Hardly Surprising News about Stereotypes and Learning

Negative stereotypes shown to affect learning, not just performance, study finds. This study goes beyond the class work of Stanford's Claude Steele who found that simply filling out a blank for "Race" on a subject test depressed the scores of African Americans. Follow up studies found this effect true for women as well as different minorities on a variety of subject tests. This study investigated ability to learn precursor skills needed for higher order learning. Bottom line: stereotypes hurt.

Of What Value Is the Education of a Young Child?

Just started reading a great NYT article on the importance, economic and otherwise, of young children. The Case for the $320,000 Kindergarten Teacher reports the results of a new study that goes beyond previous studies that indicate that the effect of high-quality early childhood education washes out of test score results by high school. The new study confirms the earlier result in terms of test scores, but also looks at broader economic measures of well-being, such as a child's health or adult earnings.