Group items tagged

This article deals with substance use among high school students. This sample is used to foreshadow the future college environment. The study shows that alcohol is the most substance consumed by adolescents. Moreover, it explains that white people tend to be heavier drinker compared to others. It also describes the negative effects drinkers believe alcohol has on their school work, family and peer relationships. Although this study deals with high school students, but the latter will soon constitute the new college generation. Therefore, this article helps us understand the drinking background of college students.

A partnership between the software giant and the Philadelphia School District is an innovative solution to an urban crisis. But can public education survive private management?

This article describes the results of the Federal Reserve Financial Literacy Test on high school seniors. It explains that the results of the most recent test are the worst in the history of the test. The article does a great job linking the poor results with the current mortgage crisis, and expresses the importance of financial literacy in consumers today. The article is very useful in providing concrete data on the state of our country's financial literacy.

In this article, Pickard and Reichelt discuss the alternative to Financial Literacy classes in high school, online courses for students and adults on personal finance. This study offers that online courses are very useful tool in gaining financial literacy. The article discusses the state of our financial literacy in the context of family finances. Pickard and Reichelt also give valuable statistics on financial literacy in regard to important demographics such as race and income level. The authors connect the issues with personal finance with the macroeconomic issues, which is very helpful for the reader.

Paula Bone discusses the relationship between several aspects of the mortgage process. She discusses that the more well informed the consumer is, the more likely he/she will have a better relationship with the mortgage company, and become more satisfied with their purchase. Also, she discusses the other side of the transaction. The more likely a mortgage company is to engage in immoral practices, the more dissatisfied the consumer will be with their loan. This is an interesting way to look at the mortgage crisis. It correlates to my point of the need for financial literacy in high schools. If people were more cognizant about their mortgages, they would be more likely to catch a mistake and be happier with their loans.

This article compares between second-hand effects encountered by people living next to colleges with high levels of binge drinking, and others living next to schools with low levels of binge drinking. It explains that binge drinkers also affect non-binge drinkers and their neighbors. The study is completed using a telephone survey. It shows that as the number of alcohol outlets increases, binge drinking also increases. This also increases the second-hand effects encountered by people living next to colleges. Lastly, it suggests that decreasing the density of alcohol outlets would decrease the consumption of alcohol among college students. This article clearly portrays the second-hand effects of alcohol use. However, it is a limited study since it relies on a telephone survey.

This blog, published by Stephen Dubner, talks about financial literacy among high school students, and the problems in a dangerously low financial literacy level. He also helps diagnose financial literacy by offering a series of questions to test the reader's own financial literacy. It is a very useful article to use not only in studying the financial literacy of America, but also to diagnose yourself on your own financial literacy. The comments posted on the blog are also very informative of the reactions to the freakonomics blog.

An article about how high school students, most too young to vote, are getting involved in the political process.

Traditional calculations of graduation rates ignore students who succeed in graduating but don't do it in four years.

Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Hours" and other works, was artist-in-residence recently at the University of Maryland at College Park. This is part of a conversation he had with reporter Valerie Strauss about young people and literature.

First in an occasional series exploring variations in how popular courses are taught.