IES Newsletter—September 2010

September 2010

IES-funded Study Finds that Preschoolers Benefit from More Teacher Interaction, Less Free Play

Preschoolers who spend most of their class day engaged in unstructured free play make smaller gains in early math and language skills when compared to peers who spend more time interacting with their teachers on a variety of other activities, according to a new study by the IES-funded National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education. » read more

New Staff

Learning While Playing Games

Can we create games that teach students academic content and are fun to play? This is a challenge that IES-funded researchers are working on. A team at the Education Development Center (EDC) is developing Possible Worlds, an adventure-based game for use on the handheld Nintendo Dual Screen device. In one of the games, middle school science students will learn about the process of chemical change by engaging in a science fiction adventure game in which players maneuver a robot to explore a vast cave to find treasures and seek out the answer to a secret about who is living in the cave.

» read more

Developing Innovative Technologies to Improve Outcomes for Students with Disabilities

Portable technologies have great potential for impacting the lives of students with disabilities. » read more

WWC to Increase Scope of Research Reviews

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) is expanding its research design standards to cover single case studies and regression discontinuity designs. » read more

New NAEP Video Introduces "Nation's Report Card" to Students

Are you looking for a simple, clear way to describe the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to your student or child? » read more

IES Supports Workshops to Build Expertise in Quasi-Experimental Design

The first pair of Workshops on Quasi-Experimental Design and Analysis in Education was held in August at Northwestern University. » read more