Education And Psychology

Charter schools and mayoral control are both hot topics in education reform.  Indiana combined these reform strategies when enacting a new charter school law in 2001.  Under the law, the mayor of Indianapolis was granted authorizing authority to charter schools in the Indianapolis Public Schools district, as well as 10… Read More

(Photo credit: iStock photo) Brain scans of adolescents with dyslexia can be used to predict the future improvement of their reading skills with an accuracy rate of up to 90 percent, new research indicates. Advanced analyses of the brain activity images are significantly more accurate in driving predictions than standardized… Read More

Young children born with cleft lip or palate are sought to participate in a groundbreaking intervention study to help improve their language and speech. The study, launched by Vanderbilt University and East Tennessee State University in January 2010, has already been found to have a positive impact on addressing speech disorders in these children. Read More

Student achievement improved and teacher turnover declined in schools participating in the Texas state-funded District Awards for Teacher Excellence (D.A.T.E.) program, the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University has found. “Our findings suggest that, more often than not, participants in the D.A.T.E. program had a positive experience and… Read More

As members of Congress spar over whether or not to provide tuition benefits and a path to legalization to undocumented students through the DREAM Act, an examination of the nation’s first state-level “dream act” indicates such policy effectively boosts college enrollment by these students. Read More

Torin Monahan, associate professor of human and organizational development and medicine at Vanderbilt University, is available to discuss how and why resistance to surveillance is on the rise in the United States and ways in which surveillance has developed in recent years. Read More

Photo courtesy of National Eye Institute A brain area known to play a critical role in vision is divided into compartments that respond separately to different colors and orientations, Vanderbilt University researchers have discovered. The findings have important implications for furthering our understanding of perception and attention. The research… Read More

A report released this week by the Council of Great City Schools finds black students continue to perform and test at levels significantly below their white counterparts. A new book released this month by Vanderbilt University education professor H. Richard Milner details strategies for closing this persistent achievement gap by… Read More

New research from Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia finds that infants learn little to nothing from popular educational videos and learn the most from face-to-face interactions with their parents and other familiar figures. Read More

Helping foster children’s learning and readiness for school through the federal Head Start program is the goal of a new National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning, created this fall with a $40 million grant from the Office of Head Start. Read More

Peabody student Thomas Davis teaching English to Hispanic and minority children Immigration issues are as complex and varied in American classrooms as they are in the courtroom, yet answers on how to tackle these issues are elusive. A special issue of the Peabody Journal of Education released this month brings… Read More

Expert typists are able to zoom across the keyboard without ever thinking about which fingers are pressing the keys. New research from Vanderbilt University reveals that this skill is managed by an autopilot, one that is able to catch errors that can fool our conscious brain. Read More

The National Center for School Choice at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of education and human development has released a series of five research briefs explaining new findings on charter schools. Read More

Lead author Braden Purcell We know that casting a ballot in the voting booth involves politics, values and personalities. But before you ever push the button for your candidate, your brain has already carried out an election of its own to make that action possible. New research from Vanderbilt… Read More

A group of Peabody College Leadership, Policy and Organizations faculty will travel to Universidade de Sao Paulo in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for an Oct. 4-5 seminar on education policy in Brazil and the United States. The event is the second in a series of collaborations on education research between… Read More

A new report from the National Research Council offers insights into 31 doctoral programs at Vanderbilt University, and finds the programs to be competitive with those at other top research institutions in the United States. The report is based on data collected for the 2005-2006 academic year… Read More

The latest research on the nation’s key K-12 and higher education issues, from No Child Left Behind to charter schools to higher education funding, will be presented by Vanderbilt University Peabody College researchers April 30-May 4 at the American Educational Research Foundation annual conference in Denver, Colo. Read More

Homeowners in community land trusts across the nation continue to have substantially lower delinquency and foreclosure rates than owners of market-rate homes, according to survey results released this month by Vanderbilt University researcher Emily Thaden in partnership with the National Community Land Trust Network. Read More

Although reading and writing have become essential skills for almost every job, the majority of students do not read or write well enough to meet grade-level demands. A new report co-authored by Vanderbilt researchers Steve Graham and Michael Hebert finds that while the two skills are closely connected, writing is an often-overlooked tool for improving reading skills and content learning. Read More

There are two major schools of thought when it comes to educating children and youth with severe learning needs and both are off target, researchers from Vanderbilt and Clemson universities report. The researchers argue a return to the original principles of special education that is informed by modern data and techniques is needed to reform both general and special education. Read More