MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'academic achievement'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:52:13 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5139701&cid=t_166334_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5dtKfNMRi2s%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonEarlier this summer, I released a study comparing the performance of California’s charter school networks with the amount of philanthropic grant funding they have received. The purpose was to find out if this model for replicating excellence was consistently effective. The answer, regrettably, was no. But a new study we are releasing today finds that there is at least one place where better schools HAVE consistently scaled-up: Chile. Thanks to that nation’s public and private school choice program, chains of private schools have arisen, and they not only outperform the public schools, they also outperform the independent “mom-and-pop” private schools. For anyone interested in replicating educational excellence, this study by a team of Chilean sch... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5139701 Tue, 16 Aug 2011 17:09:48 +0100 5139701 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5050915&cid=t_166334_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2FbcsIvOBs0_c%2F Although ADHD used to be considered a disorder of childhood, follow-up studies indicate that between 30% and 60% of children with ADHD continue to experience symptoms and impairment in adulthood. And, even when ADHD symptoms decline over time, many individuals continue to experience significant impairment in important areas of functioning. For example, children with ADHD have poorer academic achievement as adolescents compared to their peers and this trend continues into adulthood. Research pertaining to occupational functioning is limited but available data clearly points to poorer employment histories in adults with ADHD. Predictors of occupational outcomes in individuals with ADHD have not been carefully investigated, however. A recent study conducted in Norway with a large sample of ad... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5050915 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:36:52 +0100 5050915 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4214192&cid=t_166334_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F11%2F30%2Fbest-of-our-blogs-november-30-2010%2F I caught the movie Love and Other Drugs over the weekend. Did you see it? I have to say it surprised me by it’s uncharacteristically non-romantic romantic comedy. Although it was funny and about love, it broached the topic in such a poignant and refreshing way, I was taken aback. There was something Jake Gyllenhaal’s character Jamie said towards the end of the movie that really stuck with me. He said that in a parallel universe the two of them would be healthy and perfect and would worry about superficial things like feeling guilty about hiring someone to clean their house. (Not to spoil it for you if you haven’t seen the movie, but it is mentioned in the movie’s description that one of them is ill.) Yet, he said he would rather be the couple they were now. As I get... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4214192 Tue, 30 Nov 2010 12:27:07 +0100 4214192 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3929217&cid=t_166334_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fjo0l_Dif__s%2F By Neal McCluskeyMatt Yglesias thinks my assertion that we would be better off economically if education money stayed with taxpayers rather than going to public schools and universities is “totally insane.” Ouch! Now, I can actually understand this, because many people have difficulty envisioning things other than what they’ve always known. But have I really gone all Crazy Eddie? If government didn’t spend taxpayer dough on education, would the poor be much worse off than they are today? Can we never over-invest in schooling because education is just so important? Does the college wage premium mean we should never ratchet down subsidies for college education? And is it at least possible that spending more and more public dough doesn’t lead to ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3929217 Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:38:37 +0100 3929217 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3420441&cid=t_166334_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F4XM3Iy_0f0M%2F By Neal McCluskeyCongratulations Delaware and Tennessee — you’ve won the Race to the Top beauty contest! Of course, the grading was subjective and will be disputed by lots of states that haven’t won. Well, haven’t won yet — there’s a second round to this, remember. So what do the victories for Delaware and Tennessee mean? The edu-pundits will no doubt be reading deep into the results over the coming days, trying to determine what they portend for the future of RttT, federal education policy generally, and politicians across the country.  And there are some juicy political leads worth following, including the possibility that the winning states were chosen because they have Republican congress members who could be pivotal in getting bipartisan support for the ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3420441 Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:58:47 +0100 3420441 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3354378&cid=t_166334_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F03%2F11%2Fresearchers-discover-kids-dont-like-homework%2F Our friends over at the Association for Psychological Science made sure that a new study about video games would get out (because, you know, it’s about video games and kids, and that always seems to get people’s attention), so we took a look and published a news story earlier today about the study. This, however, is an example of a fairly silly study that provides little additional insight into the impact video games may have in a child’s world. The researchers compared two groups of boys ages 6-9 — those who received a video game system for the first time in their lives, and those who got none. They found that the boys who got a video game system, unsurprisingly, had lower reading and writing scores at the end of the 4 months study compared to the boys who had no v... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3354378 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:31:49 +0100 3354378 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3350258&cid=t_166334_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FUbaWkbQpyek%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonDiane Ravitch is a leading education historian. Her work in that field is characteristically thorough and well-researched, and her books The Troubled Crusade and The Great School Wars, in particular, made significant contributions to our understanding of U.S. education history. On the presumption that Ravitch is as much an expert on policy as she is on history, her latest book, recounting her change of heart on certain policy questions, has garnered enormous media attention. I suggest, with all due respect, that this presumption is a mistake. Unlike her thorough and rigorous historical writing, Ravitch’s policy opinions were never grounded in a systematic and comprehensive review of the relevant evidence. They should never have been given credence in the first place. ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3350258 Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:41:51 +0100 3350258 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3012364&cid=t_166334_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FSxuNPIhmoN8%2F A report released today by the federal government’s non-partisan General Accounting Office finds deficits in the Department of Education’s financial and program oversight. According to the GAO, “These shortcomings can lead to weaknesses in program implementation that ultimately result in failure to effectively serve the students, parents, teachers, and administrators those programs were designed to help.” The GAO’s findings are consistent with the longstanding pattern: for forty years, Americans have steadily increased spending on public schools without any resulting improvement in student performance by the end of high school (see the figures here and here). The Obama administration has touted its $100 billion in education stimulus spending as a key to long term economic growth.... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3012364 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:06:51 +0100 3012364 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2886417&cid=t_166334_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FF3EokSUpOtU%2F In a recent New York Times column (“The Uneducated American”), Paul Krugman writes that, “for the past 30 years our political scene has been dominated by the view that any and all government spending is a waste of taxpayer dollars.” As a result, Krugman continues, U.S. education has been “neglected” and “has inevitably suffered.” Readers who put their trust in Krugman might thus conclude that per pupil spending has stagnated or declined. In reality, as the chart below reveals, it has more than doubled since 1970, after adjusting for inflation. Paul Krugman may not be an “uneducated American,” but he’s certainly a badly misinformed one. Much more troubling is the fact that Krugman and the Times are spreading this misinformation on a grand scale. And that got me thinki... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2886417 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:28:29 +0100 2886417 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2865644&cid=t_166334_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FhLVuoFWesAs%2F In a response to my post this morning, Charles Murray remains unconvinced that changes to our school system could result in dramatic improvements in educational outcomes. He asks to see the scholarly study showing that a school has miraculously boosted achievement above the norm. In one way, this hurdle is too low, and in another it’s too high. If we could only point to a single study of a single school, it wouldn’t instill much confidence in the generalizability of the phenomenon. A consistent pattern of scholarly results is necessary for that. On the other hand, asking for “miraculous” improvement is a needlessly high standard. My disagreement is with Murray’s earlier, lower threshold claim that:  ”reforms of the schools can never do more than pro... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2865644 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:20:42 +0100 2865644 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2862469&cid=t_166334_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fm7V6xSpz6FU%2F Last week, I posted a chart on this blog showing the percent change in federal education spending and student achievement since 1970 (achievement has been flat while federal education spending has nearly tripled). After laughing out loud when he saw it, IQ expert and Bell Curve author Charles Murray mused that “such a huge proportion of a child’s educational prospects are determined by things other than school (genes and the non-school environment) that reforms of the schools can never do more than produce score improvements at the margin.” But consider the accomplishments of Ben Chavis, who spoke at Cato last Friday. When he took over the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland in 2001, it was the worst school in the district. Under his leadership (imagine a hybrid... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2862469 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:40:48 +0100 2862469 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2255989&cid=t_166334_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F7PUuC0WuzD0%2F In a speech on education this morning at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, President Obama repeats questionable statistics in support of his bid to expand the government’s monopoly on education back to the womb, asserting that “$1 of early education leads to $10 in saved social services.” Unfortunately he’s referring to small-scale programs that involved extensive and often intensive total-family intervention rather than simple “early education.” In contrast to the– real-world school choice programs have been tested extensively with solid, random-assignment studies. Nine out of ten of these studies find statistically significant improvement in academic achievement for at least one subgroup. Obama should follow the scientific evidence on what works in education; school ch... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2255989 Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:44:55 +0100 2255989 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1729766&cid=t_166334_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2F372105454%2F The Secret to Success New research says social-emotional learning helps students in every way. -- by Daniel Goleman Schools are beginning to offer an increasing number of courses in social and emotional intelligence, teaching students how to better understand their own emotions and the emotions of others. It sounds warm and fuzzy, but it's a trend backed up by hard data. Today, new studies reveal that teaching kids to be emotionally and socially competent boosts their academic achievement. More precisely, when schools offer students programs in social and emotional learning, their achievement scores gain around 11 percentage points. That's what I heard at a forum held last December by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). (Disclosure: I'm a co-founder of C... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1729766 Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:48:47 +0100 1729766 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1178094&cid=t_166334_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2F223087810%2F Neurofeedback is one of the technologies that people often ask us about.  It is a promising intervention in a variety of areas, and has got significant traction in helping kids with ADD/ ADHD. Now, given the significant cost it poses for parents, we need to ask the question: "How Strong is the Research Support for Neurofeedback Treatment of Children with ADHD"? We are honored to present the thoughts of Duke University's Dr. David Rabiner, a leading authority on the field, on that important issue. As a bonus, you will enjoy his detailed description and suggestions of how to design a high-quality scientific study. Without further ado, let's hear Dr. Rabiner speak: --------------------------------------  How Strong is the Research Support for Neurofeedback Treatment of Children... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1178094 Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:25:56 +0100 1178094