But with all the other subjects we’re mandated to have, all we have left for recess is 15 minutes.

The kids get recharged. They get back into the classrooms ready to learn

eliminated swings from their playgrounds, along with merry-go-rounds, tube slides, track rides, arch climbers and teeter-totters

Roughly 40 percent of U.S. school districts either have eliminated recess or are considering eliminating it

uberty also pressures kids to stay up later because the normal sense of tiredness that builds up during the day is slower to develop among teens, so they can’t fall asleep earlier even if they wanted to

puberty may biologically wire teens to stay up late and wake up late—which means that forcing them to bed earlier won’t do much good.

inadequate sleep among teens—which means anything less than 8.5 hours to nine hours a night on school days—can contribute to health issues such as obesity, diabetes, mood changes and behavior problems

supports pushing back start times for older kids, particularly teens, because it’s better for their mental and physical health

the opportunity and output gaps related to today’s achievement gap can be substantially closed

9at once is tremendously challenging

he primary purpose of school is to pre-pare every student to read, write, calculate, and analyze. But most Americans also hold schools to a more far-reaching mandate

holding students to high expectations for learning and behavior

must focus on two inter-related dimensions of the organization and execution of the educational program to generate the intended effects of more time on student learning

more learning time is not the standalone factor of ef-fective school

Fryer determined that instructional time of at least 300 more hours than the conventional district calendar is one of the stron-gest predictors of higher achievement (along with high-dosage tutoring, consistent feedback to teach-ers, use of data, and high expectations).

The evidence makes clear that expanding school time holds this potential because, when planned and imple-mented well, it confers three distinct, though interdepen-dent, benefits to both students and teachers:a. More engaged time in academic classes, allowing broader and deeper coverage of curricula, as well as more individualized learning support;b. More dedicated time for teacher collaboration and embedded professional development that enable educa-tors to strengthen instruction and develop a shared com-mitment to upholding high expectations; andc. More time devoted to enrichment classes and activi-ties that expand students’ educational experiences and boost engagement in school.

Consider that while the expectations for how schools prepare the next generation of American workers and citizens have risen dramatically, education and policy leaders have usually not updated policies and practices around learning time to meet these mounting demands

Kids’ access to physical education has declined, obesity rates through the U.S. continue to rise, and test scores remain average at best. It’s time to change that.

Children were more disciplined and focused in the classroom. Off-task behaviors like fidgeting decreased in the intervention schools consistently by 25 percent while the control school students maintained higher percentages of off-task behaviors from pre to post assessments

The children looked forward to each recess and demonstrated social growth and development through the change in peer interactions from pre to post assessments

adding extra recess can improve student discipline, focus and academic success without increasing the length of the school day or taking time away from classroom activities

Movement and activity stimulate the neurons that fire in the brain. When we sit, those neurons aren’t firing

When any human sits for longer than about 20 minutes, the physiology of the brain and body changes, robbing the brain of needed oxygen and glucose, or brain fuel

It not only helps to break up the day, but it allows kids to blow off steam and apply what is taught in the classroom to a play environment where the mind-body connection can flourish

As if all of this weren’t enough, teens who don’t get enough sleep are more at risk for drug and alcohol use, depression and suicide

Student athletes who get enough sleep are far less likely to get injured

estimates that a one-hour change produces the same benefit as shrinking class size by one-third or replacing a teacher in the 50th percentile of effectiveness with one in the 84th percentile

Repeated studies also show that when the school day starts later and teens get more sleep, both grades and standardized test scores go up

the shift as too expensive and disruptive

40% started before 8 a.m

fighting their body clocks so they can get to class on time

“A 30-minute lunch period would enable most students to have a sufficient amount of seated time in cafeterias

the less time kids had to eat, the less likely they were to put fruit on their cafeteria trays

as little as 20 minutes for lunch. Some of that time had to be spent getting to the cafeteria and standing in line when they got there. By the time they finally sat down with their trays, some kids had only 10 minutes to eat.

the more time students had to finish their lunches, the more fruits and vegetables they ate and the more milk they drank

when people are held back by malnutrition, nations as a whole are held back as well

Yet to reach the SDGs, we will need to fuel the brain power that will ultimately drive their success.

How can a child focus on school if his brain isn’t ready to learn and his body can’t fight off infection?

Money does not solve all problems but, in this case, more equitable funding and educational innovation for the middle grades will demonstrate our commitment to ensuring our children get the highest quality education for the entirety of their K-12 careers.

And this focus on either end of education is expanding, as federal and state policy-makers push more funding into early education and higher education, leaving the central role of the middle years behind

Money alone will not solve the problem, but the middle grades fell behind on that score

in key ways, middle school is more important than high school for a child’s future, that “the level of academic achievement that students attain by eighth grade has a larger impact on their college and career readiness by the time they graduate from high school than anything that happens academically in high school.

Heck, a lot of our kids' summers and holiday breaks are already structured around Amateur Athletic Union practices and tournaments.

This stunning finding may be explained because students here are being commended for work that would not be acceptable in high-performing education systems."

The organization estimates that by boosting our scores for reading, math and science by 25 points over the next 20 years, the United States would gain $41 trillion over the lifetime of the generation born in 2010

It's so bad in some schools, educators have a nickname for them: dropout factories.

As a nation, either our kids are getting dumber or everyone else's are getting smarter

Our fancy colleges are getting more expensive rather than getting bigger or better.

America has traditionally been the best educated country in the world

earlier initiatives in America's history were refreshingly progressive, timely, and economically beneficial

educational attainment is increasing slower than it used to

Physical activity can improve blood flow to the brain, fueling memory, attention and creativity, which are essential to learning

some administrators believe students need to spend more time in the classroom instead of on the playground

students need about one hour of physical activity every day to remain healthy

the more children moved, the better their grades were in school, particularly in the basic subjects of math, English and reading

hildren who get more exercise, whether at school or on their own, tend to have higher GPAs and better scores on standardized tests

Where you get your break -- from an hour on blogs, a day in the park, or a week golfing at Martha's Vineyard -- doesn't matter so much as that you get it

Most people have better life perspective and are more motivated to achieve their goals after a vacation, even if it is a 24-hour time-out

Just as small breaks improve concentration, long breaks replenish job performanc

short breaks allow people to maintain their focus on a task without the loss of quality that normally occurs over time

Study after study indicates that short bursts of attention punctuated with equally deliberate breaks are the surest way to harness our full capacity to be productive

Overtime binges lead to bursts of output that exert a hangover effect in later days

productivity returns diminished steadily after his workers toiled eight hours a day, five days a week

traditional summer-school programs—which generally provide more of the same from the traditional school year—have been disappointing, leading to few academic gains for students

Rather than lengthening the school day, which exhausts young children and deprives older children of the opportunity to engage in extracurricular activities and sports

The myth that American students spend less time learning than students in other industrialized nations is not true

It is also clear from studies that increasing school time is very expensive and there is little return in achievement

The days, the years, can feel fearsomely long—to teachers and students both.  Nobody's learning enough to justify all those hours.

two weeks every season. This will diminish the frequency and extent of summer learning loss, reduce the need to review at the start of the school year for certain subjects, and provide more time and opportunities to go into more depth in the curriculum

this has to happen for the health of kids

Getting school systems to change takes more than just presenting scientific evidence

later start times will hurt high-school sports.

parents are often reluctant to have teens start later, whether because they rely on having older children at home in the afternoons to take care of younger siblings or because they’re concerned that it will interfere with extracurricular opportunities

In some districts, the start times are largely dictated by local transportation companies, with school boards and superintendents contending they lack the funds or authority to change things

It’s typically more difficult for adolescents to fall asleep earlier in the evening than it is for other age demographics. And while teenagers are going to bed later, their school start times are often becoming earlier as they advance through middle and high school

shifting the school day later in the morning resulted in a boost in attendance, test scores, and grades in math, English, science, and social studies. Schools also saw a decrease in tardiness, substance abuse, and symptoms of depression. Some even had a dramatic drop in teen car crashes.

And while later start times won’t replace other important interventions—like parents making sure their children get enough rest—schools clearly play an important role in students’ daily schedules, the report concluded.

federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging education policymakers to start middle- and high-school classes later in the morning. The idea is to improve the odds of adolescents getting sufficient sleep so they can thrive both physically and academically

Fifteen percent of the American score variation is explained by socio-economic differences between students.

Educators around the world have called for tempered reactions to the PISA scores and questioned the usefulness of the tests

The U.S. ranks fifth in spending per student

This year, the U.S. scores below average in math and ranks 17th among the 34 OECD countries.

er learning programs, 83 percent of parents supported spending public funds on such programs and 67 percent of low-income parents said their children would enroll in a summer program if they could

Pittsburgh is offering full-day summer programs framed as “camp” for all their elementary and middle school students that incorporate academics along with enrichment activities like judo and rowing

good summer programs with individualized instruction, parental involvement and small classes can keep children from falling behind and reduce the achievement gap.

two-thirds of the achievement gap between lower- and higher-income ninth graders could be explained by summer learning loss during the elementary school years.

More troubling is that it disproportionately affects low-income students: they lose two months of reading skills, while their higher-income peers — whose parents can send them to enriching camps, take them on educational vacations and surround them with books during the summer — make slight gains

Give more kids a chance to run free. It may not be “expanded learning time.” It can expand you just the same.

When school ended two weeks ago, I noticed my kids seemed almost instantly healthier and more engaged with what was going on around them. Less weary.

19th century was a belief that “too much schooling impaired a child’s and a teacher’s health.”

Kids who are struggling also deserve tutors, and after-school or year-round help (it is a local embarrassment that Seattle cut its summer catch-up classes this year).

How about kids will go to school six, seven days a week when Congress agrees to work more than four.

At least 300 hours more schooling each year (currently there are about 1,100 hours). It could come in much longer days. Six-day weeks. Or year-round schooling — meaning the end of summer vacation.

Then, with one copy of the DNA in each half of the cell, the cell's membrane would pinch itself in the middle and split apart, making two new cells, each pretty much the same as the old cell (except if copying mistakes had happened during the copying of the DNA).

Sometime around four billion or 3.5 billion years ago, lipid membranes and RNA or DNA got together to form the earliest living cells on Earth. Nobody understands exactly how this happened.

Instead, they investigate the mechanisms of evolution, how rapidly evolution can take place, and related questions.

In science, a "fact" typically refers to an observation, measurement, or other form of evidence that can be expected to occur the same way under similar circumstances

subject to continuing refinement

Like these other foundational scientific theories, the theory of evolution is supported by so many observations and confirming experiments that scientists are confident that the basic components of the theory will not be overturned by new evidence

formal scientific definition of theory is quite different from the everyday meaning of the word. It refers to a comprehensive explanation of some aspect of nature that is supported by a vast body of evidence.

Whereas a non-edited view of the self (i.e., mirror) islikely to decrease self-esteem, these findings suggest that theextra care involved in digital self-presentations may actuallyimprove self-esteem

The negative effects of objective self-awareness onself-esteem originated from work in the early 1970s.9,13–15Social-networking sites, a product of the 21st century, pro-vide new access to the self as an object

By allowing people to present preferredor positive information about the self, Facebook is a uniquesource of self-awareness stimuli in that it enhances awarenessof the optimal self

Thestudy suggests that selective self-presentation, afforded bydigitally mediated environments can have a positive influ-ence on self-esteem

Northeastern university

because most peopleoften fall short of social standards when self-awareness isheightened, positive affect and self-esteem typically de-crease when people are exposed to objective self-awarenessstimuli

becauseself-stimuli are most likely to be on one’s own profilepage, we would expect that participants who only view theirown profile page would report higher self-esteem than par-ticipants who view other profiles within Facebook

Evidence of selective self-presentation is found in a variety ofInternet spaces, including e-mails,19discussion boards,20andonline dating Web sites

Furthermore, research in computer-mediatedcommunication has found that information online is oftenover-interpreted relative to the same information providedoffline,17leading to exaggerated or stereotyped impres-sions.

This information could make people aware of their own lim-itations and shortcomings, which would lower self-esteem

Thus, although individuals with low self-esteem may view SNSs as a useful way to feel connected to others, supporting the social compensation hypothesis (McKenna, Green, & Gleason, 2002), those with poor social skills may be at risk for opening themselves up to harmful feedback from others.

With adolescents likely to post interesting, upbeat, and attention-grabbing details of their lives, online comparisons may be harsher than warranted

Adolescents are particularly likely to engage in social comparison, be it upward or downward, and these types of comparisons can have a strong impact on their self-esteem

With adolescents controlling what information and photographs they wish to share to a broad audience through SNS profiles, there is considerable speculation that some adolescents may post misinformation or at least idealized versions of themselves.

Dutch adolescents who frequently received negative feedback from their SNS profiles also reported lower social self-esteem

Facebook users with low, compared to high, self-esteem posted status updates that were rated as lower in positivity and higher in negativity by trained undergraduate coders

in support of the social compensation hypothesis, an interaction effect revealed that those with low self-esteem and low life satisfaction particularly benefitted from Facebook use in terms of more emotional suppor

In a study of younger participants, Reich and colleagues (2012) reported that 43% of their high school student participants believed that SNS use made them feel closer to their friends

A factor analysis indicated “Facebook connectedness” as a distinct construct from general connectedness that was uniquely related to general well-being and negatively related to depression and anxiety

Considerable attention has been directed to the negative side of SNSs, namely online bullying, harassment, and humiliation, which have been extensively detailed in other reviews

SNSs potentially offer additional avenues for support and communication—crucial to the development of age-appropriate adolescent relationships

The sheer amount of time that adolescents and young adults spend using electronic media is perhaps the most revealing: on average, 11–18 year-olds spend over 11 hours per day exposed to electronic media

quite similar to more traditional forms of communication—to stay in touch with friends, make plans, get to know people better, and present oneself to others

exhibited significantly greater body dissatisfaction, weight-related thoughts, weight-regulatory thoughts, levels of depression, and dejection- and agitation-related mood, as well as lower appearance-related and total self-esteem

M= 18.68, SD= 2.16, median age = 18

Self-awareness research (e.g., Duval & Wicklund, 1972) suggests that self-relevance increases the likelihood for social comparison

Social comparison theory states that we seek to compare ourselves to others we believe are similar to ourselves, particularly to determine our own levels of abilities and successes

However, other research has shown either no relationship between media exposure and negative effects (e.g., Champion & Furnham, 1999) or inconsistent results (e.g., Cash, Cash, & Butters, 1983; Irving, 1990)

Two lines of evidence suggest a possible geneticpredisposition for SAD.

Eachof these experiences has the potential to set in motionnegative feedback loops involving anxiety, avoidancebehaviors, and potential deficits in social competence.

Adolescence is widely agreed to be a crit-ical developmental stage of identity formation andsocial skill development, in which concerns aboutpeer acceptance and body image become paramoun

many parents simply see their childrenas “shy” and do not realize that they suffer from a po-tentially treatable anxiety disorder

Recent research suggests that SAD is quite com-mon among adolescents, with lifetime prevalencerates of between 5 to 15% of adolescents in the UnitedStates

In contrast to most otheranxiety and mood disorders, there is considerable ev-idence that the onset of SAD occurs at a relativelyearly age, with a mean onset of 15.5 years (Schneieret al., 1992), and children diagnosed as young as age8 (Beidel & Turner, 1988)

Social anxiety disorder (SAD), also known associal phobia, is a common anxiety disorder charac-terized by intense fear of embarrassment, humilia-tion, and negative evaluation by others in social situ-ations, and a tendency to avoid feared situations

As shown, 62.4% of parents reported that their adolescents were shy, whereas a more-moderate 46.7% of adolescents thought that they were shy. In contrast, only 8.6% of adolescents met DSM-IV criteria for social phobia at some point in their lifetime

Lifetime disorders assessed include social phobia and other anxiety disorders (separation anxiety disorder, specific phobia, agoraphobia, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder), mood disorders (major depressive disorder and dysthymic disorder)

Those within the scientific community, however, contend that social phobia and shyness are not synonymous; rather, investigators have maintained that social phobia is a persistent, disabling, psychiatric condition

Only 12% of the youth who identified themselves as shy also met the criteria for lifetime social phobia

continuous partial attention

keeping up.

getting cut off

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