Education Learning Issues

DID YOU BELIEVE IN JAVITS? The Senate committee charged with appropriating funds for its continuation didn't, according to their vote on July 29th -- but the battle may move now to the US House of Representatives. Find more information at the CEC website.

THE EFFECT OF GOOD TEACHERS, QUANTIFIED. Try $320,000 -- that's the estimated value of a stand-out kindergarten teacher, as measured by the increased earnings of a full class or his or her students. The New York Times reported on a longitudinal study of 12,000 children, in which some teachers were identified as being able to help their students learn much more than other teachers. The results? "Students who had learned much more in kindergarten were more likely to go to college than students with otherwise similar backgrounds. Students who learned more were also less likely to become single parents. As adults, they were more likely to be saving for retirement. Perhaps most striking, they were earning more." Read the article and give a raise to a standout teacher you know.

ON BULLYING. Also from The New York Times: An op-ed piece "There's Only One Way to Stop a Bully" (training teachers and staff how to recognize bullying and intervene), along with quite a few thoughtful responses to the article by readers. If bullying is an issue that you're concerned with, find the article and find the responses.

AD/HD AND DIET. An Australian study suggests that adolescents eating a "Western" diet have twice the risk of AD/HD than those eating a "Healthy" diet, one high in fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, and fish. The Western diet? It's heavy in takeaway foods, confectionery, processed, fried and refined foods, and higher in total fat, saturated fat, refined sugar, and sodium. The researchers speculate the difference in the levels of omega-3 fatty acids might be the culprit. Read more, then go harass your teenager.

INTELLIGENCE AND THE BRAIN is a new book by Dennis Garlick, Ph.D., who answers questions about it in an interview with Michael Shaughnessy. Topics covered include the nature of intelligence, IQ, and IQ testing. Find it.

TEACHING MICROBIOLOGY WITH A VIDEO GAME. It can be done successfully, according to a press release from Wake Forest University. CellCraft, a game developed there and available on popular gaming sites, was played more than a million times within 10 days of its release. Gamers made comments such as, "I wish this game would've come out earlier; maybe I wouldn't have received a D in Biology." The game is available for free download at www.cellcraftgame.com. For the school year, it will include a free, downloadable teacher's packet and a printable lab worksheet. Read more.

STUCK AT PROM CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED. One of our favorite contests, where high-school prom-goers make their outfits out of Duck brand duct tape, has announced this year's winners. You can see the winners here. (You've got to admit, winning this contest takes creativity, discipline, and artistic talent. It's not every kid that would spend up to 300 hours to craft, say, a Victorian-inspired gown -- even if the kids did get to spend the time in the company of their prom dates.)

BACK TO SCHOOL? It's not even August. But anyway, the American Optometric Association has issued its back-to-school recommendation for eye exams. The press release includes indicators of vision problems, for example performing below potential or struggling to complete homework. Find the release. Along those lines, the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD), members of which have been featured in 2e Newsletter, note that August is National Children's Vision and Learning Month. Find the COVD website.

DSM-V -- CONTINUING SAGA. An editorial in the Journal of Mental Health expresses concerns among experts that proposed guidelines in the new DSM would qualify almost everyone as having some sort of disorder. You can actually read the full editorial online, or you can read others' interpretations here or here.

OUR FACEBOOK PAGE is deactivated for reconfiguration; we'll be back. (Coincidentally, USA Today this week reported on the question of whether Facebook use is linked to poor grades; read the article. We can attest that Facebook might lead to degraded on-the-job performance by newsletter publishers.)

PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND. A writer and mom who is a good friend of 2e Newsletter and whom we consider a reliable source recently copied us on an email raving about "Phoebe in Wonderland," a movie involving an eccentric, intelligent young girl, her parents, and an insightful, sympathetic drama teacher. Here are some of things our friend says about the movie: "The movie reveals the inner struggles of a young girl who knows she is different and doesn't know why she does the things she does... It is like no other movie that I've ever seen because of the reality that is portrayed by the characters, yet they don't tell you what her 'problem' is. My son and I saw it together and we both said we could relate to Phoebe and her mom, respectively... 2e folks will relate to all of the characters, especially Phoebe..." We checked the movie trailer and heard a great line from Phoebe's drama teacher: "At a certain point in your life, probably when too much of it has gone by, you will open your eyes and see yourself for who you are -- especially for everything that made you so different from all the awful normals."

TWO-DAY INSTITUTE ON 2e. Our friends at the University of Iowa's Belin-Blank Center inform us that they're hosting their fifth Advanced Leadership Institute this June 25th and 26th. Called "Twice-Exceptionality: Examined and Explained," the event is for those who interact with 2e kids as school administrators, educators, and parents. According to Belin-Blank, experts will discuss gifted learners who are also affected by autism spectrum disorders, specific learning disabilities, AD/HD, and hearing and/or visual impairments. Find more information. (If you're thinking of attending and like to stay at B&Bs, check out A Bella Vista, just blocks from the campus.)

DEBORAH RUF's EDUCATIONAL OPTIONS NEWSLETTER arrived today with a couple items that might be of interest to parents and educators of gifted/LD childen. First, an article by Dr. Ruf, "Independence and Relationship Issues in Intellectually Gifted Adolescents," is now available online at the site of Talent Development Resources. Ruf's goals with the paper: to "review some of the issues of friendship and romance among extremely gifted adolescents and young adults; and two, [to] touch upon some ways parents and counselors can correctly guide adolescents toward appropriate friendships, romance, and independence." The newsletter also reminded us that Ruf publishes a blog; her most recent post is about boys and trouble in school, with the thesis that "boys in general are not as flexible, adaptive, or malleable as girls and they are more overtly harmed by the way we 'do school' than girls are." Find the blog.

PAIRINGS: AD/HD. Articles we discovered today reported on two separate links between AD/HD and other conditions. One link is between AD/HD and sleep problems in adolescents. A study reported in Science Daily shows that young people diagnosed with AD/HD are more likely to have current and future sleep problems and disorders. The researchers suggest that an AD/HD diagnosis should indicate screening for sleep problems and psychiatric comorbidities. Read the article. (We've mentioned other articles over the last several years on the same topic; find them at our Delicious.com site.) A second link reported is with hypertension; researchers presenting this week at a Pediatric Academic Society meeting noted that children with hypertension are four times as likely to have an LD or AD/HD. The researchers expressed concern that the rise of the incidence of obesity in U.S. children makes this connection especially important. Read more.

PAIRING: MENTAL HEALTH AND BULLYING/RACISM. Similarly, two articles this week noted links between bullying and racism and the mental health of young people. A USA Today article reports that children of color who perceive racist mistreatment are several times more likely to have symptoms of depression; read it. The second article, in Science Daily, notes that children who are bullied at school over several years are much more likely to develop psychotic symptoms in early adolescence; read it.

WRITTEN WORDS AND THE BRAIN. A study from Georgetown University reported in Science Daily finds that our brains process written words as unique objects, as "whole word units." Neurons in the left visual cortex show selective activation for individual words. This activation is presumably learned through experience, which means that the research has implications for the future detection, diagnosis, and treatment of reading disabilities such as dyslexia. One researcher is quoted as saying, "...we would expect reading difficulties if neurons never become well tuned to words, making reading a slow, arduous process, just like it would be if reading all nonwords." (This is exactly how we've heard dyslexic conference presenters describe their own experiences with reading.) Read the article.

WRIGHTSLAW'S SPECIAL ED ADVOCATE often contains information useful to those raising and educating 2e kids. The current edition of the newsletter focuses on the school consequences of behavior problems caused by disabilities, and those in the 2e community certainly know how outbursts, meltdowns, and the like can be associated with AD/HD, Asperger's, and sensory problems. One article in Special Ed Advocate covers the "manifestation determination review," a hearing involved in expelling a student for conduct-related issues. A key sentence in the article: "Consequences for problem behaviors should not discriminate against a child based on his disability." (Tell this to the 2e Newsletter subscriber whose son faced police charges as the result of an Aspie response to confrontation by a teacher.) Other current Wrightslaw articles cover what schools are required to do with regard to children's behavior problems; and how IDEA 2004 affects schools' abilities to suspend children with disabilities. Got a behavior-challenged 2e kid? Find Special Ed Advocate.