During the Covid-19 pandemic, an additional 30% of American 4-year colleges joined the 50% already employing test-optional admission policies. 95% of more selective colleges have long used some holistic admission practices. However, less selective institutions have been more likely to rely on raw high school performance metrics. A new study examined data from 2.3 million students in a midwestern American state, matching their high school performance and college results. Applicants’ GPA, considered in the high school’s context, was overall as correlated with college GPA, graduation within 4 years, and retention beyond the first year as uncontextualized high school GPA. ACT scores and experience taking rigorous college preparatory classes, contextualized by the high school’s available resources, were also associated with college outcomes, but with smaller effect sizes. The results suggest that colleges across a range of selectivity levels adopting holistic review policies with contextualized high school data may admit students as...

Numerous studies show children tend to overestimate their motor and cognitive skills. Self-enhancement, which involves taking a positive view of oneself, is also exhibited among adults who overestimate their ability and traits (e.g., kindness, selflessness). However, theory suggests it can be beneficial for children, encouraging them to tackle new challenges. To investigate the extent of children’s self-overconfidence, Xia and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis pooling 43 studies from 1968 to 2021 involving preschool and primary students. Measuring both self-estimated and actual objective performance, the analysis incorporated 246 effect sizes. Ratio of means (RoM) was used to assess effect size which was the ratio of self-estimation to actual performance, with value over 1 indicating overestimation, under 1 signifying underestimation. Results of three-level meta-analysis are shown below. Children overestimated their task performance by 35% (ES =+1.35). Sample mean age was a significant moderator. Self-overestimation decreased as sample mean age increased from 4.80 to...

The use of mobile phones in schools has ignited debates, with some advocating for a complete ban, and others arguing for their integration as educational tools. Yet there has been an absence of academic research examining the impact of mobile phones on the performance of secondary school students. A 2016 study by Beland and Murphy explored the consequences of schools implementing a ban on mobile phones on student test scores in the UK, where there is no government policy regarding phone use in schools. This autonomy in mobile phone policies has resulted in various approaches to the issue. The researchers leverage these differences using a difference-in-differences (DID) estimation strategy, comparing changes in test scores across and within schools before and after the introduction of mobile phone bans, defined as being in place when a school restricts their use on its premises. The two researchers were able to create a dataset...

Meta-analytic reviews have found that readers understand texts slightly worse on screens than in print, particularly for expository texts and when time is constrained.  This is called the “screen inferiority effect.” Given that most primary studies from these reviews used computers for on-screen reading, it remains an open question whether this is also true when using handheld devices for on-screen reading. To address this gap, a set of recent meta-analyses, one using a between-participant design and the other using a within-participant design, explored potential moderating factors for the screen inferiority effect on reading comprehension using handheld devices versus in print. The review was comprised of 49 studies that met eligibility criteria, including that they: (1) compared reading on tablets or e-readers with reading in print; (2) involved participants who read independently; (3) were published or presented in English, Spanish, German, French, or Greek; and (4) were published after 2010. Results...

The first randomized evaluation of a virtual early literacy tutoring program in the US has found positive effects on student achievement. Loeb and colleagues from Stanford University and Vanderbilt University conducted an evaluation of OnYourMark, a virtual tutoring program designed to equip students in grades K-2 with foundational literacy skills. Published by National Student Support Accelerator, the evaluation was implemented across 12 Texas schools during the 2022-23 academic year. Conducted within classrooms, yet facilitated by online tutors, the program offered four 20-minute sessions each week, spanning from September to May. The diverse study sample included 2,085 K-2 students: 510 randomly assigned to receive one-on-one tutoring, 570 to two-on-one sessions, and 1,005 to a business-as-usual control condition. Overall, students who were assigned to receive OnYourMark tutoring scored significantly higher than their peers in the control group on the DIBELS (ES = +0.08), with lower-performing students and first graders in 1:1 sessions...

A meta-analysis by Jing and colleagues explored the impact of screen exposure on vocabulary development in early childhood (0-6 years). The review incorporated research focused on children screen-media use with receptive or expressive vocabulary assessment, inclusion criteria requiring a screen media exposure group for experimental studies and a measure of screen media exposure for correlational studies. Those involving adult aid or peer scaffolding to support children’s learning were excluded. The multilevel meta-analysis included 266 effect sizes from 63 studies (44 experimental and 19 correlational) published between 1998 and 2022. Most studies assessed English vocabulary (76%). Ages ranged from 0.90 to 6.58 years with an average of 40.44 months. The combined results revealed a small yet positive effect size (r = +0.23), notably, with experimental studies showing a significant positive effect (ES =+0.30) and correlation studies nearly zero association (r= +0.07). Among experimental studies, media platform was a significant moderator with...

It seems intuitive that students require periodic breaks during their school day. We’ve long recognized the importance of recess, especially in the elementary grades, as it offers students a chance for physical activity and mental reset. However, our understanding of the impact of short breaks within regular lessons and how these breaks influence student learning is less clear. In a recent study published in the Trends in Neuroscience and Education Journal, Müller and colleagues delved into this subject.  They employed an intervention-control group design to examine the effects of both physical activity and mindfulness interventions on student performance. The physical activity intervention included daily 10-minute physical activity breaks for 162 fourth grade students for two weeks, during which students were led through a 2-minute warm up activity such as stretching, four minutes of cardiovascular activities such as running in place and jumping jacks, 2 minutes of exercises such as back-to-back...

While randomized studies are often touted as the “gold standard” for determining the efficacy of an intervention, it is important to highlight that there is a spectrum of study designs that can provide valuable insight into program effects. Randomized studies are highly valued in educational research for good reason; however, they often require significant funding, personnel, and infrastructure which may not always be feasible for all educational research endeavors. Recognizing that the building of an educational research base can start with lower barrier to entry research designs, including the use of virtual control groups, ultimately will contribute to a richer understanding of what works. A recent report from the RAND Corporation employed a matched comparison group methodology with a virtual control group (VCG) to explore the effects of Lexia Core5 Reading on student achievement. Core5 is a blended learning program that addresses key literacy skills, including fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension....

Understanding the intricate workings of the human brain during the learning process has the potential to inform and improve classroom pedagogy, instructional design, and curriculum development. A recent study by Woolnough and colleagues from the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston examined brain structures during reading that provide useful insights into the learning process. In their study, the researchers conducted recordings of 36 patients’ brains to locate and identify the specific roles and brain area interactions that are involved in the act of reading. Doctors surgically placed electrodes in patients’ brains and measured neural activity while patients read three forms of sentences: regular sentences, sentences using common grammar and syntax but with nonsense words and lists of words or nonsense words. The measurements detected two distinct brain networks that are activated when a person reads a sentence, with the two networks cooperating to...