Social Media Opposition Amongst Younger Generation

The study provides evidence of a growing backlash among young people who wish social media did not exist due to negative aspects such as online abuse and fake news. In assessing students’ opinions on social media, a survey of 5,000 students was conducted by Digital Awareness UK at various schools in England. According to the study, such negative perceptions of social media were due to the impacts it had on the emotional wellbeing of participants. Two thirds of schoolchildren in this study said they would be happy if social media had never been invented, and 71 percent said they had taken temporary digital detoxes to escape it. Nearly half of the participants mentioned receiving abusive comments online. Roughly half of the participants also admitted to being on the edge of addiction and that social media lowered their self-images. Many young people are rebelling against having constant social media access by adopting the outdated “brick” phones that are no longer widely used.

Robertson, C. (2017). Tech control of your future on special media. Paper presented at Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, Belfast, Oct. 2-5. http://www.hmc.org.uk/blog/young-people-rebelling-social-media-survey-reveals/

RAND Survey Assesses Teachers’ Viewpoints On State Standards and Testing

While the data indicates that nearly all teachers support use of state standards in instruction, only a little more than one-third of teachers support the use of current statewide tests to measure student mastery of those standards. The findings from this report have implications for how states and districts can support implementation of state standards and assessments to ensure that U.S. students have the knowledge and skillset for success in both school and life. Secondary teachers and those with more low-income students were more likely to support the state English language arts (ELA) and mathematics standards. Those from these subgroups who did not think their standards were Common Core — were also more supportive of using statewide assessments to measure mastery of standards. Teachers who did not support state tests were more likely to be wary of test difficulty and the accuracy of scores for students with special needs. Recommendations include state adjustments in making sure assessments are closely linked with standards, addressing test difficulty particularly with regard to students with special needs, and developing their own instructional materials to support teachers’ work to address standards.

Kaufman, J. H., Wang, E. L., Hamilton, L. S., Thompson, L.E., & Hunter, G. (2017, October

04). U.S. teachers’ support of their state standards and Assessments. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2136.html

Study on truth and misinformation

A survey of leading technologists and social scientists about their outlook on the future of online information. Experts are evenly split on whether the coming decade will see a reduction in false and misleading narratives online. Those forecasting improvement place their hopes in technological fixes and in societal solutions. Others think the dark side of human nature is aided more than stifled by technology. Five themes emerged:

• The information environment will not improve: The problem is human nature.
• The information environment will not improve because technology will create new challenges that can’t or won’t be countered effectively and at scale.
• The information environment will improve because technology will help label, filter or ban misinformation and thus upgrade the public’s ability to judge the quality and veracity of content.
• The information environment will improve, because people will adjust and make things better.
• Tech can’t win the battle. The public must fund and support the production of objective, accurate information. It must also elevate information literacy to be a primary goal of education

Anderson, J., & Rainie, L. (2017). The future of truth and misinformation online. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/10/19/the-future-of-truth-and-misinformation-online/

Children's media use report

A sampling survey found that 95% of households with children age 8 and younger had a cell phone, and other electronic devices were also common. These children tend to spend more than two hours daily with media. The digital divide has lessened. The amount of reading has remained steady, but many parents to not read to their children age 2 and younger. These an other findings point out the need for media literacy.
Common Sense. (2017). The Common Sense survey: Media use by kids age zero to eight. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by-kids-age-zero-to-eight-2017

Avid readers research

Understanding how social influences can foster avid book reader identification is a key research goal that warrants further investigation beyond a limited early years lens. The author’s international study explored the influence positive social agents can have on avid book readers. Early influences were examined, with data suggesting that maternal instruction is the most prevalent source of early reading teaching. Indirect avid reader influence, author influence, fostering access, shared social habit, reading for approval, recommendations and supporting choice, and exposure to reading aloud were recurring mechanisms of influence. The multiple mechanisms of influence identified constitute opportunities for engagement and subsequent intervention by literacy advocates, including librarians.

Merga, M. (2017). Becoming a reader: Significant social influences on avid book readers. School Library Research, 20.

http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslpubsandjournals/slr/vol20/SLR_BecomingaReader_V20.pdf

Reading research

The power of reading, the power of libraries and the "summer slide"

Letter published in Language Magazine, May, 2017

Stephen Krashen

http://tinyurl.com/ll3d36s

Language Magazine readers might be interested in a case study that confirms Andrew Johnson's recommendations for dealing with the summer slide in reading  ("Tales of summer," April, 2017).  In a published journal paper, we (Shu-Yuan Lin, Fay Shin, and S. Krashen) described the case of "Sophia," a high school student whose reading test scores dropped during three consecutive academic years, but increased during the summer. In fact, Sophia's fall reading scores were higher than they were the previous spring. What did Sophia do during the summer that caused this improvement? She did not attend special classes, did not get instruction in reading strategies, did not work through vocabulary lists, and did not write book reports. All she did was read for pleasure. According to her mother, Sophia read an average of about 50 books per summer, largely from the local public library. Early favorites were the Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley High series, followed by the Christy Miller series and other books by Francine Pascal, the author of the Sweet Valley series. (Sophia informed us that she was “addicted” to the Christy Miller books; it took her only a week to read the entire series “because I just couldn’t put them down.”)

Sophia’s mother told us that during the school year Sophia was so busy with school work that she had hardly any free time to read. Her mother, in fact, joked that it might be a good idea to keep her daughter at home during the school year in order to increase her scores on standardized tests of reading.

Lin, S-Y, Shin, F., & Krashen, S.  2007. Sophia’s choice: Summer reading. Knowledge Quest 35(4). Available for free download at www.sdkrashen.com, under "free voluntary reading."

Kids Count report

While the percentage of American children living in poverty fell in 2015, many continue to live in high-poverty areas and gains in children's well-being could be lost without continued investment, an annual report from the Annie. E. Casey Foundation finds. The report, which measured child well-being in four areas — economic well-being, education, health, and family and community — found minimal gains in indicators of academic achievement. Although rates of high school completion and fourth-grade reading proficiency improved from 2010 to 2015, the percentage of children not attending pre-K classes has remained largely unchanged since 2009, while the eighth-grade math proficiency rate has gotten slightly worse. The report found progress in a number of health indicators, including the uninsured rate for children, which fell from 8 percent in 2010 to 5 percent in 2015; the share of teens who abuse alcohol or drugs, which fell  from 7 percent to 5 percent; and child and teen deaths, which was down from 26 per 100,000 to 25 per 100,000. The report also notes that racial disparities in child well-being persist.
Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2017). Kids Count. Baltimore, MD: A. E. Casey Foundation. 
http://www.aecf.org/m/databook/2017KCDB_FINAL_embargoed.pdf