History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
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Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Learning to read: Genes play biggest role but teachers matter, study says
- 04-23-2010
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By Donna Gordon Blankinship/San Jose Mercury News
Genetics play the biggest role in determining how fast a child learns to read, but a good teacher can make a measurable difference as well, according to a study released Thursday. Florida State University used twins assigned to different classrooms to develop the conclusions. Researchers studied more than 550 first- and second-grade classrooms with at least one identical twin and more than 1,000 classes with at least one fraternal twin. Among the identical twins, 42 pairs out of 280 pairs showed significant differences in reading improvement during the year studied, said lead researcher Jeanette Taylor, an associate professor of psychology at Florida State. In each case, the teachers also had significantly different quality scores. Twins with similarly good teachers got similar scores. (more...)
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