Matthew A. Kraft and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of the causal evidence on the effect of teacher coaching on teaching and learning. Their paper, published in the Review of Educational Research, reviewed 60 studies on teacher coaching programs conducted after 2006 that measured the impact of teacher coaching on either teaching (measured using tools such as the Classroom Assessment Scoring System or the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation) or student academic performance (measured by standardized tests). Their results found that Sustained coaching improves both classroom teaching (ES= +0.49) and student achievement (ES=+0.18). The effectiveness of a teacher coaching program seems to be determined by the number of participants. When studies were divided into programs that had fewer than 100 participants and those that had more than 100 participants, the impact on teaching was nearly double for the smaller programs than for programs with more than 100 participants. For student achievement, the...

The use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in education research has increased over the last 15 years. However, the use of RCTs has also been subject to criticism, with four key criticisms being that it is not possible to carry out RCTs in education; the research design of RCTs ignores context and experience; RCTs tend to generate simplistic universal laws of “cause and effect”; and that they are descriptive and contribute little to theory. To assess these four key criticisms, Paul Connolly and colleagues conducted a systematic review of RCTs in education research between 1980 and 2016 in order to consider the evidence in relation to the use of RCTs in education practice. The systematic review found that: A total of 1,017 RCTs completed and reported between 1980 and 2016, of which just over three-quarters (78.6%) have been produced in the last 10 years. Just over half of all RCTs (53.4%) were...

Research published by the National Literacy Trust highlights the link between enjoyment of reading and achievement, with children who enjoy reading more likely to do better at reading – over three years ahead in the classroom – of their peers who don’t enjoy it. The findings are based on data from 42,406 children aged 8 to 18 who participated in a National Literacy Trust survey at the end of 2016. The study finds that: At age 10, children who enjoy reading have a reading age 1.3 years higher than their peers who don’t enjoy reading, rising to 2.1 years for 12-year-olds. At age 14, children who enjoy reading have an average reading age of 15.3 years, while those who don’t enjoy reading have an average reading age of just 12 years, a difference of 3.3 years. The survey also indicates that three-quarters (78%) of UK primary school children enjoy reading, with girls...

Research published in the British Educational Research Journal has found that reading for pleasure is more strongly linked to cognitive progress in adolescence than parents’ education. Data on 3,583 16-year-olds was taken from the 1970 British Cohort Study. This study follows the lives of people born in England, Scotland, and Wales in a single week of 1970, collecting information on health, physical, educational, and social development, and economic circumstances among other factors. The authors set out to explore the relative importance of economic and cultural resources in determining class differentials in educational outcomes. They found that: The home reading culture (including reading to the child and parents reading books and newspapers) was linked to children’s test scores, and this had a role in mediating the influence of parents’ education and also to some extent in mediating parents’ social class. Childhood reading was linked to substantial cognitive progress between the ages of 10 and...

A recent meta-analysis published in Psychological Science looks at how much education improves intelligence, and suggests that a year of school improves pupils’ IQ scores by between one and five points. Ritchie and his colleagues looked at three particular types of quasi-experimental studies of educational effects on intelligence: Those estimating education-intelligence associations after controlling for earlier intelligence. Those using policy changes that result in individuals staying in schools for different lengths of time. Those using school-entry age cut-offs to compare children who are similar in age but who have different levels of schooling as a result of their specific birth dates. Their meta-analysis comprised 142 effect sizes from 42 data sets involving over 600,000 participants. All three study designs showed consistent evidence that the length of time spent in school is associated with increased intelligence test scores (an average effect of +3.4 IQ points for one additional year of education). The third study design,...

A study published in Learning and Individual Differences investigated factors influencing middle school students’ help-seeking in doing math homework in China. Jianxia Du at the University of Macau examined 796 8th graders from 46 classes. Four fifths of participating students had math assignments 4 or more days per week, and they spent an average of 34 minutes per day on math homework. Eight individual-level variables were found to be positively associated with help-seeking: mastery orientation, homework interest, family help availability, peer participation, performance orientation, monitoring motivation, value belief and family help frequency. Mastery orientation and home interest were also positively associated with help-seeking at the class level. The authors suggested the following: Greater emphasis should be placed on mastery orientation to encourage help-seeking, and teachers play a vital role in making this emphasis. Teachers should make math homework more engaging and purposeful and should guide students to learn to maintain...

In England there is currently a shortage of math teachers; among the factors that might be influencing this shortage are that departments lose 40% of teachers during their first six years in the profession, and there are higher private sector wages for math graduates. At the same time, demand for math teachers has increased due to policy measures to increase participation in math for 16 to 18 year olds. To examine what impact this has had, the Nuffield Foundation commissioned researchers from FFT Education Datalab to look at how secondary schools have responded to the shortage. Allen and Sims (2018) used data from England’s School Workforce Census and found that schools are using their most experienced and well-qualified math teachers for year groups taking high-stakes exams (GCSEs, A-levels, and GCSE retakes), and using inexperienced math teachers and teachers who trained in other subjects to fill staffing gaps elsewhere. In the most disadvantaged schools...

Backes and Cowan (2018) have published a working paperon the differences between computer- and paper-based tests.  In 2015, Massachusetts introduced the new PARCC assessment. School districts could choose whether to use the computer or paper versions of the test, and in 2015 and 2016, districts were divided fairly evenly between the two. The authors use this division to compare results for pupils in Grades 3–8 (Years 4–9). The analyses showed: Pupils who took the online version of PARCC scored about 0.10 standard deviations lower in Mathematics and about 0.25 standard deviations lower in English than pupils taking the paper version of the test. When pupils took computer tests again the following year, these differences reduced by about a third for Mathematics and by half for English. The study also looked at whether the change to computer tests affected some pupils disproportionately, as the analyses showed: There were no differences for Mathematics,...

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) has posted a tip sheet with five evidence-based strategies to help educators prevent and address behaviour problems. These strategies, which are based on reviews of research and recommendations from experts in the field, are as follows: Modify the classroom environment to alter or remove factors that trigger problem behaviours (eg, revisit and reinforce expectations, modify the learning space to motivate pupils, and vary teaching strategies to increase academic success). Identify, deliver, and reinforce explicit teaching in appropriate behaviour. Learn about interventions that can help support pupils with an emotional/behavioural problem in making good choices. The WWC has identified effective interventions. Adapt teaching to maintain or increase pupil engagement in academics, preventing disruptive behaviour. The WWC offers strategies to engage pupils in reading, writing, maths, and out-of-school-time learning. Enlist adult advocates to help pupils at risk of dropping out address academic and social needs. Better: Evidence-based Education magazine has addressed similar...