Education Week - January 15, 2014 - 5

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Boys
EDUCATION REFORMS
"School Choice Signals"
Americans favor smaller class sizes and
technology over education reforms such as
vouchers and merit pay for teachers, says a
new survey from the Friedman Foundation
for Educational Choice.
Data was collected from 1,000 respondents
who took part in the Cooperative
Congressional Election Study.
Those participants ranked the most effective
school reform efforts to be smaller
class sizes, technology, accountability,
vouchers, teachers' unions, merit pay for
teachers, and a longer school day, in that
order.
Asked what types of school choice were
most preferred, respondents said they
supported, in order from most to least:
Tax-credit reimbursements for education
expenses such as private school tuition or
books, tax-credit scholarships, education
savings accounts, universal vouchers,
vouchers for students with disabilities,
and vouchers for low-income students.
Study author Dick M. Carpenter, a professor
of leadership, research, and foundations
at the University of Colorado at Colorado
Springs, said further research should be
conducted to determine whether tax credits
are more desirable because of the role they
play in expanding school choice or because
they do not rely on the taxpayer to shoulder
the financial burden of school choice like
vouchers.
-KATIE ASH
CONCUSSION RECOVERY
"Effect of Cognitive Activity Level
On Duration of Post-Concussion Symptoms"
Student-athletes who sustain concussions
may have a shorter recovery if they
rest and abstain from regular cognitive
activity following that injury, suggests a
study published online last week in the
journal Pediatrics.
'Parent Trigger' Critics
Charged With Vandalism
Two of the most vocal opponents
of the nation's first "parent trigger"
school have been charged with vandalizing
one of the Adelanto, Calif.,
school's classrooms, causing $8,000
in damages.
Chrissy Guzman and Lori Yuan,
the chairwoman of the Adelanto
Planning Commission, are scheduled
to be arraigned in Victorville
Superior Court on Jan. 13 and could
face up to three years in county jail,
according to local media reports.
The pair allegedly vandalized Desert
Trails Elementary School at the
end of June, just days before a private
charter school operator took it
over.
-KARLA SCOON REID
Organized Activities Provide
Distinct Gender Benefits
Extracurricular activities make
a positive difference in the lives
of rural youths, but the impact
of those experiences are different
for boys and girls, says a new
study.
For example, rural male adolescents
who are involved in church
and arts/music are more likely
School Loses Name
Of KKK Founder
A Jacksonville, Fla., high school
named in 1959 after a former Confederate
general and the co-founder
of the Ku Klux Klan has a new
name, ending a decades-long debate
over the issue.
The Duval County school board
voted unanimously last week
to change Nathan B. Forrest High
to Westside High, to reflect the
Researchers drew that conclusion after
examining data from 335 patients between
the ages of 8 and 23 who were seen
at the sports-concussion clinic of Boston
Children's Hospital between Oct. 1, 2009,
and July 31, 2011.
The athletes self-reported their degree
of cognitive activity-complete rest, minimal
activity (no reading or homework, less
than 20 minutes per day of online activity
and video games), moderate activity (reading
less than 10 pages per day, less than
one hour combined of homework, online
activity, and video games), no significant
activity (reading less and doing less homework
than usual), or full activity.
The researchers discovered that the youthathletes
who engaged in the highest levels
of cognitive activity experienced a delayed
recovery compared with those who engaged
in higher levels of cognitive rest.
-B.T.
SCHOOLING AND HEALTH
"Education: It Matters More to Health
Than Ever Before"
More than ever, Americans with less education
are dying earlier than their moreeducated
peers, according to a policy brief
from the Center on Society and Health.
According to the brief, Americans without
a high school diploma can expect to die
nine years before their college-educated
peers.
Between 1990 and 2008, the life-expectancy
gap, which has been widening since
the 1960s, grew from 13 to 14 years between
the most- and least-educated males. For
females, that gap grew from eight to 10
years. Americans with less education are
more likely to have major diseases, such as
heart disease and diabetes, and are more
likely to have risk factors predictive of disease,
such as smoking and obesity. Lower
rates of education also correspond with
higher rates of disease and disability and
greater strains on mental health.
-ALYSSA MORONES
to have a higher GPA than girls in
those communities who are involved
in those same activities.
Girls who participate on sports
teams, however, are more likely to
have a better GPA than their male
counterparts.
"Several of these findings differ
from previous organized-activity
research on urban and suburban
youth, indicating that involvement
in organized activities provides
unique developmental benefits for
adolescent boys and girls living in
a rural context," according to the
study by West Virginia University
researchers and published in
the Journal of Research in Rural
Education.
-DIETTE COURRÉGÉ CASEY
Number
of days
per week
PHYSICAL FITNESS
"Physical Activity in U.S. Youth
Aged 12-15 Years"
Just one in four teenagers between the
ages of 12 and 15 engaged in the recommended
60 minutes of daily moderateto-vigorous
physical activity in 2012, according
to new data released last week
by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
The 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines
for Americans, which first lady Michelle
Obama adopted for her "Let's Move!" program,
recommend that children and adolescents
engage in some combination of
aerobic, muscle-strengthening, and bonestrengthening
physical activity for at least
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
one hour per day, seven days a week.
As part of its 2012 National Health
and Nutrition Examination Survey, or
NHANES, and the 2012 NHANES National
Youth Fitness Survey, the CDC gathered
self-reported data from children and adolescents
about their daily physical activity
levels. The data focuses exclusively on 774
teenagers between the ages of 12 and 15,
as the survey assessed physical activity
differently for younger children.
According to the teenagers' self-reported
data, only 24.8 percent engaged in at least
60 minutes of daily moderate-to-vigorous
physical activity, either in or out of school.
Only 7.6 percent did not engage in at least
an hour of daily moderate-to-vigorous
physical activity on any day of the week.
-BRYAN TOPOREK
7
27%
The percentage of boys
who engaged daily in 60
minutes of moderate-tovigorous
physical activity.
%
30
25
20
15
10
5
The percentage of 12- to 15-year-olds
who were physically active, by number
of days per week and gender.
15.8
8.7
6.4
4.7
2.8
9.9 10.7
12.1
8.5
6.4
10.7
11.3
27
21.9
22.5
20.5
Girls
22.5%
The percentage of girls who
engaged daily in 60 minutes
of moderate-to-vigorous
physical activity.
neighborhood.
A school advisory council had
asked the board to change the name
in 2007, but then-board members
voted 5-2 against the change.
-AP
Minority Students in Ill.
Make Up New Majority
New enrollment numbers show
that lllinois' public school system
for the first time does not have
a white majority, with Latino, black,
Asian, and other racial groups
combining to eclipse white students
across the state's classrooms.
Whites fell to 49.76 percent of
the student body this school year,
the new data show. The black student
population also has declined,
but it still makes up a most 18
percent of the state's public school
students.
The Illinois board of education
cautioned that the numbers could
change if districts make corrections
in the coming months. If they hold,
Illinois would be one of a dozen
states-and the first in the Midwest-to
have a school system in
which minority students are in the
majority, according to the most recent
federal education data.
-McCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
In Grading, Looks Matter, Says Study
"Physical Attractiveness and the Accumulation of Social
And Human Capital in Adolescence and Young Adulthood:
Assets and Distractions"
A new study concludes that good looks tend to improve a student's
chances of academic success, including better grades in
high school.
The study, led by a sociologist at the University of Illinois at
Chicago, compared 8,918 students from around the country from
high school until after after college. The study used controls like
class difficulty and socioeconomic factors, such as parents' educational
backgrounds, to select students who were academically
comparable. To avoid researchers' personal biases on looks, the
study used commonly listed characteristics from surveys on attractiveness,
including facial symmetry, to rate students' physical
appearance.
The researchers found that students with above-average attractiveness
were 3 percentage points more likely to have finished a
baccalaureate degree. Roughly one-third of that difference stems
from students' grades in high school.
But attractiveness has a downside, lead researcher Rachel A.
Gordon writes in a separate brief published by the Council on
Contemporary Families.
"Youth rated as more physically attractive are more likely to
date, have sexual partners, and drink heavily. These factors, in
turn, have negative consequences for immediate grades and later
college completion," Gordon writes, but do not, ultimately, outweigh
the benefits.
-HANA MARUYAMA
EDUCATION WEEK | January 15, 2014 | www.edweek.org | 5
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Education Week - January 15, 2014

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