New publications

'Australian school children rank among the worst in the world for overall physical activity levels, narrowly avoiding a FAIL in a new national report card released today. Supported by the National Heart Foundation of Australia, and Exercise and Sports Science Australia, the inaugural Active Healthy Kids Australia Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth has found 80% of 5–17 year olds are not meeting the Australian physical activity guidelines of at least 60 minutes of exercise each day. Using an international ranking tool developed in Canada, Australia's Report Card will today be measured against 14 other countries around the world.' From media release 21 May 2014.

'For the past eleven years, Project Tomorrow’s® annual Speak Up National Research Project has provided schools and districts nationwide and throughout the globe with new insights into how today’s students want to leverage digital tools for learning based upon the authentic, unfiltered ideas of students themselves. With this year’s national report on the views of 325,279 K-12 students representing over 9,000 schools and 2,700 districts nationwide, we focus on getting beyond the anecdotally- driven stereotypes of student technology use to establish a more comprehensive understanding of the myriad of different ways that students are currently personalizing learning using technology.' From publisher's description page, from which the full report may be downloaded.

'Women now outperform men academically at all levels of school, and are more likely to obtain college degrees and enroll in graduate school. What accounts for this enormous reversal in the gender education gap? In The Rise of Women: The Growing Gender Gap in Education and What It Means for American Schools, Thomas DiPrete and Claudia Buchmann provide a detailed and accessible account of women's educational advantage and suggest new strategies to improve schooling outcomes for both boys and girls.' From publisher's description. See also review in the Education Review 3 June 2014.

The report is one of seven published by the Australian Library and Information Association, examining trends in different sections of the profession. Themes in the report include the role and impact of school libraries and teacher librarians, the differences in library provision between government and non-government schools, the role and impact of digital resources, and the role of parents in advocating for school libaries. The full report is available online.

This report looks at the outcomes for young people who complete a qualification in the New Zealand tertiary education system. It looks at differences in incomes for different types of qualifications. The full report is available online.