high school article review

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• Critical Reviews

How to Write an Article Review (With Examples)

Last Updated: April 24, 2024 Fact Checked

Preparing to Write Your Review

Writing the article review, sample article reviews, expert q&a.

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 3,100,459 times.

An article review is both a summary and an evaluation of another writer's article. Teachers often assign article reviews to introduce students to the work of experts in the field. Experts also are often asked to review the work of other professionals. Understanding the main points and arguments of the article is essential for an accurate summation. Logical evaluation of the article's main theme, supporting arguments, and implications for further research is an important element of a review . Here are a few guidelines for writing an article review.

Education specialist Alexander Peterman recommends: "In the case of a review, your objective should be to reflect on the effectiveness of what has already been written, rather than writing to inform your audience about a subject."

Article Review 101

• Read the article very closely, and then take time to reflect on your evaluation. Consider whether the article effectively achieves what it set out to.
• Write out a full article review by completing your intro, summary, evaluation, and conclusion. Don't forget to add a title, too!
• Proofread your review for mistakes (like grammar and usage), while also cutting down on needless information.

• Article reviews present more than just an opinion. You will engage with the text to create a response to the scholarly writer's ideas. You will respond to and use ideas, theories, and research from your studies. Your critique of the article will be based on proof and your own thoughtful reasoning.
• An article review only responds to the author's research. It typically does not provide any new research. However, if you are correcting misleading or otherwise incorrect points, some new data may be presented.
• An article review both summarizes and evaluates the article.

• Summarize the article. Focus on the important points, claims, and information.
• Discuss the positive aspects of the article. Think about what the author does well, good points she makes, and insightful observations.
• Identify contradictions, gaps, and inconsistencies in the text. Determine if there is enough data or research included to support the author's claims. Find any unanswered questions left in the article.

• Make note of words or issues you don't understand and questions you have.
• Look up terms or concepts you are unfamiliar with, so you can fully understand the article. Read about concepts in-depth to make sure you understand their full context.

• Pay careful attention to the meaning of the article. Make sure you fully understand the article. The only way to write a good article review is to understand the article.

• With either method, make an outline of the main points made in the article and the supporting research or arguments. It is strictly a restatement of the main points of the article and does not include your opinions.
• After putting the article in your own words, decide which parts of the article you want to discuss in your review. You can focus on the theoretical approach, the content, the presentation or interpretation of evidence, or the style. You will always discuss the main issues of the article, but you can sometimes also focus on certain aspects. This comes in handy if you want to focus the review towards the content of a course.
• Review the summary outline to eliminate unnecessary items. Erase or cross out the less important arguments or supplemental information. Your revised summary can serve as the basis for the summary you provide at the beginning of your review.

• What does the article set out to do?
• What is the theoretical framework or assumptions?
• Are the central concepts clearly defined?
• How adequate is the evidence?
• How does the article fit into the literature and field?
• Does it advance the knowledge of the subject?
• How clear is the author's writing? Don't: include superficial opinions or your personal reaction. Do: pay attention to your biases, so you can overcome them.

• For example, in MLA , a citation may look like: Duvall, John N. "The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated Mediation in DeLillo's White Noise ." Arizona Quarterly 50.3 (1994): 127-53. Print. [9] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source

• For example: The article, "Condom use will increase the spread of AIDS," was written by Anthony Zimmerman, a Catholic priest.

• Your introduction should only be 10-25% of your review.
• End the introduction with your thesis. Your thesis should address the above issues. For example: Although the author has some good points, his article is biased and contains some misinterpretation of data from others’ analysis of the effectiveness of the condom.

• Use direct quotes from the author sparingly.
• Review the summary you have written. Read over your summary many times to ensure that your words are an accurate description of the author's article.

• Support your critique with evidence from the article or other texts.
• The summary portion is very important for your critique. You must make the author's argument clear in the summary section for your evaluation to make sense.
• Remember, this is not where you say if you liked the article or not. You are assessing the significance and relevance of the article.
• Use a topic sentence and supportive arguments for each opinion. For example, you might address a particular strength in the first sentence of the opinion section, followed by several sentences elaborating on the significance of the point.

• This should only be about 10% of your overall essay.
• For example: This critical review has evaluated the article "Condom use will increase the spread of AIDS" by Anthony Zimmerman. The arguments in the article show the presence of bias, prejudice, argumentative writing without supporting details, and misinformation. These points weaken the author’s arguments and reduce his credibility.

• Make sure you have identified and discussed the 3-4 key issues in the article.

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://libguides.cmich.edu/writinghelp/articlereview
• ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4548566/
• ↑ Jake Adams. Academic Tutor & Test Prep Specialist. Expert Interview. 24 July 2020.
• ↑ https://guides.library.queensu.ca/introduction-research/writing/critical
• ↑ https://www.iup.edu/writingcenter/writing-resources/organization-and-structure/creating-an-outline.html
• ↑ https://writing.umn.edu/sws/assets/pdf/quicktips/titles.pdf
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_periodicals.html
• ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4548565/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/593/2014/06/How_to_Summarize_a_Research_Article1.pdf
• ↑ https://www.uis.edu/learning-hub/writing-resources/handouts/learning-hub/how-to-review-a-journal-article
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/editing-and-proofreading/

About This Article

If you have to write an article review, read through the original article closely, taking notes and highlighting important sections as you read. Next, rewrite the article in your own words, either in a long paragraph or as an outline. Open your article review by citing the article, then write an introduction which states the article’s thesis. Next, summarize the article, followed by your opinion about whether the article was clear, thorough, and useful. Finish with a paragraph that summarizes the main points of the article and your opinions. To learn more about what to include in your personal critique of the article, keep reading the article! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to Write an Article Review: Tips and Examples

Did you know that article reviews are not just academic exercises but also a valuable skill in today's information age? In a world inundated with content, being able to dissect and evaluate articles critically can help you separate the wheat from the chaff. Whether you're a student aiming to excel in your coursework or a professional looking to stay well-informed, mastering the art of writing article reviews is an invaluable skill.

Short Description

In this article, our research paper writing service experts will start by unraveling the concept of article reviews and discussing the various types. You'll also gain insights into the art of formatting your review effectively. To ensure you're well-prepared, we'll take you through the pre-writing process, offering tips on setting the stage for your review. But it doesn't stop there. You'll find a practical example of an article review to help you grasp the concepts in action. To complete your journey, we'll guide you through the post-writing process, equipping you with essential proofreading techniques to ensure your work shines with clarity and precision!

What Is an Article Review: Grasping the Concept 

A review article is a type of professional paper writing that demands a high level of in-depth analysis and a well-structured presentation of arguments. It is a critical, constructive evaluation of literature in a particular field through summary, classification, analysis, and comparison.

If you write a scientific review, you have to use database searches to portray the research. Your primary goal is to summarize everything and present a clear understanding of the topic you've been working on.

Writing Involves:

• Summarization, classification, analysis, critiques, and comparison.
• The analysis, evaluation, and comparison require the use of theories, ideas, and research relevant to the subject area of the article.
• It is also worth nothing if a review does not introduce new information, but instead presents a response to another writer's work.
• Check out other samples to gain a better understanding of how to review the article.

Types of Review

When it comes to article reviews, there's more than one way to approach the task. Understanding the various types of reviews is like having a versatile toolkit at your disposal. In this section, we'll walk you through the different dimensions of review types, each offering a unique perspective and purpose. Whether you're dissecting a scholarly article, critiquing a piece of literature, or evaluating a product, you'll discover the diverse landscape of article reviews and how to navigate it effectively.

Journal Article Review

Just like other types of reviews, a journal article review assesses the merits and shortcomings of a published work. To illustrate, consider a review of an academic paper on climate change, where the writer meticulously analyzes and interprets the article's significance within the context of environmental science.

Research Article Review

Distinguished by its focus on research methodologies, a research article review scrutinizes the techniques used in a study and evaluates them in light of the subsequent analysis and critique. For instance, when reviewing a research article on the effects of a new drug, the reviewer would delve into the methods employed to gather data and assess their reliability.

Science Article Review

In the realm of scientific literature, a science article review encompasses a wide array of subjects. Scientific publications often provide extensive background information, which can be instrumental in conducting a comprehensive analysis. For example, when reviewing an article about the latest breakthroughs in genetics, the reviewer may draw upon the background knowledge provided to facilitate a more in-depth evaluation of the publication.

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Formatting an Article Review

The format of the article should always adhere to the citation style required by your professor. If you're not sure, seek clarification on the preferred format and ask him to clarify several other pointers to complete the formatting of an article review adequately.

How Many Publications Should You Review?

• In what format should you cite your articles (MLA, APA, ASA, Chicago, etc.)?
• What length should your review be?
• Should you include a summary, critique, or personal opinion in your assignment?
• Do you need to call attention to a theme or central idea within the articles?
• Does your instructor require background information?

When you know the answers to these questions, you may start writing your assignment. Below are examples of MLA and APA formats, as those are the two most common citation styles.

Using the APA Format

Articles appear most commonly in academic journals, newspapers, and websites. If you write an article review in the APA format, you will need to write bibliographical entries for the sources you use:

• Web : Author [last name], A.A [first and middle initial]. (Year, Month, Date of Publication). Title. Retrieved from {link}
• Journal : Author [last name], A.A [first and middle initial]. (Publication Year). Publication Title. Periodical Title, Volume(Issue), pp.-pp.
• Newspaper : Author [last name], A.A [first and middle initial]. (Year, Month, Date of Publication). Publication Title. Magazine Title, pp. xx-xx.

Using MLA Format

• Web : Last, First Middle Initial. “Publication Title.” Website Title. Website Publisher, Date Month Year Published. Web. Date Month Year Accessed.
• Newspaper : Last, First M. “Publication Title.” Newspaper Title [City] Date, Month, Year Published: Page(s). Print.
• Journal : Last, First M. “Publication Title.” Journal Title Series Volume. Issue (Year Published): Page(s). Database Name. Web. Date Month Year Accessed.

Enhance your writing effortlessly with EssayPro.com , where you can order an article review or any other writing task. Our team of expert writers specializes in various fields, ensuring your work is not just summarized, but deeply analyzed and professionally presented. Ideal for students and professionals alike, EssayPro offers top-notch writing assistance tailored to your needs. Elevate your writing today with our skilled team at your article review writing service !

The Pre-Writing Process

Facing this task for the first time can really get confusing and can leave you unsure of where to begin. To create a top-notch article review, start with a few preparatory steps. Here are the two main stages from our dissertation services to get you started:

Step 1: Define the right organization for your review. Knowing the future setup of your paper will help you define how you should read the article. Here are the steps to follow:

• Summarize the article — seek out the main points, ideas, claims, and general information presented in the article.
• Define the positive points — identify the strong aspects, ideas, and insightful observations the author has made.
• Find the gaps —- determine whether or not the author has any contradictions, gaps, or inconsistencies in the article and evaluate whether or not he or she used a sufficient amount of arguments and information to support his or her ideas.
• Identify unanswered questions — finally, identify if there are any questions left unanswered after reading the piece.

Step 2: Move on and review the article. Here is a small and simple guide to help you do it right:

• Start off by looking at and assessing the title of the piece, its abstract, introductory part, headings and subheadings, opening sentences in its paragraphs, and its conclusion.
• First, read only the beginning and the ending of the piece (introduction and conclusion). These are the parts where authors include all of their key arguments and points. Therefore, if you start with reading these parts, it will give you a good sense of the author's main points.
• Finally, read the article fully.

These three steps make up most of the prewriting process. After you are done with them, you can move on to writing your own review—and we are going to guide you through the writing process as well.

Outline and Template

As you progress with reading your article, organize your thoughts into coherent sections in an outline. As you read, jot down important facts, contributions, or contradictions. Identify the shortcomings and strengths of your publication. Begin to map your outline accordingly.

If your professor does not want a summary section or a personal critique section, then you must alleviate those parts from your writing. Much like other assignments, an article review must contain an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Thus, you might consider dividing your outline according to these sections as well as subheadings within the body. If you find yourself troubled with the pre-writing and the brainstorming process for this assignment, seek out a sample outline.

Your custom essay must contain these constituent parts:

• Pre-Title Page - Before diving into your review, start with essential details: article type, publication title, and author names with affiliations (position, department, institution, location, and email). Include corresponding author info if needed.
• Running Head - In APA format, use a concise title (under 40 characters) to ensure consistent formatting.
• Summary Page - Optional but useful. Summarize the article in 800 words, covering background, purpose, results, and methodology, avoiding verbatim text or references.
• Title Page - Include the full title, a 250-word abstract, and 4-6 keywords for discoverability.
• Introduction - Set the stage with an engaging overview of the article.
• Body - Organize your analysis with headings and subheadings.
• Works Cited/References - Properly cite all sources used in your review.
• Optional Suggested Reading Page - If permitted, suggest further readings for in-depth exploration.
• Tables and Figure Legends (if instructed by the professor) - Include visuals when requested by your professor for clarity.

Example of an Article Review

You might wonder why we've dedicated a section of this article to discuss an article review sample. Not everyone may realize it, but examining multiple well-constructed examples of review articles is a crucial step in the writing process. In the following section, our essay writing service experts will explain why.

Looking through relevant article review examples can be beneficial for you in the following ways:

• To get you introduced to the key works of experts in your field.
• To help you identify the key people engaged in a particular field of science.
• To help you define what significant discoveries and advances were made in your field.
• To help you unveil the major gaps within the existing knowledge of your field—which contributes to finding fresh solutions.
• To help you find solid references and arguments for your own review.
• To help you generate some ideas about any further field of research.
• To help you gain a better understanding of the area and become an expert in this specific field.
• To get a clear idea of how to write a good review.

View Our Writer’s Sample Before Crafting Your Own!

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Steps for Writing an Article Review

Here is a guide with critique paper format on how to write a review paper:

Step 1: Write the Title

First of all, you need to write a title that reflects the main focus of your work. Respectively, the title can be either interrogative, descriptive, or declarative.

Step 2: Cite the Article

Next, create a proper citation for the reviewed article and input it following the title. At this step, the most important thing to keep in mind is the style of citation specified by your instructor in the requirements for the paper. For example, an article citation in the MLA style should look as follows:

Author's last and first name. "The title of the article." Journal's title and issue(publication date): page(s). Print

Abraham John. "The World of Dreams." Virginia Quarterly 60.2(1991): 125-67. Print.

Step 3: Article Identification

After your citation, you need to include the identification of your reviewed article:

• Title of the article
• Title of the journal
• Year of publication

All of this information should be included in the first paragraph of your paper.

The report "Poverty increases school drop-outs" was written by Brian Faith – a Health officer – in 2000.

Step 4: Introduction

Your organization in an assignment like this is of the utmost importance. Before embarking on your writing process, you should outline your assignment or use an article review template to organize your thoughts coherently.

• If you are wondering how to start an article review, begin with an introduction that mentions the article and your thesis for the review.
• Follow up with a summary of the main points of the article.
• Highlight the positive aspects and facts presented in the publication.
• Critique the publication by identifying gaps, contradictions, disparities in the text, and unanswered questions.

Step 5: Summarize the Article

Make a summary of the article by revisiting what the author has written about. Note any relevant facts and findings from the article. Include the author's conclusions in this section.

Step 6: Critique It

Present the strengths and weaknesses you have found in the publication. Highlight the knowledge that the author has contributed to the field. Also, write about any gaps and/or contradictions you have found in the article. Take a standpoint of either supporting or not supporting the author's assertions, but back up your arguments with facts and relevant theories that are pertinent to that area of knowledge. Rubrics and templates can also be used to evaluate and grade the person who wrote the article.

Step 7: Craft a Conclusion

In this section, revisit the critical points of your piece, your findings in the article, and your critique. Also, write about the accuracy, validity, and relevance of the results of the article review. Present a way forward for future research in the field of study. Before submitting your article, keep these pointers in mind:

• As you read the article, highlight the key points. This will help you pinpoint the article's main argument and the evidence that they used to support that argument.
• While you write your review, use evidence from your sources to make a point. This is best done using direct quotations.
• Select quotes and supporting evidence adequately and use direct quotations sparingly. Take time to analyze the article adequately.
• Every time you reference a publication or use a direct quotation, use a parenthetical citation to avoid accidentally plagiarizing your article.
• Re-read your piece a day after you finish writing it. This will help you to spot grammar mistakes and to notice any flaws in your organization.
• Use a spell-checker and get a second opinion on your paper.

The Post-Writing Process: Proofread Your Work

Finally, when all of the parts of your article review are set and ready, you have one last thing to take care of — proofreading. Although students often neglect this step, proofreading is a vital part of the writing process and will help you polish your paper to ensure that there are no mistakes or inconsistencies.

To proofread your paper properly, start by reading it fully and checking the following points:

• Punctuation
• Other mistakes

Afterward, take a moment to check for any unnecessary information in your paper and, if found, consider removing it to streamline your content. Finally, double-check that you've covered at least 3-4 key points in your discussion.

And remember, if you ever need help with proofreading, rewriting your essay, or even want to buy essay , our friendly team is always here to assist you.

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What Is A Review Article?

How to write an article review, how to write an article review in apa format, related articles.

Lesson Plan on Writing an Article Review: Includes Rubric

• Trent Lorcher
• Categories : High school english lesson plans grades 9 12
• Tags : High school lesson plans & tips

Most students do not know how to write an article review, an important skill for writing research papers. This simple lesson plan helps build this vital skill. A good article review contains a summary of the article with a personal response supported by evidence and reason.

Description

When critiquing an article, students should demonstrate their awareness of any bias or prejudice, identify pros and cons of the writer’s position, and discuss if they would recommend the article to others. They can also practice research skills by writing a bibliographic citation.

Instructions

• Take students to the library and have them choose articles (option 1).
• Choose articles of varying difficulty for students (option 2).
• Give several examples .
• Have students point out bias and comment on the author’s position.

Quality Checklist

• Have I organized the article review in a logical fashion with ideas clearly and concisely stated?
• Does all information follow correct bibliographic format?
• Does the summary include a brief explanation of the article which includes the author’s point of view?
• Does the critique of the article include evidence of bias, my own or the author’s, identify the pros and cons of the article, and indicate my recommendation?
• Have I summarized my personal response in a concluding statement?

‘‘A’ REVIEW

• Organization: The article is organized and ideas are clearly stated
• Bibliographic Information: All the information follows the bibliographic format given.
• Summary: Examples are clear and accurate. There are reasons and/or details to support personal reaction.
• Critique: Concluding statement creatively and clearly summarizes the personal response.
• Organization: Ideas are clearly stated, but the review lacks solid organization.
• Bibliographic Information: Information exists but the format is not followed.
• Summary: Examples are accurate. There are reasons and/or details to support personal reaction.
• Critique: Concluding statement clearly summarizes the personal response.
• Organization: Ideas are clear but article takes too long to make a point. Article lacks organization.
• Bibliographic Information: Some required information is missing.
• Summary: Inaccurate examples. There are reasons and/or details to support personal reaction.
• Critique: Concluding statement does not clearly summarize the personal response.
• Organization: Ideas are not clear. Article rambles.
• Bibliographic information: not provided.
• Summary: There are few or no examples to support personal response.
• Critique: Contains no concluding statement or one that does not summarize the personal response.

This post is part of the series: Writing Lesson Plans

Teach writing with these writing lesson plans.

• Lesson Plan: How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay
• Writing a Mystery Lesson Plan
• Lesson Plan: How to Write a Tall Tale
• Lesson Plan: Writing Effective Dialogue
• Lesson Plan: How to Write an Article Review

How to Write an Article Review: Template & Examples

An article review is an academic assignment that invites you to study a piece of academic research closely. Then, you should present its summary and critically evaluate it using the knowledge you’ve gained in class and during your independent study. If you get such a task at college or university, you shouldn’t confuse it with a response paper, which is a distinct assignment with other purposes (we’ll talk about it in detail below).

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In this article, prepared by Custom-Writing experts, you’ll find:

• the intricacies of article review writing;
• the difference between an article review and similar assignments;
• a step-by-step algorithm for review composition;
• a couple of samples to guide you throughout the writing process.

So, if you wish to study our article review example and discover helpful writing tips, keep reading.

❓ What Is an Article Review?

• ✍️ Writing Steps

📑 Article Review Format

🔗 references.

An article review is an academic paper that summarizes and critically evaluates the information presented in your selected article.

The first thing you should note when approaching the task of an article review is that not every article is suitable for this assignment. Let’s have a look at the variety of articles to understand what you can choose from.

Popular Vs. Scholarly Articles

In most cases, you’ll be required to review a scholarly, peer-reviewed article – one composed in compliance with rigorous academic standards. Yet, the Web is also full of popular articles that don’t present original scientific value and shouldn’t be selected for a review.

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Not sure how to distinguish these two types? Here is a comparative table to help you out.

Article Review vs. Response Paper

Now, let’s consider the difference between an article review and a response paper:

• If you’re assigned to critique a scholarly article , you will need to compose an article review .
• If your subject of analysis is a popular article , you can respond to it with a well-crafted response paper .

The reason for such distinctions is the quality and structure of these two article types. Peer-reviewed, scholarly articles have clear-cut quality criteria, allowing you to conduct and present a structured assessment of the assigned material. Popular magazines have loose or non-existent quality criteria and don’t offer an opportunity for structured evaluation. So, they are only fit for a subjective response, in which you can summarize your reactions and emotions related to the reading material.

All in all, you can structure your response assignments as outlined in the tips below.

✍️ How to Write an Article Review: Step by Step

Here is a tried and tested algorithm for article review writing from our experts. We’ll consider only the critical review variety of this academic assignment. So, let’s get down to the stages you need to cover to get a stellar review.

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Read the Article

As with any reviews, reports, and critiques, you must first familiarize yourself with the assigned material. It’s impossible to review something you haven’t read, so set some time for close, careful reading of the article to identify:

• The author’s main points and message.
• The arguments they use to prove their points.
• The methodology they use to approach the subject.

In terms of research type , your article will usually belong to one of three types explained below.

Summarize the Article

Now that you’ve read the text and have a general impression of the content, it’s time to summarize it for your readers. Look into the article’s text closely to determine:

• The thesis statement , or general message of the author.
• Research question, purpose, and context of research.
• Supporting points for the author’s assumptions and claims.
• Major findings and supporting evidence.

As you study the article thoroughly, make notes on the margins or write these elements out on a sheet of paper. You can also apply a different technique: read the text section by section and formulate its gist in one phrase or sentence. Once you’re done, you’ll have a summary skeleton in front of you.

Evaluate the Article

The next step of review is content evaluation. Keep in mind that various research types will require a different set of review questions. Here is a complete list of evaluation points you can include.

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Write the Text

After completing the critical review stage, it’s time to compose your article review.

The format of this assignment is standard – you will have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction should present your article and summarize its content. The body will contain a structured review according to all four dimensions covered in the previous section. The concluding part will typically recap all the main points you’ve identified during your assessment.

It is essential to note that an article review is, first of all, an academic assignment. Therefore, it should follow all rules and conventions of academic composition, such as:

• No contractions . Don’t use short forms, such as “don’t,” “can’t,” “I’ll,” etc. in academic writing. You need to spell out all those words.
• Formal language and style . Avoid conversational phrasing and words that you would naturally use in blog posts or informal communication. For example, don’t use words like “pretty,” “kind of,” and “like.”
• Third-person narrative . Academic reviews should be written from the third-person point of view, avoiding statements like “I think,” “in my opinion,” and so on.
• No conversational forms . You shouldn’t turn to your readers directly in the text by addressing them with the pronoun “you.” It’s vital to keep the narrative neutral and impersonal.
• Proper abbreviation use . Consult the list of correct abbreviations , like “e.g.” or “i.e.,” for use in your academic writing. If you use informal abbreviations like “FYA” or “f.i.,” your professor will reduce the grade.
• Complete sentences . Make sure your sentences contain the subject and the predicate; avoid shortened or sketch-form phrases suitable for a draft only.
• No conjunctions at the beginning of a sentence . Remember the FANBOYS rule – don’t start a sentence with words like “and” or “but.” They often seem the right way to build a coherent narrative, but academic writing rules disfavor such usage.
• No abbreviations or figures at the beginning of a sentence . Never start a sentence with a number — spell it out if you need to use it anyway. Besides, sentences should never begin with abbreviations like “e.g.”

Finally, a vital rule for an article review is properly formatting the citations. We’ll discuss the correct use of citation styles in the following section.

When composing an article review, keep these points in mind:

• Start with a full reference to the reviewed article so the reader can locate it quickly.
• Ensure correct formatting of in-text references.
• Provide a complete list of used external sources on the last page of the review – your bibliographical entries .

You’ll need to understand the rules of your chosen citation style to meet all these requirements. Below, we’ll discuss the two most common referencing styles – APA and MLA.

Article Review in APA

When you need to compose an article review in the APA format , here is the general bibliographical entry format you should use for journal articles on your reference page:

• Author’s last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Year of Publication). Name of the article. Name of the Journal, volume (number), pp. #-#. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

Horigian, V. E., Schmidt, R. D., & Feaster, D. J. (2021). Loneliness, mental health, and substance use among US young adults during COVID-19. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 53 (1), pp. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2020.1836435

Your in-text citations should follow the author-date format like this:

• If you paraphrase the source and mention the author in the text: According to Horigian et al. (2021), young adults experienced increased levels of loneliness, depression, and anxiety during the pandemic.
• If you paraphrase the source and don’t mention the author in the text: Young adults experienced increased levels of loneliness, depression, and anxiety during the pandemic (Horigian et al., 2021).
• If you quote the source: As Horigian et al. (2021) point out, there were “elevated levels of loneliness, depression, anxiety, alcohol use, and drug use among young adults during COVID-19” (p. 6).

Note that your in-text citations should include “et al.,” as in the examples above, if your article has 3 or more authors. If you have one or two authors, your in-text citations would look like this:

• One author: “According to Smith (2020), depression is…” or “Depression is … (Smith, 2020).”
• Two authors: “According to Smith and Brown (2020), anxiety means…” or “Anxiety means (Smith & Brown, 2020).”

Finally, in case you have to review a book or a website article, here are the general formats for citing these source types on your APA reference list.

Article Review in MLA

If your assignment requires MLA-format referencing, here’s the general format you should use for citing journal articles on your Works Cited page:

• Author’s last name, First name. “Title of an Article.” Title of the Journal , vol. #, no. #, year, pp. #-#.

Horigian, Viviana E., et al. “Loneliness, Mental Health, and Substance Use Among US Young Adults During COVID-19.” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs , vol. 53, no. 1, 2021, pp. 1-9.

In-text citations in the MLA format follow the author-page citation format and look like this:

• According to Horigian et al., young adults experienced increased levels of loneliness, depression, and anxiety during the pandemic (6).
• Young adults experienced increased levels of loneliness, depression, and anxiety during the pandemic (Horigian et al. 6).

Like in APA, the abbreviation “et al.” is only needed in MLA if your article has 3 or more authors.

If you need to cite a book or a website page, here are the general MLA formats for these types of sources.

✅ Article Review Template

Here is a handy, universal article review template to help you move on with any review assignment. We’ve tried to make it as generic as possible to guide you in the academic process.

📝 Article Review Examples

The theory is good, but practice is even better. Thus, we’ve created three brief examples to show you how to write an article review. You can study the full-text samples by following the links.

📃 Men, Women, & Money  

This article review examines a famous piece, “Men, Women & Money – How the Sexes Differ with Their Finances,” published by Amy Livingston in 2020. The author of this article claims that men generally spend more money than women. She makes this conclusion from a close analysis of gender-specific expenditures across five main categories: food, clothing, cars, entertainment, and general spending patterns. Livingston also looks at men’s approach to saving to argue that counter to the common perception of women’s light-hearted attitude to money, men are those who spend more on average.

📃 When and Why Nationalism Beats Globalism

This is a review of Jonathan Heidt’s 2016 article titled “When and Why Nationalism Beats Globalism,” written as an advocacy of right-wing populism rising in many Western states. The author illustrates the case with the election of Donald Trump as the US President and the rise of right-wing rhetoric in many Western countries. These examples show how nationalist sentiment represents a reaction to global immigration and a failure of globalization.

📃 Sleep Deprivation  

This is a review of the American Heart Association’s article titled “The Dangers of Sleep Deprivation.” It discusses how the national organization concerned with the American population’s cardiovascular health links the lack of high-quality sleep to far-reaching health consequences. The organization’s experts reveal how a consistent lack of sleep leads to Alzheimer’s disease development, obesity, type 2 diabetes, etc.

✏️ Article Review FAQ

A high-quality article review should summarize the assigned article’s content and offer data-backed reactions and evaluations of its quality in terms of the article’s purpose, methodology, and data used to argue the main points. It should be detailed, comprehensive, objective, and evidence-based.

The purpose of writing a review is to allow students to reflect on research quality and showcase their critical thinking and evaluation skills. Students should exhibit their mastery of close reading of research publications and their unbiased assessment.

The content of your article review will be the same in any format, with the only difference in the assignment’s formatting before submission. Ensure you have a separate title page made according to APA standards and cite sources using the parenthetical author-date referencing format.

You need to take a closer look at various dimensions of an assigned article to compose a valuable review. Study the author’s object of analysis, the purpose of their research, the chosen method, data, and findings. Evaluate all these dimensions critically to see whether the author has achieved the initial goals. Finally, offer improvement recommendations to add a critique aspect to your paper.

• Scientific Article Review: Duke University
• Book and Article Reviews: William & Mary, Writing Resources Center
• Sample Format for Reviewing a Journal Article: Boonshoft School of Medicine
• Research Paper Review – Structure and Format Guidelines: New Jersey Institute of Technology
• Article Review: University of Waterloo
• Article Review: University of South Australia
• How to Write a Journal Article Review: University of Newcastle Library Guides
• Writing Help: The Article Review: Central Michigan University Libraries
• Write a Critical Review of a Scientific Journal Article: McLaughlin Library
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• Published: 02 December 2020

Enhancing senior high school student engagement and academic performance using an inclusive and scalable inquiry-based program

• Locke Davenport Huyer   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1526-7122 1 , 2   na1 ,
• Neal I. Callaghan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8214-3395 1 , 3   na1 ,
• Sara Dicks 4 ,
• Edward Scherer 4 ,
• Andrey I. Shukalyuk 1 ,
• Margaret Jou 4 &
• Dawn M. Kilkenny   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3899-9767 1 , 5  

npj Science of Learning volume  5 , Article number:  17 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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The multi-disciplinary nature of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers often renders difficulty for high school students navigating from classroom knowledge to post-secondary pursuits. Discrepancies between the knowledge-based high school learning approach and the experiential approach of future studies leaves some students disillusioned by STEM. We present Discovery , a term-long inquiry-focused learning model delivered by STEM graduate students in collaboration with high school teachers, in the context of biomedical engineering. Entire classes of high school STEM students representing diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds engaged in iterative, problem-based learning designed to emphasize critical thinking concomitantly within the secondary school and university environments. Assessment of grades and survey data suggested positive impact of this learning model on students’ STEM interests and engagement, notably in under-performing cohorts, as well as repeating cohorts that engage in the program on more than one occasion. Discovery presents a scalable platform that stimulates persistence in STEM learning, providing valuable learning opportunities and capturing cohorts of students that might otherwise be under-engaged in STEM.

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Introduction.

High school students with diverse STEM interests often struggle to understand the STEM experience outside the classroom 1 . The multi-disciplinary nature of many career fields can foster a challenge for students in their decision to enroll in appropriate high school courses while maintaining persistence in study, particularly when these courses are not mandatory 2 . Furthermore, this challenge is amplified by the known discrepancy between the knowledge-based learning approach common in high schools and the experiential, mastery-based approaches afforded by the subsequent undergraduate model 3 . In the latter, focused classes, interdisciplinary concepts, and laboratory experiences allow for the application of accumulated knowledge, practice in problem solving, and development of both general and technical skills 4 . Such immersive cooperative learning environments are difficult to establish in the secondary school setting and high school teachers often struggle to implement within their classroom 5 . As such, high school students may become disillusioned before graduation and never experience an enriched learning environment, despite their inherent interests in STEM 6 .

It cannot be argued that early introduction to varied math and science disciplines throughout high school is vital if students are to pursue STEM fields, especially within engineering 7 . However, the majority of literature focused on student interest and retention in STEM highlights outcomes in US high school learning environments, where the sciences are often subject-specific from the onset of enrollment 8 . In contrast, students in the Ontario (Canada) high school system are required to complete Level 1 and 2 core courses in science and math during Grades 9 and 10; these courses are offered as ‘applied’ or ‘academic’ versions and present broad topics of content 9 . It is not until Levels 3 and 4 (generally Grades 11 and 12, respectively) that STEM classes become subject-specific (i.e., Biology, Chemistry, and/or Physics) and are offered as “university”, “college”, or “mixed” versions, designed to best prepare students for their desired post-secondary pursuits 9 . Given that Levels 3 and 4 science courses are not mandatory for graduation, enrollment identifies an innate student interest in continued learning. Furthermore, engagement in these post-secondary preparatory courses is also dependent upon achieving successful grades in preceding courses, but as curriculum becomes more subject-specific, students often yield lower degrees of success in achieving course credit 2 . Therefore, it is imperative that learning supports are best focused on ensuring that those students with an innate interest are able to achieve success in learning.

When given opportunity and focused support, high school students are capable of successfully completing rigorous programs at STEM-focused schools 10 . Specialized STEM schools have existed in the US for over 100 years; generally, students are admitted after their sophomore year of high school experience (equivalent to Grade 10) based on standardized test scores, essays, portfolios, references, and/or interviews 11 . Common elements to this learning framework include a diverse array of advanced STEM courses, paired with opportunities to engage in and disseminate cutting-edge research 12 . Therein, said research experience is inherently based in the processes of critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration. This learning framework supports translation of core curricular concepts to practice and is fundamental in allowing students to develop better understanding and appreciation of STEM career fields.

Despite the described positive attributes, many students do not have the ability or resources to engage within STEM-focused schools, particularly given that they are not prevalent across Canada, and other countries across the world. Consequently, many public institutions support the idea that post-secondary led engineering education programs are effective ways to expose high school students to engineering education and relevant career options, and also increase engineering awareness 13 . Although singular class field trips are used extensively to accomplish such programs, these may not allow immersive experiences for application of knowledge and practice of skills that are proven to impact long-term learning and influence career choices 14 , 15 . Longer-term immersive research experiences, such as after-school programs or summer camps, have shown successful at recruiting students into STEM degree programs and careers, where longevity of experience helps foster self-determination and interest-led, inquiry-based projects 4 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 .

Such activities convey the elements that are suggested to make a post-secondary led high school education programs successful: hands-on experience, self-motivated learning, real-life application, immediate feedback, and problem-based projects 20 , 21 . In combination with immersion in university teaching facilities, learning is authentic and relevant, similar to the STEM school-focused framework, and consequently representative of an experience found in actual STEM practice 22 . These outcomes may further be a consequence of student engagement and attitude: Brown et al. studied the relationships between STEM curriculum and student attitudes, and found the latter played a more important role in intention to persist in STEM when compared to self-efficacy 23 . This is interesting given that student self-efficacy has been identified to influence ‘motivation, persistence, and determination’ in overcoming challenges in a career pathway 24 . Taken together, this suggests that creation and delivery of modern, exciting curriculum that supports positive student attitudes is fundamental to engage and retain students in STEM programs.

Supported by the outcomes of identified effective learning strategies, University of Toronto (U of T) graduate trainees created a novel high school education program Discovery , to develop a comfortable yet stimulating environment of inquiry-focused iterative learning for senior high school students (Grades 11 & 12; Levels 3 & 4) at non-specialized schools. Built in strong collaboration with science teachers from George Harvey Collegiate Institute (Toronto District School Board), Discovery stimulates application of STEM concepts within a unique term-long applied curriculum delivered iteratively within both U of T undergraduate teaching facilities and collaborating high school classrooms 25 . Based on the volume of medically-themed news and entertainment that is communicated to the population at large, the rapidly-growing and diverse field of biomedical engineering (BME) were considered an ideal program context 26 . In its definition, BME necessitates cross-disciplinary STEM knowledge focused on the betterment of human health, wherein Discovery facilitates broadening student perspective through engaging inquiry-based projects. Importantly, Discovery allows all students within a class cohort to work together with their classroom teacher, stimulating continued development of a relevant learning community that is deemed essential for meaningful context and important for transforming student perspectives and understandings 27 , 28 . Multiple studies support the concept that relevant learning communities improve student attitudes towards learning, significantly increasing student motivation in STEM courses, and consequently improving the overall learning experience 29 . Learning communities, such as that provided by Discovery , also promote the formation of self-supporting groups, greater active involvement in class, and higher persistence rates for participating students 30 .

The objective of Discovery , through structure and dissemination, is to engage senior high school science students in challenging, inquiry-based practical BME activities as a mechanism to stimulate comprehension of STEM curriculum application to real-world concepts. Consequent focus is placed on critical thinking skill development through an atmosphere of perseverance in ambiguity, something not common in a secondary school knowledge-focused delivery but highly relevant in post-secondary STEM education strategies. Herein, we describe the observed impact of the differential project-based learning environment of Discovery on student performance and engagement. We identify the value of an inquiry-focused learning model that is tangible for students who struggle in a knowledge-focused delivery structure, where engagement in conceptual critical thinking in the relevant subject area stimulates student interest, attitudes, and resulting academic performance. Assessment of study outcomes suggests that when provided with a differential learning opportunity, student performance and interest in STEM increased. Consequently, Discovery provides an effective teaching and learning framework within a non-specialized school that motivates students, provides opportunity for critical thinking and problem-solving practice, and better prepares them for persistence in future STEM programs.

Program delivery

The outcomes of the current study result from execution of Discovery over five independent academic terms as a collaboration between Institute of Biomedical Engineering (graduate students, faculty, and support staff) and George Harvey Collegiate Institute (science teachers and administration) stakeholders. Each term, the program allowed senior secondary STEM students (Grades 11 and 12) opportunity to engage in a novel project-based learning environment. The program structure uses the problem-based engineering capstone framework as a tool of inquiry-focused learning objectives, motivated by a central BME global research topic, with research questions that are inter-related but specific to the curriculum of each STEM course subject (Fig. 1 ). Over each 12-week term, students worked in teams (3–4 students) within their class cohorts to execute projects with the guidance of U of T trainees ( Discovery instructors) and their own high school teacher(s). Student experimental work was conducted in U of T teaching facilities relevant to the research study of interest (i.e., Biology and Chemistry-based projects executed within Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories; Physics projects executed within Undergraduate Design Studios). Students were introduced to relevant techniques and safety procedures in advance of iterative experimentation. Importantly, this experience served as a course term project for students, who were assessed at several points throughout the program for performance in an inquiry-focused environment as well as within the regular classroom (Fig. 1 ). To instill the atmosphere of STEM, student teams delivered their outcomes in research poster format at a final symposium, sharing their results and recommendations with other post-secondary students, faculty, and community in an open environment.

The general program concept (blue background; top left ) highlights a global research topic examined through student dissemination of subject-specific research questions, yielding multifaceted student outcomes (orange background; top right ). Each program term (term workflow, yellow background; bottom panel ), students work on program deliverables in class (blue), iterate experimental outcomes within university facilities (orange), and are assessed accordingly at numerous deliverables in an inquiry-focused learning model.

Over the course of five terms there were 268 instances of tracked student participation, representing 170 individual students. Specifically, 94 students participated during only one term of programming, 57 students participated in two terms, 16 students participated in three terms, and 3 students participated in four terms. Multiple instances of participation represent students that enrol in more than one STEM class during their senior years of high school, or who participated in Grade 11 and subsequently Grade 12. Students were surveyed before and after each term to assess program effects on STEM interest and engagement. All grade-based assessments were performed by high school teachers for their respective STEM class cohorts using consistent grading rubrics and assignment structure. Here, we discuss the outcomes of student involvement in this experiential curriculum model.

Student performance and engagement

Student grades were assigned, collected, and anonymized by teachers for each Discovery deliverable (background essay, client meeting, proposal, progress report, poster, and final presentation). Teachers anonymized collective Discovery grades, the component deliverable grades thereof, final course grades, attendance in class and during programming, as well as incomplete classroom assignments, for comparative study purposes. Students performed significantly higher in their cumulative Discovery grade than in their cumulative classroom grade (final course grade less the Discovery contribution; p  < 0.0001). Nevertheless, there was a highly significant correlation ( p  < 0.0001) observed between the grade representing combined Discovery deliverables and the final course grade (Fig. 2a ). Further examination of the full dataset revealed two student cohorts of interest: the “Exceeds Expectations” (EE) subset (defined as those students who achieved ≥1 SD [18.0%] grade differential in Discovery over their final course grade; N  = 99 instances), and the “Multiple Term” (MT) subset (defined as those students who participated in Discovery more than once; 76 individual students that collectively accounted for 174 single terms of assessment out of the 268 total student-terms delivered) (Fig. 2b, c ). These subsets were not unrelated; 46 individual students who had multiple experiences (60.5% of total MTs) exhibited at least one occasion in achieving a ≥18.0% grade differential. As students participated in group work, there was concern that lower-performing students might negatively influence the Discovery grade of higher-performing students (or vice versa). However, students were observed to self-organize into groups where all individuals received similar final overall course grades (Fig. 2d ), thereby alleviating these concerns.

a Linear regression of student grades reveals a significant correlation ( p  = 0.0009) between Discovery performance and final course grade less the Discovery contribution to grade, as assessed by teachers. The dashed red line and intervals represent the theoretical 1:1 correlation between Discovery and course grades and standard deviation of the Discovery -course grade differential, respectively. b , c Identification of subgroups of interest, Exceeds Expectations (EE; N  = 99, orange ) who were ≥+1 SD in Discovery -course grade differential and Multi-Term (MT; N  = 174, teal ), of which N  = 65 students were present in both subgroups. d Students tended to self-assemble in working groups according to their final course performance; data presented as mean ± SEM. e For MT students participating at least 3 terms in Discovery , there was no significant correlation between course grade and time, while ( f ) there was a significant correlation between Discovery grade and cumulative terms in the program. Histograms of total absences per student in ( g ) Discovery and ( h ) class (binned by 4 days to be equivalent in time to a single Discovery absence).

The benefits experienced by MT students seemed progressive; MT students that participated in 3 or 4 terms ( N  = 16 and 3, respectively ) showed no significant increase by linear regression in their course grade over time ( p  = 0.15, Fig. 2e ), but did show a significant increase in their Discovery grades ( p  = 0.0011, Fig. 2f ). Finally, students demonstrated excellent Discovery attendance; at least 91% of participants attended all Discovery sessions in a given term (Fig. 2g ). In contrast, class attendance rates reveal a much wider distribution where 60.8% (163 out of 268 students) missed more than 4 classes (equivalent in learning time to one Discovery session) and 14.6% (39 out of 268 students) missed 16 or more classes (equivalent in learning time to an entire program of Discovery ) in a term (Fig. 2h ).

Discovery EE students (Fig. 3 ), roughly by definition, obtained lower course grades ( p  < 0.0001, Fig. 3a ) and higher final Discovery grades ( p  = 0.0004, Fig. 3b ) than non-EE students. This cohort of students exhibited program grades higher than classmates (Fig. 3c–h ); these differences were significant in every category with the exception of essays, where they outperformed to a significantly lesser degree ( p  = 0.097; Fig. 3c ). There was no statistically significant difference in EE vs. non-EE student classroom attendance ( p  = 0.85; Fig. 3i, j ). There were only four single day absences in Discovery within the EE subset; however, this difference was not statistically significant ( p  = 0.074).

The “Exceeds Expectations” (EE) subset of students (defined as those who received a combined Discovery grade ≥1 SD (18.0%) higher than their final course grade) performed ( a ) lower on their final course grade and ( b ) higher in the Discovery program as a whole when compared to their classmates. d – h EE students received significantly higher grades on each Discovery deliverable than their classmates, except for their ( c ) introductory essays and ( h ) final presentations. The EE subset also tended ( i ) to have a higher relative rate of attendance during Discovery sessions but no difference in ( j ) classroom attendance. N  = 99 EE students and 169 non-EE students (268 total). Grade data expressed as mean ± SEM.

Discovery MT students (Fig. 4 ), although not receiving significantly higher grades in class than students participating in the program only one time ( p  = 0.29, Fig. 4a ), were observed to obtain higher final Discovery grades than single-term students ( p  = 0.0067, Fig. 4b ). Although trends were less pronounced for individual MT student deliverables (Fig. 4c–h ), this student group performed significantly better on the progress report ( p  = 0.0021; Fig. 4f ). Trends of higher performance were observed for initial proposals and final presentations ( p  = 0.081 and 0.056, respectively; Fig. 4e, h ); all other deliverables were not significantly different between MT and non-MT students (Fig. 4c, d, g ). Attendance in Discovery ( p  = 0.22) was also not significantly different between MT and non-MT students, although MT students did miss significantly less class time ( p  = 0.010) (Fig. 4i, j ). Longitudinal assessment of individual deliverables for MT students that participated in three or more Discovery terms (Fig. 5 ) further highlights trend in improvement (Fig. 2f ). Greater performance over terms of participation was observed for essay ( p  = 0.0295, Fig. 5a ), client meeting ( p  = 0.0003, Fig. 5b ), proposal ( p  = 0.0004, Fig. 5c ), progress report ( p  = 0.16, Fig. 5d ), poster ( p  = 0.0005, Fig. 5e ), and presentation ( p  = 0.0295, Fig. 5f ) deliverable grades; these trends were all significant with the exception of the progress report ( p  = 0.16, Fig. 5d ) owing to strong performance in this deliverable in all terms.

The “multi-term” (MT) subset of students (defined as having attended more than one term of Discovery ) demonstrated favorable performance in Discovery , ( a ) showing no difference in course grade compared to single-term students, but ( b outperforming them in final Discovery grade. Independent of the number of times participating in Discovery , MT students did not score significantly differently on their ( c ) essay, ( d ) client meeting, or ( g ) poster. They tended to outperform their single-term classmates on the ( e ) proposal and ( h ) final presentation and scored significantly higher on their ( f ) progress report. MT students showed no statistical difference in ( i ) Discovery attendance but did show ( j ) higher rates of classroom attendance than single-term students. N  = 174 MT instances of student participation (76 individual students) and 94 single-term students. Grade data expressed as mean ± SEM.

Longitudinal assessment of a subset of MT student participants that participated in three ( N  = 16) or four ( N  = 3) terms presents a significant trend of improvement in their ( a ) essay, ( b ) client meeting, ( c ) proposal, ( e ) poster, and ( f ) presentation grade. d Progress report grades present a trend in improvement but demonstrate strong performance in all terms, limiting potential for student improvement. Grade data are presented as individual student performance; each student is represented by one color; data is fitted with a linear trendline (black).

Finally, the expansion of Discovery to a second school of lower LOI (i.e., nominally higher aggregate SES) allowed for the assessment of program impact in a new population over 2 terms of programming. A significant ( p  = 0.040) divergence in Discovery vs. course grade distribution from the theoretical 1:1 relationship was found in the new cohort (S 1 Appendix , Fig. S 1 ), in keeping with the pattern established in this study.

Teacher perceptions

Qualitative observation in the classroom by high school teachers emphasized the value students independently placed on program participation and deliverables. Throughout the term, students often prioritized Discovery group assignments over other tasks for their STEM courses, regardless of academic weight and/or due date. Comparing within this student population, teachers spoke of difficulties with late and incomplete assignments in the regular curriculum but found very few such instances with respect to Discovery -associated deliverables. Further, teachers speculated on the good behavior and focus of students in Discovery programming in contrast to attentiveness and behavior issues in their school classrooms. Multiple anecdotal examples were shared of renewed perception of student potential; students that exhibited poor academic performance in the classroom often engaged with high performance in this inquiry-focused atmosphere. Students appeared to take a sense of ownership, excitement, and pride in the setting of group projects oriented around scientific inquiry, discovery, and dissemination.

Student perceptions

Students were asked to consider and rank the academic difficulty (scale of 1–5, with 1 = not challenging and 5 = highly challenging) of the work they conducted within the Discovery learning model. Considering individual Discovery terms, at least 91% of students felt the curriculum to be sufficiently challenging with a 3/5 or higher ranking (Term 1: 87.5%, Term 2: 93.4%, Term 3: 85%, Term 4: 93.3%, Term 5: 100%), and a minimum of 58% of students indicating a 4/5 or higher ranking (Term 1: 58.3%, Term 2: 70.5%, Term 3: 67.5%, Term 4: 69.1%, Term 5: 86.4%) (Fig. 6a ).

a Histogram of relative frequency of perceived Discovery programming academic difficulty ranked from not challenging (1) to highly challenging (5) for each session demonstrated the consistently perceived high degree of difficulty for Discovery programming (total responses: 223). b Program participation increased student comfort (94.6%) with navigating lab work in a university or college setting (total responses: 220). c Considering participation in Discovery programming, students indicated their increased (72.4%) or decreased (10.1%) likelihood to pursue future experiences in STEM as a measure of program impact (total responses: 217). d Large majority of participating students (84.9%) indicated their interest for future participation in Discovery (total responses: 212). Students were given the opportunity to opt out of individual survey questions, partially completed surveys were included in totals.

The majority of students (94.6%) indicated they felt more comfortable with the idea of performing future work in a university STEM laboratory environment given exposure to university teaching facilities throughout the program (Fig. 6b ). Students were also queried whether they were (i) more likely, (ii) less likely, or (iii) not impacted by their experience in the pursuit of STEM in the future. The majority of participants (>82%) perceived impact on STEM interests, with 72.4% indicating they were more likely to pursue these interests in the future (Fig. 6c ). When surveyed at the end of term, 84.9% of students indicated they would participate in the program again (Fig. 6d ).

We have described an inquiry-based framework for implementing experiential STEM education in a BME setting. Using this model, we engaged 268 instances of student participation (170 individual students who participated 1–4 times) over five terms in project-based learning wherein students worked in peer-based teams under the mentorship of U of T trainees to design and execute the scientific method in answering a relevant research question. Collaboration between high school teachers and Discovery instructors allowed for high school student exposure to cutting-edge BME research topics, participation in facilitated inquiry, and acquisition of knowledge through scientific discovery. All assessments were conducted by high school teachers and constituted a fraction (10–15%) of the overall course grade, instilling academic value for participating students. As such, students exhibited excitement to learn as well as commitment to their studies in the program.

Through our observations and analysis, we suggest there is value in differential learning environments for students that struggle in a knowledge acquisition-focused classroom setting. In general, we observed a high level of academic performance in Discovery programming (Fig. 2a ), which was highlighted exceptionally in EE students who exhibited greater academic performance in Discovery deliverables compared to normal coursework (>18% grade improvement in relevant deliverables). We initially considered whether this was the result of strong students influencing weaker students; however, group organization within each course suggests this is not the case (Fig. 2d ). With the exception of one class in one term (24 participants assigned by their teacher), students were allowed to self-organize into working groups and they chose to work with other students of relatively similar academic performance (as indicated by course grade), a trend observed in other studies 31 , 32 . Remarkably, EE students not only excelled during Discovery when compared to their own performance in class, but this cohort also achieved significantly higher average grades in each of the deliverables throughout the program when compared to the remaining Discovery cohort (Fig. 3 ). This data demonstrates the value of an inquiry-based learning environment compared to knowledge-focused delivery in the classroom in allowing students to excel. We expect that part of this engagement was resultant of student excitement with a novel learning opportunity. It is however a well-supported concept that students who struggle in traditional settings tend to demonstrate improved interest and motivation in STEM when given opportunity to interact in a hands-on fashion, which supports our outcomes 4 , 33 . Furthermore, these outcomes clearly represent variable student learning styles, where some students benefit from a greater exchange of information, knowledge and skills in a cooperative learning environment 34 . The performance of the EE group may not be by itself surprising, as the identification of the subset by definition required high performers in Discovery who did not have exceptionally high course grades; in addition, the final Discovery grade is dependent on the component assignment grades. However, the discrepancies between EE and non-EE groups attendance suggests that students were engaged by Discovery in a way that they were not by regular classroom curriculum.

In addition to quantified engagement in Discovery observed in academic performance, we believe remarkable attendance rates are indicative of the value students place in the differential learning structure. Given the differences in number of Discovery days and implications of missing one day of regular class compared to this immersive program, we acknowledge it is challenging to directly compare attendance data and therefore approximate this comparison with consideration of learning time equivalence. When combined with other subjective data including student focus, requests to work on Discovery during class time, and lack of discipline/behavior issues, the attendance data importantly suggests that students were especially engaged by the Discovery model. Further, we believe the increased commute time to the university campus (students are responsible for independent transit to campus, a much longer endeavour than the normal school commute), early program start time, and students’ lack of familiarity with the location are non-trivial considerations when determining the propensity of students to participate enthusiastically in Discovery . We feel this suggests the students place value on this team-focused learning and find it to be more applicable and meaningful to their interests.

Given post-secondary admission requirements for STEM programs, it would be prudent to think that students participating in multiple STEM classes across terms are the ones with the most inherent interest in post-secondary STEM programs. The MT subset, representing students who participated in Discovery for more than one term, averaged significantly higher final Discovery grades. The increase in the final Discovery grade was observed to result from a general confluence of improved performance over multiple deliverables and a continuous effort to improve in a STEM curriculum. This was reflected in longitudinal tracking of Discovery performance, where we observed a significant trend of improved performance. Interestingly, the high number of MT students who were included in the EE group suggests that students who had a keen interest in science enrolled in more than one course and in general responded well to the inquiry-based teaching method of Discovery , where scientific method was put into action. It stands to reason that students interested in science will continue to take STEM courses and will respond favorably to opportunities to put classroom theory to practical application.

The true value of an inquiry-based program such as Discovery may not be based in inspiring students to perform at a higher standard in STEM within the high school setting, as skills in critical thinking do not necessarily translate to knowledge-based assessment. Notably, students found the programming equally challenging throughout each of the sequential sessions, perhaps somewhat surprising considering the increasing number of repeat attendees in successive sessions (Fig. 6a ). Regardless of sub-discipline, there was an emphasis of perceived value demonstrated through student surveys where we observed indicated interest in STEM and comfort with laboratory work environments, and desire to engage in future iterations given the opportunity. Although non-quantitative, we perceive this as an indicator of significant student engagement, even though some participants did not yield academic success in the program and found it highly challenging given its ambiguity.

Although we observed that students become more certain of their direction in STEM, further longitudinal study is warranted to make claim of this outcome. Additionally, at this point in our assessment we cannot effectively assess the practical outcomes of participation, understanding that the immediate effects observed are subject to a number of factors associated with performance in the high school learning environment. Future studies that track graduates from this program will be prudent, in conjunction with an ever-growing dataset of assessment as well as surveys designed to better elucidate underlying perceptions and attitudes, to continue to understand the expected benefits of this inquiry-focused and partnered approach. Altogether, a multifaceted assessment of our early outcomes suggests significant value of an immersive and iterative interaction with STEM as part of the high school experience. A well-defined divergence from knowledge-based learning, focused on engagement in critical thinking development framed in the cutting-edge of STEM, may be an important step to broadening student perspectives.

In this study, we describe the short-term effects of an inquiry-based STEM educational experience on a cohort of secondary students attending a non-specialized school, and suggest that the framework can be widely applied across virtually all subjects where inquiry-driven and mentored projects can be undertaken. Although we have demonstrated replication in a second cohort of nominally higher SES (S 1 Appendix , Supplementary Fig. 1 ), a larger collection period with more students will be necessary to conclusively determine impact independent of both SES and specific cohort effects. Teachers may also find this framework difficult to implement depending on resources and/or institutional investment and support, particularly if post-secondary collaboration is inaccessible. Offerings to a specific subject (e.g., physics) where experiments yielding empirical data are logistically or financially simpler to perform may be valid routes of adoption as opposed to the current study where all subject cohorts were included.

As we consider Discovery in a bigger picture context, expansion and implementation of this model is translatable. Execution of the scientific method is an important aspect of citizen science, as the concepts of critical thing become ever-more important in a landscape of changing technological landscapes. Giving students critical thinking and problem-solving skills in their primary and secondary education provides value in the context of any career path. Further, we feel that this model is scalable across disciplines, STEM or otherwise, as a means of building the tools of inquiry. We have observed here the value of differential inclusive student engagement and critical thinking through an inquiry-focused model for a subset of students, but further to this an engagement, interest, and excitement across the body of student participants. As we educate the leaders of tomorrow, we suggest that use of an inquiry-focused model such as Discovery could facilitate growth of a data-driven critical thinking framework.

In conclusion, we have presented a model of inquiry-based STEM education for secondary students that emphasizes inclusion, quantitative analysis, and critical thinking. Student grades suggest significant performance benefits, and engagement data suggests positive student attitude despite the perceived challenges of the program. We also note a particular performance benefit to students who repeatedly engage in the program. This framework may carry benefits in a wide variety of settings and disciplines for enhancing student engagement and performance, particularly in non-specialized school environments.

Study design and implementation

Participants in Discovery include all students enrolled in university-stream Grade 11 or 12 biology, chemistry, or physics at the participating school over five consecutive terms (cohort summary shown in Table 1 ). Although student participation in educational content was mandatory, student grades and survey responses (administered by high school teachers) were collected from only those students with parent or guardian consent. Teachers replaced each student name with a unique coded identifier to preserve anonymity but enable individual student tracking over multiple terms. All data collected were analyzed without any exclusions save for missing survey responses; no power analysis was performed prior to data collection.

Ethics statement

This study was approved by the University of Toronto Health Sciences Research Ethics Board (Protocol # 34825) and the Toronto District School Board External Research Review Committee (Protocol # 2017-2018-20). Written informed consent was collected from parents or guardians of participating students prior to the acquisition of student data (both post-hoc academic data and survey administration). Data were anonymized by high school teachers for maintenance of academic confidentiality of individual students prior to release to U of T researchers.

Educational program overview

Students enrolled in university-preparatory STEM classes at the participating school completed a term-long project under the guidance of graduate student instructors and undergraduate student mentors as a mandatory component of their respective course. Project curriculum developed collaboratively between graduate students and participating high school teachers was delivered within U of T Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering (FASE) teaching facilities. Participation allows high school students to garner a better understanding as to how undergraduate learning and career workflows in STEM vary from traditional high school classroom learning, meanwhile reinforcing the benefits of problem solving, perseverance, teamwork, and creative thinking competencies. Given that Discovery was a mandatory component of course curriculum, students participated as class cohorts and addressed questions specific to their course subject knowledge base but related to the defined global health research topic (Fig. 1 ). Assessment of program deliverables was collectively assigned to represent 10–15% of the final course grade for each subject at the discretion of the respective STEM teacher.

The Discovery program framework was developed, prior to initiation of student assessment, in collaboration with one high school selected from the local public school board over a 1.5 year period of time. This partner school consistently scores highly (top decile) in the school board’s Learning Opportunities Index (LOI). The LOI ranks each school based on measures of external challenges affecting its student population therefore schools with the greatest level of external challenge receive a higher ranking 35 . A high LOI ranking is inversely correlated with socioeconomic status (SES); therefore, participating students are identified as having a significant number of external challenges that may affect their academic success. The mandatory nature of program participation was established to reach highly capable students who may be reluctant to engage on their own initiative, as a means of enhancing the inclusivity and impact of the program. The selected school partner is located within a reasonable geographical radius of our campus (i.e., ~40 min transit time from school to campus). This is relevant as participating students are required to independently commute to campus for Discovery hands-on experiences.

Each program term of Discovery corresponds with a five-month high school term. Lead university trainee instructors (3–6 each term) engaged with high school teachers 1–2 months in advance of high school student engagement to discern a relevant overarching global healthcare theme. Each theme was selected with consideration of (a) topics that university faculty identify as cutting-edge biomedical research, (b) expertise that Discovery instructors provide, and (c) capacity to showcase the diversity of BME. Each theme was sub-divided into STEM subject-specific research questions aligning with provincial Ministry of Education curriculum concepts for university-preparatory Biology, Chemistry, and Physics 9 that students worked to address, both on-campus and in-class, during a term-long project. The Discovery framework therefore provides students a problem-based learning experience reflective of an engineering capstone design project, including a motivating scientific problem (i.e., global topic), subject-specific research question, and systematic determination of a professional recommendation addressing the needs of the presented problem.

Discovery instructors were volunteers recruited primarily from graduate and undergraduate BME programs in the FASE. Instructors were organized into subject-specific instructional teams based on laboratory skills, teaching experience, and research expertise. The lead instructors of each subject (the identified 1–2 trainees that built curriculum with high school teachers) were responsible to organize the remaining team members as mentors for specific student groups over the course of the program term (~1:8 mentor to student ratio).

All Discovery instructors were familiarized with program expectations and trained in relevant workspace safety, in addition to engagement at a teaching workshop delivered by the Faculty Advisor (a Teaching Stream faculty member) at the onset of term. This workshop was designed to provide practical information on teaching and was co-developed with high school teachers based on their extensive training and experience in fundamental teaching methods. In addition, group mentors received hands-on training and guidance from lead instructors regarding the specific activities outlined for their respective subject programming (an exemplary term of student programming is available in S 2 Appendix) .

Discovery instructors were responsible for introducing relevant STEM skills and mentoring high school students for the duration of their projects, with support and mentorship from the Faculty Mentor. Each instructor worked exclusively throughout the term with the student groups to which they had been assigned, ensuring consistent mentorship across all disciplinary components of the project. In addition to further supporting university trainees in on-campus mentorship, high school teachers were responsible for academic assessment of all student program deliverables (Fig. 1 ; the standardized grade distribution available in S 3 Appendix ). Importantly, trainees never engaged in deliverable assessment; for continuity of overall course assessment, this remained the responsibility of the relevant teacher for each student cohort.

Throughout each term, students engaged within the university facilities four times. The first three sessions included hands-on lab sessions while the fourth visit included a culminating symposium for students to present their scientific findings (Fig. 1 ). On average, there were 4–5 groups of students per subject (3–4 students per group; ~20 students/class). Discovery instructors worked exclusively with 1–2 groups each term in the capacity of mentor to monitor and guide student progress in all project deliverables.

After introducing the selected global research topic in class, teachers led students in completion of background research essays. Students subsequently engaged in a subject-relevant skill-building protocol during their first visit to university teaching laboratory facilities, allowing opportunity to understand analysis techniques and equipment relevant for their assessment projects. At completion of this session, student groups were presented with a subject-specific research question as well as the relevant laboratory inventory available for use during their projects. Armed with this information, student groups continued to work in their classroom setting to develop group-specific experimental plans. Teachers and Discovery instructors provided written and oral feedback, respectively , allowing students an opportunity to revise their plans in class prior to on-campus experimental execution.

Once at the relevant laboratory environment, student groups executed their protocols in an effort to collect experimental data. Data analysis was performed in the classroom and students learned by trial & error to optimize their protocols before returning to the university lab for a second opportunity of data collection. All methods and data were re-analyzed in class in order for students to create a scientific poster for the purpose of study/experience dissemination. During a final visit to campus, all groups presented their findings at a research symposium, allowing students to verbally defend their process, analyses, interpretations, and design recommendations to a diverse audience including peers, STEM teachers, undergraduate and graduate university students, postdoctoral fellows and U of T faculty.

Data collection

Teachers evaluated their students on the following associated deliverables: (i) global theme background research essay; (ii) experimental plan; (iii) progress report; (iv) final poster content and presentation; and (v) attendance. For research purposes, these grades were examined individually and also as a collective Discovery program grade for each student. For students consenting to participation in the research study, all Discovery grades were anonymized by the classroom teacher before being shared with study authors. Each student was assigned a code by the teacher for direct comparison of deliverable outcomes and survey responses. All instances of “Final course grade” represent the prorated course grade without the Discovery component, to prevent confounding of quantitative analyses.

Survey instruments were used to gain insight into student attitudes and perceptions of STEM and post-secondary study, as well as Discovery program experience and impact (S 4 Appendix ). High school teachers administered surveys in the classroom only to students supported by parental permission. Pre-program surveys were completed at minimum 1 week prior to program initiation each term and exit surveys were completed at maximum 2 weeks post- Discovery term completion. Surveys results were validated using a principal component analysis (S 1 Appendix , Supplementary Fig. 2 ).

Identification and comparison of population subsets

From initial analysis, we identified two student subpopulations of particular interest: students who performed ≥1 SD [18.0%] or greater in the collective Discovery components of the course compared to their final course grade (“EE”), and students who participated in Discovery more than once (“MT”). These groups were compared individually against the rest of the respective Discovery population (“non-EE” and “non-MT”, respectively ). Additionally, MT students who participated in three or four (the maximum observed) terms of Discovery were assessed for longitudinal changes to performance in their course and Discovery grades. Comparisons were made for all Discovery deliverables (introductory essay, client meeting, proposal, progress report, poster, and presentation), final Discovery grade, final course grade, Discovery attendance, and overall attendance.

Statistical analysis

Student course grades were analyzed in all instances without the Discovery contribution (calculated from all deliverable component grades and ranging from 10 to 15% of final course grade depending on class and year) to prevent correlation. Aggregate course grades and Discovery grades were first compared by paired t-test, matching each student’s course grade to their Discovery grade for the term. Student performance in Discovery ( N  = 268 instances of student participation, comprising 170 individual students that participated 1–4 times) was initially assessed in a linear regression of Discovery grade vs. final course grade. Trends in course and Discovery performance over time for students participating 3 or 4 terms ( N  = 16 and 3 individuals, respectively ) were also assessed by linear regression. For subpopulation analysis (EE and MT, N  = 99 instances from 81 individuals and 174 instances from 76 individuals, respectively ), each dataset was tested for normality using the D’Agostino and Pearson omnibus normality test. All subgroup comparisons vs. the remaining population were performed by Mann–Whitney U -test. Data are plotted as individual points with mean ± SEM overlaid (grades), or in histogram bins of 1 and 4 days, respectively , for Discovery and class attendance. Significance was set at α ≤ 0.05.

Reporting summary

Further information on research design is available in the Nature Research Reporting Summary linked to this article.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author DMK. These data are not publicly available due to privacy concerns of personal data according to the ethical research agreements supporting this study.

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Acknowledgements

This study has been possible due to the support of many University of Toronto trainee volunteers, including Genevieve Conant, Sherif Ramadan, Daniel Smieja, Rami Saab, Andrew Effat, Serena Mandla, Cindy Bui, Janice Wong, Dawn Bannerman, Allison Clement, Shouka Parvin Nejad, Nicolas Ivanov, Jose Cardenas, Huntley Chang, Romario Regeenes, Dr. Henrik Persson, Ali Mojdeh, Nhien Tran-Nguyen, Ileana Co, and Jonathan Rubianto. We further acknowledge the staff and administration of George Harvey Collegiate Institute and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME), as well as Benjamin Rocheleau and Madeleine Rocheleau for contributions to data collation. Discovery has grown with continued support of Dean Christopher Yip (Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, U of T), and the financial support of the IBME and the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) PromoScience program (PROSC 515876-2017; IBME “Igniting Youth Curiosity in STEM” initiative co-directed by DMK and Dr. Penney Gilbert). LDH and NIC were supported by Vanier Canada graduate scholarships from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and NSERC, respectively . DMK holds a Dean’s Emerging Innovation in Teaching Professorship in the Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science, U of T.

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These authors contributed equally: Locke Davenport Huyer, Neal I. Callaghan.

Authors and Affiliations

Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Locke Davenport Huyer, Neal I. Callaghan, Andrey I. Shukalyuk & Dawn M. Kilkenny

Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Locke Davenport Huyer

Translational Biology and Engineering Program, Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Neal I. Callaghan

George Harvey Collegiate Institute, Toronto District School Board, Toronto, ON, Canada

Sara Dicks, Edward Scherer & Margaret Jou

Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education & Practice, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Dawn M. Kilkenny

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Contributions

LDH, NIC and DMK conceived the program structure, designed the study, and interpreted the data. LDH and NIC ideated programming, coordinated execution, and performed all data analysis. SD, ES, and MJ designed and assessed student deliverables, collected data, and anonymized data for assessment. SD assisted in data interpretation. AIS assisted in programming ideation and design. All authors provided feedback and approved the manuscript that was written by LDH, NIC and DMK.

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Correspondence to Dawn M. Kilkenny .

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Davenport Huyer, L., Callaghan, N.I., Dicks, S. et al. Enhancing senior high school student engagement and academic performance using an inclusive and scalable inquiry-based program. npj Sci. Learn. 5 , 17 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-020-00076-2

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• The date on which the review has been written.
• An abstract. It should be anywhere between 200 and 300 words and should summarize your entire writing very concisely. Everything from the review question and the study being reviewed to the conclusions of your review should be covered. Remember, no citations in the abstract! To learn how to write an article review the proper way, you need to also learn how to write an abstract.
• The introduction. Here, you provide some background information about the topic of your research. Clearly tell your readers what the article about to be reviewed is about. Also present the overall structure of the body paragraphs so that your readers can easily understand what you will be talking about.
• The body paragraphs. We recommend three body paragraphs. Each one will discuss the main ideas you’ve outlined in the introduction.
• The conclusion. Of course, you can’t learn how to write a critical review of a journal article without learning how to write a good conclusion for it. In this paragraph, you just need to explain the purpose of the original article again and your review’s rationale. What have you uncovered? What can be changed? What needs more research?
• The citations. This is the bibliography section, written per APA or MLA requirements.

Learn How to Write a Review Article the Right Way

Of course, the easiest way to learn how to review an article is to read at least one article review sample. A good example will help you tremendously, to be honest. And the good news is that you can easily buy an example from a writing company online. This way, you can be sure that the example will be 100% original (very important if you want to use some ideas from the example of an article review in your own writing).

To help you as much as possible, we’ve put together a guide about how to write a review of an article. Here are the basic steps you need to take:

• Analyze the article. You won’t be able to learn how to write a article review unless you are willing to read the article. During this step, you have to analyze the positive aspects of the paper and identify all the contradictions, inconsistencies and gaps left by the author. If there are any questions that don’t have an answer, write them down.
• Read the article very carefully and look at its abstract, opening sentences, title, headings, intro and conclusion. Of course, take note of all the main ideas in the article.
• Create an outline that will be used for your review. Everything you feel is important should have its own heading. Keep in mind that you need to discuss at least three major aspects in the body paragraphs. You can’t learn how to review a research article until you learn how to create a good outline.
• Write the three body paragraphs first. This way, you will have an easier time writing the introduction.
• Write the introduction and don’t forget to include the article’s thesis. Don’t use the first person. End the intro with your impression of the article being reviewed. Does it contain inconsistencies? Don’t be afraid to say it.
• Write the conclusion. As we stated previously, you should summarize everything in your review and provide your readers with your honest opinion about the reviewed work.
• Write the abstract and then the bibliography section (also known as Works Cited or References).

Learning how to write article review is not as difficult as you think. You just need to work a bit on your critical writing skills. Again, a good article review example from seasoned assignment writers will help you quite a lot. Don’t forget, it’s easier to follow an example than to write blindly.

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How to Publish a Research Paper In High School: 18 Journals and Conferences to Consider

By Alex Yang

Graduate student at Southern Methodist University

9 minute read

So you've been working super hard writing a research paper , and you’ve finally finished. Congrats! It’s a very impressive accolade already, but there’s a way to take it a level further. As we’ve talked about before in our Polygence blog, “ Showcasing your work and sharing it with the world is the intellectual version of ‘pics or it didn’t happen.’ ” Of course, there are lot of different ways to showcase your work , from creating a Youtube video to making a podcast. But one of the most popular ways to showcase your research is to publish your research. Publishing your research can take the great work you’ve already done and add credibility to it, and will make a stronger impression than unpublished research. Further, the process of having your work reviewed by advanced degree researchers can be a valuable experience in itself. You can receive feedback from experts and learn how to improve upon the work you’ve already done.

Before we dive into the various journals and conferences to publish your work, let’s distinguish between the various publishing options that you have as a high schooler, as there are some nuances. Quick disclaimer: this article focuses on journals and conferences as ways to showcase your work. There are also competitions where you can submit your work, and we have written guides on competing in premier competitions like Regeneron STS and competing in Regeneron ISEF . 

Publishing Options for High School Students

Peer-reviewed journals.

This is rather self-explanatory, but these journals go through the peer review process, where author(s) submit their work to the journal, and the journal's editors send the work to a group of independent experts (typically grad students or other scientists with advanced degrees) in the same field or discipline. These experts are peer reviewers, who evaluate the work based on a set of predetermined criteria, including the quality of the research, the validity of the methodology, the accuracy of the data, and the originality of the findings. The peer reviewers may suggest revisions or leave comments, but ultimately the editors will decide which suggestions to give to the student. 

Once you’ve received suggestions, you have the opportunity to make revisions before submitting your final product back to the journal. The editor then decides whether or not your work is published.

Non-Peer-Reviewed Journals

These are just journals that do not undergo a review process. In general, peer-reviewed journals may be seen as more credible and prestigious. However, non-peer-reviewed journals may make it easier and faster to publish your work, which can be helpful if you are pressed for time and applying to colleges soon .

Pre Print Archives

Preprint archives or servers are online repositories where student researchers can upload and share their research papers without undergoing any review process. Preprints allow students to share their findings quickly and get feedback from the scientific community, which can help improve the research while you’re waiting to hear back from journals, which typically have longer timelines and can take up to several months to publish research. Sharing your work in a preprint archive does not prohibit you from, or interfere with submitting the same work to a journal afterwards.

Research Conferences

Prefer to present your research in a presentation or verbal format? Conferences can be a great way to “publish” your research, showcase your public speaking skills, speak directly to your audience, and network with other researchers in your field. 

Student-led Journals vs Graduate Student / Professor-led Journals 

Some student-led journals may have peer-review, but the actual people peer-reviewing your work may be high school students. Other journals will have graduate students, PhD students, or even faculty reviewing your work. As you can imagine, there are tradeoffs to either option. With an advanced degree student reviewing your work, you can likely expect better and more accurate feedback. Plus, it’s cool to have an expert look over your work! However, this may also mean that the journal is more selective, whereas student-led journals may be easier to publish in. Nonetheless, getting feedback from anyone who’s knowledgeable can be a great way to polish your research and writing.

Strategy for Submitting to Multiple Journals

Ultimately, your paper can only be published in one peer-reviewed journal. Submitting the same paper to multiple peer-reviewed journals at the same time is not allowed, and doing so may impact its publication at any peer-reviewed journal. If your work is not accepted at one journal, however, then you are free to submit that work to your next choice and so on. Therefore, it is best to submit to journals with a strategy in mind. Consider: what journal do I ideally want to be published in? What are some back-ups if I don’t get published in my ideal journal? Preprints, like arXiv and the Research Archive of Rising Scholars, are possible places to submit your work in advance of seeking peer-reviewed publication. These are places to “stake your claim” in a research area and get feedback from the community prior to submitting your paper to its final home in a peer-reviewed journal. You can submit your work to a preprint prior to submitting at a peer-reviewed journal. However, bioRxiv, a reputable preprint server, recommends on their website that a preprint only be posted on one server, so that’s something to keep in mind as well.

Citation and Paper Formats

All of the journals listed below have specific ways that they’d like you to cite your sources, varying from styles like MLA to APA, and it’s important that you double-check the journal’s requirements for citations, titling your paper, writing your abstract, etc. Most journal websites have very detailed guides for how they want you to format your paper, so follow those closely to avoid having to wait to hear back and then resubmit your paper. If you’re looking for more guidance on citations and bibliographies check out our blog post!

18 Journals and Conferences to Publish Your Research as a High Schooler

Now that we’ve distinguished the differences between certain journals and conferences, let’s jump into some of our favorite ones. We’ve divided up our selections based on prestige and reliability, and we’ve made these selections using our experience with helping Polygence students showcase their research .

Most Prestigious Journals

Concord review.

Cost: $70 to Submit and $200 Publication Cost (if accepted)

Deadline: Fixed Deadlines in Feb 1 (Summer Issue), May 1 (Fall), August 1 (Winter), and November 1 (Spring)

Subject area: History / Social Sciences

Type of research: All types of academic articles

The Concord Review is a quarterly journal that publishes exceptional essays written by high school students on historical topics. The journal has been around since 1987 and has a great reputation, with many student winners going to great universities. Further, if your paper is published, your essays will be sent to subscribers and teachers all around the world, which is an incredible achievement.

Papers submitted tend to be around 8,000 words, so there is definitely a lot of writing involved, and the Concord Review themselves say that they are very selective, publishing only about 5% of the essays they receive.

We’ve posted our complete guide on publishing in the Concord Review here.

Journal of Emerging Investigators (JEI)

Deadline: Rolling

Subject area: STEM 

Type of research: Original hypothesis-driven scientific research

JEI is an open-access publication that features scientific research papers written by middle and high school students in the fields of biological and physical sciences. The journal includes a comprehensive peer-review process, where graduate students and other professional scientists with advanced degrees will review the manuscripts and provide suggestions to improve both the project and manuscript itself. You can expect to receive feedback in 6-8 weeks.

This should be the go-to option for students that are doing hypothesis-driven, original research or research that involves original analyses of existing data (meta-analysis, analyzing publicly available datasets, etc.). This is not an appropriate fit for students writing literature reviews. Finally, a mentor or parent must submit on behalf of the student.

We’ve had many Polygence students successfully submit to JEI. Check out Hana’s research on invasive species and their effects in drought times.

STEM Fellowship Journal (SFJ)

Cost: $400 publication fee

Subject area: All Scientific Disciplines

Type of research: Conference Proceedings, Review Articles, Viewpoint Articles, Original Research

SFJ is a peer-reviewed journal published by Canadian Science Publishing that serves as a platform for scholarly research conducted by high school and university students in the STEM fields. Peer review is conducted by undergraduate, graduate student, and professional reviewers.

Depending on the kind of research article you choose to submit, SFJ provides very specific guidelines on what to include and word limits.

Other Great Journal Options

National high school journal of science (nhsjs).

Cost: $250 for publication 

Deadline: Rolling 

Subject area: All science disciplines 

Type of research: Original research, literature review

NHSJS is a journal peer reviewed by high schoolers from around the world, with an advisory board of adult academics. Topics are STEM related, and submission types can vary from original research papers to shorter articles.

Curieux Academic Journal

Cost: $185-215

Subject area: Engineering, Humanities, and Natural Science, Mathematics, and Social Science

Type of research: Including but not limited to research papers, review articles, and humanity/social science pieces.

Curieux Academic Journal is a non-profit run by students and was founded in 2017 to publish outstanding research by high school and middle school students. Curieux publishes one issue per month (twelve per year), so there are many opportunities to get your research published. 

The Young Scientists Journal 

Deadline: December

Subject area: Sciences

Type of research: Original research, literature review, blog post

The Young Scientists Journal , while a popular option for students previously, has paused submissions to process a backlog. The journal is an international peer-reviewed journal run by students, and creates print issues twice a year. 

The journal has also been around for a decade and has a clear track record of producing alumni who go on to work in STEM.

Here’s an example of research submitted by Polygence student Ryan to the journal.

Journal of Research High School (JRHS)

Subject area: Any academic subject including the sciences and humanities

Type of research: Original research and significant literature reviews.

JRHS is an online research journal edited by volunteer professional scientists, researchers, teachers, and professors. JRHS accepts original research and significant literature reviews in Engineering, Humanities, Natural Science, Math, and Social Sciences.

From our experience working with our students to help publish their research, this journal is currently operating with a 15-20 week turnaround time for review. This is a bit on the longer side, so be mindful of this turnaround time if you’re looking to get your work published soon.

Youth Medical Journal

Deadline: March (currently closed)

Subject area: Medical or scientific topics

Type of research: Original research, review article, blog post, magazine article

The Youth Medical Journal is an international, student-run team of 40 students looking to share medical research.

We’ve found that this journal is a good entry point for students new to research papers, but when submissions are busy, in the past they have paused submissions. 

Journal of High School Science (JHSS)

Subject area: All topics

Type of research: Original research, literature review, technical notes, opinion pieces

This peer-reviewed STEAM journal publishes quarterly, with advanced degree doctors who sit on the journal’s editorial board. In addition to typical STEM subjects, the journal also accepts manuscripts related to music and theater, which is explicitly stated on their website.

Due to the current large volume of submissions, the review process takes a minimum of 4 weeks from the time of submission.

Whitman Journal of Psychology

Subject area: Psychology

Type of research: Original research, podcasts

The WWJOP is a publication run entirely by students, where research and literature reviews in the field of psychology are recognized. The journal is run out of a high school with a teacher supervisor and student staff.

The WWJOP uniquely also accepts podcast submissions, so if that’s your preferred format for showcasing your work, then this could be the journal for you!

Cost: $180 submission fee

Subject area: Humanities

Type of research: Essay submission

The Schola is a peer-reviewed quarterly journal that showcases essays on various humanities and social sciences topics authored by high school students worldwide. They feature a diverse range of subjects such as philosophy, history, art history, English, economics, public policy, and sociology.

Editors at Schola are academics who teach and do research in the humanities and social sciences

Critical Debates in Humanities, Science and Global Justice

Cost: $10 author fee

Subject area: Ethics and frontiers of science, Biology and ecosystems, Technology and Innovation, Medical research and disease, Peace and civil society, Global citizenship, identity and democracy, Structural violence and society, Psychology, Education, AI, Sociology, Computer Science, Neuroscience, Cultural politics, Politics and Justice, Computer science and math as related to policy, Public policy, Human rights, Language, Identity and Culture, Art and activism

Critical Debates is an international academic journal for critical discourse in humanities, science and contemporary global issues for emerging young scholars

International Youth Neuroscience Association Journal

Subject area: Neuroscience

Type of research: Research papers

Although this student peer-reviewed journal is not currently accepting submissions, we’ve had students recently publish here. 

Here’s an example of Nevenka’s research that was published in the November 2022 issue of the journal.

Preprint Archives to Share Your Work In

Subject area: STEM, Quantitative Finance, Economics

arXiv is an open access archive supported by Cornell University, where more than 2 million scholarly articles in a wide variety of topics have been compiled. arXiv articles are not peer-reviewed, so you will not receive any feedback on your work from experts. However, your article does go through a moderation process where your work is classified into a topic area and checked for scholarly value. This process is rather quick however and according to arXiv you can expect your article to be available on the website in about 6 hours. 

Although there’s no peer review process, that means the submission standards are not as rigorous and you can get your article posted very quickly, so submitting to arXiv or other preprint archives can be something you do before trying to get published in a journal.

One slight inconvenience of submitting to arXiv is that you must be endorsed by a current arXiv author, which can typically be a mentor or teacher or professor that you have. Here’s an example of a Polygence student submitting their work to arXiv, with Albert’s research on Hamiltonian Cycles.

Subject area: Biology

Type of research: Original research

bioRxiv is a preprint server for biology research, where again the research is not peer-reviewed but undergoes a check to make sure that the material is relevant and appropriate.

bioRxiv has a bit of a longer posting time, taking around 48 hours, but that’s still very quick. bioRxiv also allows for you to submit revised versions of your research if you decide to make changes.

Research Archive of Rising Scholars (RARS)

Subject area: STEM and Humanities

Type of research: Original research, review articles, poems, short stories, scripts

Research Archive of Rising Scholars is Polygence’s own preprint server! We were inspired by arXiv so we created a repository for articles and other creative submissions in STEM and the Humanities.

We launched RARS in 2022 and we’re excited to offer a space for budding scholars as they look to publish their work in journals. Compared to other preprint archives, RARS also accepts a wider range of submission types, including poems, short stories, and scripts.

Conferences to Participate In

Symposium of rising scholars.

Deadline: Twice a year - February and July

Polygence’s very own Symposium of Rising Scholars is a bi-annual academic conference where students present and share their research with their peers and experts. The Symposium also includes a College Admissions Panel and Keynote Speech. In our 8th edition of the Symposium this past March, we had 60 students presenting live, approximately 70 students presenting asynchronously, and over 100 audience members. The keynote speaker was Chang-rae Lee, award-winning novelist and professor at Stanford University.

We’re looking to have our 9th Symposium in Fall of 2023, and you can express your interest now. If you’re interested to see what our Polygence scholars have presented in the past for the Symposium, you can check out their scholar pages here.

Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS)

Deadline: Typically in November, so for 2024’s competition look to submit in Fall 2023

Subject area: STEM topics

JSHS is a Department of Defense sponsored program and competition that consists of first submitting a written report of your research. If your submission is selected, you’ll be able to participate in the regional symposium, where you can present in oral format or poster format. A select group from the regional symposium will then qualify for the national symposium.

One of the great things about JSHS compared to the journals mentioned above is that you’re allowed to work in teams and you don’t have to be a solo author. This can make the experience more fun for you and your teammates, and allow you to combine your strengths for your submission.

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• 11 min read

15 Journals to Publish Your Research in High School

Pursuing research at the high school level is one of the best ways for you to demonstrate co-curricular academic competence. Getting this study published is an added bonus because it will give your research a certain amount of credibility and backing.

High school students might find guidance on how to conduct their research, but very few are familiar with academic journals that publish high school research. This guide will give you recommendations on where to consider publishing your research. Regardless of your subject of interest, we have options for you here! However, before we get to the recommendations, let’s look at some points to keep in mind while deciding journals and why it is a good decision to publish.

Do I need to publish my research in high school?

Getting your research published is not a necessity. In fact, many of our students do not choose to get their work published and still manage to get into the top college programs across the world.

However, over the course of guiding students to top journals in the last few years, we have to come to see immense value in publication . We now recommend most of our students to aim for publication.

There are three reasons for this. Firstly, we believe that a researcher/scientist’s job is not just to study an area for individual curiosity, but also to communicate the findings to the rest of the world to enhance the understanding of a particular topic. Expanding the frontiers of human knowledge is one of the goals that researchers should strive towards. Secondly, the process of getting research published itself is a whole experience. It is the closest feeling you will get to being a scientist at the high school level. Having your work critically reviewed by Ph.D. researchers in your field is a great learning experience as it will point out the academic loopholes in your work. It has the potential to make you a better student. Incorporating that feedback and communicating with the editorial team is another aspect of this valuable experience.

Finally, getting your work published gives your work credibility to the external world. Whether it is a college application or a summer program, we believe the research that is published will make a stronger impression than unpublished research.

What to look for in a high school research journal?

Deciding what journal works best for you can be confusing if you are new to academic publishing. In this section, we will give you a brief overview of three factors you can take into consideration when deciding what journal works best for you.

First, for many students, prestige is the most important factor when deciding where to submit their research . For STEM students, this preference might lead them to the Columbia Junior Science Journal whereas, for humanities students, the preference might lead to The Concorde Review as the first choice. However, an important thing to keep in mind regarding this preference is that your choice for the most prestigious journal should be followed by the highest quality research . Similar to how unless you have a good profile, applying to Harvard might just end up wasting money and time!

Secondly, the nature of research is another important parameter to be aware of. One of the first things that we ask our Publication Program students is about the nature of research and whether they are conducting original research or a literature review. Based on what the answer is, our recommendation can vary since some journals do not accept literature reviews.

Finally, the time taken to get published is another important metric that students should keep in mind. If you are somebody applying to college in November and are looking for potential journals for your research in August, we would not recommend journals like the Journal of Emerging Investigators which takes almost 7-8 months to publish research.

Now that we have seen the importance of getting published and what to keep in mind, let us look at some of our recommendations:

Journal of Emerging Investigators : The journal of emerging investigators is usually our top recommendation for students who are doing original research in STEM fields. JEI is particularly well known for its extensive review process that can take as long as 7-8 months. The most important thing to keep in mind is that JEI only accepts original hypothesis-driven research. Another important point is that while the JEI website is dominated by research in the STEM fields, they also accept research from other disciplines. For instance, if you conduct original research on financial markets or political preferences based on demographics, you can still submit with the help of these guidelines. Here is our extensive guide to publishing in JEI. Cost: $35 submission fee, need-based fee waiver is available Deadline: Rolling Subject area: STEM mainly but non-STEM is accepted if original research Type of research: Original hypothesis-based research Estimated acceptance rate: 70-75%

National High School Journal of Science : The NHSJS is run and peer-reviewed by high school students around the world, with a scientific advisory board of adult academics. The journal usually takes 1-2 months to decide whether to accept a submission and an additional editing process that lasts up to 1 month. NHSJS accepts practically all science and social science disciplines on a rolling basis. We usually recommend NHSJS as a backup journal given its relatively higher acceptance rate. Based on our experience of guiding students to NHSJS, we estimate that it has an acceptance rate of approximately 70%. Cost: $250 for publication Deadline: Rolling Subject area: All science and social science disciplines Type of research: Original research, literature review Estimated acceptance rate: 60-70%

International Journal of High School Research : IJHSR publishes high school student research work in behavioral and social sciences, technology, engineering, and math, both original research and literature review articles. Six issues are published each year. IJHSR has a rolling submissions window and has open access to the public. It is run by the nonprofit Terra Science and Education. A unique aspect of the IJHSR is that it requires you to contact and acquire 3 professors or post-doctoral scholars who agree to review your paper. This is a fairly time-consuming process, so if you’re aiming to publish in IJHSR, we would recommend that you get started on this early in your research process! Cost: $200 Deadline: Rolling Subject area: All science and social science subjects Type of research: Original Research, Literature Review Estimated acceptance rate: 20-30%

STEM Fellowship Journal : An open-access, peer-reviewed journal for scholarly research by high school and university students in the STEM fields, run by Canadian Science Publishing. The journal accepts original investigations, review articles, and "viewpoints", usually around 5 pages long. While SFJ is a great option, in our experience, we have noticed that the journal can often lag in terms of communication with the students who submit there. Also, while the journal previously reviewed articles on a 2-month timeline, this has extended to 4-5 months over 2022-2023. Please keep this in mind, especially if you are on a tight deadline! Cost: $400 Deadline: Rolling Subject area: All Scientific Disciplines Type of research: Hypothesis Driven Research, Review, Abstract, Original Research Estimated Acceptance Rate: 5-10%

Journal of Student Research : This is a multidisciplinary, and faculty-reviewed journal based in Houston, Texas that publishes research by high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. The journal publishes articles in an array of disciplines and in general, papers on all topics, ranging from applied to theoretical research in any discipline, are eligible for submission. The Journal of Student Research (JSR) is particularly popular among high school students due to the variety of research it accepts. Interested high school students can submit research projects, research articles/posters, review articles, and also AP Capstone Research to Journal of Student Research. We usually recommend students aim for a more selective journal as a target and in case that does not work out, the Journal of Student Research can be a good safety option. In our experience of guiding more than a hundred students through JSR, we believe that the Journal of Student Research (JSR) is best suited as a backup option due to its relatively high acceptance rate. However, please be wary of it’s long publishing timeline (around 6-7 months). Here is our guide to the Journal of Student Research. Cost: $50 to Submit and $200 Publication Cost (if accepted) Deadline: Fixed Deadlines in February, May, August, and November Subject area: All Academic Disciplines Type of research: All types of academic articles Estimated Acceptance Rate: 70-80%

Journal of High School Science : JHSS is a peer-reviewed STEM Journal that publishes research and ideas of high school students. JHSS is also best suited as a backup given its relatively high publication acceptance rate compared to options like STEM Fellowship Journal and Journal of Emerging Investigators. However, in our experience, for students looking for a more secure backup, we would recommend the NHSJS over the JHSS since the JHSS is slightly more selective compared to NHSJS. Cost: Free Deadline: Rolling Subject area: All science and social science subjects Type of research: Original Research, Literature Review Estimated acceptance rate: 20%

Stanford Intersect : Intersect is an international Science, Technology, and Society research journal run by undergraduate students at Stanford University and supported by the Program in STS at Stanford. It publishes research and scholarship on the social factors that shape research and invention. While the website states otherwise, Stanford Intersect does accept research from high school students on topics at the intersection of science, technology, and society. In our experience of guiding students to get published here, we rate this journal as extremely selective and only recommend this option to the best students that we have. We have also noticed that students using AI-based methods in research tends to do particularly well here. Cost: Free Deadline: Rolling Subject area: Science, Technology, and Society Type of research: Research Articles, Papers/Essays, Thesis Chapters, Book Reviews, Editorials, Interviews, Multimedia Estimated Acceptance Rate: < 5% (for high schoolers)

Young Scientist Journal : Young Scientist is another publication that recognizes the achievements of high school scientists. It is published by the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach, a group that works in the field of scientific and technological literacy through the establishment of unique partnerships between Vanderbilt University scientists, K-12 educators and students, and the local and global science community. At Lumiere, YSJ is another one of our selective recommendations for students who are producing the highest quality of research. Cost: Free Deadline: December Subject area: Sciences Type of research: Original research, literature review Estimated Acceptance Rate: 10-15%

The Concord Review : The Concord Review is a quarterly journal publishing history essays by high school students. It is the most prestigious journal for high school students in the social sciences. Its prestige comes from its high level of selectivity (currently less than 5%), focus on quality, and long track record of winners going on to top universities. The quality of the published papers is also very high, with the average length of papers in the past year at 9000 words. A qualitative assessment of the quality of the papers also indicates significant time invested and a high level of writing. We have covered this in a lot more detail in a separate post here . Cost: $50 to Submit and $200 Publication Cost (if accepted) Deadline: Fixed Deadlines in February, May, August, and November Subject area: All Academic Disciplines Type of research: All types of academic articles Estimated Acceptance Rate: < 5 %

Schola : Schola is a quarterly journal of humanities and social sciences essays written by high school students worldwide. They publish essays on wide-ranging topics in humanities and social sciences. The Schola accepts essays written on topics in philosophy, history, art history, English, economics, public policy, and sociology. Essay topics and questions must be academic, answerable, and specific to be sufficiently examined in an essay of 4,000-5,000 words. Published essays and their authors are announced in the first week of each issue month: March, June, September, and December. A subscription provides access to all journals in the Archives. Schola is one of our top recommendations for students interested in the social sciences/humanities due to its rigorous review process and selectivity. The quality of work published is also very high. Cost: $120 Deadline: Rolling Subject area: Humanities Type of research: Literature (review/critique, poem, prose), research papers, art (illustration, photography), editorials. Estimated Acceptance Rate: 20%

Hope Humanities Journal : HOPE is an online humanities platform for everyone interested in the humanities. It provides an international and non-profit academic platform, with the mission of advocating for the humanities and recognizing young writers’ achievements. They accept literature (poem, prose), research papers, art (illustration, photography), and editorials. Papers are accepted on a "rolling admission" basis and issues are published on a two-month-per-issue* basis. Submitted works are eligible for at least the next two issues. HOPE is another one of our go-to options for Humanities students after the Schola. Cost: $100 Deadline: Rolling Subject area: Humanities Type of research: Literature (review/critique, poem, prose), research papers, art (illustration, photography), editorials. Estimated Acceptance Rate: 30%

Open Journal of Business and Managemen t (OJBM) : OJBM is an international journal dedicated to the latest advancement in the study of business and management. The goal of this journal is to provide a platform for scientists and academicians all over the world to promote, share, and discuss various new issues and developments in different areas of business and management. We recommend OJBM as a good option for students interested in the field of business studies and management. It is one of the few journals that accept research in business and management from high school students. An important thing to keep in mind is that there is a distinction between business and economics that we are making here i.e. many concepts of economics might not be included within the realm of business. Hence, if you are doing research on financial markets, IJHSR or JEI (mentioned above) might be better options. Cost: $299 Deadline: Rolling Subject area: Economics and Business Type of research: Most types of academic articles - reviews, original research, short reports Estimated Acceptance Rate: 15-20% (for high schoolers)

Curieux : The Curieux Academic Journal is a youth-led nonprofit founded in 2017 to publish research by high school and middle school students. They currently operate in California but have editors from across the nation. Submitting your paper to Curieux is a great way to get experience in the craft of academic writing. They are open to submissions from any academic subject including the sciences and humanities. They encourage all forms of academic writing including but not limited to research papers, review articles, and humanity/social science pieces. Each year, they publish twelve issues: once per month. At Lumiere, we usually recommend Curieux as a backup publication for students pursuing research in the social sciences and humanities since they have a relatively higher acceptance rate. Cost: $150 Deadline: Rolling Subject area: Engineering, Humanities, and Natural Science, Mathematics, and Social Science Type of research: Including but not limited to research papers, review articles, and humanity/social science pieces. Estimated Acceptance Rate: 60-70%

Journal of Research High School : The Journal of Research High School (JRHS) is an open-access online research journal that aims at publishing academic work prepared exclusively by high school researchers. JRHS publishes across science to social science. They publish biannually but release publications each month! For the publication at JRHS, in general, there are four processes of publication such as original formatting and plagiarism check, peer review, revision, and editorial decision. Each process has a different timeline but in general, the overall turnover timeline is approximately 3 - 6 months. Cost: $100 Deadline: Rolling Subject area: Any academic subject including the sciences and humanities Type of research: Original research and significant literature reviews. Estimated Acceptance Rate: 30%

Walt Whitman Journal of Psychology : The WWJOP is an entirely student-led publication in which high-school student-conducted research and literature reviews in the field of psychology are recognized. The Journal reaches hundreds of schools and psychology students around the world and is published bi-annually and electronically. We have found WWJOP to be a fantastic option for Psychology students given that it offers a specialized publication in Psychology at the high school level. It is one of the few journals at this level to offer a subject specialization. Cost: Free Deadline: Rolling Subject area: Psychology Type of research: Original Research, Analysis Pieces, Letters Estimated acceptance rate: 20-30%

Lumiere Research Scholar Program

If you want to build your own independent research paper and get it published, then consider applying to the Lumiere Research Scholar Program . Last year over 2100 students applied for about 500 spots in the program. You can find the application form here.

You can see our admission results here for our students.

Manas is a publication strategy associate at Lumiere Education. He studied public policy and interactive media at NYU and has experience in education consulting.

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Academic Stress Interventions in High Schools: A Systematic Literature Review

• Open access
• Published: 04 March 2024

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• Tess Jagiello 1 ,
• Jessica Belcher 1 ,
• Aswathi Neelakandan 1 ,
• Kaylee Boyd 1 &
• Viviana M. Wuthrich 1  

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The experience of academic stress is common during high school and can have significant negative consequences for students’ educational achievement and wellbeing. High school students frequently report heightened levels of school-related distress, particularly as they approach high-stakes assessments. Programs designed to reduce or prevent academic stress are needed, and their delivery in school settings is ideal to improve treatment access. The current review aimed to examine the effectiveness of high school-based programs in reducing or preventing academic stress. A systematic search returned 31 eligible studies across 13 countries. Programs were categorised according to intervention type, format, and facilitator. Results showed that the methodological quality of most studies was poor, and many used an inactive control group. As predicted by theories of academic stress, the strongest evidence was for programs grounded in cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). There was evidence that both universal and targeted approaches can be beneficial. The unique implementation issues for these two formats are discussed. Most programs were delivered by psychologists and were generally effective, but almost all of these were CBT programs. A smaller proportion of programs delivered by teachers were effective. Therefore, future studies should evaluate the implementation success of programs to improve the rate of effective delivery by school staff. Overall, the field will benefit from more randomised controlled trials with comparisons to active control groups, larger sample sizes and longer-term follow-ups.

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Introduction

Academic stress is defined as the transient experience of pressure, anxiety, or distress related to achieving academic goals [ 1 ]. Theoretically, students experience academic stress when they are concerned about their capacity to cope with academic challenges [ 2 ]. Test anxiety, which originally was narrowly defined as the fear of taking tests or exams [ 3 ], has been shown to strongly overlap with academic stress [ 4 ] and anxiety disorders [ 5 ], and as such, most of the research on academic stress has come from literature examining test anxiety. This research has consistently shown that test anxiety is comprised of two components: academic-related worry (intrusive and repetitive thoughts about failing) and emotionality (emotional distress and physiological tension) (see [ 6 ]. Models of test anxiety (e.g. [ 7 , 8 ] predict that cognitive factors (such as negative self-beliefs, low self-efficacy, and appraisal of situations as threatening) and unhelpful study behaviours (such as avoidance and sabotage) are important factors in maintaining academic anxiety. Consistent with this, structural equation modelling has shown that high school students with more realistic cognitions, higher academic self-efficacy, and better coping strategies in response to stress experienced less test anxiety and performed better in their examinations [ 9 ]. A recent review of 60 studies found that similar factors were related to increased academic stress among high school students, including higher trait anxiety, worry about failure, perfectionism, avoidant coping, and lower academic confidence and resilience [ 4 ].

Addressing academic stress in school students is important given its potentially serious impact on educational attainment and wellbeing. High levels of academic stress are associated with poorer examination performance, mental wellbeing, affect, sleep, confidence, motivation, and even physical health [ 1 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. In samples of Australian high school students, severity and prevalence of academic stress is a cause for concern. Academic anxiety has been shown to be significantly higher for students in later high school grades relative to lower grades [ 14 , 15 ], particularly when students are faced with “high-stakes” examinations at the end of high school education that are associated with entrance ranks into university courses [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. National and international research has revealed that coping with school-related stress is a primary concern for high school students [ 20 ], with approximately 20% reporting very high levels of stress in the final years of high school [ 4 , 21 ], which increases throughout the final year of school [ 21 ]. Taken together, this data highlights the need for interventions to target academic stress specifically in high school students who are faced with high-stakes assessments and who experience increasing levels of stress.

Academic stress interventions can be made more accessible by delivering programs in the school setting [ 22 , 23 ]. School-based programs are endorsed by the school, delivered on school grounds, during class time, or as an after-school activity, and can be run in group or individual format. Universal programs are delivered to an entire class or grade (usually as part of the school curriculum) regardless of whether students are currently experiencing distress. Therefore, universal programs are sometimes referred to as a “preventative” approach. Targeted programs can be selective or indicated, which are provided to students at increased risk of developing an anxiety disorder (i.e., with particular risk factors) or to students with symptoms of distress (i.e., scoring above a cut-off on a self-report measure, or identified by school staff as distressed).

To date, previous literature reviews have not examined the effectiveness of school-based interventions to reduce academic stress in high school students. Some reviews have been conducted to evaluate mental health promotion or prevention programs (for a range of mental disorders) in schools, however they did not focus exclusively on programs designed to target academic stress [ 22 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]. A small number of reviews have investigated the effectiveness of test anxiety/stress-management interventions for school-aged children, but none specifically in high school students [ 31 , 32 , 33 ]. Common findings across these reviews were that targeted and universal programs have both led to reduced distress, programs were most often delivered by trained professionals (but some had been successfully delivered by teachers), and programs teaching cognitive-behavioural strategies were the most studied and had the strongest evidence for reducing anxiety.

A specialised review of the literature is needed on whether programs specifically for academic-related stress can be implemented effectively in schools for high school students, as this is the peak period for academic stress. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic review to focus exclusively on school-based programs for academic stress (including, but not limited to, test anxiety) in high school students. The aim of the current review was to better understand which types of interventions are effective and the characteristics that may alter effectiveness. From previous literature and models of academic stress, it was hypothesised that interventions which targeted theorised and known factors contributing to heightened stress (such as negative thoughts and unhelpful coping styles) would be most likely to be effective. It is anticipated that the results from this review will assist schools to select evidence-based programs that help students better manage the demands and stresses of high school.

Search Strategy

A systematic literature search was conducted using the databases, PsycINFO (American Psychological Association) 1806 to March 2023 and Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC; Institute of Education Sciences) 1966 to March 2023. Keywords were developed to capture school-based stress reduction or prevention programs for high school students: [program OR intervention OR training OR promotion] AND [stress or anxiety or academic stress or test anxiety] AND [school OR high school OR secondary school OR senior school OR school based OR classroom] AND [student* OR adolescent* OR child*] AND [target* OR universal OR at risk OR prevent* OR reduction OR reduce]. Results were limited to studies published in English peer-reviewed journals. This search returned a total of 2,871 articles.

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

Studies had to meet the following criteria to be included: (a) participants were high school students; (b) the intervention was school-based; (c) the intervention primarily aimed to reduce or prevent school-related stress or anxiety (i.e., the authors specifically stated that the intervention targeted academic or school-related stress, the authors noted details of the intervention that included reference to academic or school-related stress or the authors included a measure of academic or school-related stress pre- and post-intervention); (d) a primary outcome measure included students’ level of stress or anxiety, measured at both pre- and post-intervention; (e) the intervention group was compared statistically to a control group in a randomised controlled trial. All types of interventions were eligible (e.g., physical, psychological, educational) and the intervention could either be targeted or universal. Given that Australian high schools include grades 7 to 12, studies that reported on “middle school” students in grades 7 or above were included. Similarly, studies that included both primary and high school students were included if they reported subgroup analyses for high school students. Studies were excluded if they did not meet the inclusion criteria, or if: (a) subgroup analyses were not reported for high school students; (b) the intervention primarily aimed to reduce or prevent non-academic stress or an anxiety disorder (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder), mood disorder, or a problem behaviour (e.g., drug use, truancy); (c) the study was a review or research protocol.

Study Selection and Data Extraction

Using Covidence Systematic Review Management Software, articles were screened first by their title and abstract, and then by full text with regards to the above criteria by two authors (TJ, JB). From the database search, 31 articles met the eligibility criteria and were included in this review. An additional 5 articles sourced from reference lists were also found to be relevant, however only 2 met inclusion criteria and were included [ 34 , 35 ]. Details regarding the study selection process are reported in Fig.  1 , based on the PRISMA guidelines [ 36 ]. The following data was extracted for the 31 included articles, which can be found in Table  1  (targeted interventions) and Table 2 (universal interventions): (a) sample characteristics including size, age, grade, school and country; (b) intervention and comparison group; (c) program format (i.e., targeted or universal) and treatment type; (d) program facilitator and number of sessions; (e) outcome measures of distress; (f) summary of results related to stress or anxiety including effect size. Studies in which students self-selected to engage in a program (but did not require a set level of symptoms) were considered targeted interventions, as the students likely believed it would be helpful to reduce symptoms.

PRISMA flow diagram

Methodological Quality

The quality of studies was evaluated by two authors using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP, 2018), which includes a checklist for rating cohort studies. Based on this checklist, studies were scored according to five quality criteria; (a) explored a focused issue; (b) included an appropriate sample; (c) used outcome measures that were unlikely to be biased; (d) used an appropriate design and considered confounds; (e) analysed and interpreted results appropriately. Table 3 presents the quality ratings for each study, as meeting or not meeting the criteria (or unclear).

Studies were conducted across 13 different countries: United States of America (n = 8), United Kingdom (n = 4), Australia (n = 3), Canada (n = 3), Netherlands (n = 3), China (n = 2), Switzerland (n = 2), Finland (n = 1), India (n = 1), Israel (n = 1), Jordan (n = 1), Kenya (n = 1) and Romania (n = 1). Seventeen studies evaluated a targeted intervention whereas 14 studies evaluated a universal intervention.

Outcome Measures

A wide variety of self-report measures were used to assess changes in academic stress and anxiety across studies. The most used measure included the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; [ 87 ]) which was used in six studies to measure anxiety [ 35 , 40 , 45 , 58 , 65 , 71 ]. This was followed by the Spielberger Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI [ 57 ], or a variation of this measure, used in five studies [ 37 , 53 , 56 , 58 , 71 ]. The Revised Test Anxiety Scale (RTA [ 43 ], and Test Anxiety Scale for Children [ 60 ], 1978, [ 55 ] were used in four studies. Measures used less frequently were the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ [ 47 ], the Friedben Test Anxiety Scale (FTAS [ 64 ], Revised Childrens Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS [ 38 ], Symptoms of Stress Inventory [ 82 ] and the 7-item Anxiety Scale (GAD-7 [ 62 ], which were used in two or three studies each. There were several other measures that were used in one study, as seen in Tables  1  and 2 .

Intervention Format and Type

The 31 studies included in the review were categorised as targeted and universal by JB and TJ. Targeted interventions were run with a select cohort of students who typically scored above a certain cut-off indicating they were experiencing elevated symptoms or ‘vulnerability’ to anxiety or stress. Whereas universal interventions were run with all students regardless of their symptomology. Further, the primary treatment being evaluated in each study was classified into treatment type , this decision was made for each study according to the description of the intervention outlined by authors. The treatment type category, as well as a summary of treatment components, for each study can be seen in Tables  1 and 2 . Overall, the majority of the 31 studies evaluated programs that included teaching students cognitive and behavioural skills (i.e., CBT, 17 studies) including traditional CBT, as well as third wave CBT. Of the remaining studies, four examined Cognitive Bias Modification, and two studies each examined Mindfulness/Meditation (including hypnosis), Systematic Desensitisation, and Social Emotional Learning. Expressive Writing and Relaxation were evaluated by one study each. The outcomes of each study will be discussed below.

Targeted Interventions

There were 16 studies identified that targeted a particular sample of participants. Nine of these studies targeted a sample of students with high-test anxiety, three targeted a sample of students with high social anxiety and one study targeted students with a combination of high test and social anxiety (see Table  1 ). The remaining studies targeted a self-selected sample ([ 40 , 83 ], or sample with academic strengths or difficulties [ 39 , 50 ], and one study did not list why they deliberately chose the sample [ 42 ].

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

CBT focuses on modifying unhelpful thoughts, beliefs and behaviours known to maintain stress or anxiety. Studies were categorised as CBT if the primary intervention targeted both behaviours and cognitions to reduce academic stress or anxiety. Eight of the targeted programs used CBT including one Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; [ 50 ], one Stress Inoculation Training (SIT [ 40 ], and one Behaviour Modification program that also included a focus on cognitions [ 58 ]. Of these eight studies, six found a significant reduction in students’ academic stress or anxiety immediately following CBT, compared to a waitlist control group with studies reporting large effect size reductions on measures of test anxiety [ 51 , 58 , 59 , 72 ] and small effect size reductions on measures of general stress [ 83 , 50 ]. Further, follow-up treatment effects were found to be sustained two months post-treatment [ 40 ] and three months post treatment [ 83 , 58 ], however Van der Ploeg and Van der Ploeg-Stapert [ 58 ] did not report any statistical analyses for their finding, and no effect sizes were reported for any of the follow-up comparisons. Studies have also indicated CBT programs specifically targeted at reducing academic stress or anxiety have led to a decrease in symptoms of clinical disorders such as panic disorder and generalised anxiety disorder [ 72 ] as well as posttraumatic stress disorder [ 59 ]. The above findings have relied on self-report measures, [ 83 ] included a third-party measure of student symptoms i.e., a teacher measure, however they failed to detect a change in teacher reported emotional problems among students post treatment. The study that did not find a significant change in academic stress or anxiety for the CBT group post-treatment when compared to the waitlist control group [ 39 ] also trialled emotional freedom technique (EFT,tapping acupuncture points, and in contrast found the EFT group had a significantly greater change in anxiety pre- to post-intervention compared to waitlist control. Gaesser and Karan [ 39 ] acknowledged that their study was underpowered and that the lack of significant benefits for CBT might have been due to insufficient treatment dosage with only three treatment sessions delivered.

Systematic Desensitisation

Systematic desensitisation, which involves engaging in relaxation methods whilst visualising stressful scenarios, was analysed as a targeted approach in two studies [ 41 , 49 ]. Johnson et al. [ 41 ] focused on speech anxiety within the school context, whereas Laxer and Walker [ 49 ] focused on test anxiety, however both studies yielded positive results. Johnson et al. [ 41 ] found that the systematic desensitisation group and speech practice groups both experienced a significant decrease in speech anxiety post-treatment, compared to the no-treatment control group. Laxer and Walker [ 49 ] analysed four treatment groups (i.e., systematic desensitisation, relaxation alone, simulation alone, relaxation plus simulation), and compared these four treatment groups to an active control and non-active waitlist control. They found that the students in the systematic desensitisation and relaxation alone conditions experienced a significantly greater decrease in test anxiety compared to the students in the no treatment control condition at post-treatment.

Cognitive Bias Modification

The effectiveness of a cognitive-bias modification (CBM) program was evaluated in two randomised controlled trials [ 37 , 53 ]. Sud and Prabha [ 56 ] split their sample into those with high versus low test anxiety and compared the effectiveness of a three-session attention skills training (focused on modifying worry related to test anxiety) to relaxation training as well as two matched control groups. They found that high test anxiety participants in the attention skills training condition experienced a significant decrease in worry associated with test anxiety, and this was maintained at 4-week follow-up. However, there were no significant between group differences and no significant effects on state anxiety. Results from the second CBM trial were published in two papers [ 37 , 53 ]. de Hullu et al. and Sportel et al.’s CBM program consisted of a 10-week (2 × per week) computer-based intervention with tasks to shift students’ attention and interpretation biases. Results from Sportel et al. [ 53 ] revealed that test anxiety or social anxiety levels of students who received CBM were not significantly lower than students in a comparison CBT program (10 group sessions), or a no-intervention control condition, at any timepoint. In fact, CBT led to significantly greater reductions in test anxiety from pre-treatment to post-treatment, as well as 6-month and 12-month follow-up compared to no-treatment control. These results suggest that CBT was more beneficial than no-treatment, whereas CBM was not. However, de Hullu et al. [ 37 ] reported that the difference in symptoms for the CBT group compared to the CBM and control group, on measures of test anxiety and social anxiety, were no longer significant at 2-year follow-up. These studies suggests that treatments focused on modifying unhelpful cognitions alone, do not appear to be more effective in treating academic related stress or anxiety.

Other Programs

Other targeted programs that reported effective in treating academic stress or anxiety, were only examined in a single study. One randomised study provided some evidence that self-hypnosis significantly reduced test anxiety among highly test anxious students, compared to no intervention, and that this effect was maintained at 6-month follow-up [ 54 ]. Further, Shen et al. [ 52 ] reported that writing about positive emotions everyday led to a significantly greater decrease in test anxiety compared to neutral writing. One further study by Kamour and Altakhayneh [ 42 ] found that treatment aimed at improving social emotional learning, i.e., developing emotional intelligence related to school, led to a decrease in maths anxiety, however the quality rating for this study was poor (see Table  2 ).

Control Conditions

Most (i.e., 13 out of 16) targeted studies included a no intervention or waitlist control group [ 37 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 49 , 83 , 50 , 51 , 53 , 54 , 58 , 59 , 72 ]. Of these 13 studies, 11 found significant between group differences in favour of the treatment group, or a significant change in symptoms for the treatment group, but no effect for the control group. Of the two studies that found no effect between groups, one implemented CBM [ 37 ] and the other CBT [ 40 ]. Six studies [ 37 , 39 , 41 , 49 , 50 , 53 ] included alternative treatment groups as well as an inactive control group, and three of these compared online and face to face programs [ 37 , 50 , 53 ]. Of these six studies, none found a significant difference between target treatment and active control groups, although Laxer and Walker [ 49 ] did not report differences between active treatment groups as they focused on differences between treatment and inactive control groups. Three studies only included an active control group with no inactive control [ 42 , 52 , 56 ], and all three found significant differences in favour of the treatment compared to control group. Although, Sud and Prabha [ 56 ] did not find significant between group differences.

Universal Interventions

There were 15 studies that evaluated treatments to reduce academic stress and anxiety among a non-selected (universal) sample of students. See Table 2 .

Nine of the studies evaluating universal interventions examined the effectiveness of CBT [ 34 , 35 , 45 , 46 , 63 , 66 , 70 , 71 ]. Compared to results of studies investigating targeted CBT, studies investigating universal CBT were more mixed, with seven of the nine studies reporting a reduction in academic stress and anxiety post intervention or at follow-up [ 35 , 45 , 46 , 48 , 66 , 70 , 71 ], however one of these studies only reported a reduction in symptoms for students with high test anxiety [ 66 ].

Researchers have found that students who complete CBT as part of a universal treatment report lower anxiety and stress compared to control participants at post-treatment, as well as 4-week [ 45 ] and 3-month follow-up [ 35 ]. Effect size benefits were generally reported to be moderate. Further, although Lang et al. (2016, 2017 did not find a reduction in stress among students immediately following CBT, they reported a significant increase in emotion focused coping skills, and a reduction in stress relative to the control group at 6-month follow-up. Further, the effects of CBT aimed at reducing academic stress and anxiety may generalise to other psychological symptoms. Weems et al. [ 70 ] also examined test anxiety pre- to post-CBT among children exposed to Hurricane Katrina, they found a reduction in test anxiety in the treatment group compared to wait-list control. Further, Weems et al. [ 70 ] reported that PTSD symptoms within the CBT group significantly decreased, whereas those in the waitlist control group did not. However, Yahav and Cohen [ 71 ] examined the effect of CBT on test anxiety and state anxiety among Israeli Jewish and Israeli Arab students and they found that students in the CBT condition experienced a decrease in these symptoms compared to controls pre- to post-treatment. Although, the effect on test anxiety was most pronounced among Arab compared to Jewish students, possibly due to their higher reported test anxiety pre-treatment.

Other studies have been more mixed in terms of their findings regarding the effectiveness of universal CBT programs. Putwain et al. [ 66 ] found students with high test anxiety reported a reduction in test anxiety post CBT, however those with mild to low test anxiety did not. Further, Gregor et al. (2005) conducted a study evaluating the effectiveness of CBT alone, relaxation alone and a mix of CBT and relaxation, compared to a control condition. They found no significant difference between student reported anxiety pre- to post-treatment among students in these four conditions. However, they also included a teacher measure of anxiety and found that teachers rated students in the relaxation alone group as significantly less anxious compared to the CBT alone or control group. On both student and teacher measures, students in the mixed CBT and relaxation group had an increase in anxiety post-treatment, however these students started with lower anxiety ratings compared to the other groups indicating that CBT may be more beneficial for those with higher test anxiety, like findings from Yahav and Cohen [ 71 ] and Putwain et al. [ 66 ]. In line with findings from Gregor et al. (2005), Keogh et al. [ 34 ] also did not find that their CBT program decreased test anxiety, however they did report a decrease in mental ill-health among their sample following treatment compared to the control group.

Mindfulness and Meditation Programs

Mindfulness as a universal program was analysed in two studies [ 44 , 61 ]. Results from these studies indicate that mindfulness/meditation interventions aimed at reducing academic stress and anxiety were no more effective at reducing stress and anxiety symptoms compared to an active control condition. Frank et al. [ 61 ] reported no significant difference between the mindfulness group and usual health education control group for symptoms of anxiety or stress pre- to post-intervention. Further, Khalsa et al. [ 44 ] compared a yoga intervention with a focus on mindfulness to usual physical education class and reported no significant difference in anxiety or stress between these groups pre- to post-treatment.

Four authors analysed another type of intervention among a universal sample. Although these interventions are encouraging, they were only evaluated in one study each. Stanton [ 67 ] conducted a study of imagery/hypnosis compared to a no-treatment control, he reported that the intervention group experienced a decrease in self-reported stress pre- to post treatment, which was maintained at 6-month follow-up, whereas there was no change in stress for the control group over time. Hiebert et al. [ 65 ] randomly allocated students across Grade 8 to progressive muscle relaxation or an active control group (career education class), they reported that progressive muscle relaxation led to a reduction in trait anxiety compared to the active control condition. Wang et al. [ 69 ] implemented a social emotional learning intervention over 32 sessions among a large number of Chinese students (3,694 students) and compared this to a no-intervention control condition. They found a significant reduction in learning anxiety symptoms and school dropout among students in the intervention condition compared to control at post-treatment, but this reduction was not maintained at the 6-month follow-up. Another more recent study by Venturo-Conerly et al. [ 68 ] examined a novel one-treatment session approach that targeted cognitions across three conditions i.e., growth, gratitude, value affirmation, and compared these to a control condition i.e., study skills. They found that students in the value affirmation condition reported lower anxiety compared to the control intervention two weeks post intervention, however the other interventions had no effect on anxiety relative to the control condition.

Of the 15 universal studies, 12 included no intervention or waitlist control groups, whilst three studies included active control groups only [ 45 , 65 , 68 ]. When compared to no intervention or waitlist control groups, most studies (i.e., 9) found a significant difference between groups, or a significant reduction in symptoms among treatment groups but no reduction for control participants. The three studies that found no such differences trialled CBT [ 34 ] and Mindfulness/meditation [ 44 , 61 ]. Of the 12 studies that included no intervention or waitlist control groups, two also included active control groups [ 35 , 63 ], however only Szabo and Marian [ 35 ] found a significant effect between the treatment and both active and inactive control groups, in favour of the target treatment group. Of the three studies that included active control conditions only, two trialled CBT (i.e., [ 45 , 68 ] and one trialled PMR (i.e., [ 65 ], and all three studies found significant between group differences.

Intervention Facilitator

In 15 of the 31 studies, programs were delivered solely by psychologists or counsellors (school staff or external), 11 of the 15 studies were targeted rather than universal samples, and 10 of the 15 studies included CBT interventions as their primary treatment. All but one of the studies that were delivered by psychologists or counsellors reported significant reductions in anxiety or stress pre- to post-intervention. However, the study by Keogh et al. [ 34 ] that did not report a reduction in test anxiety reported a reduction in mental ill-health for students in the intervention group. Teachers delivered the program exclusively in six out of the 31 studies, five of these six studies were universal rather than targeted samples, and their modality was mixed, with three of the six studies including CBT as the intervention, and the other three studies including expressive writing, social and emotional learning, and mindfulness/meditation. Two of the six studies reported change in academic anxiety or stress pre- to post-intervention and these studies included expressive writing [ 52 ] social and emotional learning [ 69 ] interventions. One study reported a significant reduction in stress for the intervention compared to control group at 6-month follow-up [ 46 , 48 ], and one study reported significant reduction in test anxiety for highly test anxious students in the intervention group compared to control group [ 66 ], and both studies included a CBT based intervention. One study reported psychologists or teachers delivering CBT with a reduction in stress, and an increase in self-efficacy from pre- to post intervention for the intervention group. Professional instructors delivered a program in five studies and these programs were either CBT [ 39 , 50 , 72 ], mindfulness/meditation [ 44 ] or systematic desensitisation [ 49 ]. Such programs were effectively delivered to result in significant reduction in academic anxiety or stress in all but one study (i.e., mindfulness/meditation,[ 44 ]. In one study [ 68 ] lay providers delivered the program with limited success. Two studies [ 42 , 56 ] did not report the facilitator of the program.

The methodological quality of studies was varied, and only 10 of the 31 studies were of high quality i.e., meeting all five criteria (see Table  3 ). The most common problem was that studies lacked an adequate sample, for example they may have only sampled one class or school, which limits generalisability of their results (e.g., [ 40 , 46 , 48 ]. Some authors did not outline their aims, hypotheses, or primary outcome measures (e.g., [ 39 , 69 ], some used unvalidated measures (e.g., [ 50 ], and some did not consider potential confounds such as gender, school, timing of assessments (e.g., [ 44 , 65 ]. A few studies did not report enough detail in their results, for example the significance level of changes in means (e.g., [ 42 , 58 ], or adjust the p-value for the number of tests performed (e.g., [ 44 ]).

This systematic literature review aimed to examine the effectiveness of school-based academic stress programs in high school students. The review also aimed to understand delivery characteristics that may alter program effectiveness. In general, the results suggest that CBT programs delivered as a targeted approach had the most benefit, with large effect sizes reductions in test anxiety and small effect size reductions in general stress. The effectiveness of universal programs was more mixed, with the most evidence for CBT interventions which were associated with moderate effect size benefits. Although there was some preliminary evidence for programs using other interventional methods (e.g., systematic desensitisation, expressive writing), more research is needed to establish their efficacy.

In general, there was more support for interventions that used psychologists to deliver the program. However, this result may be conflated with the theoretical underpinnings of these interventions, which were typically CBT-based. There was some evidence that teachers were able to deliver programs successfully, and while it is possible that some teacher-led programs were ineffective due to low implementation fidelity (see [ 26 ], more research is needed to examine how adequately teachers adhered to the programs.

Universal Versus Targeted Approaches

Overall, results showed that both universal and targeted approaches to delivering academic stress programs can be beneficial. This is consistent with meta-analyses finding comparable effect sizes for universal and targeted school-based programs for anxiety disorders [ 29 ]. However, careful analysis of the included studies suggests that targeted treatment may be slightly more efficacious (e.g., [ 71 ]. Considering the pros and cons of each approach along with their unique implementation issues may assist schools in choosing whether to run a universal or targeted program with their students (see [ 26 , 29 ].

Universal programs have the appealing potential to help students who are already highly distressed and, at the same time, prevent distress from increasing to clinical levels in the future for other students. Not needing to screen students means less resources are required, and negative stigma is reduced (because students are not singled out). An inherent difficulty with universal programs, however, is that not all students will be distressed and require intervention. Which may be why results from randomised studies are not as strong i.e., these results are watered down as the intervention does nothing for these students because their distress is already low. Further, disengagement and drop-out may be likely for students who perceive the program to be irrelevant to them. A challenge for facilitators, then, is how to engage these students. A notable challenge is that if the program is to be facilitated by teachers, then a whole-school approach will require all school staff to be on board with the program, trained, supervised, and consistent in their delivery.

Targeted programs are usually delivered to a smaller number of students and therefore require fewer trained facilitators. As such, targeted programs can feasibly be delivered by external providers to place less demand on teachers. If time is an issue, targeted programs can be run as an after-school class, which would also be less disruptive. Some schools may choose targeted programs if they address specific difficulties that are prevalent in their student population, as opposed to universal programs that may address more general difficulties. Conversely, the targeted approach has some drawbacks. School staff may not have the expertise to identify symptoms of stress or anxiety in their students, and therefore may require more training. Moreover, teachers who facilitate targeted programs may not be adequately equipped to manage high-risk students and will likely need additional support.

Study Limitations

Conclusions drawn from the current review should be considered in light of its limitations. First, our search was limited to articles published in English, which meant most studies were conducted in developed countries. Therefore, the suitability of programs and schools’ access to resources necessary for their delivery may be different in developing countries, other international education systems or other cultures. Second, by limiting our results to studies published in peer-reviewed journals, it is possible that other publications of academic stress programs (e.g., in book chapters, school journals or educational reports) were not considered.

The overall quality of the studies included in this review was variable, with several weaknesses which limit the conclusions that can be made. Most studies compared the intervention to an inactive control (no intervention or waitlist) and so it is unclear if these interventions were more beneficial than non-specific treatment effects (Gallin & Ognibene, 2012). Only one of the targeted CBT interventions was compared to an active control group [ 39 ] and as such it is not clear whether CBT programs are better than active controls. Further, in most cases targeted intervention studies recruited participants who volunteered that they felt distressed rather than using cut-off scores to enrol only those students who had heightened symptoms. Other factors may also have created variability in the study’s results, such as the outcome measures used and the level of allocation to conditions (i.e. classes versus schools). Overall, this field of research will benefit from more high-quality studies that use random allocation, adequate sample sizes, validated measures, and comparison to active control conditions.

Future Directions

In line with theoretical models of academic stress, the findings support our hypothesis that the interventions most likely to be effective were programs that targeted known factors underlying and maintaining academic stress, namely irrational thoughts, and unhelpful study behaviours. While the CBT programs addressed some of the underlying factors, increased efficacy might come from more structured targeting of factors specific to academic stress, such as perfectionism and procrastination. Further improvements might come from integrating feedback from students or teachers. This could yield important information, such as whether certain strategies/skills are helpful, which could help to refine programs to their essential components and make them easier for teachers to deliver. Better screening tools with validated cut-offs are also needed to help school staff identify which students would benefit from targeted programs, as the targeted studies in this review were inconsistent in how they determined students with “high” stress/anxiety.

Given sufficient evidence base for CBT programs in targeting academic stress, future research should examine the implementation success in order to improve the rate of successful delivery and uptake as part of routine school activities. Implementation issues (e.g., adherence to a manual, consistency between facilitators, delivery style, and student engagement) can limit a program’s effectiveness [ 24 ]. Most of the studies included in the current review did not assess the program’s implementation success. Future researchers may do so using an implementation framework (for an example, see [ 79 ]). Some researchers have already done this for school-based CBT programs [ 81 ], physical activity programs [ 77 , 78 ] and mindfulness/Yoga programs [ 80 ], however more studies are needed.

It would also be interesting to examine other factors that may influence the effectiveness of academic stress programs, such as the timing of their delivery (i.e., to students in earlier versus later grades). For example, it would be useful for schools to know if programs are more relevant/beneficial when provided to students approaching the high-stakes assessments of their final year, a period typically associated with increased distress [ 4 , 73 ]. This should also include measurement and reporting of adverse events and drop-outs associated with different interventions. Furthermore, given that few studies in this review conducted a long-term follow-up, future studies should assess effectiveness over time to determine whether booster sessions are needed for students to maintain stress-management skills throughout high school.

This systematic literature review focused exclusively on school-based programs designed to reduce or prevent academic stress in high school students who are more likely to experience heightened distress due to increased academic pressures (such as high-stakes assessments). The findings showed that a variety of programs exist but more high-quality studies are needed. The best evidence was for programs grounded in cognitive-behavioural therapy, supporting theoretical understandings of the factors that maintain and exacerbate academic stress. While universal and targeted approaches are both likely to be beneficial, more research is needed to understand how the implementation success of these programs can be improved, particularly when delivered by teachers.

Availability of Data and Materials

All data is available in the published literature of the primary source. The composition of the data is available from the authors.

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Jagiello, T., Belcher, J., Neelakandan, A. et al. Academic Stress Interventions in High Schools: A Systematic Literature Review. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-024-01667-5

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Harvard educational review.

Edited by Maya Alkateb-Chami, Jane Choi, Jeannette Garcia Coppersmith, Ron Grady, Phoebe A. Grant-Robinson, Pennie M. Gregory, Jennifer Ha, Woohee Kim, Catherine E. Pitcher, Elizabeth Salinas, Caroline Tucker, Kemeyawi Q. Wahpepah

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Journal Information

• ISSN: 0017-8055
• eISSN: 1943-5045
• Keywords: scholarly journal, education research
• First Issue: 1930
• Frequency: Quarterly

Description

The Harvard Educational Review (HER) is a scholarly journal of opinion and research in education. The Editorial Board aims to publish pieces from interdisciplinary and wide-ranging fields that advance our understanding of educational theory, equity, and practice. HER encourages submissions from established and emerging scholars, as well as from practitioners working in the field of education. Since its founding in 1930, HER has been central to elevating pieces and debates that tackle various dimensions of educational justice, with circulation to researchers, policymakers, teachers, and administrators.

Our Editorial Board is composed entirely of doctoral students from the Harvard Graduate School of Education who review all manuscripts considered for publication. For more information on the current Editorial Board, please see here.

A subscription to the Review includes access to the full-text electronic archives at our Subscribers-Only-Website .

Editorial Board

2023-2024 Harvard Educational Review Editorial Board Members

Maya Alkateb-Chami Development and Partnerships Editor, 2023-2024 Editor, 2022-2024 [email protected]

Maya Alkateb-Chami is a PhD student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research focuses on the role of schooling in fostering just futures—specifically in relation to language of instruction policies in multilingual contexts and with a focus on epistemic injustice. Prior to starting doctoral studies, she was the Managing Director of Columbia University’s Human Rights Institute, where she supported and co-led a team of lawyers working to advance human rights through research, education, and advocacy. Prior to that, she was the Executive Director of Jusoor, a nonprofit organization that helps conflict-affected Syrian youth and children pursue their education in four countries. Alkateb-Chami is a Fulbright Scholar and UNESCO cultural heritage expert. She holds an MEd in Language and Literacy from Harvard University; an MSc in Education from Indiana University, Bloomington; and a BA in Political Science from Damascus University, and her research on arts-based youth empowerment won the annual Master’s Thesis Award of the U.S. Society for Education Through Art.

Jane Choi Editor, 2023-2025

Jane Choi is a second-year PhD student in Sociology with broad interests in culture, education, and inequality. Her research examines intra-racial and interracial boundaries in US educational contexts. She has researched legacy and first-generation students at Ivy League colleges, families served by Head Start and Early Head Start programs, and parents of pre-K and kindergarten-age children in the New York City School District. Previously, Jane worked as a Research Assistant in the Family Well-Being and Children’s Development policy area at MDRC and received a BA in Sociology from Columbia University.

Jeannette Garcia Coppersmith Content Editor, 2023-2024 Editor, 2022-2024 [email protected]

Jeannette Garcia Coppersmith is a fourth-year Education PhD student in the Human Development, Learning and Teaching concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A former public middle and high school mathematics teacher and department chair, she is interested in understanding the mechanisms that contribute to disparities in secondary mathematics education, particularly how teacher beliefs and biases intersect with the social-psychological processes and pedagogical choices involved in math teaching. Jeannette holds an EdM in Learning and Teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she studied as an Urban Scholar and a BA in Environmental Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ron Grady Editor, 2023-2025

Ron Grady is a second-year doctoral student in the Human Development, Learning, and Teaching concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His central curiosities involve the social worlds and peer cultures of young children, wondering how lived experience is both constructed within and revealed throughout play, the creation of art and narrative, and through interaction with/production of visual artifacts such as photography and film. Ron also works extensively with educators interested in developing and deepening practices rooted in reflection on, inquiry into, and translation of the social, emotional, and aesthetic aspects of their classroom ecosystems. Prior to his doctoral studies, Ron worked as a preschool teacher in New Orleans. He holds a MS in Early Childhood Education from the Erikson Institute and a BA in Psychology with Honors in Education from Stanford University.

Phoebe A. Grant-Robinson Editor, 2023-2024

Phoebe A. Grant-Robinson is a first year student in the Doctor of Education Leadership(EdLD) program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her ultimate quest is to position all students as drivers of their destiny. Phoebe is passionate about early learning and literacy. She is committed to ensuring that districts and school leaders, have the necessary tools to create equitable learning organizations that facilitate the academic and social well-being of all students. Phoebe is particularly interested in the intersection of homeless students and literacy. Prior to her doctoral studies, Phoebe was a Special Education Instructional Specialist. Supporting a portfolio of more than thirty schools, she facilitated the rollout of New York City’s Special Education Reform. Phoebe also served as an elementary school principal. She holds a BS in Inclusive Education from Syracuse University, and an MS in Curriculum and Instruction from Pace University.

Pennie M. Gregory Editor, 2023-2024

Pennie M. Gregory is a second-year student in the Doctor of Education Leadership (EdLD) program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Pennie was born in Incheon, South Korea and raised in Gary, Indiana. She has decades of experience leading efforts to improve outcomes for students with disabilities first as a special education teacher and then as a school district special education administrator. Prior to her doctoral studies, Pennie helped to create Indiana’s first Aspiring Special Education Leadership Institute (ASELI) and served as its Director. She was also the Capacity Events Director for MelanatED Leaders, an organization created to support educational leaders of color in Indianapolis. Pennie has a unique perspective, having worked with members of the school community, with advocacy organizations, and supporting state special education leaders. Pennie holds an EdM in Education Leadership from Marian University.

Jennifer Ha Editor, 2023-2025

Jen Ha is a second-year PhD student in the Culture, Institutions, and Society concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research explores how high school students learn to write personal narratives for school applications, scholarships, and professional opportunities amidst changing landscapes in college access and admissions. Prior to doctoral studies, Jen served as the Coordinator of Public Humanities at Bard Graduate Center and worked in several roles organizing academic enrichment opportunities and supporting postsecondary planning for students in New Haven and New York City. Jen holds a BA in Humanities from Yale University, where she was an Education Studies Scholar.

Woohee Kim Editor, 2023-2025

Woohee Kim is a PhD student studying youth activists’ civic and pedagogical practices. She is a scholar-activist dedicated to creating spaces for pedagogies of resistance and transformative possibilities. Shaped by her activism and research across South Korea, the US, and the UK, Woohee seeks to interrogate how educational spaces are shaped as cultural and political sites and reshaped by activists as sites of struggle. She hopes to continue exploring the intersections of education, knowledge, power, and resistance.

Catherine E. Pitcher Editor, 2023-2025

Catherine is a second-year doctoral student at Harvard Graduate School of Education in the Culture, Institutions, and Society program. She has over 10 years of experience in education in the US in roles that range from special education teacher to instructional coach to department head to educational game designer. She started working in Palestine in 2017, first teaching, and then designing and implementing educational programming. Currently, she is working on research to understand how Palestinian youth think about and build their futures and continues to lead programming in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. She holds an EdM from Harvard in International Education Policy.

Elizabeth Salinas Editor, 2023-2025

Elizabeth Salinas is a doctoral student in the Education Policy and Program Evaluation concentration at HGSE. She is interested in the intersection of higher education and the social safety net and hopes to examine policies that address basic needs insecurity among college students. Before her doctoral studies, Liz was a research director at a public policy consulting firm. There, she supported government, education, and philanthropy leaders by conducting and translating research into clear and actionable information. Previously, Liz served as a high school physics teacher in her hometown in Texas and as a STEM outreach program director at her alma mater. She currently sits on the Board of Directors at Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America, a nonprofit organization working to diversify the leadership pipeline in the United States. Liz holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in higher education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Caroline Tucker Co-Chair, 2023-2024 Editor, 2022-2024 [email protected]

Caroline Tucker is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Culture, Institutions, and Society concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research focuses on the history and organizational dynamics of women’s colleges as women gained entry into the professions and coeducation took root in the United States. She is also a research assistant for the Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery Initiative’s Subcommittee on Curriculum and the editorial assistant for Into Practice, the pedagogy newsletter distributed by Harvard University’s Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning. Prior to her doctoral studies, Caroline served as an American politics and English teaching fellow in London and worked in college advising. Caroline holds a BA in History from Princeton University, an MA in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, and an EdM in Higher Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Kemeyawi Q. Wahpepah Co-Chair, 2023-2024 Editor, 2022-2024 [email protected]

Kemeyawi Q. Wahpepah (Kickapoo, Sac & Fox) is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Culture, Institutions, and Society concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Their research explores how settler colonialism is addressed in K-12 history and social studies classrooms in the United States. Prior to their doctoral studies, Kemeyawi taught middle and high school English and history for eleven years in Boston and New York City. They hold an MS in Middle Childhood Education from Hunter College and an AB in Social Studies from Harvard University.

Submission Information

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Contact Information

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Individual subscriptions must have an individual name in the given address for shipment. Individual copies are not for multiple readers or libraries. Individual accounts come with a personal username and password for access to online archives. Online access instructions will be attached to your order confirmation e-mail.

Institutional rates apply to libraries and organizations with multiple readers. Institutions receive digital access to content on Meridian from IP addresses via theIPregistry.org (by sending HER your PSI Org ID).

Online access instructions will be attached to your order confirmation e-mail. If you have questions about using theIPregistry.org you may find the answers in their FAQs. Otherwise please let us know at [email protected] .

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To order online via credit card, please use the subscribe button at the top of this page.

To order by phone, please call 888-437-1437.

Checks can be mailed to Harvard Educational Review C/O Fulco, 30 Broad Street, Suite 6, Denville, NJ 07834. (Please include reference to your subscriber number if you are renewing. Institutions must include their PSI Org ID or follow up with this information via email to [email protected] .)

Permissions

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Article Submission FAQ

Submissions, question: “what manuscripts are a good fit for her ”.

Answer: As a generalist scholarly journal, HER publishes on a wide range of topics within the field of education and related disciplines. We receive many articles that deserve publication, but due to the restrictions of print publication, we are only able to publish very few in the journal. The originality and import of the findings, as well as the accessibility of a piece to HER’s interdisciplinary, international audience which includes education practitioners, are key criteria in determining if an article will be selected for publication.

We strongly recommend that prospective authors review the current and past issues of HER to see the types of articles we have published recently. If you are unsure whether your manuscript is a good fit, please reach out to the Content Editor at [email protected] .

Question: “What makes HER a developmental journal?”

Answer: Supporting the development of high-quality education research is a key tenet of HER’s mission. HER promotes this development through offering comprehensive feedback to authors. All manuscripts that pass the first stage of our review process (see below) receive detailed feedback. For accepted manuscripts, HER also has a unique feedback process called casting whereby two editors carefully read a manuscript and offer overarching suggestions to strengthen and clarify the argument.

Question: “What is a Voices piece and how does it differ from an essay?”

Answer: Voices pieces are first-person reflections about an education-related topic rather than empirical or theoretical essays. Our strongest pieces have often come from educators and policy makers who draw on their personal experiences in the education field. Although they may not present data or generate theory, Voices pieces should still advance a cogent argument, drawing on appropriate literature to support any claims asserted. For examples of Voices pieces, please see Alvarez et al. (2021) and Snow (2021).

Question: “Does HER accept Book Note or book review submissions?”

Answer: No, all Book Notes are written internally by members of the Editorial Board.

Question: “If I want to submit a book for review consideration, who do I contact?”

Answer: Please send details about your book to the Content Editor at [email protected].

Manuscript Formatting

Question: “the submission guidelines state that manuscripts should be a maximum of 9,000 words – including abstract, appendices, and references. is this applicable only for research articles, or should the word count limit be followed for other manuscripts, such as essays”.

Answer: The 9,000-word limit is the same for all categories of manuscripts.

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Answer: Any references that identify the author/s in the text must be masked or made anonymous (e.g., instead of citing “Field & Bloom, 2007,” cite “Author/s, 2007”). For the reference list, place the citations alphabetically as “Author/s. (2007)” You can also indicate that details are omitted for blind review. Articles can also be blinded effectively by use of the third person in the manuscript. For example, rather than “in an earlier article, we showed that” substitute something like “as has been shown in Field & Bloom, 2007.” In this case, there is no need to mask the reference in the list. Please do not submit a title page as part of your manuscript. We will capture the contact information and any author statement about the fit and scope of the work in the submission form. Finally, please save the uploaded manuscript as the title of the manuscript and do not include the author/s name/s.

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Question: “can i be invited to submit a manuscript how”.

Answer: If you think your manuscript is a strong fit for HER, we welcome a request for invitation. Invited manuscripts receive one round of feedback from Editors before the piece enters the formal review process. To submit information about your manuscript, please complete the Invitation Request Form . Please provide as many details as possible. The decision to invite a manuscript largely depends on the capacity of current Board members and on how closely the proposed manuscript reflects HER publication scope and criteria. Once you submit the form, We hope to update you in about 2–3 weeks, and will let you know whether there are Editors who are available to invite the manuscript.

Review Timeline

Question: “who reviews manuscripts”.

Answer: All manuscripts are reviewed by the Editorial Board composed of doctoral students at Harvard University.

Question: “What is the HER evaluation process as a student-run journal?”

Answer: HER does not utilize the traditional external peer review process and instead has an internal, two-stage review procedure.

Upon submission, every manuscript receives a preliminary assessment by the Content Editor to confirm that the formatting requirements have been carefully followed in preparation of the manuscript, and that the manuscript is in accord with the scope and aim of the journal. The manuscript then formally enters the review process.

In the first stage of review, all manuscripts are read by a minimum of two Editorial Board members. During the second stage of review, manuscripts are read by the full Editorial Board at a weekly meeting.

Question: “How long after submission can I expect a decision on my manuscript?”

Answer: It usually takes 6 to 10 weeks for a manuscript to complete the first stage of review and an additional 12 weeks for a manuscript to complete the second stage. Due to time constraints and the large volume of manuscripts received, HER only provides detailed comments on manuscripts that complete the second stage of review.

Question: “How soon are accepted pieces published?”

Answer: The date of publication depends entirely on how many manuscripts are already in the queue for an issue. Typically, however, it takes about 6 months post-acceptance for a piece to be published.

Submission Process

Question: “how do i submit a manuscript for publication in her”.

Answer: Manuscripts are submitted through HER’s Submittable platform, accessible here. All first-time submitters must create an account to access the platform. You can find details on our submission guidelines on our Submissions page.

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High school students, frustrated by lack of climate education, press for change

Youth activists pushing for more climate education in Minnesota schools say working with peers to draft legislation gives them hope for a future under threat. (AP Video: Mark Vancleave)

B Rosas, left, Lucia Everist, center, and Libby Kramer, of Climate Generation, speak to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. The advocates called on the council, a liaison between young people and state lawmakers, to support a bill requiring schools to teach more about climate change. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

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Libby Kramer, left, Lucia Everist, center, and B Rosas, of Climate Generation, speak to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. The advocates called on the council, a liaison between young people and state lawmakers, to support a bill requiring schools to teach more about climate change. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Lucia Everist, of Climate Generation, center, speaks to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. The advocates called on the council, a liaison between young people and state lawmakers, to support a bill requiring schools to teach more about climate change. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

FILE - Water floods a damaged trailer park in Fort Myers, Fla., Oct. 1, 2022, after Hurricane Ian passed by the area. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

Minnesota Sen. Nicole Mitchell, left, sits with members of Climate Generation, from second left, B Rosas, Lucia Everist, Libby Kramer and Minnesota Rep. Larry Kraft, right, as they speak the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. The advocates called on the council, a liaison between young people and state lawmakers, to support a bill requiring schools to teach more about climate change. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Libby Kramer, of Climate Generation, right, speaks to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. The advocates called on the council, a liaison between young people and state lawmakers, to support a bill requiring schools to teach more about climate change. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

B Rosas, back left, Lucia Everist, back center, and Libby Kramer, back right, of Climate Generation, speak to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. The advocates called on the council, a liaison between young people and state lawmakers, to support a bill requiring schools to teach more about climate change. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Several dozen young people wearing light blue T-shirts imprinted with #teachclimate filled a hearing room in the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul in late February. It was a cold and windy day, in contrast to the state’s nearly snowless, warm winter.

The high school and college students and other advocates, part of group Climate Generation, called on the Minnesota Youth Council, a liaison between young people and state lawmakers, to support a bill requiring schools to teach more about climate change .

Ethan Vue, who grew up with droughts and extreme temperatures in California, now lives in Minnesota and is a high school senior pushing for the bill.

“I just remember seeing my classmates always sweating, and they’d even drench themselves in water from the water fountains,” Vue said in a phone interview, noting climate change is making heat waves longer and hotter, but they didn’t learn about that in school.

“The topic is brushed on. If anything, we just learn about, there’s global warming, the planet’s warming up.”

Libby Kramer, left, Lucia Everist, center, and B Rosas, of Climate Generation, speak to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

In places that teach to standards formulated by the National Science Teachers Association, state governments and other organizations, many kids learn about air quality, ecosystems, biodiversity and land and water in Earth and environmental science classes.

But students and advocates say that is insufficient. They are demanding districts, boards and state lawmakers require more teaching about the planet’s warming and would like it woven into more subjects.

Some states and school districts have moved in the opposite direction. In Texas , the board of education turned down books with climate information. In Florida, school materials deny climate change .

“Someone could theoretically go through middle school and high school without really ever acknowledging the climate crisis,” said Jacob Friedman, a high school senior in Florida who hasn’t learned about climate except for in elective classes. “Or even acknowledging that there is an issue of global warming.”

That’s bizarre to Friedman, who experienced firsthand when Hurricane Ian closed nearby schools and submerged homes in 2022.

A study conducted after the storm found that climate change added at least 10% more rain to Hurricane Ian. Experts also say hurricanes are intensifying faster because of the extra greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that are collecting heat and warming the oceans.

“What an unfair reality to have a young person graduate from high school,” said Leah Qusba, executive director of nonprofit Action for the Climate Emergency, “without knowing about the biggest existential threat that they’re going to face in their lifetime.”

Some places are adding more instruction on the subject. In 2020, New Jersey required teaching climate change at all grade levels. Connecticut followed, then California. More than two dozen new measures across 10 states were introduced last year, according to the National Center for Science Education.

Libby Kramer, of Climate Generation, right, speaks to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Where some proposals require teaching the basic science and human causes of climate change , the Minnesota bill goes further, requiring state officials to guide schools on teaching climate justice, including the idea that the changes hit disadvantaged communities harder .

Some legislators say they’ve heard from school administrators and teachers who say that goes too far.

“What was said to me is: ‘Why are we pushing a political perspective, a political agenda?’” Minnesota Rep. Ben Bakeberg, a Republican, said during a House Education Policy Committee hearing in March 2023. “That’s a reality.”

The bill didn’t advance in the 2023 session. Now it hasn’t this year either. Supporters say they will try again next year.

Aware of such opposition, some students interested in climate opt to campaign at their schools rather than through the legislative process.

Three years ago, floods destroyed Ariela Lara’s mom’s village in Oaxaca, Mexico, while they were visiting. Then Lara came home to California and was hit by smoke-filled skies caused by wildfires that pushed thousands to evacuate or be stuck inside for weeks.

Yet despite what she was seeing, Lara felt in school she was only taught about recycling and carbon footprints, a measure of a person’s personal greenhouse gas emissions.

So she went to the board of education.

“I had to really think about how I could go to the people in power to really rewrite the curriculum we were learning,” Lara said. “It would get so tiresome because for me, I was the one that was really trying to enforce it.”

By the time her school offered Advanced Placement Environmental Science, Lara was too senior to enroll in it. AP Enviro does cover climate change , according to the College Board, but it’s also more broad.

B Rosas, back left, Lucia Everist, back center, and Libby Kramer, back right, of Climate Generation, speak to the Minnesota Youth Council, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

When targeted efforts don’t work, some students feel they’re on their own.

For high school junior Siyeon Joo, climate education seems like a no-brainer where she lives in Lafayette, Louisiana, which was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and has been affected by several other intense storms and heat waves.

But Joo wasn’t exposed to climate change at her public middle school and an educator there once told her it wasn’t real.

“I remember sitting in that classroom,” the now-16-year-old said, “being really angry that that was the system that was being forced upon me at the time.”

It took enrolling in a private school for Joo to learn about these topics. Many students don’t have that option.

Experts say climate material could be worked into lessons without burdening schools or putting the onus on students. But much like with legislation, that will take time students say they don’t have.

“I was part of these communities that were really just affirming how much is at stake if we don’t take action,” said Lara, the student in California, recalling how important to her it would have been to receive education about her experiences. “You should be able to go to school and learn about the gravity which the climate crisis is at.”

Alexa St. John reported from Detroit and Doug Glass reported from St. Paul, Minn.

Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate solutions reporter. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @alexa_stjohn . Reach her at [email protected] .

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .

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Prom Dates review – grating high school comedy is a low-rent disaster

Junky romp from producer Kevin Hart sees two teens desperately search for prom dates with unfunny results

T here are good reasons why many American teens stress about prom: it’s expensive, heightened, fraught with status and identity; the photos will haunt you forever; it’s a coming-of-age milestone freighted with significance, thanks in part to countless films and TV shows in which teens stress about prom. To that canon there is now a new throwaway entry: Hulu’s Prom Dates, a cringeworthy comedy produced by Kevin Hart , which posits that in the year 2024, two seemingly self-possessed girls sincerely believe that having a prom date – any prom date, but especially a cool one – is the single most important thing in the world. That it’s the one reason to stay in a cartoonishly terrible relationship, or go on a fishing expedition in search of passable strangers to drag back for one night in high school.

This is just one of the many grating elements in Prom Dates, directed by Kim O Nguyen from a script by DJ Mausner. Others include, in no particular order: overuse of jokes, however well-meaning and couched in a razor-thin plot of acceptance, predicated on stereotypes of lesbians in lieu of cleverness; extremely off-putting, self-obsessed characters; overweening performances; gratuitous projectiles of vomit and/or blood as desperate bids for laughs; an overly hammy character named Greg (Kenny Ridwan) that queasily milks the stereotype of the emasculated, nerdy Asian male. (All of these issues recall the woefully ill-conceived HBO series Generation , a one-star review that haunts me, which is maybe part of the problem.)

The central issue, though, is that tunnel-vision on prom, which makes sense for some 13-year-olds, as Hannah (Julia Lester) and Jess (Antonia Gentry) are when they sneak under a table at the older kids’ dance and form a blood pact that they will help each other have the perfect future prom. That is the first scene of the movie – the nerdier Hannah’s blood oath goes horribly awry, of course – and still 90% of Jess’s character several years later. (The other 10% is liking Hannah’s brother (JT Neal), who looks and acts like a management consultant and to whom she secretly lost her virginity.) As a senior, Jess remains obsessed with becoming prom queen – so much so that she has spent some of her college fund on a custom prom gown and is dating Luca (Jordan Buhat), a sinister hunk rippling with rank one-note contempt. (He makes fun of Hannah’s size to both of their faces, for one.)

Hannah, meanwhile, is stuck in a sexless relationship that makes her skin crawl with the overly devoted, creepily romantic Greg (truly, poor Greg) because she is too afraid to come out as gay, for reasons thankfully beyond prom. But when Greg’s devotion spooks Hannah into literally running away, and Jess catches Luca cheating on her, the two are left dateless on prom eve. And because of the blood pact and the fact that Jess got a Brazilian, they go on a college party bender at Rutgers to find Hannah the lesbian date of her dreams and to find Jess literally anyone. At least they name a specific place; the film is otherwise the now-expected streaming service dump of overlit and hazy, lacking both a sense of place or of real teenagers.

Prom Dates takes clear inspiration from Netflix’s far superior Sex Education, talking frankly about being inside someone, fingering and prom night expectations. But whereas Sex Education grounded its heightened scenarios and zaniness (an alien sex musical, a teen sex therapist) in real teenage conundrums, curiosity and lust, Prom Dates finds only “I wasted 10 months of my life giving handjobs to a guy with a Glee bumper sticker” and the principal (John Michael Higgins) putting a condom on his head. Imagine Booksmart, including a drug trip and first encounter with a woman over one raucous night, without any of the charm or texture and with a side plot about an Italian guy looking for a human sacrifice at a college party. Jess goes for him anyway, because prom!

What sweetness and charm Prom Dates does muster is thanks to Lester alone, whose comic timing is sharp and whose performance of a girl growing comfortable in her sexuality over one crazy night actually conjures the sense of a real person. It’s a relief when Hannah ditches Jess’s inveterate prom scheming and stumbles out on her own. A standout from the underappreciated High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Lester brings heart and actual humor to what often feels like a cut-and-paste job of basic tropes with attempts of absurdism sutured on, such as a painfully unfunny turn by Chelsea Handler as Greg’s mom, who teaches her beloved dog to communicate by pressing labeled buttons.

Prom Dates is checkered with such stretches – a suspected lesbian on the softball team is so big she can’t fit in a car, for one literal tall tale – which exemplify this movie’s overall feeling of strain. Straining for prom, straining for laughs, straining to make something edgy or progressive. Straining the notions of comedy, and certainly one’s precious time.

Prom Dates is now available on Hulu in the US with a UK date to be announced

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May 3, 2024

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Positive school climate boosts high school grades, study finds

by University of California - Riverside

A study led by a UC Riverside graduate student has found that Latino high school students achieve higher grades when they perceive a more positive school climate and when they have a stronger sense of self-esteem.

Published in the Journal of Hispanic Higher Education , the study also found that a strong sense of ethnic identity contributed to better self-esteem. It suggests that supportive and inclusive school environments contribute to academic success. The paper is titled "Predicting Academic Success Using a Critical Approach: The Impact of Campus Climate, Ethnic Identity, and Self-Esteem Among Latinx High School Students."

"There's kind of a domino effect of climate having a predictive effect on self-esteem, and self-esteem then influencing grade point average ," said Jaqueline Dighero, the lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate in UCR's School of Education.

The researchers found a statistically significant increase in grades when students felt good about the school environment and had a better sense of self-esteem . For instance, a C+ student could go up to a B-.

The study was based on detailed surveys of 300 Latino 9th- and 10th-grade students attending a public high school in Southern California and an examination of the participants' grade transcripts.

The study recommends that schools address institutional and individual factors to improve the educational experiences of Latino students and hence improve school climate and academic success.

Schools should foster supportive and inclusive environments that promote students' emotional well-being and academic engagement; provide opportunities for students to explore and celebrate their ethnic identities; work to reduce biases and ensure equitable treatment of minoritized students; and address systemic barriers to their academic success , the authors assert.

Dighero said institutional barriers include teaching and administrative staff who are mostly white and Eurocentric curriculums that give advantages to white students from upper-class backgrounds. School districts should recruit more minority staff, and teachers should receive training to make their lessons more culturally relevant to their students, such as lessons on Chicano, Black, and Asian American history, art, and literature, they said.

"Inclusion training isn't necessarily happening in K-12 education," Dighero said. "It is more of a thing at the university level. Some teachers may say, "Oh, but I don't know how to be inclusive. I don't know how to include curricula from different backgrounds.'"

More inclusive curricula also benefit low-income white students because standard white English is based on the language of upper-middle-class and elite white families, Dighero said.

"It is not necessarily how white folks with low-income backgrounds also speak. Exclusive curriculums are not only affecting racially and ethnically marginalized people but also poor white students ," Dighero said.

Dighero also encourages school field trips to cultural centers and museums, such as the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture in Riverside.

Provided by University of California - Riverside

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Taylor Swift Plays ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Songs Live for the First Time at Paris Eras Tour Show

By Ellise Shafer

Ellise Shafer

• A. G. Cook on Creating His Own Form of ‘Britpop’ With Third Album, Producing Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ and the Future of Pop Music: ‘Anything Could Happen’ 2 days ago
• Taylor Swift Masterfully Reinvents the Eras Tour for Its European Version: See All the Changes 2 days ago
• Taylor Swift Plays ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Songs Live for the First Time at Paris Eras Tour Show 2 days ago

Eras Tour attendees, welcome to “ The Tortured Poets Department .”

At Taylor Swift ‘s Paris concert on Thursday night — the European kickoff of the record-breaking tour and her first show since the album’s release — the pop icon debuted several of the new songs live at La Défense Arena, starting with “But Daddy I Love Him.” She then sang “So High School” and “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me” standing atop a glass-plated block that moved around the stage. “Down Bad,” “Fortnight” and “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” followed, with “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” marking the finale of the segment.

Popular on Variety

After “1989,” new visuals incorporating clock imagery then signaled a transition into “The Tortured Poets Department.” Swift reemerged on-stage wearing a white dress with writing on it.

Taylor Swift performs "But Daddy I Love Him" at the Paris Eras Tour show. pic.twitter.com/wE6hdb4Tnm — Variety (@Variety) May 9, 2024

Taylor Swift performs "So High School" at her Paris Eras Tour show. pic.twitter.com/iOyXlGVUeA — Variety (@Variety) May 9, 2024

Taylor Swift performs "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" at the Paris Eras Tour show. pic.twitter.com/AH1MP0kRPz — Variety (@Variety) May 9, 2024

Following “The Tortured Poets Department” era, Swift performed “Paris” and “loml” as surprise songs during her acoustic set before concluding the show with her “Midnights” segment.

Ever since Swift announced that she’d be dropping a brand-new album in the middle of the Eras Tour, fans have been speculating as to how she would include it in the setlist . Some predicted the record would mark an entirely new era, while others thought she might just represent it within the surprise songs portion of the show.

“The Tortured Poets Department” earned critical praise as well, with Variety ‘s Chris Willman calling it “audacious” and “transfixing.” He wrote that the album “gives everyone a full dose of the never-getting-over-it Taylor that no one really wanted to get over. As breakup albums go, it’s a doozy, as they would have said back in Clara Bow’s day — an unapologetically dramatic (if often witty) record that will be soundtracking untold millions of tragic rifts to come.”

After three more dates in Paris, Swift continues the European leg of the Eras Tour in Stockholm, Sweden, before finishing with five dates in London in August.

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How Public School Leaders Upstaged Republicans and the Ivy League

Mixing it up a bit, schools leaders showed, can go far toward neutralizing a Congress with a craving to make a point.

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By Alan Blinder ,  Annie Karni and Dana Goldstein

Alan Blinder and Dana Goldstein cover education, and Annie Karni writes about Congress.

The House of Representatives is one of Washington’s most raucous forums, a free-for-all of personalities with profiles to raise and points to score.

But it turns out that the rough-and-tumble of steering a public school district — board sessions, P.T.A. meetings, battles over textbooks and discipline — may be sound preparation for the rough-and-tumble of testifying before the House. As public school leaders showed on Wednesday, mixing it up a bit can go far toward neutralizing a Congress with a craving for the spotlight.

Wednesday’s hearing was the latest in the House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s effort to scrutinize antisemitism on campuses and, along the way, castigate academic leaders. At earlier hearings, university presidents opted for strategies of conciliatory genuflection or drab, lawyerly answers . Both approaches largely backfired, stirring outrage on those presidents’ campuses and often beyond.

Both approaches were largely discarded on Wednesday.

“This convening, for too many people across America in education, feels like the ultimate gotcha moment,” David C. Banks, the New York City schools chancellor, said toward the hearing’s end. “It doesn’t sound like people who are actually trying to solve for something that I believe we should be doing everything we can to solve for.”

By then during the two-hour, Republican-led proceeding, Mr. Banks had seemingly put his law degree to use. He had pointedly debunked some claims: “We have found no evidence that that actually happened.” He acerbically dismissed a lawmaker’s pronouncement: “I’m sorry you feel that way.” And he suggested that maybe Congress was not always as pure as proclaimed: “We’ve had members of Congress who have made antisemitic statements.”

Down the witness table, Enikia Ford Morthel, the schools superintendent in Berkeley, Calif., corrected a congressman from her home state, seemed unbothered by the members’ pressure to discuss personnel matters in a way that would defy California law on employee confidentiality, and all but diagramed a rambling question about discipline she said had left her “confused.”

The tactics represented a sharp departure from the norms of Capitol Hill, where legislators generally handle the browbeating during made-for-television hearings.

There are exceptions. Last year, Senator Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma, invited the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to “stand your butt up” and fight. The union leader, Sean O’Brien, threw back the same dare. It fell to Senator Bernie Sanders, at 82, to rap his gavel and prevent a Senate hearing from including literal fisticuffs.

But in two House education committee hearings, university leaders had been solicitous of Congress, or at least stoic. Wednesday’s hearing was the first time during this particular inquest that witnesses so consistently challenged their interrogators.

Christopher Armstrong, a lawyer with Holland & Knight who represents clients through congressional investigations and oversight hearings, said he did not generally encourage combativeness before Congress.

“I can’t imagine a situation where it helps you,” he said, though he conceded that Wednesday’s hearing had perhaps proved just such a situation.

Indeed, Mr. Banks, who became chancellor in 2022, sounded much like a pleased, grizzled New Yorker after the hearing. Like the other leaders testifying with him, he had been tested by ferocious debates on unforgiving stages. To him, Capitol Hill was just another.

“The complexity of New York City prepares you for moments like this,” he said, surrounded by New York faith leaders who had traveled with him to Washington. “And I think maybe some of the university presidents did not have the benefit of this kind of inspection, if you will.”

That may be true. But local schools superintendents also have far different mandates from presidents of major universities. Superintendents only rarely command national profiles, with their most important audiences practically in their backyards. Presidents of universities like Columbia and Harvard must contend with sprawling networks that routinely include emboldened faculty members, wealthy donors, powerful trustees and undaunted students.

“That’s a much harder balancing act than the chancellor of the New York City public school system has,” said Mr. Armstrong, who felt Mr. Banks’s method would be inappropriate for a college president.

The local school leaders had other advantages. Americans are deeply accustomed to a national soundtrack of frustrations with public education, noted Ira Stoll, a former managing editor of a Harvard-based education policy journal. But they also have shown a limited appetite for federal oversight of the nation’s elementary and secondary schools.

The elementary and secondary education system is largely locally controlled and locally funded. Although the federal government oversees civil rights complaints in schools, that is usually handled by the Education Department through an investigative process — not by Congress.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and groups like Moms For Liberty have demonstrated that public schools can be ripe for political battle. But Republicans in Congress, who have been eager to recapture the power of the December hearing that helped precipitate the resignations of the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, also have a refined strategy for attacking higher education as a bastion of out-of-touch elites.

“There was a book, ‘Harvard Hates America,’” said Bill Kristol, the prominent conservative writer, referring to a conservative exposé from the 1970s on the elitism and liberal indoctrination on display at Harvard. “There’s no book, ‘Fairfax County Public Schools Hate America.’”

Lawmakers did not always help themselves on Wednesday. They often meandered during their five-minute allotments for questions, keeping the proceedings unfocused as witnesses waited out the clock, all too happy to let them ruminate.

Republicans did manage a few triumphant moments. Under questioning from Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina, Ms. Ford Morthel acknowledged that parts of a Berkeley lesson on the Israel-Hamas war seemed to minimize the impact of the conflict on Israelis.

Representative Kevin Kiley, Republican of California, also proved effective when he asked questions about the district’s ethnic studies curriculum.

Ms. Ford Morthel acknowledged that her district was working with a group known as Liberated Ethnic Studies, which offers sample curriculum materials that are highly critical of Israel — in defiance of California guidelines on how the subject should be taught.

Overall, though, “I thought that the questions were not sharp,” said Lori Lowenthal Marcus, legal director of the Deborah Project, a group that has sued several California school districts, including Berkeley, for what it considers antisemitic bias in curriculum materials about Israel. “I thought that the people testifying were able to slide away.”

Representative Aaron Bean, the Florida Republican who led the hearing, declared that it had “been an excellent meeting" with “an open and honest conversation.”

“Our objectives were shining the light that this is indeed happening,” he said of reports of antisemitism in schools. “A lot of folks say it’s not happening.”

Republicans will have another chance to make their point on May 23, when the presidents of three universities — Northwestern, Rutgers and the University of California, Los Angeles — are expected on Capitol Hill.

Whether Republicans can realize their ambitions may well hinge on which playbook those presidents use.

Alan Blinder is a national correspondent for The Times, covering education. More about Alan Blinder

Annie Karni is a congressional correspondent for The Times. She writes features and profiles, with a recent focus on House Republican leadership. More about Annie Karni

Dana Goldstein covers education and families for The Times.  More about Dana Goldstein