Mars and Venus in the Classroom

By Richard Morin
Washington Post
Thursday, May 18, 2006; Page A02
First the good news: One year with a male English teacher would eliminate nearly a third of the gender gap in reading performance among 13-year-olds.
Now the bad: Having a male teacher improves the performance of boys while harming girls' reading skills. On the other hand, a year with a female teacher would close the gender gap in science achievement among 13-year-old girls by half and eliminate the smaller achievement gap in mathematics, says economist Thomas S. Dee of Swarthmore College, who examined data collected from more than 20,000 eighth-graders beginning in 1988.

In kindergarten, boys and girls do equally as well on tests of reading readiness, general knowledge and math. By third grade, boys have slightly higher math scores and slightly lower reading scores -- gaps that widen as the children grow older. The gender gaps for children age 9 to 13 approximately double in science and reading. And by the time they're 17, "the underperformance of . . . boys in reading is equivalent to 1.5 years of schooling, and though men continue to be over-represented in college level science and engineering, girls are now more likely to go to college and persist in earning a degree," Dee said in a recent working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research."

In kindergarten, boys and girls do equally as well on tests of reading readiness, general knowledge and math. By third grade, boys have slightly higher math scores and slightly lower reading scores -- gaps that widen as the children grow older.
The gender gaps for children age 9 to 13 approximately double in science and reading. And by the time they're 17, "the underperformance of . . . boys in reading is equivalent to 1.5 years of schooling, and though men continue to be over-represented in college level science and engineering, girls are now more likely to go to college and persist in earning a degree," Dee said in a recent working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
\nDee found that assigning boys to male teachers and girls to female instructors "significantly improves the achievement of both girls and boys as well as teacher perceptions of student performance and student engagement with the teacher's subject."

That's particularly bad news for boys, because more than eight in 10 sixth- and eighth-grade reading and English teachers are women, he reported.Dee found that assigning boys to male teachers and girls to female instructors "significantly improves the achievement of both girls and boys as well as teacher perceptions of student performance and student engagement with the teacher's subject."

To read more about this study, click here

Teachers learn dated reading methods

By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

Most U.S. undergraduate teacher-education programs give prospective teachers a poor foundation in reading instruction, according to a new study by a Washington-based non-profit group that is working to reform the nation's teacher-education system.
The report, released on Monday by the National Council on Teacher Quality, looked at coursework and textbooks used at 72 leading colleges of education and found that most use what the council considers outdated, discredited approaches to teaching reading — especially for underprivileged children.
Read more here

Students use iPods for more than just music

By Sarah Barry / Daily Progress (Charlottesville, VA) staff writer
May 7, 2006

Justin Moore, a senior at Albemarle High School, can't figure out what went wrong during his chemistry experiment, but his results aren't what they should be.
His teacher, Erika Leer, asks if he remembered to add water to his solutions. Moore's look changes to one of dawning realization. He has to start again.
But rather than Leer having to go over the steps a second time, Moore uses an iPod to rewind a recorded demonstration of Leer doing the experiment and reading the instructions, leaving her free to move between the other groups and check on their progress.
"It makes my job easier," Leer said. "People can go at their own pace."

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UK teachers question benefits of "inclusion"

The National Union of Teachers dramatically reversed decades of support for "inclusion" and demanded a halt to the closure of special schools. It called on the Government to carry out "an urgent review of inclusion in policy and practice".
View entire Times of London article here.

YOUNG AND WIRED

Computers, cell phones, video games, blogs, text messages -- how will the sheer amount of time spent plugged in affect our kids?
San Francisco Chronicle
Katherine Seligman
Sunday, May 14, 2006
As parents become increasingly concerned, some scientists and psychologists are sounding alerts about the effects of so much wired time, much of it spent multitasking. Aside from the more visible consequences of so much screen time -- lots of children who don't get enough exercise and higher obesity rates -- they believe there may be troubling developmental, learning and social ramifications.

Meanwhile, skeptics say all this concern is part of a historical pattern, one generation that looks on the next as being corrupted by something new. Didn't it happen with radio, rock 'n' roll, comic books and television? Is it possible that the Baby Boomers -- who've turned the microscope on every aspect of their children's lives -- are just doing what their parents did now that their kids are teens? It's not an easy question to answer.

View full text of article here