Friendships that bridge across social class – “cross-class friendships” – can minimize middle school academic achievement differences that are based on the level of parents’ education, according to research from the UCLA School Diversity Project. As scholars of adolescent development, we examined academic achievement differences among 4,288 middle school students in California based on their parents’ education level. […] … learn more→

We are witnessing the emergence of a new generation of disinformation that is upsetting our benchmarks. Indeed, concern over the growing popularity of deepfakes , or malicious hyper-trick, has led author and synthetic media consultant, Nina Schick, to announce an imminent infocalypse . Hyperchip are audio and video recordings of real people speaking and performing things they have never said […] … learn more→

As many schools in the U.S. figure out how to safely and fully resume in-person instruction, much of the focus is on vaccinations. But there’s another type of “vaccine” that may be beneficial for some returning K-12 students that could be overlooked. Those are known as “behavioral vaccines.” Behavioral vaccines are not some sort of serum to […] … learn more→

The deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January exposed the power of social media to influence real-world behavior and incite violence. But many adolescents, who spend more time on social media than all other age groups, have known this for years. “On social media, when you argue, something so small can turn into something so big so fast,” said Justin, […] … learn more→

Gun control is back in the U.S. political debate, in the wake of mass shootings in California, Boulder and Atlanta. Democrats see stricter gun control as a step toward addressing the problem. In March 2021, as the House of Representatives passed two gun control bills, Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that the “solutions will save lives.” […] … learn more→

Search engines are one of society’s primary gateways to information and people, but they are also conduits for misinformation. Similar to problematic social media algorithms, search engines learn to serve you what you and others have clicked on before. Because people are drawn to the sensational, this dance between algorithms and human nature can foster the […] … learn more→

Recent allegations of sexual misconduct at parties involving private-school students have exposed the toxic culture in many schools. The ex-schoolgirl who launched the online petition that led to the revelations, Chanel Contos, told the ABC schools needed to address: locker room talk […] and throw-away comments because I really think they lay the foundation of the rape culture. Contos […] … learn more→

Australian university leaders are nearly three times more likely to be a man than a woman. Of 37 public university chancellors, just 10 are women (27%) and 27 (73%) are men. It’s exactly the same for vice-chancellors: 10 are women and 27 are men. Together, this means men hold 54 of the 74 top jobs […] … learn more→

After a high school cheerleader in Pennsylvania dropped a series of F-bombs about her school in a Snapchat post over a weekend in the spring of 2017, she was suspended from the cheerleading team and sued the school district, claiming the suspension violated her First Amendment rights. Social media has an ever-growing presence in students’ daily lives. As a […] … learn more→

A recent petition circulated by Sydney school girl Chanel Contos called for schools to provide better education on consent, and to do so much earlier. In the petition, which since Thursday has been signed by more than 5,000 people, Contos writes that her school … provided me with life changing education on consent for the first time in […] … learn more→