The following new books are available online from RAND. You can access these publications online through the RAND website, or through the WSU Library Catalog.
Reforming Teacher Education: Something Old, Something New by Sheila Nataraj Kirby et al.
Teacher education has been subject to scathing criticism and innumerable efforts designed to reform it or to save it from being dismantled. One of the latest and best-funded efforts aimed at teacher education reform is boldly titled Teachers for a New Era (TNE). Eleven colleges and universities nationwide were selected to participate in TNE. The RAND Corporation and the Manpower Research Demonstration Corporation followed and evaluated the TNE initiative from 2002 to 2005, conducting on-site interviews with TNE grantees. This study places TNE in the larger context of teacher education reform and critically examines the process by which reform will result in highly qualified teachers capable of producing improvements in student learning.
Improving Mathematics and Science Education: A Longitudinal Investigation of the Relationship Between Reform-Oriented Instruction and Student Achievement by Vi-Nhuan Le et al.
This book presents the findings of a multiyear study of the effectiveness of reform-oriented science and mathematics instruction. This project builds on prior RAND research, incorporating diverse indicators, innovative measures, and a longer-term period of study.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
What It Takes to Make a Student
The November 26 New York Times Sunday Magazine reports on recent research the effects of poverty on student achievement, and aligns these findings with the impact of No Child Left Behind on closing the minority achievement gap. (You may need to create a free account with the NYT to access this article).
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
PISA: Program for International Student Assessment
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an assessment (begun in 2000) that focuses on 15-year-olds' capabilities in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy. Access PISA data and link to reports compiled by NCES from PISA data.
Data Snapshot from PISA 2003 Assessment:
Average Problem Solving Literacy Score
U.S.:477
OECD average: 500
Data Snapshot from PISA 2003 Assessment:
Average Problem Solving Literacy Score
U.S.:477
OECD average: 500
Friday, November 10, 2006
Controversy over Reading First grant funding
This short article responds to the recent controversy regarding reading funding from the Reading First program (from a recent edition of Education Digest (Nov. 2006, 72(3) p. 70) Reading First Disgrace
You can read the Inspector General's Report on the Reading First Program's Grant Application Process here: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/aireports/i13f0017.pdf
Part of the article points to this report:
What Education Schools Aren’t Teaching About Reading and What Elementary Teachers Aren’t Learning
This report comes from the National Council on Teacher Quality,
Here’s what they have to say about themselves:
The National Council on Teacher Quality advocates for reforms in a broad range of teacher policies at the federal, state, and local levels in order to increase the number of effective teachers. To support our mission, we identify and encourage policies and practices that can lead to better teaching and increased student achievement. In particular we recognize the absence of much of the evidence necessary to make a compelling case for change and seek to fill that void with a research agenda that has direct and practical implications for policy. We are committed to lending transparency and increasing public awareness about the three sets of institutions that have the greatest impact on teacher quality: state departments of education, teacher preparation programs, and teachers unions.
The report was funded by the D&D Foundation. As reported in the Education Digest article, the D&D Foundation has no address, web page or listing in the Foundation Directory. The Chair of the D&D Foundation is Kimberly O. Dennis, who is a member of the Philanthropy Roundtable.
The Philanthropy Roundtable is described on the Dissident Voice blog on March 28, 2005 as follows: “a conservative counterpart to the mainstream Council on Foundations -- was initially operated under the aegis of the Institute for Educational Affairs (IEA), an organization founded in 1978 by two seminal figures of conservative philanthropy, William Simon and Irving Kristol. The IEA now operates as the Madison Center for Educational Affairs”
You can read the Inspector General's Report on the Reading First Program's Grant Application Process here: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/aireports/i13f0017.pdf
Part of the article points to this report:
What Education Schools Aren’t Teaching About Reading and What Elementary Teachers Aren’t Learning
This report comes from the National Council on Teacher Quality,
Here’s what they have to say about themselves:
The National Council on Teacher Quality advocates for reforms in a broad range of teacher policies at the federal, state, and local levels in order to increase the number of effective teachers. To support our mission, we identify and encourage policies and practices that can lead to better teaching and increased student achievement. In particular we recognize the absence of much of the evidence necessary to make a compelling case for change and seek to fill that void with a research agenda that has direct and practical implications for policy. We are committed to lending transparency and increasing public awareness about the three sets of institutions that have the greatest impact on teacher quality: state departments of education, teacher preparation programs, and teachers unions.
The report was funded by the D&D Foundation. As reported in the Education Digest article, the D&D Foundation has no address, web page or listing in the Foundation Directory. The Chair of the D&D Foundation is Kimberly O. Dennis, who is a member of the Philanthropy Roundtable.
The Philanthropy Roundtable is described on the Dissident Voice blog on March 28, 2005 as follows: “a conservative counterpart to the mainstream Council on Foundations -- was initially operated under the aegis of the Institute for Educational Affairs (IEA), an organization founded in 1978 by two seminal figures of conservative philanthropy, William Simon and Irving Kristol. The IEA now operates as the Madison Center for Educational Affairs”
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