Independent Reading Doesn't Up Achievement

"Independent reading doesn't improve children's achievement in reading, at least among children age 11 at the end of elementary school, U.S. researchers say."

An Outside-In Effort to Help Poor Students Achieve

"Promise' program tests premise that what happens outside class can help breed success."

Hispanic-White Achievement Gap Still Wide in Education: Report

"The Hispanic-white educational achievement gap has remained wide over the past two decades, according to a new report by the Department of Education's statistical center that a Department statement calls 'sobering.'"

High-Schoolers Who Work Less Likely to Finish College

"Students who work more than 15 hours a week in high school show lower rates of college completion, suggests a new study assessing the harm of high school work intensity."

Social/Emotional Skills Boost Success

"Social and emotional learning programs not only improve a student's attitude and behavior but in some cases help boost their grades, U.S. researchers say."

American Students Do Poorly in Science, Report Says

"The results of the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, or the Nation's Report Card, showed that only 21 percent of high school seniors were performing at or above the proficient level in science. About a third of fourth and eighth graders were found to perform at the same level."

Merit Pay Study: Teacher Bonuses Don't Raise Student Test Scores

"Offering middle-school math teachers bonuses up to $15,000 did not produce gains in student test scores, Vanderbilt University researchers reported Tuesday in what they said was the first scientifically rigorous test of merit pay."

Study: States 'Misuse' SAT, ACT Tests

"Using college admission and placement exams to measure high school student achievement can produce misleading and inappropriate results, a U.S. report says."

Poll: Language a Barrier for Latinos in Schools

"With Hispanic enrollment surging in schools, many Spanish-speaking parents are having trouble helping their children with homework or communicating with U.S. teachers as English-immersion classes proliferate in K-12."

Music May Harm Your Studying, Study Says

"If you're studying for a test, putting on background music that you like may seem like a good idea. But if you're trying to memorize a list in order - facts, numbers, elements of the periodic table - the music may actually be working against you, a new study suggests."

Study Shows Teens Benefit From Later School Day

"Giving teens 30 extra minutes to start their school day leads to more alertness in class, better moods, less tardiness, and even healthier breakfasts, a small study found."

Microsoft's 'School of the Future' Graduates First Class

"Although the school's creative ambitions have been frustrated by high principal turnover, curriculum tensions and a student body unfamiliar with laptop computer culture, the school graduates its first senior class Tuesday with each student having been accepted to an institution of higher learning."

A Classroom Revolution Proposed in Britain

"Turning schools around matters both for economic growth and for social justice. Britain is an unequal place, with income disparities higher than in most rich countries (see chart 1). It is a rich country where 4.8m adults and 1.9m children under 16—a sixth of all of children—live in workless households; where four in every 100 girls under 18 get pregnant each year; where even during steady economic growth a tenth of 16-18-year-olds were neither studying nor working. And a child’s chances are strongly shaped by the prosperity of the family into which he is born."

Merit Pay for Students Fails to Raise Scores, Study Finds

"A multicity experiment to test the effect of paying students for performance succeeded in increasing achievement when the payments were tied to specific behaviors related to learning, such as reading books, but not when the awards depended directly on test scores, new findings show."

Study: Physical Activity Can Boost Student Performance

"And now a government review of research shows that kids who take breaks from their class work to be physically active during the school day are often better able to concentrate on their school work and may do better on standardized tests."

Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School?

Based on studies, "if incentives are designed wisely, it appears, payments can indeed boost kids' performance as much as or more than many other reforms you've heard about before — and for a fraction of the cost."

Report: English Language Learners Making Gains

"Schoolchildren who are still learning English made progress on state tests over the last three years, according to a report that may indicate tougher accountability standards have resulted in positive gains among a growing segment of the U.S. public school population."

Why Paying Kids To Study Works In Texas

"According to the report, Texas high-school students who earned cash for passing Advanced Placement exams showed not only better GPAs, but also bumps in college attendance, performance, and the likelihood of earning their degrees. The effects were most pronounced among minorities, with African--American students 10 percent more likely to enter college, and 50 percent more likely to persist through graduation."

Studying Young Minds, and How to Teach Them

"For much of the last century, educators and many scientists believed that children could not learn math at all before the age of five, that their brains simply were not ready. But recent research has turned that assumption on its head — that, and a host of other conventional wisdom about geometry, reading, language and self-control in class. The findings, mostly from a branch of research called cognitive neuroscience, are helping to clarify when young brains are best able to grasp fundamental concepts."

Sharing Class Won't Affect Twins' School Success: Study

"Twins who share a classroom will do just as well academically as twins placed in separate classes, new research shows, helping resolve a dilemma many parents of multiple children face."