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The school environment is changing rapidly, as a result of emerging technologies and ongoing problems with student achievement and mental health.
This year saw new research insights in critical areas. Here’s a look at some of the findings from some of the studies that were most popular with our readers.
Teenagers need a social media detox
This year, adolescents’ social media behaviors raised significant concerns, leading the U.S. surgeon general to publicly caution about their impact on developing brains. Both federal and state legislatures sought regulations governing minors’ social media usage, while numerous districts nationwide initiated legal action against major platforms like Facebook, citing detrimental effects on students’ mental health.
Amidst this flurry of actions, a comprehensive longitudinal research analysis revealed a correlation: increased smartphone and social media use among teenagers is linked to elevated levels of mental distress, instances of self-harm, and a higher risk of suicide.
The research proposes that schools have the potential to mitigate the negative impact of social media by facilitating open, nonjudgmental discussions and developmentally suitable problem-solving sessions for students and their families. These discussions aim to explore strategies for managing and restricting social media usage.
The wrong problem can make a difference in math
An extensive analysis encompassing over 100 studies in Educational Psychology Review revealed that students who engaged with already-worked example problems exhibited significantly greater improvement in mathematics compared to those adopting alternative approaches. Particularly, students facing gaps in their math knowledge benefited notably from reviewing both correctly and incorrectly worked problems. This approach shed light on potential areas of misunderstanding.
However, the selection of examples by teachers is crucial: Problems lacking a clear objective or sufficient detail, and those failing to emphasize the necessary steps for problem-solving, were linked to reduced student progress in mathematics. Yet, students delving into well-chosen worked problems experienced math growth equivalent to advancing from the 50th percentile to beyond the 69th percentile.
ChatGPT’s educational applications are still being explored and developed.
The popularity of the generative AI tool ChatGPT has surged over the past year, particularly among educators and the wider public. A comprehensive review of 50 studies in the Education Sciences journal highlights that educators mainly leverage this tool for crafting course materials, generating sample questions, and offering virtual tutoring support for students.
Yet, the analysis unveils a varied landscape regarding ChatGPT’s efficacy. While the AI exhibited impressive accuracy in fields like economics and crafting critical-thinking prompts, it surprisingly struggled with accuracy in math or software testing. In some instances, it provided outdated or inaccurate information across different subjects. Additionally, the tool often lacked proper sourcing for its information, contributing to increased rates of plagiarism among certain student groups who utilized it.
But artificial intelligence may help to design more equitable school districts
School districts have grappled with the challenge of crafting attendance zones that balance travel constraints and avoid clustering high-poverty students in select schools. According to research published in Educational Researcher, AI might offer a solution by creating attendance zones that are more fair and efficient.
Researchers from Northeastern University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology employed algorithms to simulate fresh attendance zones for almost 100 of the largest districts nationwide. These new zones, guided by both parental preferences and district integration objectives, successfully decreased the segregation between white students and students of color in district schools by an average of 14%. Moreover, they marginally reduced travel times and necessitated only a fifth of the students to switch schools.
Avoiding academic anxiety can worsen and prolong students’ fear
Educators often permit students to evade anxiety-inducing tasks like public presentations, assuming it eases their stress. However, a study in the Journal of Psychologists and Counselors in Schools reveals this avoidance can exacerbate anxiety over time, especially among elementary students with severe anxiety. Teachers identified group work and reading aloud in class as common anxiety triggers. While teachers occasionally permitted students to sidestep these activities, the more they allowed avoidance, the more the students’ anxiety intensified around those tasks.
To address this, Golda Ginsburg, a child psychology professor at the University of Connecticut, introduced the Teacher Anxiety Program for Elementary Students (TAPES). This program involves educators in learning and practicing methods to recognize students experiencing anxiety in class and provide assistance without worsening their triggers.
Extra learning days add up
A recent paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research revealed significant disparities in the duration of school sessions across the country. A growing number of schools have shifted towards extended school days, weekend sessions, and longer academic years or summer programs.
The research highlighted that students attending schools in the top 10 percent for instructional time receive an average of five additional weeks of education per year compared to those in the bottom 10 percent. Over a span of 12 academic years, students in the schools with longer sessions acquire nearly two extra years’ worth of instruction.
Conversely, approximately 900 districts nationwide have adopted a four-day school week. Despite these districts often having lengthier school days, the study noted that this approach tended to fatigue both students and teachers and did not compensate for the lost full days.
District leadership has a big gender gap
The findings speak volumes.
According to research published in the journal Educational Researcher, there’s an equal likelihood for a district to be headed by a man with one of 15 specific names as it is for it to be led by a woman with any name.
The study reveals that districts have a 1 in 4 chance of being governed by a man named Michael, David, James, Jeff, John, Robert, Steven, Chris, Brian, Scott, Mark, Kevin, Jason, Matthew, or Daniel. Despite increasing turnover in superintendent positions, especially among men, vacancies are still more frequently filled by male candidates than female ones. Meanwhile, over three-quarters of teachers and 56 percent of principals are women.
Chronic absenteeism isn’t going away
In 2022, two-thirds of schools across the nation reported high chronic absenteeism, a significant increase from a quarter before the pandemic, as per an analysis conducted by Attendance Works using federal data.
Within 11 states, the study discovered that over a quarter of students were classified as chronically absent, defined by missing 10 percent or more of school days. This trend has particularly affected high-poverty schools, witnessing nearly a threefold increase in absenteeism rates since the onset of the pandemic.
Want kids in school? Build bridges with families first
Even as schools have intensified endeavors to enhance student engagement to address absenteeism, research by Harvard University and the New Teacher Project underscores the significance of maintaining parental engagement.
According to their findings, schools fostering stronger trust between parents and teachers, along with increased parental involvement—especially in decision-making processes—demonstrated a 6 percentage point reduction in chronic absenteeism rates following the period of remote learning, in contrast to schools with limited parent engagement.
Virtual tutoring can help students, if it follows high-dosage criteria
High-intensity tutoring programs, involving individual or small-group sessions with trained tutors or teachers, have notably expanded, adopted by almost 40 percent of schools for four or five days a week. While recognized for improving student learning, these programs can be costly. A recent study by Stanford University’s National Student Support Accelerator suggests virtual tutoring could be a more economical alternative, provided it maintains the same level of intensity and quality as in-person tutoring.
The research tracked the reading progress of approximately 2,000 students in K-2 across a dozen Texas charter schools. Half of these students engaged in intensive remote tutoring through small-group video chats during part of the school day. Those who received additional lessons in phonics and decoding for 20 minutes a day, four times a week, via remote tutoring displayed notably enhanced performance on two early-reading assessments by the end of the academic year.
