have been debating this question with more heat in recent years, clashing ... read more

Early Behavior Problems Impact Long-Term Educational Attainment More for Boys Than Girls

June 22, 2016 — Behavioral problems in early childhood have a larger negative effect on high school and college completion rates for boys than girls, which partially explains the substantial gender gap in ... read more

Lessons on Personalities Help Teens Cope With Social Stressors, Study Says

June 20, 2016 — Teaching teens that social and personality traits can change helps them cope with social challenges such as bullying, which in turn can help mitigate stress and improve academic performance, ... read more

Simple Numbers Game Seems to Make Kids Better at Math

June 15, 2016 — Although math skills are considered notoriously hard to improve, researchers boosted kindergarteners' arithmetic performance simply by exercising their intuitive number sense with a quick ... read more

Why Teaching Math Is Child's Play

June 14, 2016 — The natural process of teaching mathematics to one another gives kids the chance to explore and construct a deeper understanding of their social and physical worlds, a new study ... read more

Flipped Classrooms Turning STEM Education Upside Down

June 7, 2016 — Given the difficult-to-digest subject matter in many STEM classrooms, educators have customarily relied on traditional lecture-based educational methods where they spend class time walking through ... read more

Preschool Academic Skills Improve Only When Instruction Is Good to Excellent

June 7, 2016 — As the overall quality of instruction in preschool classrooms increases, children experience better outcomes across a range of skills, but the needle only moves on language and reading skills when ... read more

Interracial Friendships Decrease Over Time in Elementary and Middle School

June 6, 2016 — As elementary and middle school students progress in school, they are less likely to have friends of a different race, even from the beginning to the end of a single school year, finds a ... read more

Gender Gap Discovered in Science Exam Performance

June 2, 2016 — Male students in undergraduate introductory biology courses are outperforming females at test time, but it may be due to how exams are designed rather than academic ability, suggests new research. In ... read more

Perceived Values of Education from Young People's Perspectives

June 1, 2016 — Studies of young people’s perceived values of learning has resulted in a theoretical framework that can form the basis for further discussions and means to develop and understand ... read more

Child's Play: Australia's Newest Roboticists See Eye-to-Eye With R2-D2

May 31, 2016 — Children from age 4 can become robot programmers rather than waiting for the higher years in schooling, says an education ... read more

Could Sing-a-Long Science Be the Key to Straight A’s?

May 26, 2016 — Does “edutainment” such as content-rich music videos have any place in the rapidly changing landscape of science education? A new study indicates that students can indeed learn serious science ... read more

Speech-Language Pathologists Can Help Kids Who Struggle to Read

May 25, 2016 — Classroom teachers may not employ the strategies that can help students master complex written language, according to speech-language pathology ... read more

Foreign Language Teachers Facing a Confidence Conundrum

May 18, 2016 — Foreign language teachers play a pivotal role in creating global citizens, but some teachers lack confidence in their ability to speak in their nonnative tongue, which could undermine the quality of ... read more

Thursday, August 18, 2016