Physical Fitness = Mental Fitness?

A study recently presented at the American Psychological Association's (APA) 120th Annual Convention points to evidence that physical fitness is correlated with better academic performance.  The study found that cardiorespiratory fitness had an impact on middle school boys' and girls' reading and math test scores.

It wasn't just physical fitness that impacted test scores either.  The study also determined that social support was related to higher reading scores for boys.

As educators are well aware, students' academic performance is affected by all areas of children's lives, ranging from physical fitness to emotional well-being.  Encouraging physical fitness is important in our schools, not only for the physical health of our children, but also for their academic performance 

For more information, please visit the American Psychological Association's briefing here.

Meghan Covert Russell

President Obama Announces Plan for STEM Master Teacher Corps

Today the White House announced the President's plan to dedicate $1 billion to create a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Master Teacher Corps.  The program will begin in 50 locations with 50 exceptional STEM teachers leading the way, but plans are to expand to 10,000 STEM teachers within the next four years. The program will reward high-performing teachers with salary stipends of $20,000 per year.

Plans were also announced to dedicate $100 million from the Teachers Incentive Fund to help schools recruit STEM teachers.  These teachers would then serve as mentors to fellow STEM teachers within the schools districts.

This proposal comes out of the recommendations of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which included encouraging teacher cooperation in order to improve STEM education across the country and retaining talented STEM teachers.

Read more about the President's plan here.

Meghan Covert Russell

Teaching Younger Students Algebra -- Yes It Can Be (And Should Be) Done!

Math is a subject that is often challenging for a lot of students, and algebra can be an especially challenging subject that raises novel questions and asks students to think in a new way.  The National Assessment of Educational Progress ("NAEP") reports that the number of students taking Algebra I in 8th grade has doubled since 1986 (from 16% to 34%).  But, although California standards call for 8th graders to take Algebra I, a 2011 EdSource report found that 1/3 of those 8th graders who took Algebra I scored "below basic" or "far below basic."

These scores raise questions about how students are prepared for algebra, and is examined in Harvard Graduate School of Education's ("HGSE") May/June 2012 Harvard Education Letter, "The Algebra Problem."  HGSE suggests that students find algebra challenging because "it is a dramatic leap to go from the concrete world of computation-focused grade school math to the abstract world of algebra, which requires work with variables and changing quantitative relationships."

Tufts University researcher Barbara Brizuela says that algebra should be introduced to students earlier than middle school.  "Kids need to develop some comfort with these tools...babies are exposed to written and spoken language, and after six years we expect them to become somewhat fluent with that.  In math, we just drop it on them like a bomb."  Brizuela's research demonstrates that students who received weekly algebra lessons plus homework in elementary school performed better than their peers on algebra assessments in middle school.  Brizuela uses children's natural generalizing ability to "lure [them] into thinking about quantitative relationships that then become algebraic rules."  The result is that children use their natural mathematical reasoning. 

What methods have you used to teach algebraic reasoning to elementary school children?

The full HGSE May/June 2012 Harvard Education Letter, "The Algebra Problem," is available here.

Meghan Covert Russell