Articles

Each month, EDC posts several new feature articles. This page provides an archive of past articles, including reports of emerging research and profiles of new EDC publications and Web sites.

Reading the Signs

With school shootings, prescription drug abuse, childhood depression, and other signs of youth distress making headlines, schools are grappling with mental health issues in ways they never have before. As director of the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention at EDC, Deborah Haber helps districts across the country develop effective health programs and policies.
Transatlantic Lessons

Changes in a student’s routine, such as the journey from primary to secondary school, can be rocky. For students with disabilities and for English language learners, these transitions can mean the difference between success and failure. This was just one topic discussed during a recent study tour at EDC involving education policymakers and practitioners from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Beyond Bedside Manner

During times of illness, patients and families count on open and caring communication with their doctors. Two EDC programs explore ways to open those lines of communication.
The Rewards of Listening

From a very early age, children learn about language by listening to adults, and seeing and hearing them read books and newspapers. These first experiences with literacy help prepare youngsters to become readers. But how can parents who themselves have low-literacy skills support their children’s early reading efforts?
Changing the Rules of the Game

A staggering number of children are involved in bullying. The EDC project ‘Eyes on Bullying’ helps adults develop new knowledge, skills, and strategies to prevent and address the issue.
Building Bridges

“If anyone can bridge the gaps between Americans and Palestinians, it’s us: youth leaders.” These words, delivered by Ruwwad Youth Ambassador Suad Soboh in Boston, were a strong, fitting conclusion to a momentous trip for six Ruwwad youth.
How Science Teachers Stay Up to Date

Staying informed about rapidly changing fields like genetics and evolution can be challenging for today’s science teachers, and many are turning to online programs to help them keep pace. But even as the number of online professional development programs is growing, very little is known about their effectiveness.
Smoking in Economically Distressed Communities

A new study by researchers at EDC’s Center for Research on High Risk Behaviors offers insights into factors that may promote smoking prevention and cessation among young women in economically distressed communities.
EDC South Africa Project Featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show

An EDC project that creates health education materials to combat HIV in a beleaguered region of South Africa is receiving attention on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Improving the Health of American Indian Youth

The director of EDC’s Tribal Youth Program speaks about our work with reservation and urban American Indian communities
Just Back: Pam Buffington

EDC’s Pam Buffington works in Gardiner, Maine, a small town at the head of the Kennebec River. As state liaison for the Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory, a federally funded research center at EDC, she advises Maine decision-makers on education policy. She has years of classroom experience, most recently working with teachers to integrate technology into their classrooms. Buffington spoke to us about her work supporting elementary school teachers in Maine School Administration District #11.
Putting Youth in the Picture

Young people from 85 countries submitted more than 1,500 photos to “Shoot Nations 2007,” a global competition to encourage youth to express themselves through photography and drawing. The winning photos included one taken by a team of students gathered by EDC in the Philippines, a group dubbed “power users” for their intensive long-term use of information and communication technologies.
Think Outside the Book

Kids soak up information like sponges. As a result, they are often the targets of savvy marketing strategies that barrage them with a constant stream of programming and advertising, both on TV and online. A new study is evaluating whether these multimedia approaches can be used to deliver positive content and messages about reading and literacy.
Tuning in to Teaching with iPods

In Zambia, a select group of teachers are using iPods to enhance professional training in such critical areas as mathematics, science, and English.
Lessons Learned, Lessons Shared

From 2001 through 2007, 25 projects and 18 pilot programs have improved education systems in 30 countries around the world. Known collectively as “dot-EDU,” this EDC-led global initiative focused on applying digital and broadcast technologies in ways that improved quality, expanded access, and enhanced equity.
Sparking an Interest in Science

As part of the ITEST program’s paleontology project, students discover a T. rex rib near Fort Peck, Montana.

With NSF funding, EDC will work with middle school girls from across the country as they develop a series of 10–12 five-minute videos that investigate what it means to be a scientist or engineer.
Math Instruction Adds Up

In New York City, EDC is providing professional development to educators to improve mathematics instruction for English-language learners (ELLs) in middle schools.
Nurturing a New Generation

Hisham Jabi directs Ruwwad, EDC’s youth corps for Palestinians ages 14–30. Although he is now steeped in the world of youth development, Jabi hasn’t forgotten what he learned during his years working in the private sector.
Healing the Body, Healing the Mind

As military personnel return from Iraq and Afghanistan, health care professionals are providing treatment not only for their physical injuries but also for psychological trauma. Employing face-to-face training and video and Web-based materials, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), working with EDC, has trained 900 clinicians to use Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), an intensive immersion method for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Home Away from Home

Colleges and universities nationwide are working continually to keep safe the nearly 16 million students who live and learn on their campuses. Events such as the shooting tragedy at Virginia Tech and the renewed debate about lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 have made the discussions about campus health and safety issues more urgent than ever.
Food for Thought

A new EDC curriculum, Getting Active and Eating Well, combines reading and health to arm middle-grades students with knowledge about eating right and getting exercise.
Health Video Premiers in Laos

In a remote mountain village in Northern Laos, a crowd of 150 people gathers one evening. Many have traveled by foot from neighboring villages, eager to watch a new video drama featuring local Akha people. The topic this evening is sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Diversity in Preschool

As the Latino population in the United States grows, so does a large achievement gap. An EDC-designed professional development program is helping preschools offer an enriched program that is interactive and culturally and linguistically responsive.
No Ordinary Walk in the Park

When is a walk in the park so much more than that? When the walk involves real-world learning about science and nature.
Latino Network Expands

EDC’s PALMS (Postsecondary Access for Latino Middle-Grades Students) project has selected seven middle schools in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, and Nevada to join the project’s Outreach Leaders Network.
Communities Build Hope

In the last decade, the number of American Indian and Native Alaskan children has doubled, with 34 percent of the total population now under the age of 18. This boom brings hope as well as challenges to tribal communities, where rates of youth delinquency, dropout, alcoholism, and violence are among the highest in the United States.
On a Wavelength

Across Madagascar, primary school classrooms once dominated by teacher talk are now buzzing with the sounds of children learning in groups, singing songs, asking
questions, and sharing answers.

Where children once learned mathematics through recitation and rote memorization, they now sit together and count with twigs or bottle caps. French and literacy lessons are transformed as well, with children building vocabulary skills by reciting poems and creating their own sentences to share with classmates.
Teacher Training at the Grassroots

Lalao Evangeline is curriculum coordinator for the Toamasina II school district in Madagascar. This year she and a group of colleagues joined coordinators from five other districts in an effort to remake teacher training in their country.
Songs of Hope

People are singing new songs in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Heard first on the radio and echoed in schoolyards, fields and markets, these songs indicate renewed hope and interest in education for a region that has been severely affected by years of war and instability.
EDC works with middle school girls to promote interest in science and engineering

By the time they reach middle school, some girls have become discouraged about pursuing their interests in science and engineering, falling prey to stereotypes that these fields are not for them. EDC has turned to a special group of experts in a new effort to encourage middle school girls to pursue their interests in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (commonly referred to as STEM). The experts? Other middle school girls.