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Teachers can transfer their math anxieties to students
Female teachers’ anxieties, particularly those related to math, can negatively affect their female students, according to a study published in January in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The math anxieties of seven female elementary school teachers in a Midwestern school district were assessed at the beginning of a school year. Nearly 120 of their first- and second-grade students were then given math tests, and researchers assessed students’ beliefs about math and gender. At the start of the school year, there was no discernable gap in test scores between male and female students. When the same students were tested and assessed at the end of the school year, 20 female students, who believed in the stereotype that boys are better at math, scored an average of 102.5 on their test. These girls were more likely to have been taught by a teacher with math anxiety. The remaining 45 girls scored an average of 107.8, and the 52 boys scored an average of 107.7.
Although researchers aren’t exactly sure how the anxiety is transferred, they believe math-anxious teachers might call on girls less often to answer math questions, praise boys more for correct answers, or imply that it’s not important for girls to have math skills.
Another study of 500,000 students ages 14 to 16 in 69 countries showed that boys and girls score essentially the same on math performance evaluations, and girls do better in countries where more women publicly pursue math and science careers.
Source: EducationNews.org
Educators should follow the golden rule, too
Programs to target bullying typically cover student-on-student incidents, but school districts in Iowa and California have created policies to cover teacher-on-teacher bullying.
Districts in Sioux City, Iowa, and La Quinta, Calif., have introduced anti-bullying policies for their adult employees. Employees in these districts believe that seeing teachers bully each other in public can lead students down the wrong path. Although these programs cost money to implement, district officials hope that they will pay off with fewer educator absences and increased productivity, as well as a better sense of security in the workplace.
Although these districts are believed to be the only two nationwide with specific adult bullying policies, more than 41 states have anti-bullying laws that affect schools, and some states’ laws cover both students and school employees.
Source: USA Today
Schools can calories
Since 2006, the number of high-calorie sodas available in school has dropped drastically, thanks in part to an agreement between U.S. beverage companies and the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association. The agreement, designed to fight childhood obesity, includes eliminating the sale of full-calorie sodas to schools by the end of the 2009-10 school year and replacing those sodas with sports drinks, waters, unsweetened juices, milk and smaller-size, low-calorie options.
Since the first semester of the 2004-05 school year, the sales volume of beverages from providers such as Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. has dropped 72 percent. Sales volume of full-calorie sodas has dropped by 95 percent, juice drinks by 94 percent, bottled tea by 77 percent, sports drinks by 67 percent and diet soda by 47 percent. Even sales of popular flavored and fortified waters have gone down 15 percent. Overall, beverage companies have seen an 88-percent decrease in shipments to schools in the past five years.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
A “slower” food movement
Schools in Arizona and Montana are switching things up. Instead of following a “normal” schedule in which lunch precedes recess, some schools are sending their students out to play before they eat.
The switch in Montana began in 2002 with a four-school pilot study. Montana’s Team Nutrition program released study findings that showed children who played before lunch wasted less food, drank more milk and asked for more water. Because they weren’t rushing to the playground, children with a prescribed eating time ate more—and they ate more slowly.
Arizona schools report a drastic drop in the number of students who complain of afternoon headaches and stomachaches. And in both states, educators say students are wasting less time when they return to the classroom; instead of “cooling down” after recess in the classroom, they’re able to calm down while they eat.
As with any change, however, there are issues. Schools in Arizona had to install hand sanitizers in the cafeteria as well as computerize the lunch card process so students wouldn’t misplace their cards at recess. Some students also have to return to their classrooms to retrieve sack lunches or put away winter wear.
A 2006 study in the Journal of Childhood Nutrition & Management estimated that 5 percent of schools in the U.S. had changed to a recess-lunch schedule.
Source: The New York Times
Changing the requirements for teen drivers’ education
Gov. Rick Perry wants to toughen restrictions on teen driver’s licenses in the hope of reducing dropout rates.
Current Texas law requires 16- to 18-year olds to show proof of school attendance in order to obtain or renew a license, and they must renew their licenses each year until they turn 19. Teens must prove that they have been in school or home-schooled for at least 80 days in the semester preceding their application for a license, or they must prove they are working toward a General Educational Development (GED) certificate.
Perry wants to require students to prove their progress toward graduation or a GED rather than just merely their school attendance. He and other state officials believe that tightening restrictions on licenses will lead to fewer dropouts because teens often have a critical interest in being able to drive. The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Education Agency are studying Perry’s ideas to see which changes they can make. If a change in state law is needed, the matter could be considered by the 82nd Legislature, which convenes in January 2011.
Other states have already tightened teen license procedures, and at least 19 states tie driving privileges to school attendance. In Alabama, teens must prove their enrollment and satisfactory progress in a graduation or GED program. California teens can have their licenses revoked if they are habitually absent; students in Georgia who do not attend school for a consecutive 10 days can have their licenses suspended; and Ohio teens’ licenses can be taken away if they drop out of school.
Source: Austin American-Statesman