Friday, October 29, 2021

Children's social media use survey

The C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health found that 32% of children ages 7 to 9 and 49% of children ages 10 to 12 use social media apps. The findings, based on a survey of 1,030 parents, also showed that 35% of parents said their child was taught about the safe use of social media apps in school, and that these parents were more likely to report that their child uses these apps.

National Poll: 1/3 of children ages 7-9 use social media apps. (2018). https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/931448.

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

Report on 3rd graders' reading ability

 This report ranks 287 California school districts, which have 100+ socio-economically-disadvantaged/Hispanic/LatinX 3rd graders, on their “effectiveness in teaching reading by 3rd grade.” The authors found that “it is not the students themselves, or the level of resources, that drive student reading achievement - the primary drivers are district focus on reading, management practices, and curriculum and instruction choices.” One surprising finding is that “none of the top performing districts are located in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Bay Area contains nearly half of the lowest performing districts, including large districts like San Francisco Unified, Oakland Unified, and West Contra Costa County Unified.  By contrast, Southern California has 80% of the high performing districts, led by Los Angeles County, where over half of all ranked districts are in the top 20% statewide. Fresno County is also a standout, with 4 of the top 30 districts (including 2 of the top 5), while making up only 1% of all ranked districts.”

The First Annual California Reading Report Card. California Reading Coalition. Sept. 2021.