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The Hindu
21-06-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Study in T.N.'s Tiruvallur schools reveals deep-rooted menstrual stigma in children
Adolescence is a time of change and challenges. For girls, menstruation is often treated as a taboo topic, something to be embarrassed about, whispered about, even avoided, making it harder for them to get the information and support they need during this important time in their lives. The American Institutes for Research (AIR) and Sanitation First, in collaboration with the Tiruvallur district government in Tamil Nadu, recently conducted a baseline study to explore the stigma surrounding menstruation and the barriers that girls face in accessing menstrual products and information. As part of this initiative, AIR collected survey data from 118 schools across 10 blocks in Tiruvallur. The survey aimed to gauge the current knowledge, attitudes, and norms related to menstruation by engaging 118 headmasters and teachers, 1,133 female students in class 8, and 413 male students in the same grade. Disturbing attitudes towards menstruation The findings from the study revealed some concerning attitudes and norms regarding menstruation among students. Nearly half of all the boys surveyed, 43%, believed that girls should not enter the kitchen while menstruating, and and even higher number, 58% thought that girls should refrain from entering religious places during their periods. Interestingly, 70% of the boys surveyed felt that menstruation disables girls and women, a view that was shared by 40% of the girls. Further, 77% of girls believed that menstruating girls should not visit religious places. These findings reflect the deep-rooted stigma surrounding menstruation in the community, said Averi Chakrabarti, an economist with AIR's International Development Division. She pointed out these beliefs are a result of longstanding societal stigma. 'What I found particularly interesting was the belief that menstruation disables women and girls. This is how stigmas take root. Our goal through this intervention is to provide accurate information, so these ideas don't continue to spread,' Ms. Chakrabarti said. The baseline study also highlighted an issue that has received relatively little attention: heavy menstrual bleeding. 15% of the girls surveyed had missed school due to heavy menstrual bleeding, a condition that often goes unaddressed in menstrual health discussions. 'We want to understand whether this is due to the number of days girls are menstruating, the frequency with which they need to change pads, and whether they have adequate access to menstrual products,' said Ms. Chakrabarti. 'Happy Periods' programme Following the baseline study, Sanitation First will implement the 'Happy Periods' programme, which has been running independently in Tamil Nadu since 2019, in 56 schools across the district. This programme is designed to educate students about the physical, mental, and emotional changes associated with puberty. The curriculum covers topics such as the causes of puberty, the male and female reproductive systems, as well as the onset of menstruation (menarche) and first ejaculation (semenarche). 'We try to normalise the experiences of adolescence and puberty for both boys and girls with accurate, science-based information, to equip them with the knowledge to make informed decisions about menstrual practices and inculcate gender-sensitive behaviours,' said Padmapriya T.S., chief executive, Sanitation First. After the Happy Periods intervention, AIR will conduct an endline survey to measure the effectiveness of the programme. The study will involve both the treatment group, which consists of the 56 schools participating in the programme, and a control group, which will allow for a comparative analysis of the impact. Ms. Chakrabarti said, 'We are taking an econometric approach, using a comparison group to derive robust results from the study.' Awareness for teachers An interesting insight from the baseline study was the perception of teachers and headmasters regarding who should provide menstrual health education. A staggering 95% of teachers and school leaders believed that mothers should be the primary source of menstrual health information. M. Prathap, district collector, Thiruvallur, pointed to the role of teachers in supporting this education. 'Teachers are often resistant to counselling girls in the midst of boys. Through this programme, teachers will receive awareness training to ensure they are better equipped to guide students. Each school will designate a nodal teacher to continue the initiative,' Mr. Prathap said, adding that the aim is to design a framework to implement it at more schools. Disposal practices The study also found unsafe practices around the disposal of menstrual products. Among the girls surveyed, 72% reported burning single-use plastic menstrual products, and only 3% buried them. These disposal methods were especially prevalent in the Thiruvalangadu and Tiruttani regions. 'This will be further explored in the endline survey to assess the progress and potential solutions,' said Ms. Chakrabarti.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Yahoo
Opinion: AI Tool Shows Teachers What They Do in the Classroom — and How to Do It Better
There is no question about the negative impact of the pandemic, or that its effects have not yet been adequately addressed. That's why it's time to make use of one of the innovations from that time — the artificial intelligence-fueled revolution that can help teachers improve their instruction, develop their skills and help students learn. The first step of this revolution was teaching on video. Traditionally, teachers worked as if their classrooms were islands. The pandemic brought video into every classroom, and, perhaps for the first time, teachers could see how their colleagues worked. They could share what they learned by showing each other, instead of telling what they did in the classroom. The second step of this revolution was the use of AI to analyze that video and provide data to teachers and their instructional coaches on what works in the classroom and what does not. This is not for evaluation, but for improvement of teachers' ability to connect with their students. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter AI is reshaping how teacher coaching happens. One example is Project CAFE, pioneered by the education nonprofit Urban Assembly and the American Institutes for Research. Project CAFE is already in use in Urban Assembly's public high schools in New York City, as well as schools in New Jersey, Florida and Illinois. Ramapo College in New Jersey uses it to make feedback for student teachers more meaningful. This AI tool scans classroom video and produces graphs that measure student talk time, teacher talk time and silence during a class; how often and when talking is on topic; and when respectful, encouraging and insulting language happens. The tool observes, but it does not judge. It leaves the teacher and coach to interpret the observations — and because AI identifies what it hears so quickly, it saves coaches hours of transcribing and collating data, time that can be spent helping teachers through guided, data-informed conversations. The tool allows teachers to review video of their classes and focus on meaningful moments, such as which instructional interactions affect student learning. For example, it would allow a teacher to consider if they dominate the conversation in a class while many students never spoke. It can help identify useful patterns in a teacher's work to build upon. And it can amplify the way that in-person observation from experienced colleagues builds the skills of student teachers. It is still too soon to have data on whether improved coaching translates into measurable results for students, Urban Assembly internal data shows that teachers spend 12% less time speaking and classes spend 7% more time talking on topic while using the tool. But anecdotally, both teachers and coaches who have used it are enthusiastic. Phillan Greaves, an instructional lead teacher at the Urban Assembly Institute of Math & Science for Young Women, told her principal in an email that she has learned more quickly about her own teaching practices. 'I never thought I could upload lesson clips into an app and receive data that shows things like talk-time balance, student engagement and pacing,' she said. 'Instead of relying on gut feelings, I can analyze real patterns and trends. … Reflection feels less abstract — now it's focused, evidence-based and actually energizing.' One of her colleagues, English teacher Patricia Gyapong, said Project CAFE's flexibility gives her various ways to improve her work in the classroom. 'I can choose to watch the video if I'm paying attention to my movement, and which part of the room I tend to focus on. Or maybe I want to see how aligned my questions were, so I read over the transcript. Sometimes, time is limited, so I can look over the bar graph and see my teacher voice-to-student voice ratio. … I love the autonomy to figure out what I need to work on, especially without feeling judgment.' That time saving is key. When feedback is immediate, it locks in strengths and improves weaknesses. Project CAFE allows educational coaches to distill strengths and opportunities for growth much more rapidly than previous approaches. Until now, teachers have often felt that feedback was something that was done to them. With tools like Project CAFE, they can take control of the feedback and make it work for them and their students. Good teachers are created with deliberation, care and compassion — and today, with the most vulnerable students being left even further behind, they are more vital than ever.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Cleveland Ends Year-Round Schooling Citing No Meaningful Gains After 15 Years
The Cleveland school district is ending its15-year attempt to use year-round classes to improve student learning in some schools, deciding last week to drop what the district and some experts once viewed as the best way for students to avoid the so-called 'summer slide.' Year-round schooling, which gained popularity in the 1970s, avoids long summer vacations in which students can forget much of what they learned during the school year. Under the plan, students attend classes as part of a normal grading period most of the summer. Their school years aren't much longer than with a traditional schedule, just spread out differently, with their lost summer vacation days added to other breaks during the school year. Cleveland's move comes as some states like South Carolina and Florida have recently embraced or are trying out the approach, along with districts hoping to address pandemic learning loss. The number of schools using year-round schedules nationally fell from about 6% in the 1970s to under 3% before the pandemic, researchers report. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter In Cleveland, previous district leaders once considered year-round school a promising way to turn around the struggling district. But it caught on in just six of Cleveland's high schools, and new school leaders now want all district schools on the same calendar and curriculum so students aren't lost if they change schools. Leaders also aren't convinced year-round school is helping. A district study this year with researchers from Cleveland State University and the American Institutes for Research showed the city's year-round schools often have higher math and English scores than other high schools, but mostly because the schools have more gifted students and students who would do well with any schedule. Research nationally is also mixed. Related Your Child's Education, Explained: What the Heck Is 'Summer Slide' Anyway? District CEO Warren Morgan decided gains were not enough to justify the additional $2.6 million in teacher salaries year-round classes cost. 'There was no evidence that there was substantial, meaningful difference in the academic outcomes in our different calendar types,' Morgan said before the school board vote last week. 'We also recognize and value the excellence of our many different schools …but there's also other variables…that make them great.' David Hornak, executive director of the National Association for Year Round Education, said the pandemic renewed interest in year-round school as a possible way to tackle COVID learning loss, as well as increasing interest in related strategies, like adding summer learning programs or extra school days to the start or end of the school year. Hornak estimates about 4% of schools now have a year-round schedule, but the association has scaled back over the years and has no staff to track it. He said students are less likely to forget lessons over a shorter summer vacation. Longer breaks during the year, often about three weeks long, give schools a chance to give struggling students targeted help catching up, rather than waiting until July for a summer school that feels like a punishment. 'I would love school leaders to consider summer as just another academic block of time,' he said. Paul Von Hippel, a professor of public affairs at the University of Texas and prominent skeptic of year-round school, said he sees no difference in learning from just scheduling the same number of school days in different ways. 'Instead of having one long break where students forget a lot, you have a bunch of short breaks where students forget a little,' Von Hippel said. 'The amount of forgetting adds up to be about the same.' He added that though the pandemic prompted districts to consider year-round classes, he sees no evidence that they have caught on in a meaningful way. Teachers, parents and students of Cleveland's six year-round schools, however, fought the district CEO and implored the district school board at two hearings to keep a schedule they say made their schools unique and offered students chances they wouldn't have with a standard school year. Students from one year-round school even protested the change outside district headquarters last month. Xavier Avery, a junior at Davis Aerospace and Maritime High School who organized the protest, reminded the school board right before its vote April 29 that his school has received state awards and has better test scores than the district average. He also said that students spend part of school days in warmer months on boats and planes, both learning to operate them and studying Lake Erie as part of the school's specialized focus. 'Our year-round calendar plays a huge role in this success,' he said. 'It's what makes our programs, internships and hands-on learning possible.' Cleveland also cut other non-traditional schedules as part of its push to put all schools on the same schedule. Morgan and the school board also axed extended school years, which added extra days at 17 other schools, as well as extended days, running 30 minutes longer each day at six schools. Those cuts drew more fire from parents, who said that being able to choose schools that offer extra time keeps them in the district, rather than selling their homes and moving to suburban districts. Year-round schools started gaining national attention in the 1970s, experts say, for two major reasons. In some cases, most notably fast-growing California where schools were too small to handle exploding enrollment, schools spread classes out over the whole year so they could stagger student schedules to accommodate all of them. The other major draw, the one that appealed to Cleveland, was limiting 'summer learning loss' or 'summer slide,' where students forget much of what they learned during long vacations. A 2019 summary of year-round schooling studies found mixed results, with Black, Hispanic and low-income students more likely to see gains and the staggered schedules in California more likely to show losses. California stopped using that strategy after building new schools for all its students. The total also fell as cities like Salt Lake City and Chicago dropped the approach several years ago after not seeing big academic gains. Post-pandemic data was not readily available. Educators still see promise in the approach. A quarter of South Carolina schools and three school districts in Florida are now testing year-round classes for several years. Other school districts in Dallas and Philadelphia are trying a related, though different, approach: simply adding voluntary days to the year to reduce summer slide and to help students who are behind catch up, whether from the pandemic or just needing more class time. Richmond, Virginia, has also added extra mandatory days to the school year at a few struggling schools, though parent complaints squashed attempts to do that for the whole district. Related After COVID, a Need for 'Year-Round' School to Catch Kids Up? Cleveland's experiment with year-round school started in 2009 at a specialized STEM school created as a magnet for the city's top students. Former Cleveland school district CEO Eric Gordon soon after considered moving the entire district to year-round schedules. In launching a district turnaround plan in 2012, he jokingly dismissed the traditional school year as an 'agrarian calendar we currently use so that all of my students are free to bring in the harvest every summer.' Gordon said the district could close half the gap between his students and higher-performing suburban students by eliminating the accumulation of 12 years of summer slides before graduation. But attempts to use a year-round calendar at one large neighborhood high school failed after parents objected to students losing summer breaks and its effect on family vacations, summer jobs and school schedules of siblings on regular schedules. A lack of air conditioning in some old schools and parent objections to a much-smaller change — starting the school year earlier in August than before — put plans to use the schedule at more schools on hold. The year-round schedule ended up at no neighborhood schools and just six schools the district created with alternative class styles — a school based in a hospital or one focused on learning through digital art projects — that families could pick, but not be assigned to.
CBC
05-03-2025
- Science
- CBC
By 6, kids think boys are better than girls at computer science. These programs aim to change that
During lunch recess at Arnott Charlton Public School in Brampton, Ont., girls tinker with coding small, colourful LED lights-and-circuits kits or compose music on laptop computers. A laughing trio of fourth graders fine-tunes a small wheeled vehicle with an extendable arm as they "rescue" a duck. They're engaged and having fun — exactly the point for teacher-librarian Kristofor Schuermann, who founded Megabrights, a coding and technology club for girls at schools within the Peel District School Board west of Toronto. The need for such a club first hit Schuermann when his own daughter was young: curious but also anxious about diving into tech. Offerings "weren't necessarily targeted toward her or really connected to her passions, and even when we did manage to find a program, she was often the only girl," he recalled. At age six, kids are typically building up their reading skills and starting to discover interests, but some also already hold the stereotypical belief that boys are better than girls at computer science and engineering, according to a recent study from the American Institutes for Research. Initiatives both inside and outside schools work to counter gender biases, but educators say earlier efforts are needed to make STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) a space where girls can thrive. Stereotypes impact interest David Miller and colleagues at the American Institutes for Research conducted a meta-analysis into five decades of studies examining children's beliefs and stereotypes about STEM, including responses from 145,000 kids in 33 countries, that was published in the academic journal Psychological Bulletin. They found that gender stereotypes are not the same for all STEM subjects: More kids believe boys are better than girls in computers and engineering by age six, but the results were more evenly divided for math. That was a surprisingly nuanced finding, Miller said from Chicago. He's concerned, however, that male bias could increase as kids age, causing girls to prematurely turn away from subjects they might enjoy or excel at. WATCH | Exploring kids' early stereotypes about STEM: Exploring kids' early stereotypes about STEM 1 minute ago Duration 6:27 That's what Larissa Vingilis-Jaremko has encountered with the Canadian Association for Girls in Science, a long-running STEM club she founded in 1992. Stereotypes "are actually a stronger predictor of interest in STEM fields than a child's actual abilities in STEM," she said. "Stereotypes can impact interests and future career directions." In some countries, ongoing financial investments and policy change within STEM fields and education over the years have improved the gender balance. In Canada, there hasn't been a lack of support and investment, yet it's inconsistent, she noted. Vingilis-Jaremko feels it hurts both women and the country when fewer girls pursue STEM, especially when these fields — with highly paid jobs in fast-growing sectors — are short of labour. As women represent less than 30 per cent of the Canadians working in STEM, "it's really important to make sure that these systemic barriers ... are broken." Sparking excitement at a younger age Boosting diversity in STEM introduces different perspectives, which contributes to creativity and problem-solving, says University of Waterloo computer science professor Sandy Graham. With "creative pursuits, the more diverse your base for those creations, the better the final product will be." Graham entered computer science in the late 1980s — beginning her studies just after the high period when women were nearly 40 per cent of computing grads in the U.S. and Canada — but she's since seen much lower enrolment. Women represent nearly 40 per cent of enrolment in postsecondary STEM programs, according to Statistics Canada, but in math and computer science the proportion is lower, hovering around 28 per cent. (Engineering enrolment is even lower.) Graham sees few teen girls during her visits to high school grades 11 and 12 compsci classes these days, which underlined a need to spark interest and excitement about the field in younger students. So, she and colleagues at Waterloo now stage a program for Grade 8 students called CS Escape. The virtual workshop introduces coding fundamentals to participants, who then craft a digital escape room. "They're working in a graphical, three-dimensional environment, creating programs that are very interactive and visually exciting and shareable," Graham said. Toronto teen Keira Pincus was thrilled with how accessible, interactive, challenging and supportive she found the workshop, since the video-game fan and budding creator felt discouraged with past attempts to learn coding on her own. "They addressed so many things in these one-hour sessions. They showed us the format. They showed us the why," explained the Toronto teen. When learning how to code, "I think learning the why is the best way." Encouragement to partner up — isolation is another computer science stereotype Graham seeks to dispel — was also appreciated by both Pincus and Annabel Spencer, her friend and classmate. "I really enjoyed troubleshooting with her," said Spencer, whose own interest was piqued by their dad's work in the field. Problem-solving together "made it a lot easier because you had two views of the coding," they said, adding that it paid off since the pair won a silver medal in the final challenge. Safe spaces, diverse role models needed Establishing space for girls to discover connections between their interests and STEM — away from prevalent, "aggressive" tech and computing stereotypes, notes Peel teacher-librarian Schuermann — is one important way to make change. At Megabrights, girls have created projects directly inspired by their interests or aim to help their communities. "They're developing Android apps or they're developing empathy toys," he noted. "Fashion design ... relevant to future conditions, [like] 'Does the garment cool down when it's hot? Does it light up at night for my safety?'" American researcher Miller thinks universal access to compsci and engineering learning early on in elementary schools is another key step. "Too often it is just left up to outside organizations or museums that play a very critical role, but [not everyone can] take advantage of those opportunities," he noted. Making STEM learning fun, hands-on and ensuring kids have diverse role models also counteracts stereotypes, says CAGIS founder Vingilis-Jaremko, who suggests adults ask themselves: "If my child or my students are getting exposed to STEM, who are they seeing within those fields?" After doing CS Escape with the Waterloo team, Toronto teen Spencer is eager to learn more about computer science and imagines combining that with a career in medicine one day. Without more success in engaging girls in STEM, they said, "[we'll miss out on] women who can make huge breakthroughs ... that just don't get the chance to because they never learned it."
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Spending on special education in Oregon needs a revamped formula, researchers find
Oregon is one of only seven states that caps special education funding, according to an analysis of the state's education funding issues. (Photo by) Lawmakers got a three-hour crash course this week on fixes that are needed to Oregon's education funding formula to improve student learning and direct money toward the highest needs kids. Among the most consequential findings was that Oregon's formula for how much money leaders send to schools to support students with disabilities leaves them under-resourced. Oregon is one of seven states that cap spending on special education, and it has the lowest cap of all, according to the Virginia-based American Institutes for Research researchers, who discussed their analysis on Oregon's education funding during a joint meeting of the House and Senate Education committees last week. Lawmakers are considering a proposal this session, House Bill 2953, sponsored by Rep. Courtney Neron, D-Wilsonville, that would remove the funding cap but Oregon also needs more thoughtful spending on special education, the researchers found. In the 2022-23 school year, the state gave school districts about $696 million to meet the needs of students with special needs, such as physical, developmental and learning disabilities like autism and speech and language impairment. That was 25% more than schools got in the 2018-19 school year. But inflation wiped out the spending power of that additional money, the researchers found. And it wasn't enough. In the 2022-23 school year, Oregon's 197 school districts spent more than $1 billion to meet the needs of students with disabilities, officials from Oregon's Department of Education said, forcing schools to cobble together the extra $375 million from other streams of funding, such as the Student Success Act meant to improve outcomes for underserved students. In any of Oregon's school districts, just 11% of the student body with disabilities are entitled to extra money from the state — about $9,000 additional dollars above general per-pupil costs, per student — regardless of the type of disability the student has. In the average Oregon district, about 15% of students have disabilities and require additional resources. Districts can apply for additional funding from the state when their student population with disabilities exceeds 11%, and nearly 90% of districts – 167 – apply. Districts that exceeded the funding cap received, on average, about $2,800 for each student above the cap in recent years. That's about $5,300 less than what they would have received under the cap. 'Most districts in your state actually exceed your cap. And then even though they exceed the cap, they go on to get a waiver from the cap, which raises questions: what is the cap actually doing?' Tammy Colby, one of the American Institutes for Research researchers, asked lawmakers. Jake Cornett, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Disability Rights Oregon, said eliminating the cap has been needed for years. 'Oregon needs to raise the special education cap and substantially increase funding that is directly tied to measurable outcomes for children with disabilities,' he said. 'It's past time for Oregon to hold school districts accountable for the money they receive.' The additional costs of providing a fair and equal education for a deaf or blind student are about $24,000 annually, according to the U.S. Department of Education. For a student with autism, it's closer to $29,000 and for a student with a speech language impairment it's about $11,000. But in Oregon, every student with a disability receives the same amount of additional funding under the state's funding formula. Because the state gives no special weight to funding schools based on the actual cost of the students' disability, schools have to come up with the difference. The percentage of students identified for special education in Oregon did not increase much between 2018 and 2023, the researchers found, but more of those students have high-cost disabilities. The state's high-cost disability fund, an insurance policy that helps districts cover costs when serving a student costs more than $30,000 a year, also has a spending limit. Despite legislative efforts to inject more money into the fund over the years, inflation has taken the power out of those dollars, and demand is outstripping supply, the research shows. During the 2020-21 school year, the state put $50 million into the fund, which covered less than 60% of the requests for reimbursement from districts. Lawmakers have not raised appropriations to the fund in years, and today, it covers only about 40% of eligible expenditures from districts. 'Why is that a problem? Well, that means districts have to raise that revenue some other way,' Colby said. 'It comes out of unrestricted revenue. It can encroach on other kinds of programs and services that a district can offer.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
