Whether parents prefer a conformance-oriented or independence-oriented supplemental education program for their children depends on political ideology, according to a study of more than 8,500 American parents. «Conservative parents have a higher need for structure, which drives their preference for conformance-oriented programs,» said study co-author Vikas Mittal, a professor of marketing at Rice’s Jones Graduate…

Research uses artificial intelligence to map connections between the world’s top mathematicians. Published in Nature’s Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, the study analyzed the effectiveness of the Fields Medal to make math at its highest level more representative across nations and identities. The result provides a visual, data-driven history of international migration and social networks…

Increased internet-access spending by Texas public schools improved academic performance but also led to more disciplinary problems among students, a study of 9,000 schools shows. Whether students benefit from increased internet access in public schools has been an open question, according to the researchers. For example, some parents and policy advocates contend it increases children’s…

These findings clearly demonstrate how the cooperative areas of the brain responsible for reading skill are also at work during apparently unrelated activities, such as multiplication, suggest that reading, writing and arithmetic, the foundational skills informally identified as the three Rs, might actually overlap in ways not previously imagined, let alone experimentally validated. Though the…

Researchers found that a four-week training course made a substantial difference in helping special education teachers anticipate different ways students with learning disabilities might solve math problems. Published in the Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, researchers say their findings could help teachers in special education develop strategies to respond to kids’ math reasoning and questions…

In the United States, low-income and minority students are completing college at low rates compared to higher-income and majority peers — a detriment to reducing economic inequality. Double-dose algebra could be a solution, according to a new study. The paper, «Effects of Double-Dose Algebra on College Persistence and Degree Attainment,» is the culmination of a…

The perception that boys are more interested than girls in computer science and engineering starts as young as age six, according to a new study. That may be one reason why girls and women are underrepresented in these STEM career fields. «Gender-interest stereotypes that say ‘STEM is for boys’ begin in grade school, and by…

A recent study analyzing the impact of a shorter school week for high schools found that 11th-grade students participating in a four-day week performed worse on standardized math tests than students who remained on five-day schedules. The effect was amplified among students in non-rural schools and was limited to math; no significant gap appeared in…

New research pinpoints how young children quickly learn language, opening new paths to leverage for machine learning. For the first time, a team of researchers developed a method to experimentally evaluate how parents use what they know about their children’s language when they talk to them. They found that parents have extremely precise models of…

Children’s savings accounts (CSAs), offered by elementary schools throughout San Francisco and in schools across the nation, were introduced to boost college-going rates, limit student debt and foster equal opportunity for low-income children. However, scientists find that geography — particularly in neighborhoods that lack brick-and-mortar banks and credit unions — may play a key role…