A 'clever nation' needs its teacher shortage filled, pronto. Theage.com.au - Sat May 24, 08:31 pm GMT [News4Sites - Australia Education]
10:50:14 PM    

On the intelligence of crows. If you have read my page on Gestalt learning, you may have seen the amazing case of Betty the Crow. She features again in this longer clip, courtesy of TED.com:

By noreply@blogger.com (James A). [Recent Reflection]
10:14:56 PM    

Sweden, en famille.

I’m in Stockholm this week, visiting the Research Institute of Industrial Economics¬[sgl dagger](IFN), as the guest of Daniel Waldenstrom.¬[sgl dagger]The main purpose of the visit is a workshop on inequality - something Swedes don’t have much of, but seem very keen to talk about. At the same time, I hope to find out how Daniel manages to get a CV like this¬[sgl dagger]while working 14 hours a week (he’s been on paternity leave since Aug 2006).

This is my first visit to Sweden, and my first trip to Scandinavia travelling with a child. Sweden’s child-friendliness is much-touted, but seeing it up close really makes a strong impression. Many of the parks have sandpits, complete with plastic shovels and buckets (not attached by strings, yet unstolen - puzzling…). On weekends, adults can take up to 6 children (aged <18) on the metro while paying for only one ticket. And every cafe seems to have half a dozen high-chairs available (Ikea, natch). Sweden’s taxes and prices are famously high, but strolling Stockholm, you’re not left in any doubt where the money goes.

[Andrew Leigh]
10:12:09 PM    

Does redshirting help?.

Any parent with a child born near the school entry age cutoff faces a dilemma - should they let their child start school a little early, or a little late? In the US, the practice of holding one’s child back a year is known¬[sgl dagger]as ‘redshirting’.

I have a little personal experience with this.¬[sgl dagger]My birthday is August 3, and the NSW cutoff was August 1. My parents opted to send me to school with the earlier cohort, but at the end of primary school, they decided that they didn’t think I was socially ready to enter high school, so they¬[sgl dagger]had me repeat grade 6.

Did they make a mistake in failing to hold me back from starting school? If a new paper from Norway is to be believed, the answer is no. At age 18, children who start school at a younger age have higher test scores than those who do not. On the other hand, girls who start school early are also more likely to be teenage mums, a factor that some parents may want to bear in mind. Overall, the paper seems to indicate that redshirting is generally a bad idea, but the effects - to the extent we can observe them - are reasonably small.

Too Young to Leave the Nest: The Effects of School Starting Age
Sandra E. Black, Paul J. Devereux, Kjell G. Salvanes
Does it matter when a child starts school? While the popular press seems to suggest it does, there is limited evidence of a long-run effect of school starting age on student outcomes. This paper uses data on the population of Norway to examine the role of school starting age on longer-run outcomes such as IQ scores at age 18, educational attainment, teenage pregnancy, and earnings. Unlike much of the recent literature, we are able to separate school starting age from test age effects using scores from IQ tests taken outside of school, at the time of military enrolment, and measured when students are around age 18. Importantly, there is variation in the mapping between year and month of birth and the year the test is taken, allowing us to distinguish the effects of school starting age from pure age effects. We find evidence for a small positive effect of starting school younger on IQ scores measured at age 18. In contrast, we find evidence of much larger positive effects of age at test, and these results are very robust. We also find that starting school younger has a significant positive effect on the probability of teenage pregnancy, but has little effect on educational attainment of boys or girls. There appears to be a short-run positive effect on earnings of beginning school at a younger age; however, this effect has essentially disappeared by age 30. This pattern is consistent with the idea that starting school later reduces potential labor market experience at a given age for a given level of education; however, this becomes less important as individuals age.

[Andrew Leigh]
10:11:01 PM    

Australia lagging in education, says Swan. Australia could fall behind developing Asian countries, including China and India, in education after years of neglect, Treasurer Wayne Swan says. Mr Swan said that in order to take advantage of the growth in Asia and the booming Indian and Chinese economies, Australia would have to invest heavily in education. Business Spectator, 21 May 2008. [edna education news]
10:08:08 PM    

Applications for DEEWR Scholarships for Career Advisors now open. School, TAFE and university career advisers can apply for scholarships to help them gain skills, knowledge and experience through further study or industry placement. Two types of scholarships are available: Industry Placement Scholarships providing $10,000 for a short-term industry placement; and Study Scholarships providing $5,000 for postgraduate study in career education. Closing date is 11 July 2008. DEEWR, May 2008. [Government Education Portal News Headlines]
9:56:38 PM