News
- February 20, 2015
- February 05, 2015
- February 03, 2015
"District leaders need to steer large and complex organizations toward the key social goal of providing excellent educational opportunities for students. Many education leaders have had little opportunity to learn the strategic leadership skills that can help them with this difficult task," said Susanna Loeb, professor of education at the GSE and faculty co-director of EPEL.
Loeb said the hope with EPEL is to provide the educational opportunities and also a place for superintendents and other district leaders to learn from each other.
"With new standards and a new system of accountability in California, the challenge today is particularly intense," she said. "Our aim is the bring the resources of Stanford to help them meet their goals."
- January 29, 2015
Dean Deborah Stipek announced in an email to the Graduate School of Education that Bryan Brown and Thomas Dee will serve as new associate deans.
- January 28, 2015
Researchers have found that sending parents a simple text message that includes tips for improving their child’s literacy can have a positive effect.
Studies show that by age four, kids from low-income households will hear 30 million less words than their more affluent counterparts, who get more quality face-time with caretakers. That means the already disadvantaged are falling behind before the academic race has even begun. Educators have so far been largely unsuccessful when it comes to finding ways to bridge the so-called “word gap.”
- January 19, 2015
- January 17, 2015
Two researchers at Stanford University, Eric P. Bettinger and Rachel Baker, analyzed an innovative counseling program in which a professional academic coach calls at-risk students to talk about time management and study skills. The coach might help a student plan how much time to spend on each class in the days approaching finals, for example. The results are impressive, with coached students more likely to stay in college and graduate. This program is more expensive than texting — $500 per student, per semester — but the effects persist for years after the coaching has ended.
Can nudges help younger children? Susanna Loeb and Benjamin N. York, both also at Stanford, developed a literacy program for preschool children in San Francisco. They sent parents texts describing simple activities that develop literacy skills, such as pointing out words that rhyme or start with the same sound. The parents receiving the texts spent more time with their children on these activities and their children were more likely to know the alphabet and the sounds of letters. It cost just a few dollars per family.
- January 17, 2015
Parenting is complex. Every decision mom and dad make has a ripple effect. And it’s near impossible to measure success. In an attempt to help simplify the whole thing, Susanna Loeb and Ben York — a professor and researcher respectively at Stanford’s Center for Education Policy Analysis — designed a program that sends parents of preschoolers in a low-income San Francisco school district weekly tips on how to improve their children’s literacy. The initiative is designed to fit within the lives of families, rather than adding yet another burden. “We have to make so many choices, and we often don’t know what to do in the moment,” Loeb says. Ready4K! takes away the guesswork.
- January 16, 2015
Recently, Stanford University researchers Rachel Valentino and Sean Reardon examined the academic achievement of dual language learners enrolled in four types of instructional programs: English Immersion (EI), Transitional Bilingual (TB), Developmental Bilingual (DB), and Dual Immersion (DI). Their study provided a unique picture of how instructional program type influences DLLs’ ELA and Math achievement trajectory from kindergarten entry through middle school. Importantly, it also captures variations between students of different ethnicities (Latino and Chinese) and initial English proficiency levels.
- January 13, 2015
Though California has embraced new Common Core State Standards so far, parents and educators may feel differently once students produce lower test scores later this year, said Michael Kirst, president of the state Board of Education.
Kirst expects an immediate dip in test scores as students take Common Core tests for this first time this spring, he said in a wide-ranging discussion with The Sacramento Bee’s editorial board. That has occurred in other states, such as New York, where a backlash ensued when Common Core test results were lower than expected.
- January 07, 2015
The 2015 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings were released this week and record number of CEPA faculty scores high marks on the list. Of the 200 education scholars ranked, 11 CEPA affiliate faculty and faculty made the list: Eric Hanushek (15), Martin Carnoy (24), Michael W. Kirst (31), Caroline Hoxby (33), Susanna Loeb (51), Sean Reardon (62), Rob Reich (94), Thomas Dee (119), Mitchell Stevens (127), Edward H. Haertel (154), Eric Bettinger (161)
- December 19, 2014
- December 10, 2014
- December 08, 2014
The study, published last week in the journal Educational Researcher, looks at the average SAT scores of newly certified and hired teachers in New York state over the past 25 years. In analyzing the data, researchers found that average SAT scores for teachers began rising around 1999 relative to the rest of the population. The researchers caution that SAT scores are an imperfect measure of intelligence, though they contain useful insight.
- December 04, 2014
- December 03, 2014