Featured series 
Tag: Education
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Science & Tech
Studies challenge claims that percent plans provide viable alternative to affirmative action
Although the Texas, California and Florida plans appear to be very similar, in fact they differ greatly. There are key distinctions that must be noted when considering their implementation and effectiveness. Current public discussion of percent plans seems to suggest that simply designating a percent of each high school class entitled to public university admission…
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Science & Tech
A multiracial society with segregated schools
The nation’s public schools are becoming steadily more nonwhite, as the minority student enrollment approaches 40 percent of all U.S. public school students, almost twice the share of minority school students during the 1960s. Almost half of all public school students in the West and the South are minority students. The desegregation of black students,…
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Campus & Community
Students engaged but skeptical, survey says
“Contrary to popular belief, college students are engaged in their community and tuned into current events,” said Dan Glickman, director of Harvard’s Institute of Politics and a former U.S. Cabinet secretary and member of Congress. “But it is little wonder that they feel disengaged from politics when the campaigns focus most of their attention on…
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Science & Tech
What students know best
A research project called Pathways for Student Success has taken a unique approach to finding ways to help high school students achieve at a high rate. Rather than focusing on conclusions established by researchers, high school students themselves bore the responsibility of defining academic, demographic, and social factors that challenge their ultimate levels of achievement…
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Science & Tech
Radcliffe conference presents research on lethal school violence
Educators, policy-makers, law enforcement officials, and adolescent-development specialists came to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study on May 21, 2002, for the National Conference on Lethal School Violence. The conference centerpiece was the report “Deadly Lessons: Understanding Lethal School Violence,” a qualitative and quantitative study of incidents of lethal school shootings released by the National…
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Science & Tech
New online approach builds community around medical cases
A new suite of Internet tools is boosting student-faculty interaction in an engrossing twist on traditional case-based teaching at Harvard Medical School. Called ICON, for “interactive case-based online network,” the cases are run by a faculty-student-IT specialist trio at Harvard Medical School, backed by extensive cross-faculty collaboration. ICON is revamping neuroscience case-based learning by engrossing…
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Science & Tech
School of Public Health tests new emergency management software
CAMEO (Computer-Aided Management of Emergency Operations) is a suite of software programs used by professionals such as emergency management agency specialists, firefighters, hazardous materials teams, industrial hygienists and emergency department personnel. The system helps professionals plan for emergencies and deal with them as they are happening. Recently, the Harvard School of Public Health’s Center for…
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Science & Tech
In Dayton, parents’ satisfaction increased by moving children to private schools
Parents in Dayton, Ohio, reported increased satisfaction after they moved their children to private schools. A private scholarship program sponsored by Parents Advancing Choice in Education (PACE), a non-profit organization in Dayton, helps low-income families afford private education.
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Science & Tech
School segregation on the rise despite growing diversity
Nearly 50 years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared Southern segregated schools to be unconstitutional, resegregation is happening again. And it is occurring despite the nation’s growing diversity. According to Gary Orfield, co-director of The Civil Rights Project and professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, resegregation is contributing to a growing gap in…
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Science & Tech
Students tackle Harvard Square parking problems
A group of students who studied parking problems in Harvard Square issued wide-ranging recommendations, including installing wireless access-control gates at the more than 50 lots across the University, increasing parking fees in Cambridge coupled with increased enforcement of permits, establishing satellite parking lots and shuttles to encourage people to park there, and installing robotic –…
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Science & Tech
What determines who goes to college and who does not?
More than ever, policymakers are adopting merit-based, rather than need-based, financial aid programs, a trend that disquiets Harvard Graduate School of Education Assistant Professor Bridget Terry Long. In Georgia, for instance, a new state policy offers students with a B-average or higher free tuition at an in-state public college of their choice. Such plans are…
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Science & Tech
Doctoral student developing Internet search tool
Harvard Graduate School of Education doctoral student Kathleen Guinee is developing a computer-based tool to make searching the Internet easier for all students. Her research so far has focused on understanding students’ search strategies on the Web. Guinee gave 16 computer campers an assignment to gather information about islands of their choosing. The more successful…
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Science & Tech
Nine keys to a knowledge infrastructure
Yesha Y. Sivan, CEO of the K2K Knowledge Infrastructure Laboratory and a visiting scholar at Harvard, has outlined a strategy to allow knowledge-based organizations to plan, implement and evaluate the success of their knowledge management (KM) strategies. In the emerging field of knowledge management, a bridge between the theoretical and the practical has been missing;…
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Science & Tech
Internet will enhance, not replace, current educational models
In January 2001, Harvard information technology experts outlined a future in which the Internet, computers, and other technologies will enhance rather than replace the current educational experience. What that means for students is experiencing, among other things, virtual trading on a virtual stock floor — so they can hear the noise and feel the pressure…
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Science & Tech
High school dropouts concentrated in 35 cities
The nation’s high school dropout problem is most desperate in between 200 to 300 schools in the 35 largest cities in the U.S. The cities are Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, San Antonio, Baltimore, Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City, Austin, Columbus, Milwaukee, Denver, Kansas City, Nashville, Memphis, El Paso, Oklahoma City, Portland, Los…
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Science & Tech
One in three Massachusetts workers ill-equipped to meet demands
The most startling finding of a new report is that 667,000 of 1.1 million at-risk workers in Massachusetts have earned a high school credential but still lack basic math, reading, writing, language, and analytic skills at the level considered acceptable for the typical 21st century workplace. This one group represents 20 percent of the state’s…
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Health
A new reason to sleep on it
In findings published in the December 2000 issue of Nature Neuroscience, a team of Harvard Medical School scientists found that people who stay up all night after learning and practicing a new task show little improvement in their performance. That means that school kids who are cutting back on sleep to finish ever mounting piles…
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Science & Tech
What will it take to attract, and keep, new teachers?
In today’s expansive job market, with its escalating definition of a competitive salary, teaching is underpaid. Graduates are actively recruited to work in investment banking, consulting, and technology, where beginning salaries average twice those of first-year teachers. Who will become the next generation of teachers? And what will it take to recruit talented people and…
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Science & Tech
Before- and after-school hours key to the nurturing of children
How to keep children occupied and engaged in worthwhile after-school pursuits is becoming a major focus of study at the Harvard Family Research Project at the Graduate School of Education. The project is analyzing existing research while constructing a database that will be useful for policy-makers, public and private funders, and those who run after-school…
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Health
Arts-to-smarts link overblown, researchers say
“Arts advocates need to stop making sweeping claims about the arts as a magic pill for turning students around academically,” says Lois Hetland, project manager of the largest, most comprehensive study ever conducted on the effects of arts on education. “Arts teachers should not be held responsible for better test scores in math or history.”…
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Science & Tech
New generation of faculty members sets new priorities
Although doctoral candidates and new faculty still regard tenure as important when seeking employment, they will consider non-tenure over tenure-track positions if jobs meet other conditions, including desirable geographic location, balance of research and teaching, and competitive salary. “This generation of scholars is very different from previous cohorts,” says researcher Cathy Trower. “They entered academe…
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Science & Tech
High stakes tests in Texas threaten disadvantaged students
Texas is frequently cited as a national leader in efforts to raise academic performance and hold schools accountable for student performance. At the center of these efforts is the statewide standardized test, the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS), administered to public school children in grades 3 to 10. Students must achieve a minimum score…
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Science & Tech
Student-designed lamp brightens Harvard dorms
Halogen lamps became increasingly popular through the ’90s. Their high-wattage bulbs gave off a clear, pleasant light and — at $15 to $25 — even a student could afford them. Unfortunately, the lamps also gobbled electricity and their bulbs burned hot enough to be blamed for several fires and two fatalities. As part of her…
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Health
Paying attention to attention: How active is hyperactive?
McLean Hospital researcher Martin Teicher and his team believe that the surest way to separate youngsters who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from those with other problems is to look at their brain activity. His team carefully monitored the motions of thousands of children, including 700 first- and second-graders. They found that specific patterns…