OTHER STORIES

Why Are So Few Kids Reading for Pleasure?

The74

Your Guide to the Evolving Federal Budget and What It Means for Schools

EdWeek

How Tech Directors Quietly Share Solutions, Save Money, & Stay Sane

EdSurge

Four Characteristics of Outstanding ‘Warm Demander’ Teachers

Edutopia

Research: Declining Public School Enrollment Since 2020

Brookings

Modern Education Research

In a new blog post for the Alliance for Learning Innovation, Mark Schneider, former Director of the Institute of Education Sciences, argues the agency is at a turning point. After what he describes as decades of relying on an outdated grant-driven model that produced limited results, Mark calls for a fundamental rethinking of how IES approaches education R&D. Drawing on successful models from other federal agencies and his own lessons learned, Schneider lays out his vision, principles and practices to modernize education research and better serve schools and students. He argues that IES should stop funding disconnected studies under a common topic header and instead fund integrated portfolios with a shared objective. AlliLearn

Tutoring Post-Pandemic

Before the pandemic, almost 100 studies pointed to impressive math or reading gains for students who were paired with a tutor at least three times a week and used a proven curriculum or set of lesson plans. On the strength of that evidence, the Bidenadministration urged schools to invest their pandemic recovery funds in intensive tutoring to help students catch up academically.However, researchers found that tutoring during the 23-24 school year produced only one or two months’ worth of extra learning in reading or math — a fraction of what the pre-pandemic research had produced. The main problem was that schools just could not get sufficient minutes of tutoring to students. Hechinger

Thought Experiments

A new study shows that allowing students space for mental exploration can be as valuable as hands-on lessons. Thought experiments can have some advantages over real experiments: they require no special equipment, are low-cost, can be used in a variety of learning environments, and are easily scalable. They are also ideal when hands-on experiments are impossible or when the conditions needed for a physical experiment are difficult to create. The study author stresses that thought experiments are not meant to replace hands-on activities in classrooms, but to complement them. They can also help students focus on underlying scientific principles and reasoning — skills that are critical for deep learning. HGSE