NASET.org Home Page

NASET News Alert

Learn More in Kindergarten, Earn More as an Adult

Thursday 19. of August 2010

There isn't a lot of research that links early childhood test scores to earnings as an adult. But new research reveals a surprising finding: Students who learn more in kindergarten earn more as adults. They are also more successful overall. Harvard University economist John Friedman says he and a group of colleagues found that students who progress during their kindergarten year from attaining an average score on the Stanford Achievement Test to attaining a score in the 60th percentile can expect to make about $1,000 more a year at age 27 than students whose scores remain average. Taking into account all variation across kindergarten classes, including class size, individuals who learn more--as measured by an above-average score on the Stanford Achievement Test--and are in smaller classes earn about $2,000 more per year at age 27. To read more, click here 

Delayed School Start Time Associated With Improvements in Adolescent Behaviors

Monday 12. of July 2010

A short delay in school start time appears to be associated with significant improvements in adolescent alertness, mood and health, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Beginning at the onset of puberty, adolescents develop as much as a two-hour sleep-wake phase delay (later sleep onset and wake times) relative to sleep-wake cycles in middle childhood," the authors write as background to the study. The study also notes that, "adolescent sleep needs do not decrease dramatically, and optimal sleep amounts remain about nine to 9 1/4 hours per night."

Judith A. Owens, M.D., M.P.H., of the Hasbro Children's Hospital, Providence, and colleagues, studied 201 students in grades 9 through 12 attending an independent high school in Rhode Island. For the purposes of the study, class start time was delayed 30 minutes, from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Additionally, students were required to complete the online retrospective Sleep Habits Survey before and after the change in school start time.

To read more, click here

Language Dysfunction in Children May Be Due to Epileptic Brain Activity

Thursday 29. of April 2010

Epileptic activity in the brain can affect language development in children, and EEG registrations should therefore be carried out more frequently on children with severe language impairment to identify more readily those who may need medical treatment, reveals a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg. The thesis studied 60 children of varying ages, divided into groups. The first group comprised children with language dysfunction, for example children with slow speech development who find it difficult to express themselves or who have an inadequate langugage comprehension. To read more, click here

President Obama to Send Updated Elementary and Secondary Education Act Blueprint To Congress March 15th, 2010

Monday 15. of March 2010

WASHINGTON – In his weekly address, President Barack Obama announced that on Monday, his administration will send to Congress the blueprint for an updated Elementary and Secondary Education Act that will overhaul No Child Left Behind.  The plan will set the ambitious goal of ensuring that all students graduate from high school prepared for college and a career, and it will provide states, districts and schools with the flexibility and resources to reach that goal.

The audio and video is available online at www.whitehouse.gov . 

Remarks of President Barack Obama

"Lost in the news of the week was a headline that ought to be a source of concern for every American.  It said, “Many Nations Passing U.S. in Education.”   Now, debates in Washington tend to be consumed with the politics of the moment: who’s up in the daily polls; whose party stands to gain in November.  But what matters to you – what matters to our country – is not what happens in the next election, but what we do to lift up the next generation.  And the fact is, there are few issues that speak more directly to our long term success as a nation than issues concerning the education we provide to our children. 

Our prosperity in the 20th century was fueled by an education system that helped grow the middle class and unleash the talents of our people more fully and widely than at any time in our history.  We built schools and focused on the teaching of math and science.  We helped a generation of veterans go to college through the GI Bill.  We led the globe in producing college graduates, and in turn we led in producing ground-breaking technologies and scientific discoveries that lifted living standards and set us apart as the world’s engine of innovation.

Of course, other nations recognize this, and are looking to gain an edge in the global marketplace by investing in better schools, supporting teachers, and committing to clear standards that will produce graduates with more skills.  Our competitors understand that the nation that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow.  Yet, too often we have failed to make inroads in reforming and strengthening our public education system – the debate mired in worn arguments hurled across entrenched divides.

As a result, over the last few decades, we’ve lost ground.  One assessment shows American fifteen year olds no longer even near the top in math and science when compared to their peers around the world.  As referenced in the news report I mentioned, we’ve now fallen behind most wealthy countries in our high school graduation rates.  And while we once led the world in the proportion of college graduates we produced, today we no longer do.

Not only does that risk our leadership as a nation, it consigns millions of Americans to a lesser future.  For we know that the level of education a person attains is increasingly a prerequisite for success and a predictor of the income that person will earn throughout his or her life.  Beyond the economic statistics is a less tangible but no less painful reality: unless we take action – unless we step up – there are countless children who will never realize their full talent and potential.

I don’t accept that future for them.  And I don’t accept that future for the United States of America.  That’s why we’re engaged in a historic effort to redeem and improve  our public  schools: to raise the expectations for our students and for ourselves, to recognize and reward excellence, to improve performance in troubled schools, and to give our kids and our country the best chance to succeed in a changing world.

Under the leadership of an outstanding Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, we launched a Race to the Top, through which states compete for funding by committing to reform and raising standards, by rewarding good teaching, by supporting the development of better assessments to measure results, and by emphasizing math and science to help prepare children for college and careers.

And on Monday, my administration will send to Congress our blueprint for an updated Elementary and Secondary Education Act to overhaul No Child Left Behind.  What this plan recognizes is that while the federal government can play a leading role in encouraging the reforms and high standards we need, the impetus for that change will come from states, and from local schools and school districts.  So, yes, we set a high bar – but we also provide educators the flexibility to reach it. 

Under these guidelines, schools that achieve excellence or show real progress will be rewarded, and local districts will be encouraged to commit to change in schools that are clearly letting their students down.  For the majority of schools that fall in between – schools that do well but could do better – we will encourage continuous improvement to help keep our young people on track for a bright future: prepared for the jobs of the 21st century. And because the most important factor in a child’s success is the person standing at the front of the classroom, we will better prepare teachers, support teachers, and encourage teachers to stay in the field.  In short, we’ll treat the people who educate our sons and daughters like the professionals they are.

Through this plan we are setting an ambitious goal: all students should graduate from high school prepared for college and a career – no matter who you are or where you come from.  Achieving this goal will be difficult. It will take time.  And it will require the skills, talents, and dedication of many: principals, teachers, parents, students.  But this effort is essential for our children and for our country.  And while there will always be those cynics who claim it can’t be done, at our best, we know that America has always risen to the challenges that we’ve faced.  This challenge is no different.

As a nation, we are engaged in many important endeavors: improving the economy, reforming the health care system, encouraging innovation in energy and other growth industries of the 21st century.  But our success in these efforts – and our success in the future as a people – will ultimately depend on what happens long before an entrepreneur opens his doors, or a nurse walks the rounds, or a scientist steps into her laboratory.  Our future is determined each and every day, when our children enter the classroom, ready to learn and brimming with promise.

It’s that promise we must help them fulfill.  Thank you."

U.S. Birth Weights on the Decline

Tuesday 26. of January 2010

Thirteen-pound babies may make headlines, but they aren't the norm. In fact, U.S. infants are getting smaller, according to researchers at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute's Department of Population Medicine, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. Their findings, published in the February 2010 issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, suggest that birth weights in this country have declined during the past 15 years. The study analyzed data on birth weight, maternal and neonatal characteristics, obstetric care and other trends from the National Center for Health Statistics Natality Data Sets, looking at 36,827,828 U.S. babies born at full-term between 1990 and 2005. Birth weight -- a combination of fetal growth and length of gestation -- was recorded in grams. The investigators teased out certain factors, including the mothers' age, race or ethnicity, education level, marital status and tobacco use, as well as the amount of weight the women gained during pregnancy and how early in pregnancy they received prenatal care. They also considered the women's risk of conditions like hypertension and use of obstetric procedures such as induction of labor and cesarean delivery. To read more, click here

Tobacco Smoke and Learning Disabilities

Wednesday 13. of January 2010

Exposure to tobacco smoke may significantly increase the odds of children having a learning disability, according to a new study by a professor at Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies (NHS), a part of Georgetown University Medical Center. "Contribution of Tobacco Smoke Exposure to Learning Disabilities" appeared online Jan. 7, 2010, in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing. "Our work suggests that children who have been exposed to pre-natal and environmental tobacco smoke are almost three times more likely to experience learning disabilities when compared with children who did not have this exposure," says lead author and environmental health expert Laura Anderko, PhD, RN, the Robert and Kathleen Scanlon Chair in Values Based Health Care at NHS. To read more, click here

Op Ed: Excluding Teachers Hinders Education Gains

Tuesday 29. of December 2009

Massachussetts has one of the finest education systems in the world. Our students are not only first in the nation on measures of math and reading, but also performed better than students in every European country on a recent international assessment of math and science skills. Teachers are justifiably proud of these accomplishments. Teachers also know firsthand that significant achievement gaps remain: Minority, low-income, and special-needs students, along with English language learners, often struggle to meet education standards. There is no simple formula for eliminating the gaps, but there are strategies that can help. Teachers must be equal partners with administrators, community leaders, and state officials in figuring out solutions. Other institutions in society must also be part of the mix. The three R's alone cannot overcome the ill effects of poverty. To read more, click here

Gene Discovered In Childhood Language Disorder Provides Insight Into Reading Disorders

Tuesday 15. of December 2009

The recent discovery of a gene associated with specific language impairment (SLI), a disorder that delays first words in children and slows their mastery of language skills throughout their school years, offers new insight into how our genes affect language development. The finding, published in the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders is the result of a collaborative team effort headed by Mabel Rice, Ph.D., a University of Kansas professor and NIDCD-funded scientist. The gene, KIAA0319, appears to play a key role in SLI, but it also plays a supporting role in other learning disabilities such as dyslexia. The finding is important for children with SLI and their families, and it is also likely to improve the classification, diagnosis, and treatment of other language, reading, and speech disorders. SLI affects an estimated 7 percent of 5-6 year olds. Yet it is often overlooked as a diagnosis because children with SLI typically don't have severe communication problems or an obvious cause for the impairment, such as hearing loss. "These children are less likely to start talking within a normal timeframe," says Dr. Rice. "They may not begin to talk until they're three or four. And when they finally do talk, they use simpler sentence structure and their grammar may seem immature." Language impairments such as SLI also appear to increase the risk for reading deficits. To read more, click here

Editorial: Over-Punishment in Schools

Tuesday 01. of December 2009

New York City joined a national trend in 1998 when it put the police in charge of school security. The consensus is that public schools are now safe. But juvenile justice advocates across the country are rightly worried about policies under which children are sometimes arrested and criminalized for behavior that once was dealt with by principals or guidance counselors working with a student's parents. Children who are singled out for arrest and suspension are at greater risk of dropping out and becoming permanently entangled with the criminal justice system. It is especially troubling that these children tend to be disproportionately black and Hispanic, and often have emotional problems or learning disabilities. School officials in several cities have identified overpolicing as a problem in itself. The New York City Council has taken a first cut at the problem by drafting a bill, the Student Safety Act, that would bring badly needed accountability and transparency to the issue. To read more, click here

Federal Center Aids Special Education Practices

Thursday 13. of August 2009

The federal center is trying to help states incubate and spread good special education practices that are already taking place in their districts. The State Implementation and Scaling-Up of Evidence-based Practices Center, has been working with Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and Oregon since September. The center intentionally picked states that have made a substantial investment in evidence-based practices; starting new programs from scratch offers a different set of challenges. Dean L. Fixsen, a principal director of SISEP, as the center, located at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is known, likens good education practices to a medical vaccine: Without the equipment to inoculate children and a medical establishment that can reach lots of children, vaccines do little good. "Until we develop the infrastructure, we're going to be stuck," Mr. Fixsen said.

To read more, click here