Test scores not lowered by television
`A new study by two economists from the University of Chicago taps into a trove of data from the 1960s to argue that when it comes to academic test scores, parents can let children watch TV without fear of future harm. [..]
Data from cities where preschoolers were exposed to the new technology, and data from cities where they were not, was correlated with test scores from about 300,000 students nationwide in 1965, as collected in the Coleman Report, a 1966 survey titled “Equality of Educational Opportunity” done under the Civil Rights Act. The study also looked at test scores from pre- and post-TV age groups within cities.
The result showed “very little difference and, if anything, a slight positive advantage” in test scores for children who grew up watching TV early on, compared to those who did not, Shapiro said. In nonwhite households and those where English was a second language or the mother had less than a high-school education, TV’s positive effect was more marked.’
