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10 Surprising Ways to Use Instagram in the Classroom - We Are Teachers

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Stop scrolling aimlessly! Instead check out these 10 legitimate and educational ways teachers and students can use Instagram in the classroom.

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School Website

Schools are busy places, and parents need a trusted place to find the right information. But information is not enough -- gone are the days of the website being just a digital brochure. Now it needs to facilitate two-way communication. We just updated our website this year to include these key features:

1. It must be mobile friendly. It must work on phones and tablets as well as desktops. No exceptions.

2. It must be easy to update, preferably automatically. For example, the information we add into our Google calendar automatically updates on our website. For static pages, make sure the content stays current.

3. Link your other social media initiatives on your website. Parents should be able to easily find your official Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube profiles from your webpage. Then use your webpage to share the content from those profiles.

4. The hardest but most important part is that your site must provide a sense of your school's culture. People visiting your school website should feel like they are visiting your campus.

Facebook

Peter Sutton told me in a workshop that "if you are not telling your school's story on Facebook, someone else is." He was right. When I checked, I found that a student had already set up a Facebook page with our name.

Use Facebook to celebrate the great things happening at the school!

Promote sports, arts, and cultural events.

Post blog articles, news items, and announcements.

Publish fundraising goals.

Share educational memes.

Should you use Facebook ads? We found good success in promoting our posts. For a minimal cost, it places them into the top of the timelines for your friends and their friends.

Be sure to monitor your posts. Which posts have more views and likes than others? While it isn't a popularity contest, you want to keep track of whether you are actually reaching your audience. Have more than one person as admin, but don't bring in too many people. Make sure they answer comments and direct messages. What happens when you get a bad comment? If it is inappropriate, we delete it. If it challenges or disagrees with us, we use it as an opportunity to educate and inform both the poster and the public. We will follow this with a private message inviting them to come in and discuss the issue. We also fully support Facebook's requirement that users be 13 or older.

Twitter

Our teachers use Twitter to celebrate what they are doing in their classrooms, ask questions, share resources, and document their learning. It's had a profound effect on our staff. By creating a school hashtag, we are able to thread all of our school-based tweets. I used to think I needed some kind of official Twitter authorization to create a hashtag. You don't. Just make a memorable one that describes your school, and start using it. Twitter use by our staff grew slowly at first. Then we compiled all of the tweets onto our internal digital daily bulletin using our #TISMacao hashtag, and it allowed non-Twitter users to see all of the posts. Twitter use is growing rapidly now! See this blog article for more details. Also, see how staff members Zack Palmer, Louise Phinney, and Nick Chignall are using Twitter.

We are just starting to explore engaging our parents and local community with Twitter, as well as reaching out to a global audience.

LinkedIn

At this point, we use LinkedIn to recruit potential teachers and reach the working members of our TIS families. We follow the major employers in our area and develop our networks within the business community. In addition to posting about major school events, we also share articles related to leadership, corporate social responsibility, and team building. We use it to announce our corporate fundraising, sponsorships, and partnerships. We post much differently on LinkedIn than we do on Facebook.

YouTube

I can guarantee that there are already many videos of your school and students on YouTube. Once again, if you are not telling your story, someone else is. Since you may not be able to police the other videos, you should have an official YouTube channel. Check us out on YouTube!

WeChat

A popular platform in Asia, WeChat is the medium TIS uses to connect with our Chinese-speaking families.

Blogs

Remember that old newsletter? We don't have it anymore. At first, we switched to a digital PDF version, but then we got rid of that as well. Now our news is a blog, constantly updated -- we post articles and announcements as they are written. Every teacher has his or her own blog. Administrators have blogs, as we try to lead by example. Our next step is to engage further through integrating our blogs with social media.

Overall, our move toward digital engagement has been successful. Our community is much more connected. Our parents stay informed through our website and Facebook. Our teachers interact and share through Twitter, and we continue to seek new ways to engage our community through the tools that are available to us.

How about you? What ways are you engaging your school community? Which issues concern you about social media?

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Engaging Your School Community Through Social Media

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Schools are busy places, and parents need a trusted place to find the right information. But information is not enough -- gone are the days of the website being just a digital brochure. Now it needs to facilitate two-way communication. We just updated our website this year to include these key features: It must be mobile friendly.

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Updated November 08, 2015 13:24:51

The fear of missing out (or FOMO) generated by high levels of social media use can lead to depression and anxiety, according to a new report looking at the way social media impacts wellbeing.

The fifth annual National Stress and Wellbeing in Australia Survey has found Australians are faring worse than they were when the survey began, with higher levels of stress, depression and anxiety being reported.

One in two teenagers feels they are "missing out" on the seemingly perfect lives that others portray through social media, the survey by Australian Psychology Society found.

Teens also feel they are having less "rewarding" experiences than their friends.

Other key findings included teens worrying about friends having fun without them and feeling anxious if they did not know what their friends were doing.

This year was the first time the study explored the impact of social media on behaviour and wellbeing.

Flinders University senior social work lecturer Dr Mubarak Rahamathulla said FOMO was opening the door to more concerning feelings, like anxiety and depression.

"FOMO is a real thing - my research and research all over the world is repeatedly indicating that it is a fact," he said.

"There is a very strong positive correlation between the hours spent on digital technology and higher stress and depression."

Dr Rahamathulla said it was up to parents and policymakers to make sure teenagers were getting enough information about what is and is not "real" in cyber space, as well as methods to cope with the social and emotional pressures of social media.

"[Teenagers] are getting confused between cyber world and real world," he said.

"I think we need, and we have a moral responsibility as a society, to help them to understand how the roles of these two different worlds are working."

Half of all teens on social media before bed

The survey found that social media dominated the lives of many teenagers, with over half (53 per cent) of Australian teens reporting that they used social networking sites for 15 minutes before bed every night.

Sydney student Jessica Sahay, 17, spends over an hour browsing through Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat before she goes to sleep.

She has tried to reduce her usage after feeling worn out from constantly being connected.

"During exams, I tried to reduce the time I spent on social media because it felt quite distracting when you saw what other people were doing," she said.

Consumer psychologist Adam Ferrier said the way Jessica felt was not a new phenomenon.

"We've always been scared of missing out on the occasional party or seeing friends doing other stuff which you're involved in, but with social media, that feeling has increased in intensity dramatically," Dr Ferrier said.

"So there's always something happening which you're not a part of."

More than half of young respondents in the survey said they had felt worried, jealous and anxious after finding out they had been left out of a gathering through pictures or status updates on social media.

"If I'm not invited to a party or to the beach with my friends and I thought I was close with them and then you see a picture on Snapchat, Facebook or Instagram ... you think to yourself, 'why am I not invited?'" Jessica said.

"You feel a bit jealous and the next time you see them it gets a bit tense but that stuff happens all the time."

The survey found that a fear of missing out does not stop once people enter adulthood, with the survey noting that those aged 18-35 reported the highest feelings of being left out amongst all adults.

Dr Ferrier said that people needed to be aware of the positive and negative impacts of social media.

"It makes it harder for people to feel happy and have gratitude for their own lives and that's quite a debilitating and serious thing," he said.

"We've got an omnipresent force here that's making people feel less satisfied and less happy with their own lives."

Topics: social-media, internet-culture, happiness, depression, academic-research, australia

First posted November 08, 2015 01:01:45

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#FOMO leading to higher levels of depression, anxiety

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Updated November 08, 2015 13:24:51 The fear of missing out (or FOMO) generated by high levels of social media use can lead to depression and anxiety, according to a new report looking at the way social media impacts wellbeing.

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Teaching Kids to Be Smart About Social Media (for Parents) - Nemours KidsHealth

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Before kids or teens hit “enter,” make sure they know the rules when it comes to oversharing, teasing, posting personal info, and other online don’ts.

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Proponents say social media spreads information faster than any other media. Opponents say it enables the spread of unreliable information.

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Wesley Sharpe offers two points of view on this hot topic! What happens to the bright-eyed exuberance of girls between the primary grades and high school graduation? Do schools shortchange boys? Could single-gender classes or schools make a difference? Some California educators think so.
On opening day of the 1999 school year, the Jefferson Leadership Academies became the first public middle school in the country to offer separate classes for boys and girls. About 1,000 uniformed sixth, seventh, and eighth graders entered single-gender classes.

"Some people pay a lot of money to send their children to these kinds of schools. ... We thought maybe this is something that could work in a public school setting," Kristi Kahl, coordinator of the Long Beach California Unified School District's middle school reform, told the Los Angeles Times ("Same-Sex Classes to be Offered at Long Beach Middle School"; May 9, 1999). "It is really hard to say how you can attribute [improvements] to gender separation, how much you can attribute to instruction, and how much you can attribute to parent commitment. But in reality, probably all of those things come into play."

It's too early to judge the success or failure of the Jefferson Leadership Academies. "But there is evidence of change," principal Jill Rojas told Education World. According to a report recently released by the Long Beach USD Office of Research, Planning and Evaluation, the students are doing very well. The district has compared cumulative grade point averages (GPAs) to current GPAs for all students who attended Jefferson in 1998-99 and who are currently enrolled in 1999-2000. Among the findings:

"Student grade point averages for students who had previously attended Jefferson in either grades 6 or 7 increased for all students, male and female, in both grades 7 and 8 under the single gender academy configuration.

"The increase was statistically significant for both genders at grade 7 and for males at grade 8."

"We have seen many students start to focus heavily on academics," Rojas continued. "They no longer clown or try to impress the opposite sex. Girls are more apt to answer questions aloud in class as well as ask them. Girls are learning to be more academically competitive and boys are learning to collaborate."

When asked about specific problems in Jefferson's single-gender classes, Rojas responded, "Some teachers have had a hard time with their all-boy cores [classes], but I feel it is based somewhat on the fact that they feel more physically challenged by boys who misbehave than by girls."

SINGLE-SEX CLASSES

In 1992, a widely publicized report stated that public schools shortchanged girls. The report fueled interest in single-sex classes and schools. The following year, American University professors Myra and David Sadker published Failing in Fairness: How America's Schools Cheat Girls. The book describes striking discoveries about fairness in American schools. During a three-year study, trained observers visited more than 100 classrooms in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The responses observers noted in those elementary-school classrooms included the following:

Boys called out eight times as often as girls did. Teachers ignored the "raise your hand" rule. If a boy yelled out, the teacher usually praised his contribution. Girls who called out got reminders to raise their hands.

Teachers valued boys' comments more than girls' comments. Teachers responded to girls with a simple nod or an OK, but they praised, corrected, helped, and criticized boys.

Boys were encouraged to solve problems on their own, but teachers helped girls who were stuck on problems.

Teachers of all-girl classes seemed to validate the idea that girls performed better in single-sex classes. "I enjoy seeing girls participate so much in class discussions. ... And, like it or not, girls seem to talk more in class in an all-female school. I often see a whole classroom of eighth graders sharing ideas in an animated manner," said Sharon Johnson-Cramer. She teaches history to seventh and eighth graders at the all-girls Winsor School in Boston and wrote What a Single-Sex School Is Really Like, published in The Christian Science Monitor (electronic edition).

"Compare this with a scene I used to face daily: a coed class of 10th graders, in which many of the boys talked but it took the teacher's calling on the girls to get them to participate. Even when I taught such units as Women and Islam or Female Infanticide in India at the coed school, it was still the boys who talked the most in class," Johnson-Cramer said.

Anecdotal evidence seems to support the benefits of single-sex high school classes. But Anita P. Davis, Ed.D., director of teacher education at Converse College, a private liberal arts college for women, told Education World that research doesn't support that view. "With teachers who treat them fairly, female high school students can perform academically as well as male students in the same class," Davis said.

SINGLE-SEX EDUCATION CHALLENGED

In 1998, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) published Separated by Sex: A Critical Look at Single-Sex Education for Girls. Single-sex education is not necessarily better than coeducation, that report noted. The publication "challenges the popular idea that K-12 single sex education is better for girls than coeducation."

According to the report, boys and girls thrive on a good education, regardless of whether the school is single-sex or coeducational.

"There is no evidence in general that single-sex education works or is better for girls than coeducation.

"When elements of a good education are present, girls and boys succeed. Elements include small classes and schools, equitable teaching practices, and focused academic curriculum.

"Some kinds of single-sex programs produce positive results for some students, including a preference for math and science among girls. [Although] girls' achievement has improved in some single-sex schools, there is no significant improvement in girls' achievement in single-sex classes."

CLOSING THE GENDER GAP

In fact, recent research seems to show that the gender gap between boys and girls has closed. "All of this suggests that the broad nationwide efforts to raise female achievement in schools have been effective," said Cornelius Riordan, a professor of sociology at Providence College, in The Silent Gender Gap, a November 17, 1999, Education Week story.

"As a result of these trends, boys rather than girls are now on the short end of the gender gap in many secondary school outcomes. Currently, boys are less likely than girls to be in an academic (college-preparatory) curriculum. They have lower educational and occupational expectations, have lower reading and writing test scores, and expect to complete their schooling at an earlier age," Riordan explained.

William S. Pollack, an assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School and author of Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons From the Myths of Boyhood, offered a similar opinion in "The Hidden Suffering of Boys in the Classroom," (San Jose Mercury, August 8, 1998). Noting that schools are "failing boys in at least four ways," Pollack wrote that

Boys' reading and writing problems often go unnoticed. "One study found a correlation between boys' low reading skills and their association of reading with feminine skills," said Pollack.

People often handle boys emotional and social needs inappropriately or inadequately. "When we observe boys' emotional worlds more closely, we discover much quiet suffering under their outward bravado."

Educators tend to interpret "boy behavior" as a discipline problem without probing to discover emotional needs. "Boys generally prefer to learn by doing, by engaging in some action-oriented task. In learning environments biased against their strengths, boys may become frustrated and attempt to get their needs met by seeking negative attention."

Teaching methods fail to take into account boys' unique learning styles. "Many classes simply aren't conducted in a way boys, with their naturally high energy levels, find captivating. When boys aren't engaged, they become discipline problems," Pollack concluded.

WHAT'S IN THE FUTURE?

To help determine the future of single-gender classes, additional research on the effectiveness of those classrooms appears necessary, Anita Davis told Education World.

"Educators must expand the research base using existing single-sex classes and schools. And create additional classes . . . that improve the public school system. Researchers must promptly share significant findings on single-gender education with the education profession and with the general public." Davis explained.

Single-gender academies similar to the Jefferson Leadership Academies may be the answer. The California Department of Education summarized research on single-gender educational programs in a Fact Sheet: Single Gender Academies Pilot Program. The report indicates that single-gender education

Seems to reduce the number of dropouts.

Improves the general academic performance of urban males and the math and science achievement of females.

Creates a setting that appears to reduce the distracting behavior boys and girls fashion for one another.

Motivates students and parents. "The effectiveness of single-gender programs may be due more to students' and parents' motivation, commitment, and small class size than to the fact that they enroll only boys or girls."

What can educators and parents do about the gender gap between boys and girls? "There is plenty we can do. By designing an inviting educational experience for boys, by 'guy-ifying' certain aspects of schools, and by ensuring that schools help boys thrive as individuals, we can help boys boost not only their academic performance and self-esteem but also their dreams for the future," said Pollack.

RELATED ARTICLE FROM EDUCATION WORLD

The Yin and Yang of Learning: Educators Seek Solutions in Single-Sex Education This Education World story discusses California's approach to single-gender classrooms. In California, "A district cannot establish an academy for one gender without establishing a second, equal academy for the other."

Article by Wesley Sharpe, Ed.D.
Education World®
Copyright © 2000-2008 Education World

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Wesley Sharpe offers two points of view on this hot topic! What happens to the bright-eyed exuberance of girls between the primary grades and high school graduation? Do schools shortchange boys? Could single-gender classes or schools make a difference? Some California educators think so.

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http://phys.org/news/2014-02-single-sex-advantage-coed-schools.html

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Single-sex education does not educate girls and boys any better than coed schools, according to research published by the American Psychological Association analyzing 184 studies of more than 1.6 million students from around the world. The findings are published online Feb. 3 in the APA journal Psychological Bulletin.

"Proponents of single-sex schools argue that separating boys and girls increases students' achievement and academic interest," said author Janet Shibley Hyde, PhD, of University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Our comprehensive analysis of the data shows that these advantages are trivial and, in many cases, nonexistent."

A separate analysis of just U.S. schools had similar findings. Researchers also looked at studies that examined coed schools that offered single-sex instruction in certain subjects and found no significant benefits for boys or girls in these cases.

Some studies showed modest benefits for both boys and girls in math performance in single-sex schools, but not for science performance. However, these advantages in math were not evident in studies with more rigorous research methods.

The analysis, funded by the National Science Foundation, included studies of K-12 schools published from 1968 to 2013. Among the studies, 57 used stronger research methods, such as studies in Trinidad and Tobago and Korea that randomly assigned thousands of students to single-sex or coed schools and tracked their outcomes. Other examples of more rigorous studies controlled for pre-existing differences between students, such as testing students before and after they enrolled in either a single-sex or coed institution. The total sample included 1,663,662 participants in 21 countries. The studies examined students' performance and attitudes in math and science; verbal skills; and attitudes about school, gender stereotyping, aggression, victimization and body image. They did not find sufficient evidence to show any difference in these attitudes between boys and girls in single-sex or coed classrooms.

Theories that single-sex education may be better for students have included the idea that without boys in the classroom, girls would be able to thrive in traditionally male-dominated subjects, such as math and science. "The theoretical approach termed 'girl power' argues that girls lag behind boys in some subjects in coed classrooms," said co-author Erin Pahlke, PhD, of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. "This is not supported by our analysis and, moreover, girls' educational aspirations were not higher in single-sex schools."

The authors noted the lack of studies on single-sex education among low-income students and ethnic minorities, particularly in the U.S., and recommended further research in these populations.

More information: "The Effects of Single-Sex Compared With Coeducational Schooling on Students' Performance and Attitudes: A Meta-Analysis," Erin Pahlke, PhD, Whitman College; Janet Shibley Hyde, PhD, and Carlie M. Allison, MS, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Psychological Bulletin, online Feb. 3, 2014.

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Single-sex education unlikely to offer advantage over coed schools, research finds

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Single-sex education does not educate girls and boys any better than coed schools, according to research published by the American Psychological Association analyzing 184 studies of more than 1.6 million students from around the world. The findings are published online Feb. 3 in the APA journal Psychological Bulletin.

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Jaheim Jones, left, and Roovenson Guillaume did math problems at Dillard Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which has single-sex classes. Credit... Angel Valentin for The New York Times

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. - In one third-grade classroom, the walls are bordered by cheetah and zebra prints, bright pink caddies hold pencils and glue sticks, and a poster at the front lists rules, including "Act pretty at all times!"

Next door, cutouts of racecars and pictures of football players line the walls, and a banner behind the teacher's desk reads "Coaches Corner."

The students in the first class: girls. Next door: boys.

Single-sex education, common in the United States until the 19th century, when it fell into deep disfavor except in private or parochial schools, is on the rise again in public schools as educators seek ways to improve academic performance, especially among the poor. Here at Charles Drew Elementary School outside Fort Lauderdale, about a quarter of the classes are segregated by sex on the theory that differences between boys and girls can affect how they learn and behave.

Teachers "recognize the importance of understanding that Angeline learns differently from Angelo," said Angeline H. Flowers, principal of Charles Drew, one of several public schools in Broward County that offer some single-sex classes.

The theory is generally held in low regard by social scientists. But Ms. Flowers notes that after the school, where nearly all students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, started offering the classes two years ago, its state rating went from a D to a C. Similar improvements have been repeated in a number of other places, causing single-sex classes to spread to other public school districts, including in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.

The federal Education Department says there are about 750 public schools around the country with at least one single-sex class and 850 entirely single-sex public schools. Although government figures are not available for earlier years, the National Association for Single Sex Public Education estimated that in the 2004-05 school year, 122 public schools offered at least one single-sex class and 34 public schools served just one sex.

Critics say that there is little evidence of substantial differences in brain development between boys and girls and that dividing children by gender can reinforce entrenched stereotypes.

Rebecca Bigler, a psychologist at the University of Texas, said that segregating by sex - or any social category - increases prejudice based on stereotypes.

"You say there's a problem with sexism," Ms. Bigler said, "and instead of addressing the sexism, you just remove one sex."

That worries the American Civil Liberties Union, which this year filed complaints with the Education Department against four Florida school districts, accusing them of violations of federal civil rights law and of using "overly broad stereotypes" to justify separating girls and boys into different classrooms. The A.C.L.U. also filed a complaint in Austin, Tex., against two new single-sex middle schools, and has pending complaints in Idaho and Wisconsin and a nearly two-decade-old complaint in New York. Lawsuits in Louisiana and West Virginia have resulted in single-sex classes there reverting to coeducation.

Advocates of single-sex classes often cite the struggles of boys, who persistently lag behind girls in national tests of reading comprehension and are much more likely to face disciplinary problems and drop out of school. Educators also argue that girls underperform in science when compared with boys and benefit from being with other girls. And school officials say that children can be easily distracted by the opposite sex in the classroom.

This week, in response to the A.C.L.U. complaints and the growth in single-gender classrooms, the Obama administration is issuing guidance for school districts.

Schools may set up such classes if they can provide evidence that the structure will improve academics or discipline in a way that coeducational measures cannot. Students must have a coeducational alternative, and families must volunteer to place their children in all-boys or all-girls classes.

But the guidance says that "evidence of general biological differences is not sufficient to allow teachers to select different teaching methods or strategies for boys and girls."

"I am very concerned that schools could base educational offerings on stereotypes," Catherine E. Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights, said in an email. "No school should be teaching students to live down to diminished expectations for who they can be."

Asking schools to demonstrate academic improvement could prove difficult.

Over all, research finds that single-sex education does not show significant academic benefits - or drawbacks. Janet Hyde, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison who analyzed 184 studies covering 1.6 million children around the globe, said the studies showing increased academic performance often involved other factors that could not be disentangled from the effects of the single-gender component.

Heaven Harris, center, worked with classmates. Credit... Angel Valentin for The New York Times

Supporters say girls have more in common with other girls - and boys with other boys - than with the opposite sex of the same age. "Yet we segregate on the basis of age, not based on any evidence," said Leonard Sax, a pediatrician and author of several books on gender differences, including "Why Gender Matters."

According to the A.C.L.U.'s complaint in Broward County, the district relied on materials from Mr. Sax as well as from the Gurian Institute, a Colorado-based business founded by Michael Gurian, the author of several books, including "Boys and Girls Learn Differently."

The training materials, the complaint says, noted that "gently competitive lessons may be more impactful for boys" and that "lessons that incorporate emotions and emotional vocabulary" may have more impact for girls. Teachers were also advised to be "more tolerant of boys' need to fidget or girls' need to talk during class."

Many of the schools that offer single-sex classes have struggled with student academic performance and are in high-poverty neighborhoods dominated by racial minorities.

"Parents really are starving for better options," said Galen Sherwin, a senior staff attorney with the A.C.L.U. Women's Rights Project. "And oftentimes school districts sell these options as the solution with inflated, unsupported supposed evidence."

On a recent morning at Dillard Elementary in Fort Lauderdale, where 98 percent of the students are black and nearly all come from low-income families, MeLisa Dingle-Mason, a third-grade math teacher, echoed some of her training.

"I am able to push them to their level and include sports and different things," she said of the boys she teaches for part of the day before swapping with a reading and social studies teacher to work with girls. She added that she liked to turn math sessions into games because boys "like competition."

The boys in her class appeared busy and eager to work. Jaheim Jones, 8, said he preferred a girl-free zone at school because girls are "bossy."

Down the hall in a third-grade reading and social studies class, Ruth Louissaint, who was overseeing all girls at the time, showed a crate she kept in a storage room of fuzzy pastel blue sweaters for girls, saying they were more likely to feel cold than boys. For spelling and vocabulary lessons incorporating physical activity, Ms. Louissaint brought out hula hoops and small rubber balls for the girls. The boys would get yo-yos, bats and badminton rackets.

She said she taught the same curriculum to both but changed background details. So when playing music in class, for example, she tends to put on Michael Jackson for the boys, switching to more soothing music by groups like Enigma for the girls.

Angela Brown, the principal at Dillard, said boys in single-sex classes had better attendance than those in coeducational classes as well as better scores on state reading and math tests. But the biggest improvement was a decline in disciplinary infractions and bullying.

"Boys are trying to impress girls, and girls are trying to impress boys," Ms. Brown said. "And we have removed that variable out of the way."

Throughout Broward County, an external evaluation by Metis Associates, a research firm, found that after two years of offering single-gender classes in five schools, nearly half of the students experienced a decline in disciplinary referrals, detentions and suspensions compared with a year earlier.

A preliminary analysis of state test scores showed that about three-quarters of the students enrolled in single-sex classes improved their percentile rankings on reading scores, while close to 70 percent of elementary students in single-sex classes raised their scores in math.

Broward County officials said that although the district added two new single-sex options at a middle school this year, administrators were not planning to expand rapidly.

"We are not just doing this randomly, " said Leona Miracola, director of innovative programs for Broward County Public Schools, adding that the district takes compliance with federal law "very seriously."

Shenilla Johnson, 9, a third grader at Charles Drew, considers an all-girls class a boon. Boys, she said, "annoy you."

Without them, she said, "we get to learn new things."

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Old Tactic Gets New Use: Public Schools Separate Girls and Boys (Published 2014)

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POMPANO BEACH, Fla. - In one third-grade classroom, the walls are bordered by cheetah and zebra prints, bright pink caddies hold pencils and glue sticks, and a poster at the front lists rules, including "Act pretty at all times!"

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What's the Benefit of Single-sex Education?

Does it really matter whether your child attends a co-ed or single-sex school?

I attended Year 7 and 8 at a public co-ed high school before switching to a Catholic all-girls school for Years 9 to 12. My family had moved, and my new school was one of the only local schools that had a place available halfway through the year.

Changing schools was a culture shock for me, but all the common issues of high school played out across both environments - crushes, conflicts, good and bad teachers, school camps, dances and detention.

Based on my experience, I don't think it makes much of a long-term difference whether boys and girls go to school together, but there are plenty of Australian parents who believe it does.

The majority of single-sex schools are private or independent, which means parents are paying fees to educate their children, because they believe single-sex schools provide an academic advantage co-ed schools don't.

"Some parents and teachers still believe single-sex schooling aids student focus and concentration, while others believe co-education is better for development of social skills," says Judith Gill, Adjunct Associate Professor School of Education, at the University of South Australia, and author of Beyond the Great Divide: Co-Education or Single Sex?. "No recent studies of these schooling outcomes have compared single-sex education and co-education in Australia."

However, new research suggests gender plays a major role in how a child is likely to perform academically at a single-sex school.

A recent study by Professor Alison Booth at Australian National University found that single-sex education actually offers more benefits to females than males, who do better in co-education environments.

"Females alone appear to benefit from single-gender classes and benefit significantly," says Alison. "Women in all-female classes are much more likely to gain a higher degree score and to get a higher-classification degree."

Hayley and Matthew's experiences seem to support Alison's research. Hayley transferred from a private all-girls school to a public co-ed and felt she thrived better in a single-sex environment.

"I found the change in environment to be very distracting - the want to be popular became very important," she says. "Socially I learned how to interact better with both sexes, but I found I was always criticising the way I looked. It had a massive impact on my grades, my attendance and my attitude towards my education."

Matthew says he believes his switch from a co-ed high school to an all-boys high school when he was a teenager had a negative impact on him. "I liked co-ed but my parents preferred same-sex," he says. "It was a lot stricter and there was a lot of unbalanced testosterone. I was bored at lunchtime and didn't find school socially stimulating. I don't think it helped me academically."

Psychologist Jessica Webster says there's a connection between social development, happiness and academic performance, and social problems at school can affect a child's engagement with learning, regardless of whether a certain type of school is more likely to achieve better results.

Chantelle's experience reflects this. She also chose a single-sex school for her daughter because of the school's academic record, but found the bullying and cliques her daughter faced to be a huge disruption. "Her homework and schooling actually suffered," says Chantelle. "The switch to a co-ed school helped her come out of her shell. I think if a child is happier their grades will be better."

Andrea had a similar experience to Chantelle. She sent her daughter Sally to a private single-sex school with a great reputation, but didn't anticipate the social problems Sally experienced.

She switched Sally between three different single-sex schools before things settled down, and each move impacted on Sally's learning, as she had to adjust and catch up each time she transferred.

"I wonder now if maybe it was that a single-sex environment just wasn't suited to her personality," says Chantelle.

In this sense, parents choosing single-sex education for their children just for academic reasons is problematic. Both academic and social skills are needed to succeed after school, and ideally a school environment should provide kids with the opportunity to develop both, regardless of whether it is single-sex or co-ed.

"There will always be parents who believe their child needs one or the other school type based on their perception of their child's needs, but it's virtually impossible to generalise," says Judith. "Young people are amazingly flexible and can thrive in lots of different environments - whether government or non-government, private or public, single-sex or co-educational."

So if it really doesn't matter whether children attend a co-ed or single-sex school, what should parents take into account when making that all-important final decision about where to send their children to high school?

"The biggest influences on student outcomes are great commitment from teachers, high-quality leadership and a highly supportive parent community," says Judith.

With this in mind, when it comes time to choose a high school for my three year old, I'll be focusing on the school's features and sense of community, instead of whether it's co-ed or single-sex.

Words by Brooke Tasovac

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What's the Benefit of Single-sex Education? * CHILD Magazines

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Does it really matter whether your child attends a co-ed or single-sex school? I attended Year 7 and 8 at a public co-ed high school before switching to a Catholic all-girls school for Years 9 to 12. My family had moved, and my new school was one of the only local schools that had a place available halfway through the year.

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Tooga / The Image Bank via Getty Images

UPDATED* States are reporting that some of their schools are dropping out of the healthier school-lunch program because they can't afford to participate. But does that really mean nutritious school lunches (and snacks) are doomed?

The majority of the nation's schools - about 94% - are participating in the National School Lunch Program, which reimburses schools for the meals they serve and provides food at lower cost to feed lower-income students. These schools must follow new criteria required by the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, and include more grains, fresh fruits and vegetables in lunches. But for some, these changes are pretty challenging to follow.

In a survey conducted this summer of more than 520 district nutrition directors, the School Nutrition Association reported that a very small percentage - 1% - of schools were dropping out of the program for the 2013-14 school year, and 3% were considering abandoning the program.

( MORE: What the New USDA Rules for Healthier School Snacks Mean for Schools)

Why? Kids aren't buying the better-for-them options in the cafeteria, and that's leading to a drop in revenue for some schools. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) pays schools back about $2.93 cents per lunch served to a child eligible for free meals, and the USDA offers an additional 6¢ per lunch for schools meeting the standards. But for smaller or nonprofit private schools that simply don't have enough kids who qualify for these lunches, the often higher costs to feed them healthy meals that adhere to the new nutrition guidelines are not covered by this reimbursement.

"My understanding, from a few of the districts that have dropped off, is that their free and reduced percentage could be as low as 5% of the students, which means that all they are getting for the reimbursable meal is 30¢," says Julia Bauscher, the president-elect of the School Nutrition Association and school-nutrition director at Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Ky. "If they had previously not offered a lot of whole grains or fruits and vegetables, or their students didn't choose them, there was a significant increase in cost of providing the meals."

Take the Voorheesville Central School District near Albany, N.Y., which the Associated Press featured in its story about schools struggling with the new lunch-program requirements. Superintendent Teresa Snyder says the district lost $30,000 in revenue during the first quarter of the year because of the program, since students either brought lunch from home or went without, instead of purchasing the healthier options offered in the cafeteria.

But that district is very small, and less than 6% of its students qualify for reduced or free lunch. The school still offers healthy food, and to find a way to maintain the school-lunch program, administrators worked with students to develop a nutritious and more cost-effective menu that would appeal to kids. "For us, this is not a political statement, but an economic one. We believe in the intent of the law, it simply does not apply to a district like ours," says Snyder. "I do believe our issues revolve around our small population of free and reduced lunch - the reimbursements are so low they do not balance the cost of providing the meals according to the guidelines."

( MORE: Stricter School-Lunch Standards Lead to Lighter Kids)

Smaller schools may also face an additional hurdle, since most of the people responsible for achieving this balance are volunteers who aren't trained in nutrition - or food distribution. "In Kansas we have a lot of private schools and oftentimes the food-service director may be a parent, and they may not have had a lot of background in food service, so they need additional help and training. Our public schools have people who have more experience," says Cheryl Johnson, director of child nutrition and wellness for the Kansas State Department of Education.

Of course, the entire program is predicated on the fact that children will welcome - and eat - the healthier options. As TIME has reported, schools with the greatest success in making their cafeterias healthier started early and introduced changes gradually. The Jefferson County Public Schools district in Louisville, Ky., for example, made its lunchrooms offer 50% whole grains for an entire year before the rules were even enacted, for example.

"The bigger the difference between what [the students] were accustomed to seeing on their serving line in 2011 to 2012 vs. what they saw in 2012 to 2013, the more difficult it was for the school food-service director to address the needs and concerns of the students," says Bauscher.

USDA undersecretary Kevin Concannon says the schools that have been the most successful have also considered food presentation. For instance, dyeing applesauce bright green seems to draw students to grab it in the lunch line - possibly because they think it's sweeter and more decadent than it actually is. "It's a matter of really training the palate. Kids are the same as adults, we get used to eating certain ways and all of a sudden there's an abrupt change," he says.

( MORE: More Food for Hungry Students: USDA Tweaks School Meals)

The most difficult to please, not surprisingly, are teens in high school. Because they are probably more set in their eating habits, and because high school athletes, for example, need to eat more calories, these schools have experienced the most backlash against the new lunch options, which many students felt were too skimpy. (Wallace County High School students in Sharon Springs, Kans., even made a video that went viral last year in which they sang about their hunger pangs.)

In response to these complaints, the USDA decided to waive some of the original restrictions, by removing limits on the amount of protein and whole grains per meal. Those amendments to the rules will remain in effect this school year. Johnson says after the video, there was a 5% drop in participation among Kansas schools, but that had shrunk to only 3% by the end of the school year.

It may take several school years for the new lunch standards to be accepted, and several more before their effects are seen in children's eating habits. What we consume, not to mention the process of sourcing, preparing and distributing food, can't be changed overnight, much less over a semester or two. "Eating healthier is a good thing, but it is more expensive. And the truth is most students don't want to eat healthier, so there has been and will be a transition period because what is being served at school in many cases doesn't look like what they eat at home," says Michael Smith, the superintendent at Tuscola Community Unit School District No. 301 in Tuscola, Ill. "I'm a proponent of the new standards health-wise, but it is another example of how all of these issues are dumped on schools. I wish they would also be addressed in other places where students eat, like fast-food [restaurants] and gas stations."

Still, the goal of the new standards is to encourage healthy eating early on, before unhealthy habits set in. If children in elementary schools are seeing more grains and fresh produce in their cafeterias, then they may be more likely to try them and continue eating them as adolescents and adults. School, after all, is a place for learning, and that includes the cafeteria.

*This piece was updated with the latest numbers on school lunch participation.

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Why Some Schools Are Saying 'No Thanks' to the School-Lunch Program | TIME.com

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UPDATED* States are reporting that some of their schools are dropping out of the healthier school-lunch program because they can't afford to participate. But does that really mean nutritious school lunches (and snacks) are doomed?

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In response to criticism from parents upset about the elimination of a traditional letter-based grading system for Billerica's sixth-grade students, district officials are exploring the possibility of modifying the format of their report cards once again.

After receiving a petition signed by more than 600 people demanding the return of letter grades, the district is considering a hybrid model for the school system's youngest middle school students. It would incorporate both the familiar percentage-based letter grades and standards-based assessment numbers, said Superintendent Timothy Piwowar.

In what parents complain is a dizzying array, a sixth-grader can receive up to 37 assessments divided among six subjects in a quarter.

Prior to the Monday School Committee meeting attended by some 60 disgruntled parents, the district already was planning to issue a hybrid report card to its seventh- and eighth-graders beginning with the 2013-2014 school year, Piwowar said. This year, students in those grades are receiving letter grades.

Under the traditional letter-based grading system, a child who aces tests but fails to do homework might receive the same grade as a child who struggles on exams but diligently turns in homework assignments, Piwowar said. In contrast, the standards-based system grades students on numerous and specific content areas or skills.

"We're separating the academics from the habits," the superintendent said.

The new report card for sixth-grade students - which was based on those used for middle schoolers in Shrewsbury and Lincoln - includes separate assessments from 1 to 4 for 10 math skills, ranging from the ability to compute fluently with multi-digit whole numbers and decimals to the understanding of fractions, decimals, and percentages.

A 1 indicates the student is "not progressing adequately toward the standard," a 2 means he or she is "progressing toward the standard," a 3 means the child "meets the standard;" and a 4 indicates the student "exceeds the standard."

"One of the things we are talking about is potentially looking at having a hybrid system across the board at the middle school level," Piwowar said in an interview Tuesday. "As we develop this hybrid, we're going to have to do that in a smart, meaningful way, in a way that makes sense and prepares kids for high school."

The district's high school students receive letter grades, a policy that will not change, Piwowar said, ensuring that students will be able to submit a traditional transcript with their applications for college admission. The practice is common in districts that have transitioned to standards-based report cards for the lower grades, he noted.

That has done little to assuage the concerns of parents who have been quietly calling for a return to the old-school grading method since the fall of 2008, when the standards-based model was first introduced in the district's elementary schools. Their long simmering discontent boiled over this school year when the system was expanded to include sixth-graders.

"Younger kids are like little sponges; they will learn," said Debbie Burke, a vocal critic of the standards-based system who started the online petition that by Wednesday had 620 signatures. "But older kids are different. They need to be motivated, to have that 'A' to strive for."

Parents say the new system is too complex and confusing. Educators say it gives parents more information about their child's performance in the classroom.

"The problem is that the grades are meaningless because there's such a wide span of student achievement that is acceptable within each numeric grade," said Burke. "A child can get one question wrong on an eight-question test and earn a 3, or he can get three questions wrong, and still get a 3.

'The problem is that the grades are meaningless because there's such a wide span of student achievement that is acceptable within each numeric grade.'

"With this standards-based system, you don't know if your child is really understanding the material. Is he getting a 76 or an 86? There's a big difference, and it's not reflected by this system."

Critics of the new grading system note that it ended the honor roll for sixth-graders. In online comments and in their remarks to the School Committee on Monday, parents and students alike called for its return. The honor roll, they said, inspired students to rise above mediocrity and excel.

"The honor roll is an incentive for students to strive for not just the bare minimum, not just the standard, but their full potential," Emma Tilley of Billerica, a high school student who is now enrolled in a private school, wrote in the comments section of the online petition.

"The criteria for making the honor roll was an A or a B; without letter grades, that criteria didn't apply," said Piwowar, who noted that the district is well aware that student achievement should be lauded. He is hoping to institute a system that recognizes "both academic achievement and work ethic." The goal, he said, will be to honor students for giving their best effort.

Such a rewards system may not sit well with the students, who are among the district's harshest critics. At Monday's meeting, several youngsters addressed the School Committee to demand the return of the honor roll and criticize the complexity of their report cards. And long before Burke posted the online petition that has grabbed headlines, two middle school students - one of them her son, Jacob, 11 - had led petition drives, asking their peers to support going "back to percentages and letter grades."

More than 300 children at the town's two middle schools signed the petitions.

Going forward, as the district explores the possibility of adopting a hybrid report card for its sixth-graders, local educators "will be doing a better job of engaging parents in the community in the conversation about the learning that's taking place in our classrooms," said Piwowar.

In an e-mail, Daniel Cugno, chairman of the Billerica School Committee, said decisions on curriculum, including grades, should be left to the school administration.

"I am confident in the abilities of Superintendent Piwowar and his team to make decisions relating to education that are in the best interest of the children of Billerica, of which my children are included," Cugno said.

Brenda J. Buote may be reached at brenda.buote@gmail.com.

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Billerica parents plead for return to A-B-Cs - The Boston Globe

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After receiving a petition signed by more than 600 people demanding the return of letter grades, the Billerica School District is considering a hybrid model for the school system's youngest middle school students. It would incorporate both the familiar percentage-based letter grades and standards-based assessment numbers, said Superintendent Timothy Piwowar.

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Elementary Schools Abandon Letter Grades

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Elementary Schools Abandon Letter Grades

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There won't be any more straight-A students next year in Fairfax County elementary schools. Thanks to a bold change in grading policy, there won't be any more A's at all - or, for that matter, B's, C's or D's.

The letter grades stamped on report cards across America, long symbols of academic success or failure, are vanishing from many schools in the Washington area and beyond.

For years, anxiety and ambition have hung on the letters, but educators now say that the metric is imprecise and does little to reflect a student's progress, especially in the early years of schooling.

In Fairfax, officials will soon implement a detailed report card that instead uses numeric values from one through four and adds dozens of new categories in which progress will be measured. One Arlington County school has replaced report cards with a long-form narrative, without boiling down the evaluation to numbers or letters.

"This is a huge change of culture," said Judy Heard, a manager in Fairfax's instructional services department. "Letter grades have predominated for a long time, but they've rarely been well-defined. It's time for a new approach."

Not all educators agree. Montgomery County experimented with numerical report cards but backed away from the model after encountering opposition from parents. Prince George's County schools also tried the numerical model but reversed course, a spokesman said.

Still, public elementary schools in the District moved away from letter grades two years ago. Other school systems, including Alexandria's, are likely to adopt the new metric but are still finalizing the details.

Schools from New York to California already use similar reports, but Fairfax is among the largest systems to make the change: 40,000 of its students who now receive letter grades will soon bring home numerical report cards.

The new approach marks an attempt to incorporate instructional standards - crafted in recent years by local and state agencies - into the grading process, focusing on a student's development in more than 50 detailed skill areas. For example, rather than receiving a single grade in math, students will be judged on the one-to-four scale in seven math-related fields, such as computation and measuring.

The new metric marks a significant departure from traditional report cards, which often measure a student's achievement relative to the rest of the class and do little to break down strengths and weaknesses within a given subject area. But it also means that the bumper-sticker-ready title of an "A" student will in many places become a superlative of the past, replaced with helpful, if clunky, nuance.

Some parents prefer the power of letters.

The new report cards "don't provide any recognition for a child who is consistently doing excellent work and exceeding the standards," said Grace Becker, a Fairfax parent who participated in a focus group last year. "We knew what an 'A' meant. We knew what a 'B' meant. But the new system can be very confusing."

Letter grades remain the standard for middle and high schools nationwide, in part because of the importance of grade-point averages in college admissions.

At the elementary level, the new report cards emphasize social and emotional growth - developmental concerns often ignored by conventional report cards but of growing interest to educators who say traits like curiosity and cooperation serve as predictors of long-term academic and professional success.

The so-called standards-based rubric has been rolled out in 10 Fairfax schools over the past year. Next fall, every remaining Fairfax class from kindergarten through sixth grade will follow suit. In those schools, the top grade will be a 4, indicating that the student consistently demonstrates concepts and skills in a particular field. There will be no mention of whether a student's performance is above or below average. There's also no failing grade.

"It took some time for us to understand what each standard meant, but now it gives us a chance to communicate what we're actually doing in the classroom. Letter grades didn't do that," said Katherine Booth, a fourth-grade teacher at Sunrise Valley Elementary in Reston, which introduced the new progress reports last year.

Educators say the shift toward the new report card is substantive. But it also sends a message to parents that in key developmental years, a report card should mark more than the threshold between success and failure in basic subject areas. They say it should also highlight the wide range of skills a student - whether identified as remedial or gifted - will need to succeed beyond elementary school. Most schools traditionally offered satisfactory and unsatisfactory marks for kindergarten through second grade and letters A through D in the higher elementary grades, often assigning other letters to those who fail.

As a growing number of schools moves away from letter grades, they're seeking a host of alternatives. While Fairfax administrators last school year approved the numerical approach, at least one Arlington school is offering a "narrative" report card, with a smattering of student work samples and instructional analyses delivered to parents.

In June, teachers at Campbell Elementary School explained the method to parents, a glimpse into the world of report cards without letter grades.

Jose Machado learned that his 7-year-old daughter, Jennifer, was gifted at decoding big words. He learned that she was particularly enthusiastic about science, that her spoken English still needed work (the family is from Bolivia) and that her best friend's name is Emily.

But when the teacher, Pat Findikoglu, finished her explanation, Machado paused. At that point, a parent might have asked about letter grades. But here, there were none. Instead, Machado asked a few questions about summer school, and the two shook hands. In large part, the conversation itself was the report card.

"The approach doesn't make the student smarter, but it makes the teacher better," said Sam Meisels, who pioneered the narrative report card used at Campbell, which is distributed by Pearson Education. "A letter grade is a short-lived triumph. . . . It doesn't tell us what we need to know about a student's progress."

Staff writer Bill Turque contributed to this report.

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Many elementary schools abandon letter grades

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There won't be any more straight-A students next year in Fairfax County elementary schools. Thanks to a bold change in grading policy, there won't be any more A's at all - or, for that matter, B's, C's or D's.

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When Duke University's Cathy Davidson announced her grading plan for a seminar she would be offering this semester, she attracted attention nationwide. Some professors cheered, others tut-tutted, and others asked "Can she do that?"

Her plan? Turn over grading to the students in the course, and get out of the grading business herself.

Now that the course is finished, Davidson is giving an A+ to the concept. "It was spectacular, far exceeding my expectations," she said. "It would take a lot to get me back to a conventional form of grading ever again."

Davidson is becoming a scholar of grading. She's been observing grading systems at other colleges and in elementary and secondary schools, and she's immersed herself in the history of grading. (If you want to know who invented the multiple choice test, she'll brief you on how Frederick J. Kelly did so at Emporia State University and how he later renounced his technique.)

But it was her own course this semester -- called "Your Brain on the Internet" -- that Davidson used to test her ideas. And she found that it inspired students to do more work, and more creative work than she sees in courses with traditional grading.

Her approach -- first announced on her blog -- works based on contracts and "crowdsourcing." First she announced the standards -- students had to do all of the work and attend class to earn an A. If they didn't complete all the assignments, they could get a B or C or worse, based on how many they finished. Students signed a contract to agree to the terms. But students also determined if the assignments (in this case blog posts that were mini-essays on the week's work) were in fact meeting standards. Each week, two students led a discussion in class on the week's readings and ideas -- and those students determined whether or not their fellow students had met the standards.

So how did it work? Davidson, the Ruth F. Devarney Professor of English, said that of the 16 students in the course, 15 already have earned an A and she expects the remaining student to soon finish an assignment that will earn an A as well. To those who believe in traditional grading, that could of course be evidence that letting students do the grading results in easy As, but Davidson said that she believes students did more work under this system (and that she did as well).

She said that the students each ended up writing about 1,000 words a week, much more than is required for a course to be considered "writing intensive" at Duke (even though her course didn't have that designation). She also said that the writing (she read every word, even while not assigning grades) was better than the norm.

"The writing wasn't using the kind of language you normally see in research papers, with words you only use in research papers," she said. "There was less jargon. I didn't see the thesaurus-itis that I usually see." Further, she said that students took more risks.

For an assignment that dealt with privacy and surveillance in the Internet era, one student secretly filmed fellow students (and Davidson) and played the video in class (before agreeing not to post it elsewhere). For a project dealing in part with attention span, a student flashed images on a screen while also doing a presentation, and then gave a quiz on the presentation, noting that there were many missed questions that correlated with times that interesting images were on display in the background. "I think students were going out on a limb more and being creative and not just thinking about 'What does the teacher want?' " Davidson said.

While the students are ending up with As, many of them are doing so only because they redid assignments that were judged not sufficient to the task on the first try. The students were tough on each other, Davidson said. And this, she believes, encouraged students to work harder on their assignments. "No one wanted to get one of those messages" that an assignment needed to be redone. (But when they did receive such notes, the students didn't complain, as many do about grades they don't like. They reworked their essays, she said.)

Lacey Kim, a Duke senior who took the course, said she thought the alternative approach to grading in the course didn't eliminate the teacher's role, but changed the dynamic from "a single teaching-student interaction to multiple teacher-student/student-student interactions" with students in the roles of both student and teacher. She said she was certainly aware that fellow students would be looking closely at her work, and that "peer pressure is a very influential thing."

But Kim said that what was really important in the class dynamic wasn't pressure, but a sense that "everyone had insightful and varying experiences to share" and that in every way, "everyone participated." In making the transition to this approach to grading, students may have been helped by the Internet as the course's subject matter, Kim said. "A lot of the topics we discussed were contemporary, easily applicable to our lives, but because all of us had different voices, we felt we were on an equal plane."

While Davidson's experiment was in a course at a highly competitive private university, she said she didn't think it was applicable only there. She said that, since going public with her ideas, she has been seeing experiments elsewhere, and in grade schools with students as young as sixth grade. "The kids are amazing" in high schools and middle schools, she said, "if you set it up right and make this a responsibility."

Her responsibility as an instructor didn't evaporate in this system, Davidson stressed, but changed. "I worked like a dog," she said. She added an individual comment on every student essay, reading it along with the students who were determining that it met that week's requirements. All Davidson didn't do was assign a grade.

She said that she noticed a different feeling about her own work as a result. Of the time spent reading and commenting on student work, she said: "I never resented it. I always ended up learning things. I wanted to give the feedback." But reducing the feedback to a letter grade? "It's intellectually stultifying. I can't imagine going back."

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When Duke University's Cathy Davidson announced her grading plan for a seminar she would be offering this semester, she attracted attention nationwide. Some professors cheered, others tut-tutted, and others asked "Can she do that?" Her plan? Turn over grading to the students in the course, and get out of the grading business herself.

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New student "progress guides" were strewn across the table on a recent afternoon at the Spahn household in Downers Grove, intended to show how seventh-grader Jessica was doing at Herrick Middle School.

"This tells me nothing," said mom Kylie Spahn, gazing at the guides that don't include traditional A through F grades.

Trying to overhaul what school officials believe is an outdated grading system, Downers Grove Grade School District 58 began eliminating typical letter grades on report cards this school year, starting with math in kindergarten through sixth grade, and science in seventh and eighth grades.

Instead, families received progress guides in those subjects, detailing whether their child had met particular academicstandards or were still working on them.

Backlash was so intense - some parents described the no-grade report cards as lame, confusing and a waste of paper - that district officials are now regrouping, saying they may return to letter grades at some grade levels, among other changes.

District 58's experience illustrates the difficulty of making wholesale changes to an entrenched A through F report card system that many families still prefer - even if it's considered flawed in the eyes of some educators and researchers.

With the school year drawing to a close and final report cards being distributed, educators across the Chicago region say moving away from traditional letter grades is still a tough sell for middle and high schools, though the practice has become more acceptable in elementary schools.

Lake County's Deerfield Public School District 109, for example, expected to get rid of letter grades in middle school next school year - an approach already used in the district's K-5 schools. But after parent pushback, "We decided we would keep the letter grades for now. We don't believe in that, but we work for the parents, and we respect their input," said Jeff Zoul, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning.

Likewise, Vernon Hills' Hawthorn District 73 has long moved away from letter grades in K-5 schools, using a numerical approach, 1 through 4, to show how students are meeting grade-level academic standards for what kids need to know in each subject. That approach is considered a "standards-based" report card.

But traditional letter grades are still used in middle school, combined with a numerical approach, said Lisa Cerauli, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction at Hawthorn. The hybrid middle school report card came out of parent focus groups and other parent input, she said. Among other concerns, middle school parents felt letter grades matter as their students transition to high school.

What's wrong with old-fashioned A through F grades?

Experts say those grades can be problematic because they're usually calculated not only on student achievement but also a hodgepodge of other factors as well, according to Thomas Guskey, a professor at the University of Kentucky who studies grading practices. So behaviors such as turning in assignments on time can earn points that are rolled into a final grade.

Grading on a curve or giving points to students for extra credit also departs from whether a student is mastering specific academic standards, studies show.

In standards-based grading, work and study habits are usually judged separately from student achievement, and grades usually won't be letters derived by throwing together points for tests, quizzes and homework assignments. Instead, numbers such as 1 to 4 would describe how students are meeting or working toward meeting specific standards. Or simple phrases can be used, such as "exceeding standards" or "progressing toward standards" on student report cards.

The goals kids have to meet in Illinois are drawn from the current Common Core standards for math and English language arts that emphasize critical thinking and problem-solving, as well as the Next Generation Science Standards for science instruction.

Students do tasks and assignments to meet the standards at their grade level, such as determining the theme of a story from details in the text, using ratios to solve problems or conducting an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made from cells.

An individual student's mastery of standards is paramount in the process. "How other students do is insignificant. What matters is how they are doing compared to the standards for learning," Guskey said.

But in the competitive world of high school, a standards-based report card with no letter grades likely wouldn't fly.

"I don't know of a single high school, at least in Illinois, that does it. Parents don't understand it necessarily, and colleges certainly don't accept it as a kind of a benchmark for distinguishing student performance," said Argo Community High School District 217 Superintendent Kevin O'Mara, president of the High School District Organization of Illinois.

"It is changing the whole culture, and parents are just not ready for that big leap of change," O'Mara said.

Wilmette Public Schools District 39 on the North Shore sends its middle school students to top-performing New Trier Township High School District 203. So when District 39 set up standards-based report cards several years ago, Highcrest Middle School and Wilmette Junior High School kept traditional letter grades to align with New Trier. The district's elementary school report cards do not include letter grades.

"Moving to this kind of system ... is probably one of the hardest things to do," said Melanie Goffen Horowitz, who oversees curriculum and instruction in District 39. "People tend to do what was done to them, and parents understand the traditional grading system. But it really flies in the face of research."

The idea of no letter grades isn't exactly new. In prior decades, schools often didn't give letter grades to the youngest students, such as those in kindergarten through second grade.

The practice expanded to higher grades in elementary schools as local districts began creating standards-based report cards, which stemmed from a push beginning in the 1990s to create state standards for what students should know in each grade.

It's not clear how many schools in Illinois have eliminated letter grades on report cards. The state's largest district, Chicago Public Schools, still uses a standard letter grading system in first through 12th grades, a CPS official said.

But professor Guskey believes Illinois is more active than other states in thinking about and pursuing the standards-based approach for grading students. He doesn't think the majority of schools nationwide use standards-based report cards.

In DuPage County, Glen Ellyn's elementary School District 41 has been using standards-based report cards since at least 2010, including at its middle school, and has made changes along the way because of parent and educator input, said Karen Carlson, the assistant superintendent who oversees teaching and learning.

The district had been using numeric grades - 1 through 4 - to chart student progress, but this year expanded to a 1 through 5 scale that goes from unsatisfactory to exceptional, resembling an A through F approach.

Downers Grove District 58 also began using standards-based grading several years ago but still would include traditional letter grades on report cards, depending on the grade level of students.

A new twist came with the recent creation of a "longitudinal" standards-based report card designed to chart student progress in a broader and more detailed way, but with no letter grades.

Matt Rich, District 58's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, stressed that the majority of students this school year were still getting traditional grades on their regular report cards, often combined with a standards-based approach.

But kindergarten through sixth-graders got separate report cards in math with no letter grades while seventh- and eighth-graders got separate report cards in science without letter grades.

The lengthy report cards, labeled as progress guides, listed a "competency date," showing the month and year a student met or completed a particular standard. The guide also noted if a child was making progress on meeting a standard.

The new guides provoked an outcry from parents who responded to a district survey earlier this year.

"Absolutely can't stand longitudinal report card! Too confusing! Just go back to giving simple letter grade!" one parent stated.

Another said, "Absolutely hate the math report card. Giving me a date when my child mastered a skill tells me absolutely nothing. It's totally worthless."

"I want grades again!!!" another parent exclaimed.

At the Spahn house, 13-year-old Jessica got straight A's in science in sixth grade last year and is interested in astronomy and attending the top-ranked Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But this school year, the letter grades in science were gone. Her progress guide shows the dates when she met several science standards, but she considers her seventh-grade year in science as a bust. "I haven't learned anything in science," Jessica said.

After all the negative parent feedback, the district is considering a number of changes, including condensing the report cards and reinstituting letter grades at certain grade levels by 2017-18.

In middle school, letter grades are likely to return, though decisions aren't final yet.

"It is a work in progress, obviously," said Jayne Yudzentis, an assistant superintendent in District 58 working on the report cards.

"When you get feedback you want to act on that - not just throw something out," Rich said.
drado@tribpub.com Twitter @diane_rado

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Parents push back against school report cards with no letter grades

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New student "progress guides" were strewn across the table on a recent afternoon at the Spahn household in Downers Grove, intended to show how seventh-grader Jessica was doing at Herrick Middle School. "This tells me nothing," said mom Kylie Spahn, gazing at the guides that don't include traditional A through F grades.

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As Alanis Morissette once said, 'isn't it ironic'. After years of struggle between teachers and students and the use of smartphones in school, new educational trends are actually encouraging the use of these devices.

The mobile, cellphone or smartphone is not just used for WhatsApp, Facebook or Angry Birds, it can be used in a multitude of ways from an educational perspective. Don't believe us? Keep reading. In this article we bring together 40 uses for smartphones in school.

Before we continue, it is worth remembering that this does not mean we should suddenly change the way in which we teach and allow the use of the smartphones without control. The purpose of this article is simply to remove some of the negative connotations around smartphones and to consider new possibilities which we have at our disposal. In order for students to use smartphones in school responsibly, it is important that we set limits and rules beforehand.

A revolution in the classroom:

1. Check facts: probably the most common use of all. Both students and teachers can now find facts within seconds. This can be very useful when explaining and debating topics.

2. Take photos: mobile phones can be used as cameras to illustrate work and presentations.

3. Carry out tests: this is probably one of the most interesting and revolutionary uses of the mobile phone in the classroom. Students can now take quizzes and tests on their mobile phone that were created earlier by their teacher. In this way, teachers can gain valuable real-time insight into the knowledge of their students and the effectiveness of their teaching. To implement this technique now, download the ExamTime Mobile App for iOS or Android.

4. Dictionary: there are a multitude of dictionary applications that allow you to check the meaning of a word instantly.

5. Translator: again, this can help with meaning and explanation of a foreign word just like the dictionary application.

6. Calendar: no more forgetfulness or confusion about exam dates or submission deadlines. Now you have applications that allow you to synchronize calendars.

7. Listen to music: we have spoken before at length about how music helps us to study. Additionally, you do not need to store your songs if you use services such as Spotify or Soundcloud.

8. Images: as you well know, a picture is worth a thousand words. For this reason, in many cases, students find it easier to understand material when there is an image related to an explanation. Mind Maps are a good example of a tool that helps in this regard.

9. Review: smartphones allows you to access resources and material quickly before an exam. Don't forget to sign up with ExamTime online and then download the official app for Android or iOS.

10. Stopwatch/timer: classes, exercises and presentations often come with time limits. Practice your time management by using your mobile phone's stopwatch.

11. Read eBooks: when learning, applying for a job position or going to University, reading PDFs and manuals can be mandatory. For this reason, applications like Kindle allow us to read books and manuals from anywhere.

12. Discover related subject material: among many other functions, the ExamTime App lets you search through more than one million study resources created by other ExamTime users.

13. Document scanner: although it does not offer the same quality as a traditional scanner, the camera of a mobile phone can serve as a scanner. Some teachers even support the delivery of class work through photos (for example, Math exercises).

14. Calculator: there are numerous applications that enable you to perform all the operations of a scientific calculator. This helps reduce the amount of items students must carry in their bags.

15. Edit videos: not only can we make videos, but we can also edit them, add text, filters, effects and more.

16. Edit pictures: the same can be done with images as with videos.

17. Publish in the class blog: class blogs are an increasingly common exercise these days and help develop writing skills. Thanks to your mobile phone, you can write and post articles at any time.

18. Track blog visits: the implementation of Google Analytics allows you to check the progress of your class blog from anywhere.

19. Make presentations: instead of having to carry around external hard drives and USB sticks, store the material in your mobile phone and connect it directly to the projector. Have you tried 'play mode' using the ExamTime Mind Map tool?

20. Remote control: whether switching from one slide to another during a presentation or stopping and playing a video, there are applications that enable you to use our smartphone as a remote control.

21. Communicate: the PA system is a thing of the past. If a student must go to the secretary or principal's office, you can communicate with them through a text message.

22. Updates: Remind is an app designed to send notifications to parents and/or students without knowing their phone number. This means that the boundaries between privacy and the classroom can be maintained while communication is not hampered.

23. Locate points on the map: during class location based apps can help when introducing students to a region of country. Applications such as Google Maps help us to locate ourselves and are great in History and Geography classes.

24. Tweet: Twitter is a social network that has many educational uses. The mobile phone is probably the best way to access it to read and write Tweets about education. Don't forget to follow ExamTime on Twitter.

25. Study Vocabulary: in foreign language classes, vocabulary is crucial. Quite often students don't pay enough attention and can get left behind. Flashcards are one of the resources that provide better results when viewing from mobile phones and are super easy to digest.

26. Control Attendance: there are many applications that can help keep track of the attendance of students direct from our mobile phone.

27. Assess Students: mobile phones can be used to monitor and keep track of a student's course work and exam results. In this way, teachers have access at all times to a particular student and can see if that student is making progress or not.

28. Clock: studies have shown that more people are reaching for their mobile phone to check the time rather than checking their wristwatch. Why not check the weather on your mobile device too?

29. Inspire: originality is one of the best ways to keep students interested. However, sometimes students simply get bored. The mobile phone provides a window to the world where you can discover topics and ideas that are otherwise limited by traditional books and encyclopaedias.

30. Share Notes: many teachers tend to distribute material at the beginning or at the end of the class. Instead photocopying large amounts of paper and handing them out, your mobile phone allows you to easily perform this function. Again, the ExamTime App can help with that!

31. Weather: for those teachers who like to move the lesson outdoors, weather apps can come in very useful to see the forecast. These apps can also serve specific lessons in explaining the climatic conditions in other regions/countries.

32. Play: there is much talk of the gamification of the educational process, i.e. the need to transform learning into a game as much as possible. There are literally hundreds of educational apps that can make learning more enjoyable and easier on the students.

These 40 uses of Smartphones in School are just the beginning. The teaching and learning process can be enriched by embracing these ideas. Provided they are monitored and conducted in the safest manner, smartphone use in school is going to be the next big thing in 2015/ 2016.
Don't forget to download the brand new ExamTime iOS and Android app today.
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Our blog is part of GoConqr, a Free Learning Platform for Creating, Sharing & Discovering Learning Resources that help students and teachers achieve their learning objectives. Click here to start creating Mind Maps, Flashcards, Notes, Quizzes, Slides Flowcharts & Courses now!

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40 Uses For Smartphones in School | ExamTime

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As Alanis Morissette once said, 'isn't it ironic'. After years of struggle between teachers and students and the use of smartphones in school, new educational trends are actually encouraging the use of these devices. The mobile, cellphone or smartphone is not just used for WhatsApp, Facebook or Angry Birds, it can be used in a multitude of ways from an educational perspective.

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Although students have been using cell phones consistently in their daily lives for almost a decade, many public schools continue to resist allowing the devices into the classroom. Schools generally grapple with new technologies, but cell phones' reputation as a nuisance and a distraction has been hard to dislodge.

Recently, however, the acceptance of these devices has been growing. Beginning in March, New York City, the largest school district in the country with 1.1 million students, will reverse its long standing ban on cell phones in schools.

The ban, which was implemented by the Bloomberg administration, went into effect in 2006, but Mayor Bill De Blasio championed the policy change, saying that he thought it was important for parents to be able to easily contact their kids.

Will more districts around the country follow? Liz Kolb, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Education and author of Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education, says its already happening. According to Kolb, close to 70 percent of schools that had cell phone bans in place five years ago are reversing their policies.

"First it was a very slow domino fall, and now we're seeing more of a tidal wave," Kolb explains. "Part of it is because it's hard to fight the tidal wave and there's so many students with cell phones. The second part is that they're really seeing them as a learning tool, not just a toy for entertainment, and they're seeing that they can be cost effective for the schools instead of having to purchase technology for students."

Critics believe, however, that allowing these devices will only encourage their non-educational use in school, to the point where they will be a significant distraction for teachers and students - and a potential tool for cheating. A specific concern for parents and educators is that lifting the cell phone ban could foster cyberbullying and sexting during school hours. NYC school officials are already taking steps to combat this, hoping to decrease the amount of sexting and cyberbullying overall.

Educators continue to have mixed opinions about cell phones in the classroom. We recently posed the question on the NEA Today Facebook page and received a wide variety of responses.

Are Students Addicted to Cell Phones?
Concerns about cell phones in the classroom are also grounded in what we know about teenage brains, including the inability to concentrate while multitasking and possibly long-term effects on overall health.

In Becky Dieffenbach's opinion, bringing their own devices "just becomes a source of distraction for some students, because no matter how many times you repeat the rule that they can only be on technology when the teacher says it's ok, they choose to ignore the rule and then disciplinary actions have to be enforced."

"Students persistently use them a great deal for personal interactions via social media when they should be paying attention to what is going on in class," according to Connie Fawcett, a high school teacher in Oklahoma.

Based on her personal experiences, Fawcett "can see few positives outcomes for cell phones in the classroom, but it is becoming the new norm. Learning is going to suffer even more. What students gain from using them to support instruction will be lost due to the distraction factor, which appears to be much more appealing and fulfilling to many."

Other teachers disagree and urge educators to accept the inevitability of cell phones in school and learn how to make them work in the classroom.

"We need to stop pushing against the technology and start embracing it," says Amber Schaefer, an elementary school teacher in Minnesota. "The more we push back, the more we separate ourselves from students. It is time to incorporate and collaborate instead of ban and punish."

"It would be nice if they weren't part of the school picture," adds New York teacher Barbara McConnell, "but they are, so let's use them to our advantage."

Beyond the classroom, many educators believe that banning any type of technology can foster inequity. In New York City specifically, the school ban on cell phones was most stringently applied in schools with metal detectors, which also happen to be those with the highest concentrations of low-income and minority students.

José Vilson, a middle school math teacher in New York City and author of This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class and Education, agrees that these bans widen the gap between disadvantaged students and their peers. He believes forbidding cell phones just limits students' access to technology, especially for those who attend urban schools.

Ending the ban in New York will mean students can "carry their cell phones into the building and not be treated like criminals and have to pay extra to leave it outside at the cellphone truck," Vilson says.

Vilson, who uses all kinds of devices in his own classroom, doesn't believe that phones provide "much more of a distraction than kids already have. It depends on how [educators] approach the whole process."

Once the new policy is in place starting in March, individual schools in New York City will be able to establish their own specific policies regarding cell phone use in the classroom, leaving many teachers to determine how they will react to the devices in hallways and classrooms.

Experts advise a cautious and well-researched approach. Liz Kolb urges schools to "start small."

"Don't feel as if because students have the devices they have to be using them all the time," she explains. "They just really need to be careful and thoughtful and take baby steps, and develop a nice protocol and rules and structures for how students physically handle the device in the classroom."

Kolb points to some schools in Michigan that adopted new straightforward rules and guidelines for educators that were designed to meet the needs of students while addressing educators' concerns. Posted on classroom doors, for example, are signs indicating whether the students can use their devices. A green stoplight means they can use them; red means no.

"This allows students to know the expectations, and it also gives teachers autonomy over whether they're going to use the cell phones," Kolb explains. "It gives them a little bit of freedom. It's a very simple policy, but it's also very effective."
Photos: Associated Press

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As Schools Lift Bans on Cell Phones, Educators Weigh Pros and Cons | NEA

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Although students have been using cell phones consistently in their daily lives for almost a decade, many public schools continue to resist allowing the devices into the classroom. Schools generally grapple with new technologies, but cell phones' reputation as a nuisance and a distraction has been hard to dislodge.

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"Staying connected" is the unspoken mantra of the smartphone generation. We now have the ability to instantaneously link up with nearly any information source, and tap into a live feed of what's happening in our social circle.

However, critics have long warned that this non-stop barrage of news and trivia is inevitably distracting, making it more difficult to maintain the focused attention necessary for truly meaningful communication.

Luddite nonsense? Actually, no. Newly published research suggests that the mere presence of a cell phone or smartphone can lessen the quality of an in-person conversation, lowering the amount of empathy that is exchanged between friends.

The study, published in the journal Environment and Behavior, confirms the findings of a 2013 lab-based study in a real-world setting. It suggests you don't have to be actively checking your phone for it to divide your attention.

"Mobile phones hold symbolic meaning in advanced technological societies. In their presence, people have the constant urge to seek out information, check for communication, and direct their thoughts to other people and worlds."

"Mobile phones hold symbolic meaning in advanced technological societies," a research team led by Shalini Misra of Virginia Tech University writes. "In their presence, people have the constant urge to seek out information, check for communication, and direct their thoughts to other people and worlds."

"Even without active use, the presence of mobile technologies has the potential to divert individuals from face-to-face exchanges, thereby undermining the character and depth of these connections. Individuals are more likely to miss subtle cues, facial expressions, and changes in the tone of their conversation partner's voice, and have less eye contact."

The study's 200 participants were broken up into groups of two. Each couple was then assigned to sit down in a coffee shop and discuss either a meaningful topic or a trivial one. A nearby lab assistant noted their non-verbal behavior, and recorded "whether either participant placed any kind of mobile device on the table, or held it in their hand, during the 10-minute span" when they were talking.

Afterwards, participants responded to a series of statements designed to measure "feelings of interpersonal connectedness" and "empathic concern" they experienced during the brief chat. These included "I felt I could really trust my conversation partner" and "To what extent did you conversation partner make an effort to understand your thoughts and feelings?"

The key results: "If either participant placed a mobile communication device on the table, or held it in their hand, during the course of the 10-minute conversation, the quality of the conversation was rated to be less fulfilling, compared with conversations that took place in the absence of mobile devices," the researchers report.

"The same participants who conversed in the presence of mobile communication devices also reported experiencing lower empathetic concern, compared with participants who interacted without (the presence of) distracting digital stimuli." (All these results held true after controlling for such factors as age, gender, ethnicity, and mood.)

Somewhat surprisingly, the researchers found no significant differences in these results whether the couple was discussing serious or non-serious matters. Less surprising, they report the negative relationship between mobile devices and empathetic concern was more pronounced among people who already knew each other. It appears the empathy that naturally arises when talking with a friend can get short-circuited by the distracting presence of a phone.

Misra and her colleagues did not record how often participants touched or handled their mobile devices. While they see that as a promising avenue for further research, their study suggests you don't have to be actually fiddling with a phone for it to distract your focus.

"Networked technologies are distinctive in that they enable us to be in a persistent state of 'absent presence,'" the researchers write, adding that phones' "mere presence as environmental cues can distribute individuals' attention and guide the behavior of those who are nearby without their awareness."

So if you want to have a real, face-to-face conversation with a friend, here's a suggestion: Turn off your phone, and put it in your pocket. Ironically, the best way to make a real connection might be to live, however briefly, in a digital-free zone.

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Presence of a Smartphone Lowers Quality of Conversations

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"Staying connected" is the unspoken mantra of the smartphone generation. We now have the ability to instantaneously link up with nearly any information source, and tap into a live feed of what's happening in our social circle.

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"You'll get kids saying, 'I'll look something up for English, and while I'm here let me quickly check my Instagram or Twitter feed.' And then it's, 'Oh, I never realized this girl said that to me,' and now they're distracted and not really engaged with their lesson plan," said Joni Siani, a Braintree psychologist and author of "Celling Your Soul: No App for Life," about how digital media affect young people.

Educators don't agree on much when it comes to digital devices in classrooms except that they aren't going away. Some 88 percent of American teens ages 13 to 17 have or have access to a mobile phone, and a majority of teens (73 percent) have smartphones, according to a Pew Research Center study released in April. Ninety-two percent of teens report going online daily, with more than half saying they're online several times a day. Twenty-four percent say they do so "almost constantly."

It's a complex issue, especially since the debate over cellphones is part of a broader conversation about a cultural shift underway in classrooms - a move away from the traditional model of teachers imparting information to students, to one where students actively participate in their own learning, using mobile devices to access the Web, educational apps, and other tools.

At Melrose High School, for example, science students use a physics app to collect acceleration data and measure sound intensity, and English students discuss literature on their smartphones. In Burlington, high school Spanish students practice language skills on their iPads by recording their speech and playing it back.

The shift in classrooms is happening slowly and unevenly, depending on district policies, financial means, and teachers' comfort levels with technology. Some schools are leveraging students' own smartphones - the so-called BYOD (bring your own device) approach. Others with the means to do so, such as the Burlington school system, have taken the "one-to-one" approach and purchased iPads for all students in grades one through 12.

It comes as the era of a one-way lecture - from a teacher who is considered "sage on the stage'' - is fading.

"Undoubtedly there are great teachers with lots of experience who are spellbinding lecturers. I'm not in any hurry to push them out the door, but as they move on, the next generation of teachers will be much better served by the 'guide on the side' [model]," said Joe Blatt, faculty director of the Technology, Innovation, and Education Program at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The lack of consensus about cellphone use in schools is reflected in a hodgepodge of policies around Massachusetts.

Boston Public Schools prohibit their use during school hours. Melrose allows them in class with teachers' permission, and the use of smartphones as teaching tools. Some schools permit phones only during lunchtime or in the hallways. Others decree that phones stay inside lockers; some forbid tweets or texts. At Burlington High School, students can carry silenced mobile devices, but using communication features during class is prohibited.

Still, the trend seems to be in favor of increased tolerance of cellphones.

"About a year and a half ago, I said, 'All right, we can't win this battle, how do we turn it so it wins for us, so we can make it a positive?' " said Cyndy Taymore, superintendent for Melrose Public Schools. "[Students] weren't paying attention, they were checking their e-mail, and God forbid the Patriots were in a playoff game."

But banning cellphones entirely can create unexpected problems. Many parents support phones in schools so they can coordinate pickups and after-school activities with their children. They also want to be able to reach them in case of emergency.

In March, the New York Department of Education lifted its decade-long ban on cellphones in the New York City schools. The ban was unpopular, not least because thousands of students in schools with metal detectors were paying daily fees to vendors to store their phones during school hours. Now administrators will decide for themselves where and how phones will be allowed on each campus.

Through it all, the efficacy of mobile devices in the learning environment remains unclear.

Blatt says: "There is a lot of substantial evidence to show the kind of learning that is possible for kids using these devices - when properly supported and managed by teachers who make the best use of them - can be powerful learning."

On the other hand, a study released in May by the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics looked at 91 schools in four cities in England, where more than 90 percent of teenagers own a mobile phone. The study found that test scores were 6.41 percent higher at schools where cellphone use is prohibited. The researchers concluded that mobile phones "can have a negative impact on productivity through distraction," particularly among low-achieving students, who benefitted most from the ban, with achievement gains of 14.23 percent.

"The results suggest that low-achieving students are more likely to be distracted by the presence of mobile phones while high achievers can focus in the classroom regardless of the mobile phone policy," according to the study.

Many in the pro-technology camp say that students are not distracted if their teachers are engaging, a statement that exasperates soon-to-be former teacher Miriam Morgenstern.

She recently brought a Holocaust survivor into class to talk about World War II, and noticed that one of her students was tweeting during the talk. "Should I have told the Holocaust survivor to be a little more engaging?" Morgenstern said.

Linda Matchan can be reached at linda.matchan@globe.com.

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Schools seek balance for cellphones in class - The Boston Globe

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"You'll get kids saying, 'I'll look something up for English, and while I'm here let me quickly check my Instagram or Twitter feed.' And then it's, 'Oh, I never realized this girl said that to me,' and now they're distracted and not really engaged with their lesson plan," said Joni Siani, a Braintree psychologist and author of "Celling Your Soul: No App for Life," about how digital media affect young people.