Common Sense Media has released a new research report that reveals what teen girls think about TikTok and Instagram, and describes the impact that these and other social media platforms have on their lives.

According to the report, “Teens and Mental Health: How Girls Really Feel About Social Media,” nearly half (45 percent) of girls who use TikTok say they feel “addicted” to the platform or use it more than intended at least weekly. Among girls with moderate to severe depressive symptoms, roughly seven in 10 who use Instagram (75 percent) and TikTok (69 percent) say they come across problematic suicide-related content at least monthly on these platforms.

Common Sense Media surveyed more than 1,300 adolescent girls across the country to better understand how the most popular social media platforms and design features impact their lives today. Among the report’s key findings, adolescent girls spend over two hours daily on TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat, and more than 90 minutes on Instagram and messaging apps. When asked about platform design features, the majority of girls believe that features like location sharing, public accounts, endless scrolling and appearance filters have an effect on them, but they’re split on whether those effects are positive or negative. Girls were most likely to say that location sharing (45 percent) and public accounts (33 percent) had a mostly negative effect on them, compared to other features. In contrast, they were most likely to say that video recommendations (49 percent) and private messaging (45 percent) had a mostly positive impact on them.

“For years, Common Sense Media has said that social media, particularly its addictive design features, have been problematic, and now teen girls themselves are sounding the alarm,” said Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, in a press release. “This report reaffirms that social media is addicting our kids and exposing them to online harms, undeniably. If Big Tech companies are not going to listen to parents or policymakers, then maybe they’ll start to listen to the kids and teens who are telling them point blank that social media is putting their mental health and safety at risk.”

Common Sense Media has also announced that the organization is launching the “Healthy Young Minds” campaign, a multiyear initiative focused on building public understanding of the youth mental health crisis, spotlighting solutions and catalyzing momentum for industry and policy change.

Frontline Education has announced the release of research analyzing the teacher shortage at a micro level focusing on state-specific nuances. The research brief, developed by the Frontline Research & Learning Institute, is the latest edition in a series dedicated to highlighting the story data tells about K-12 staff shortages.

“The mission of the Frontline Research and Learning Institute is to equip the K-12 community with current data and rich insights to inform and accelerate their decision-making,” said Mark Gruzin, CEO of Frontline Education, in a news release. “While it’s evident that a staff shortage exists, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to solving the problem. The release of this research brief and region-specific data will help school leaders navigate their unique staffing challenges.”

Continuing to analyze the institute’s perspective that the national labor shortage can be likened to a supply and demand model and that there may be fewer applicants rather than an increase in the number of job postings, this brief provides data and insights on applicant and job posting trends from users of Frontline’s Recruiting and Hiring solution from 2018 to 2022. The 49 states represented in the data are divided into six regions to illustrate the distinctions of the teacher shortage by geographical regions.

Highlights from the data include:

Demand: Some regions experienced increases in job postings last year compared to previous years, suggesting that districts within those regions are trying to backfill positions or created more positions with ESSER funding, federal stimulus funding to combat learning loss and support virtual learning and new programming during the pandemic.

Supply: The data reflected that all six regions had the fewest number of applications per posting in 2022 for the average district. The largest declines occurred in the Central, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and South regions with a decreased range between four and seven applications per posting on average compared to their respective four-year annual high. The declines in the Southeast and West regions ranged between one and two applications per posting on average compared to their respective four-year annual high.

To read the full research brief, visit www.frontlineeducation.com/analyzing-teacher-shortage-by-geographical-region.

Trained dogs were found to have an overall 90 percent accuracy rate of detecting COVID-19 in students during a field study conducted in California schools last year.

Research from the study was published online by JAMA Pediatrics on April 24. According to reporting from CNN, the study arose from the California Department of Public Health’s school-based COVID-19 antigen testing program and CDPH’s Dr. Carol Glaser, who had heard about dogs being able to detect the virus.

“Although effective, [the COVID-19 antigen testing] program requires personnel, testing resources, and sample collection and generates medical waste,” according to the report. “Scent-trained dogs are a strategy for rapid, noninvasive, low-cost, and environmentally responsible COVID-19 screening. We conducted a dog screening program to complement a school antigen testing program.”

To conduct the study, dogs were trained to detect volatile organic compounds emitted by people with COVID-19. During a field test at volunteer schools, dogs sniffed students’ feet and ankles and alerted their handler if they detected a possible COVID-19 infection. All participants then underwent antigen testing to compare results and determine the dogs’ sensitivity and specificity.

While the results supported the use of canines to detect COVID-19, the dogs inaccurately signaled infection in 383 instances and missed 18 infections.

“Dog screening for COVID-19 infection can be completed in a matter of seconds,” the study authors write. “However, dog screening directly on individuals introduced variables, such as distractions (e.g., noises, young children) and environmental factors (e.g., wind, smells), that likely contributed to decreased sensitivity and specificity.”