The Boston College Chronicle

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The Boston College

Chronicle Published by the Boston College Office of News & Public Affairs december 13, 2012 VOL. 21 no. 8

TIMSS/PIRLS

Warmth Amidst Cold

BC Center Releases Global Data on Student Achievement

Former Student Affairs VP Kevin Duffy Dies Kevin P. Duffy, who served as vice president of student affairs for 24 years, died on Dec. 4 of complications resulting from a fall. Story on page 6.

•Connolly Book of Hours now available online, page 6 •BC Scenes: Christmas at The Plaza, page 8

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•Big Brothers/Sisters a big deal at BC; junior wins Big Sister Award, page 5

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•BC Law researcher advocates for juvenile offenders, page 4 •Sesquicentennial Q&A with John Mahoney, page 4

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With the holiday season in full swing, Boston College reaches out to its community — and to those in need

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•For BC junior, an up-close look at UN climate change conference, page 3

Parker Milner ’13 helps his BC hockey teammates load donations to the team’s toy drive — which he began and organizes —for Children’s Hospital Boston. Story below. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)

standard” internationally for reading comprehension at the fourth grade, measuring trends every five years since 2001. 

As in previous cycles, TIMSS and PIRLS 2011 — the fifth and third assessments of each project, respectively — report achievement at four international benchmarks that describe what students know and can do in mathematics, science, and reading, and can be used to help interpret achievement scores. 

In mathematics at the fourth grade, Singapore, Korea, and Hong Kong were top performers, followed by Chinese Taipei and Japan. Northern Ireland, the Flemish Community of Belgium, Finland, England, and the Russian Federation also performed very well. In Continued on page 8

Parents’ Low-Wage Jobs Can Their goal? Make someone happy Harm Their Kids, Says Sociologist HOLIDAY EDITION

Winning is one Boston College men’s hockey tradition, and so is service — especially around Christmas time. The Eagles recently held their third annual collection of new, boxed, unwrapped toys for patients at Children’s Hospital Boston. The team took donations at their Dec. 2 game in Conte Forum against Boston University and their Nov. 24 contest versus Dartmouth. On Tuesday, players delivered the donated toys to the hospital. Organized by senior goaltender Parker Milner, the toy drive is another affirmation of the team’s longstanding relationship with the world-famous hospital, which members past and present have regularly visited. “I remember my freshman year [2009], we brought the national championship trophy with us, and what a great time that was,” recalls Pittsburgh native Milner, a Carroll School of

Management student with a concentration in marketing. “The kids there are going through a lot, and don’t have much to look forward to. We just want to brighten their day, whether with a toy or simply by being there and spending time with them. “However much the kids might enjoy it, it brings an even bigger smile to our faces.” Milner — who praises the Pike’s Peak team booster club for their assistance with the toy drive — has been encouraged by the results: Donations to this year’s drive, he said last week, are likely to surpass those from last year, which filled 15 hockey equipment bags (the first year filled 10 bags’ worth). In addition, last week, the toy drive received a financial donation from Marge Kelley, wife of legendary hockey coach John “Snooks” Kelley, as well as Kelley’s daughter Candy Kelley

By Kathleen Sullivan Staff Writer

Lee Pellegrini

INSIDE

Students from East Asian countries, in addition to a select group of European countries, outperformed students around the world in mathematics, science and reading at both the fourth and eighth grades, according to results released Tuesday by Lynch School of Education Professors Ina V.S. Mullis and Michael O. Martin, executive directors of the TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center. 

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is the first global assessment of mathematics and science to provide data about trends over time, measuring achievement in these subjects every four years at the fourth and eighth grades since 1995. Performance on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) represents the “gold

Parents’ low-wage jobs can harm their children’s health, education and overall development according to a new report co-authored by Sociology Research Professor Lisa Dodson. Some 16 million US families are headed by parents employed in low-wage jobs, such as cashiers, nurses’ aides, janitors, salespeople, food servers, and elder care attendants. Dodson and co-author Randy Albelda, a professor of economics from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, found that adolescents in these families are seven times more likely to drop out of school than are higher income youth, more likely to be among the one in five American teens who are obese, and are far more likely to become parents in their teen years. “How Youth are Put at Risk by Parents’ Low-Wage Jobs” presents the first-ever overview of the Continued on page 2 relationship between the status of youth and their parents’ low-wage

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Lisa Dodson

jobs. Graduate student Marya Mtshali worked with Dodson on the report. “What we found is that parents’ work and young people’s lives are profoundly linked,” said Dodson. “And yet, very little attention has been paid to this interaction.” Adolescents need resources, stability, and parental attention to support their wellbeing, to do well in school, be safe, and move on to pursue healthy lives. But their parents’ low-wage jobs are also lowquality jobs, with few job benefits, Continued on page 3

“I find the most critical issue is that girls’ experiences of violence — intimate partner violence, violence in their homes and sexual exploitation — drive them into the juvenile and criminal justice system not as victims, but as perpetrators or mischaracterized criminals.” —BC Law Visiting Clinical Professor Francine Sherman, page 4


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