Usually graduates receive gifts—but 11-year-old Darius Atefat-Peckham decided to give one instead. He donated the $10,000 he won this spring in the Letters About Literature national writing contest to his elementary school library.
Tech Tidbits from the Guybrarian and His Gal: Shallow Research
By on January 1, 2012
In a recent Pew Internet study called How Teens Do Research the Digital World, AP and National Writing Project teachers said that one of educators’ top priorities should be to teach students how to “judge the quality of online information.” The study reports that 95 percent of our students do online research, but their research skills are only good or fair. Also, for many students, doing research means Googling. Many students see research as a fast-paced process in which they [...]
U.S. Students Rank 32 in Math Proficiency, 17 in Reading, Study Says
By on August 23, 2011
By SLJ Staff, 8/23/2011
Our nation’s graduating high school class of 2011 had a 32 percent proficiency rate in math and a 31 percent proficiency rate in reading, leaving many to question whether schools are adequately preparing students for the 21st century global economy, says a new report. U.S. students fall behind 31 countries in math proficiency and behind 16 countries in reading proficiency, according to the recent study, “Globally Challenged: Are U.S. Students Ready to Compete?” by Harvard’s Program on [...]
Summer Reading Programs Boost Student Achievement, Study Says
By on November 1, 2010
By Carole Fiore and Susan Roman
“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.” When George Gershwin composed that song, he couldn’t have been thinking of our nation’s public libraries. For those of us who work in children’s departments, summer is the prime season for reading programs and the livin’ is anything but easy. In fact, more kids partake in public library summer reading programs than play Little League baseball. But unlike a ball game in [...]
Lessons from the Trenches
By on October 1, 2009
Best practices for using games and simulations in the classroom
By Karen Billings
We know that educational games and simulations can be valuable tools to reach and teach 21st-century students. However, many traditional classrooms and media centers aren’t designed to support educators who want to use them. Teachers and librarians are often required to justify the purchase and use of games in the classroom. And they sometimes even ask themselves if they have successfully met their intended educational objectives when they do [...]
Crime Linked to Dropout Rates, Report Says
By on August 27, 2008
By SLJ Staff, 8/27/2008
What’s a good way to see a decline in the crime rate? By making sure teens graduate from high school. Dropouts are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested than high school graduates and more than eight times as likely to be incarcerated, says “School or the Streets: Crime and America’s Dropout Crisis,” a report from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a nonprofit anti-crime organization comprised of more than 3,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, other law enforcement [...]
Most High School Students Admit to Cheating
By on March 10, 2008
This article originally appeared in SLJ’s Extra Helping.
By Joan Oleck, 3/10/2008
A whopping 95 percent of high school students say they’ve cheated during the course of their education, ranging from letting somebody copy their homework to test-cheating, a Rutgers University professor reports.
"There’s a fair amount of cheating going on, and students aren’t all that concerned about it," says Donald McCabe, a professor of management and global business at New Jersey-based Rutgers.
The professor has been surveying cheating practices among college kids for [...]
TV Violence Doesn't Lead to Aggressive Kids, Study Says
By on May 22, 2007
This article originally appeared in SLJ’s Extra Helping.
By Joan Oleck, 05/23/2007
Violent television does not lead to violent children, says a new research paper from the Media Institute, countering a recent, much-heralded report from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stating that the opposite is true.
“Television Violence and Aggression: Setting the Record Straight,” refutes an April FCC report that called for laws to curb certain television content for children.
“The debate is not over,” writes Jonathan Freedman, author of the paper and a [...]
The Problem of Plagiarism
By on January 1, 2005
Students who copy may not know they’ve committed an offense
By Colleen MacDonell
With so many middle and high school students using subscription databases and the Web to complete assignments, there's a lot more cutting and pasting taking place than we'd like to see. And while it's understandable that teachers would be tempted to give failing grades to plagiarized work, it's unfair to students who may not even know they're committing an offense.
My students at International College, a Pre-K to 12 American [...]
