Theatre

Theatre

New findings on a state initiative in Wisconsin suggest that to make the most out of smaller class sizes in the early grades, teachers should focus on basic skills when they have one-on-one contact with students, ask children to discuss and demonstrate what they know, and have a firm, but nurturing,

Gov. Jeb Bush has warned that Florida won't meet class-size limits without taking such steps as expanding private school vouchers, lifting restrictions on the number of charter schools, and moving to year-round schedules.

The proposed budget from the Trump administration eliminates the Title II grant program, which pays for professional development and class-size reduction efforts.

A majority of states have at least one policy that limits the number of students that may be in a general education classroom, according to the Education Commission of the States. Among states that have changed their class-size policies since 2008, all have opted to relax those constraints.

Renee Moore questions the wisdom of the the idea—raised in recent days by both Bill Gates and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan—of paying effective teachers more for taking on larger class sizes: Giving the most effective teachers larger classes is NOT a way to reward them, but it is a way to

In an opinion piece published by the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peter Smagorinsky, a professor of English education at the University of Georgia, questions the value of recent policy reports showing that increases in class sizes do not have a detrimental effect on student test scores. Most peo

Keeping preschool class sizes at or under 20 children, and keeping child-teacher ratios at 10 to 1, will work for most children in preschool, according to a new study.

In recent years, reducing class size has gained increased prominence as a school-improvement strategy. Some 40 states now have class-size-reduction initiatives in place, and federal money is available for such efforts as well. The teachers' unions, meanwhile, routinely tout class-size reduction as a

Class size does matter for teachers and students, but only if the instruction used in the small class size is different from those instructional practices used in a large one.

Only very large reductions in class size are likely to lead to significant long-term effects on student achievement, a new research synthesis says.

In recent years, reducing class size has gained increased prominence as a school-improvement strategy. Some 40 states now have class-size-reduction initiatives in place, and federal money is available for such efforts as well. The teachers' unions, meanwhile, routinely tout class-size reduction as a

The situation in the Clark County School District is a perfect storm that serves as a reminder of how difficult it is for school officials to plan for changing conditions

Continuing increases in K-12 enrollment, a downturn in higher education enrollment, and a rise in cyberbullying are among the trends illustrated in two new statistical publications from the U.S. Department of Education.

If class sizes aren't going to be addressed because of bottom lines, either because of a lack of teacher resources or school funding, then we are going to have to find a way to function better inside of these undesirable situations.

Smaller classes could help bridge the gap between home and school, writes former teacher Marc Vincenti.

Size matters in nurturing the relationship between teachers and students.

Hundreds of teachers across the Sacramento Unified school district walked out of their classrooms and onto picket lines last week for the first time in 30 years, staging a one-day strike alleging unfair labor practices by the California district.

An armoured car guarded the Grand Place in Brussels city centre yesterday as a group of women sat drinking coffee at an outdoor table. A reporter asked one of them what she would do if terrorists started shooting? She said: "Smile. Sit. Drink coffee. Enjoy – even if it is the last."

There are times when I wish my family’s life revolved a little less around Andy Murray. Two words, "Andy’s playing", are sufficient reason for outings to be delayed or abandoned; invitations turned down; even holiday dates tweaked.

By the time I left school, aged 18, I couldn’t distinguish between which beliefs I had worked out for myself and which were absorbed through conditioning.

What have we done? That’s what Hawick housewife Carol Martin said when she realised her lottery ticket had scooped £33 million.

School board members in Tucson, Ariz., acted after learning that a controversial economics textbook that hadn't been properly vetted.

As an attempt to mitigate a persistent school supply problem, New Mexico plans to give some 23,000 teachers prepaid gift cards for use on classroom materials. One local union calls it a distraction from larger funding issues.

For the first time, the World Health Organization has officially designated "gaming disorder" among its list of mental-health addictive behaviors.

The money is better spent on sincere and hardworking teachers.

Expert says labels, books, and writing centers all help with skill development

Marlo Warburton, a 7th and 8th grade math teacher at Longfellow Arts and Technology Middle School in Berkeley, Calif., shares how greeting her students in the morning and expressing appreciation during dismissal are valuable opportunities for character building and for fostering teacher-student rela

William Leou, a 6th grade science teacher at the Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies, uses an organizational worksheet to help students draw arguments from evidence.

Chris Knutson, an 8th grade history teacher at Horning Middle School in Waukesha, Wis., shares how he incorporates learning conferences into his lessons.

The 2020 school counselor of the year draws on her previous experience as a counselor for gang members in a prison to reform discipline in her school in an Atlanta suburb. She shares her insights in this Q&A with Education Week.

OM Japan feels honoured to have played a small part in helping bring hope and relief to tsunami survivors.

In the prerotavirus vaccine era, diarrhea-associated hospitalization and outpatient rates among American Indian and Alaska Native children were higher than those among the general US population. Routine rotavirus vaccination has dramatically decreased rotavirus diarrhea burden in the general US population.

Decreases in diarrhea-associated hospitalization and outpatient rates among American Indian and Alaska Native children in postvaccine years were observed in all Indian Health Service regions, with declines greater in each subsequent year after vaccine introduction. (Read the full article)

Rural Alaska children have high rates of hospitalization with lower respiratory tract infections from a variety of pathogens. Past studies of risk factors for respiratory syncytial virus infection associated medically high-risk status, household crowding, and infant feeding practices with hospitalization.

This study reveals the importance of medically high-risk status and infant feeding practices as important factors in respiratory hospitalization. In addition, we identified woodstove use and the absence of 2 or more sinks in household as risk factors for hospitalization. (Read the full article)

Percentile charts for birth weight are used to assess the somatic development of neonates (small, appropriate, or large for gestational age).

A systematic error was identified in the majority of birth weight percentile charts. As a consequence, small for gestational age rates are overestimated and large for gestational age rates are underestimated; ~5% of neonates are misclassified. (Read the full article)

Invasive Cronobacter infection is a rare but devastating disease known to affect hospitalized premature or immunocompromised infants fed powdered infant formulas (PIFs). PIF labels imply that powdered formulas are safe for healthy, term infants if the label instructions are followed.

Cronobacter can also infect healthy, term infants in the first months of life, even if PIF label instructions are followed. Invasive Cronobacter infection is extremely rare in exclusively breastfed infants or those fed commercially sterile, ready-to-feed formulas. (Read the full article)

The false-positive rate of newborn screening for classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) remains high and has not been significantly improved by adjusting 17α-hydroxyprogesterone cutoff values for birth weight and/or gestational age. In response, 4 states have initiated second-tier steroid profile screening.

Under second-tier screening, the false-positive rate remains high, and classic CAH cases missed by screening (false-negatives) occur more frequently than reported. Physicians are cautioned that a negative screen does not necessarily rule out CAH. (Read the full article)

Disparities in vaccination coverage between American Indian/Alaska Native and white children previously existed between 2001 and 2004 but were not present in 2005.

This study updates a previous study by analyzing data through 2010 and found that these gains have been maintained. (Read the full article)

Diuretics are used in preterm infants to treat the symptoms of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), although there is little evidence of their effectiveness in improving long-term outcomes. Prescribing patterns and frequency of diuretic use in patients with BPD are unknown.

The use of diuretics in infants with BPD, including the specific medications used and length of treatment, varies widely by institution. Long-term diuretic administration to patients with BPD is commonly practiced despite minimal evidence regarding effectiveness and safety. (Read the full article)

Many US children aged 6 to 24 months who would be classified as low weight-for-age by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2000 reference will be classified as normal weight-for-age by the World Health Organization 2006 standard.

Children who will be reclassified from low to normal weight-for-age using the World Health Organization growth standard are at higher risk of adverse health outcomes than children who are not low weight-for-age by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reference. (Read the full article)

Preterm neonates in resource-poor settings frequently develop hypothermia. Plastic bags or wraps are a low-cost intervention for the prevention of hypothermia in infants in developed countries.

For preterm infants born in a resource-poor health facility, placement in a plastic bag at birth can reduce the incidence of hypothermia at 1 hour after birth. (Read the full article)

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases are rooted in childhood. Vascular intima-media thickness (IMT) and elasticity are early surrogate markers of atherosclerosis. In adults, cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with enhanced arterial elasticity and decreased IMT.

Fitness was favorably associated with aortic IMT and elasticity in adolescents. The association was independent of several cardiometabolic risk factors. In fit adolescents, the increase in IMT during the preceding 6 years was smaller compared with low-fit peers. (Read the full article)

Twin studies suggest that bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is heritable; however, only a small number of genetic loci have been associated with BPD and these explain only a limited amount of this heritability.

A genome-wide association study of singleton infants (899 BPD cases and 827 controls) of 25 to 30 weeks’ gestational age did not identify single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with BPD at the genome-wide significance level but did identify polymorphisms warranting further study. (Read the full article)

Respiratory outcomes of patients with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) range from no oxygen requirement to chronic respiratory failure. Outcomes of least severe types of BPD are well described. Limited data exist on outcomes of patients with BPD-related chronic ventilator dependency.

Along with a first estimation of the incidence of patients with severe BPD-related chronic respiratory failure who were dependent on positive pressure ventilation via tracheostomy at home, we describe their survival rate, liberation from positive pressure ventilation, and decannulation. (Read the full article)

Only 2 randomized controlled trials have addressed effects of ultrasound screening for developmental hip dysplasia. Both concluded that adding universal or selective ultrasound to routine clinical examination gave a nonsignificant reduction in rates of late presenting cases, but higher treatment rates.

This maturity review assesses long-term outcome of one of these trials. Rates of radiographic findings indicating acetabular dysplasia and degenerative change were similar across the 3 screening groups in young adulthood. Increased treatment rates were not associated with avascular necrosis. (Read the full article)

Term neonates in resource-poor settings frequently develop hypothermia. Plastic bags or wraps are a low-cost intervention for the prevention of hypothermia in preterm and low birth weight infants that may also be effective in term infants.

For term neonates born in a resource-poor health facility, placement in a plastic bag at birth can reduce the incidence of hypothermia at 1 hour after birth. (Read the full article)