Culture and the Interaction of Student Ethnicity with Reward Structure in Group Learning

Interesting study reviewed in the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). Elementary students (4th & 5th grade) were randomly assigned to receive an individual reward, a reward based on group performance, or no reward. The evaluation found that individual rewards led to higher achievement among white students but lower performance among African- American students. This was a study of math learning skills (multiplication). The WWC brief review is here. The full citation is:
Hurley, E. A., Allen, B. A., & Boykin, A. W. (2009). Culture and the interaction of student ethnicity with reward structure in group learning. Cognition and Instruction, 27(2), 121–146.
The article is available through the libraries' electronic journal subscriptions.

Helping high school students get to college

A California based project which linked high school students with college student mentors saw small but significant increases in the number of students taking the SAT, completing applications for financial aid, getting grants and scholarships and enrolling in college. Their results are equivalent to those found from the Upward Bound program but at approximately one-fourth of the cost. Brief description of the project is in this Education Week blog: Inside School Research

Improving Latino college graduation rates

A new report from the American Enterprise Insitute reaffirms the common wisdom that Latino graduation rates lag those of "white students" but also reveals some surprising discrepancies. Within the same groupings, i.e, different levels of admission selectivity, the top 10 performing schools often have 50% higher graduation rates for Latinos than the lowest 10 performing schools. A summary of the findings and links to the full report are here: "Rising to the Challenge: Hispanic College Graduation Rates as a National Priority"

Arizona universities share the pain

Arizona universities are being asked to cut payroll and are also increasing student tuition. They have already eliminated 2,000 positions and instituted furloughs. More in this article from the Arizona Daily Star.

Higher Ed as driver of economic development

Hardly a radical concept. However a new report from the Rockefeller Institute of Government (SUNY) suggests 4 ways in which this works:

• Innovation — that is, using their research power to create knowledge that can have economic impact, and then actively working to help move new ideas into the marketplace.
• Knowledge transfer that helps businesses grow and prosper, through programs such as job training, technical and other consulting assistance, and assistance to startups.
• An activist role in revitalizing the communities in which they are located, such as efforts to help local elementary and secondary schools.
• And their core mission of producing the educated populace that’s needed to build, run and work in the innovation economy.

K-12 draft standards available for feedback

This message forwarded from Tracy Gruber at the Nevada Dept. of Education...

"...the Nevada Department of Education is pleased to announce that the first official public draft of the K-12 standards as part of the Common Core State Standards Initiative were released today. NDE would like to encourage those interested to provide feedback on the standards by Friday, April 2, 2010, at http://www.corestandards.org/. At the website, a copy of the Mathematics and English Language Arts documents are provided, as well as a link to provide feedback. NDE encourages that you and your colleagues provide feedback on these documents. These draft standards, developed together with teachers, school administrators and experts, seek to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare our children for college and the workforce. The standards define the knowledge and skills students should have within their K-12 education careers so that they will graduate high school able to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce training programs. The standards are:

• Aligned with college and work expectations;
• Clear, understandable and consistent;
• Include rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills;
• Build upon strengths and lessons of current state standards;
• Informed by other top performing countries, so that all students are prepared to succeed in our global economy and society; and
• Evidence- and research-based.

The final edition of the standards are expected to be released in early Spring." (end forwarded message)

APA Style DOI/URL Flowchart

In case you wondered where I've been, I'm up to my eyebrows in writing at the moment, but I will get caught up--eventually. Still this caught my eye. It's a flowchart posted last fall on the APA Style blog that tells you when and how to use DOI's and URL's when citing articles. Here's a simplified version for citing articles, consistent with APA, from Radford University.