Report to the Community on the Education for the 21st Century High School Redesign Initiative: 2002-2007 and Beyond

Sacremento City Unified School District and LEED (Linking Education and Economic Development) have partnered since 2001 to transform the City's six high schools into 42 distinct, theme-based choices to reflect the community’s workforce needs and economic objectives. Their redesign report highlights the redesign accomplishments, lessons learned, ongoing challenges and ways in which the community can help support the district, high schools and students.

Reading First Suffers Another Blow: Interim Report shows "no significant effect"

"The beleaguered Reading First program is likely to receive another round of scrutiny, as the U.S. Department of Education released an interim report on Thursday saying that the federally supported program has had no significant effect on students' reading-comprehension skills." Reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, May 5, 2008

Still a Nation at Risk?

From Newsweek Magazine, 4/24/2008
"This weekend marks 25 years since the publication of the U.S. Department of Education's explosive report "A Nation at Risk." Its powerful indictment of American education launched the largest education-reform movement in the nation's history, paving the way for strategies as different as charter schools and the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. But even after a vast political and financial investment spanning two and a half decades, we're far from achieving the report's ambitious aims. "

Graduation Rate Watch: Making Minority Student Success a Priority

"Some colleges have found ways to improve the graduation rates of black students, and others should adopt their methods, a new report" states a new report from Education Sector. Announcement from Chronicle of Higher Education, 4/24/2008.

Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts in the United States: 2004-05

"This annual report provides basic information from the Common Core of Data about the nation's largest public school districts in the 2004-05 school year. The data include such characteristics as the numbers of students and teachers, number of high school completers and the averaged freshman graduation rate, and revenues and expenditures." NCES Newsflash, 4/1/2008

2007 Digest of Education Statistics released

From NCES, a "compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from prekindergarten through graduate school. The Digest of Education Statistics contains data on a variety of topics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to educational attainment, finances, and federal funds for education, libraries, and international comparisons." NCES Newsflash announcement, 3/25/08

Graduation Rates Map

A graduate rates map from edweek.org, searchable by district or city. This is also now available in the Statistics section of the WSULS Education Subject Guide.

New databases available through EbscoHOST

The WSU Library System now provides access to the following databases through EbscoHOST. You can search databases individually by going directly to the appropriate database page under Articles & Databases, or go directly to the EbscoHOST gateway to search mulitple databases simultaneously.

New databases available are:

• Family Studies Abstracts
• Race Relations Abstracts
• Urban Studies Abstracts
• Public Administration Abstracts
• Abstracts in Social Gerontology

These databases include access to journal articles in publications such as: Journal of Social Issues, Ethnic & Racial Studies, Urban Affairs Review, Urban Education, Public Money & Management, Journal of Ageing and Social Policy and International Psychogeriatrics.

Use the Sign in to my EbscoHOST link to create your own account in any of the EbscoHOST databases, and you can save searches, create search alerts, save search results, and more.

Journal of Educational Technology Systems

The WSU Library System now has the Journal of Educational Technology Systems available online back to Volume 1, 1972.

2007 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well are American Students Learning?

"Published by the Brown Center on American Education at the Brookings Institution, this report asks the question: "How well are American students learning?" Released in December 2007, this most recent edition of the report examines the latest test score data on math and reaching achievement. The report also offers analyses of enrollment patterns in private and public schools as well as an international comparison of national math scores. Tom Loveless, the director of the Brown Center, authored the report and it covers a great deal of ground and provides in-depth analysis of these topics. Visitors should also note that the Brookings site also contains a press release, a presentation by Loveless and video clips from the launch event for the report." Source: unknown blog posting

Projections of Education Statistics to 2016

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has just released the report "Projections of Education Statistics to 2016".

"This publication provides projections for key education statistics. It includes statistics on enrollment, graduates, teachers, and expenditures in elementary and secondary schools, and enrollment, earned degrees conferred, and current-fund expenditures of degree-granting institutions. For the Nation, the tables, figures, and text contain data on enrollment, teachers, graduates, and expenditures for the past 14 years and projections to the year 2016. For the 50 States and the District of Columbia, the tables, figures, and text contain data on projections of public elementary and secondary enrollment and public high school graduates to the year 2016. In addition, the report includes a methodology section describing models and assumptions used to develop national and state-level projections." (From NCES)

ERIC Thesaurus Update

Since the ERIC restructuring, several descriptors have been added, recinded or changed (and in some cases, recinded and added back). Here is a list of ERIC Thesaurus changes as of Spring 2007.

Doing What Works--New Dept. of Education Clearinghouse

A new US Dept. of Education website called Doing What Works launched on Nov. 2. It is focused on translating research-based practice (as exemplified in the Dept's What Works Clearinghouse) into tools that can be used by teachers to support and improve classroom instruction. The first topic focused on in the Doing What Works site is resources for K-5 English Language Learners. The What Works Clearinghouse and Doing What Works are linked to the WSU Education subject guide under the heading Internet Resources - Government & International Agency Resources

New Report on Sex Education released

A growing number of sex education programs that support both abstinence
and the use of contraception for sexually active teens have now shown positive effects in delaying first intercourse, improving contraceptive use, and preventing pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease among teens, according to a new report released today by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. The Report is titled Emerging Answers 2007: Research Findings on Programs to Reduce Teen Pregnancy and
Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and is authored by researcher Douglas Kirby, Ph.D., claims to be "the most comprehensive review to date of evaluation research that answers the question, what programs work to prevent teen pregnancy and STDs." 115 programs were evaluated for the report.

New Joint Commission On Math And Science Education

Carnegie Corporation Of New York And Institute For Advanced Study recently announced the establishment of a Joint Commission On Math And Science Education Commission. The commission's members include Prominent Educators, Business Leaders, Current and Former Governors, and Academics. The group plans to assess the current state of teaching in science and mathematics at colleges and elementary and secondary schools, and to identify and analyze successes and failures.

Cambridge Journals Online at WSU

WSU now has access to several Cambridge Journals online. Explore our titles by connecting to Cambridge Journals Online . Once you get to the Cambridge Journals Online site, select Subscribed To under Browse Journals on the left side of the screen. There are several titles of interest to the College of Education, including Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Language Teaching, Ageing & Society.

Strategic Education Research Partnership

"The mission of the Strategic Education Research Partnership (SERP) is to build a coherent, “use-inspired” program of research and development focused on the problems of classroom practice, and school and district management. To carry out its mission, SERP will establish partnerships with a set of school districts that agree to serve as “field sites:” places where ongoing collaborations between practitioners, researchers, and developers can support sustained investigations of approaches to improving student outcomes." (SERP website) Current field sites include Boston, Illinois and San Francisco.

"Inspired by a series of reports from the National Research Council from 2001 to 2003, the nonprofit partnership was created as a vehicle to improve educational research through studies aimed at solving practical problems." Education Week, 10/10/2007

Henry Ford Academies connects with FMC Fund and Gates Foundation

"The Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford Motor Company Fund, and the Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have invested a combined $11.5 million to start a national network of community-based high schools and to open community-based high schools in urban communities in the Midwest. The Henry Ford Learning Institute, which was founded in 2003 in partnership with Ford Motor Company, will use the $8.5 million portion of Ford Motor Company’s contribution to start a national network of schools, while the $3 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will support the launch of five Henry Ford Academies in Midwest urban communities. The high schools funded by this combined investment will follow the model of the original Henry Ford Academy, a charter high school founded in 1997 in Dearborn, Mich." From Education Week 10/10/2007

National Center for Education Research "Best Practice" Guides

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) recently published two practice guides in education. These guides are intended to sythesize the best available evidence and expertise on timely topics in education.

The two new guides are:
Encouraging Girls in Math and Science
Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning

New Education Database available October 1

Educators' Reference Complete from GALE will be available through the WSU Library System and the Michigan Electronic Library (MEL) beginning October 1.

With more than 1,100 periodicals that cover a wide variety of subjects and 200 reports from the United States Department of Education, the Educator’s Reference Complete is an important tool for today’s educator. In addition, Educator’s Reference Complete is the perfect complement for any library that utilizes the ERIC database, because it provides full-text results for nearly half of the journal titles found in ERIC. (from Thomson-Gale promotional literature)

Look for a link to this database on October 1, on the library's website under the letter E!

Historical Newspaper database test

The WSU Library System is currently testing a comprehensive 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, which provides access to approximately 1.7 million pages of primary source newspaper content from the 19th century, featuring full-text content and images from numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S. The collection encompasses the entire 19th century, with an emphasis on such topics as the American Civil War, African-American culture and history, Western migration and Antebellum-era life among other subjects.

If you would like to test this database, please contact Veronica Bielat , Education Liaison Librarian, for the URL and test password.

New DVD Available in the UGL

White Teachers/Diverse Classrooms: Teachers and Students of Color Talk Candidly about Connecting with Black Students and Tranforming Outcomes, has interviews with black students, white and black teachers, educational experts and school administrators. It supports the ideas and insights in the companion book White Teachers/Diverse Classrooms: a guide to building inclusive schools, promoting high expectations, and eliminating racism. (At Purdy/Kresge Library, Call no. LC 1099.3 .W48 2006)

Digest of Education Statistics: New Site

The new Digest has been fully integrated into the NCES web site system that permits convenient access to all the Digests since the 1995 edition. An easy-to-use menu allows one-click access to individual tables and figures from each Digest.

Visit: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/

Early Reading First Evaluation Report

"The report, conducted by outside researchers under contract to the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, found the program has had the most significant effect in improving classroom activities and materials, as well as teacher practices related to literacy development...
But the program appeared to have no effect on the preschoolers’ oral-language skills, social or emotional development, or phonological processing—awareness of the sounds that make up words." Education Digest, June 12, 2007.

Massachusetts: More than half of minority and hispanic teaching applicants fail licensing test

Excerpt "Education school deans in the last year began expressing concerns about the minority teachers' high failure rates to state officials and asked the state to evaluate the validity of the test and consider other ways of judging prospective teachers. They and others say the minority teachers' results raise questions about whether the design of the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure is culturally biased and whether the quality of education that minority teaching applicants receive is good enough." Boston Globe, August 19, 2007

Chronicle Reports "Universities fail to reward science and math professors for working with schoolteachers"

You'll need to be on the WSU campus to read the article.

"Science professors receive few professional rewards for joining projects financed by the Math and Science Partnerships program, the federal government's principal effort to improve math and science teaching in elementary and secondary schools, a recent report says. The report calls this "a major roadblock" for the program. "

Comparative Indicators of Education in the United States and Other G-8 Countries: 2006

Comparative Indicators of Education in the United States and Other G-8 Countries: 2006 "This report describes how the education system in the United States compares with education systems in the other G-8 countries--Canada, France. Germany. Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom. Twenty indicators are organized in five sections: (1) population and school enrollment; (2) academic performance; (3) context for learning; (4) expenditure for education; and (5) education returns: educational attainment and income." NCES site description

Preparing STEM Teachers

A new report from AACTE highlights different strategies being taken by selected teacher education programs in all 50 states to train mathematics and science teachers, addressing a topic that has become a prime focus of elected officials and educators across the country. For Michigan, Wayne State University is highlighted.

2006 Data now available from ISI Journal Citation Reports (JCR)

2006 data are now available for Journal Citation Reports® on the Web. You can use JCR Reports to determine impacts factors, citations half-life, and more for many scholarly journals in the Social Sciences. This resource is made available to you through the Wayne State University Libraries.

National Poll of Middle School Students Report Available

"On May 22, 2007, the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) and Phi Delta Kappa International (PDK) released the results of A Voice From the Middle, a nationwide poll of middle level students. Conducted by Harris Interactive, the survey of 1,814 students in grades seven and eight reveals several stark contrasts between students’ educational goals and their beliefs about how they will achieve them."

ERIC News

A quick update on the ERIC database and its contents

ERIC wants to digitize your ERIC document. If you authored an ERIC document published prior to 1992 and would like to make it available in electronic format, go to the ERIC Microfiche Digitization Project page and provide your contact information to ERIC. The ERIC Microfiche Digitization Project has already digitized 63,000 ERIC documents from 1988-1992.

There is a lack of coverage, affectionately referred to as "The Gap", which stems from the ERIC contractual turnover from the Clearinghouses. The Gap refers to the time period 2002-2003, when very few journal citations were added to the ERIC database. ERIC is reviewing and developing an approach to correcting The Gap. However, if you are searching for current research on your topic, I recommend that you also search the database, Education Abstracts, to make sure you have not missed important current published research on your topic.

The eric.ed.gov (free web version of ERIC) continues to improve. You can now create your own account, save records to a "clipboard", and export saved records in EndNote compatible format.

As a result of the ERIC restructuring, all publishers are required to sign a journal agreement with ERIC in order to have their publications indexed in ERIC. There are currently 600 titles indexed in ERIC. This is approximately 75% of the number of titles indexed in ERIC prior to the change in 2002.

Wiley, publisher of journals such as Journal of Research in Science Teaching has not been responding to ERIC's request to sign a journal agreement. If you attend a conference where Wiley is exhibiting, please encourage them to sign the agreement with ERIC.

If you would like to suggest a periodical title for indexing to ERIC, please contact them directly . They want to hear your suggestions!

New Report Available: Closing the Expectations Gap 2007

Achieve, Inc. recently released their report Closing the Expectations Gap 2007
reviewing the alignment of the high school standards, graduation requirements and assessments of 50 states with college and work requirements. It finds that at least 48 states are now actively engaged in reform efforts of some kind.

Achieve, Inc. was created by the nation's governors and business leaders in 1996. It is described as a "bipartisan, non-profit organization that helps states raise academic standards, improve assessments and strengthen accountability to prepare all young people for postsecondary education, work and citizenship". Michigan's Governor Jennifer Granholm sits on Achieve, Inc.'s Board of Directors.

Do U IM?

Do you use AIM/AOL's Instant Messaging service (or do your students?) If yes, you can now ASK-A-LIBRARIAN using your own IM account. Add waynelibrarian to your buddy list.

If you don't use IM, you and your students can still chat with a librarian online using our chat software, no IM account or special software required. Just go to our ASK-A-LIBRARIAN page to link up with us.

JSTOR survey says Most Research Begins Online

According to Michael Spinella, executive director of JSTOR (an online database provider), online search is now the usual starting point among education faculty.

At the AERA Scholarly Communication session, he reported that a recent JSTOR survey revealed that only about 3% of faculty begin research in the library building. About 25% start with a general search on the web via Google or Yahoo; about 28% use a library’s online catalog, and about 38% start with a specific electronic resource like a computer database. (originally posted in the EducationPR blog)

Beta Data Analysis System from NCES

The DAS Online 2.0 Beta includes many new features and functions including estimating covariance analyses--both Weighted Least Squares and Logistic regressions. A Winsor filter has been added to filter out cases with extreme values. (NCES Newsflash Service)

You can also access several completed tables focusing on postsecondary education data

New Study Released on Effectiveness of Reading and Mathematics Software

"The National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, in the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, has released a major study of the effectiveness of education technology. The report, ‘Effectiveness of Reading and Mathematics Software Products: Findings from the First Student Cohort’ which was mandated by Congress, uses scientifically based research methods and control groups to focus on the impact of technology on student academic achievement."

The report is available at: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20074005
(IES Newsflash Service)

Niles Eldredge creating a new journal called Outreach and Education in Evolution

From the Chronicle of Higher Education 3/2/2007
The new journal is designed to bring advances in the subject into classrooms from kindergarten to graduate school...the journal's target audience encompasse(s) a variety of categories, including administrators, advanced undergraduates and graduate students, educated laypeople, museum curators, policy makers, researchers, and schoolteachers of all grades. Springer had planned to publish the first issue in January 2008. But when it announced the journal last month, potential contributors expressed so much interest that Springer decided to push the first issue up to September."

Inspector General's Report Cites Apparent Conflicts of Interest at Universities Involved in Reading First Program

From the Chronicle of Higher Education 3/9/2007

"The Education Department's inspector general released late Wednesday its sixth, and probably final, report on problems in the administration of the Reading First program. More than any of the previous reports, this one touches on allegations of conflicts of interest at the universities that have helped run the program...Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the Senate committee that oversees education programs, has demanded to see correspondence between the department and its Reading First contractors. "

An Historical Overview of Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education, by State: Fiscal Years 1990−2002

NCES announces the release of An Historical Overview of Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education, by State: Fiscal Years 1990−2002

"This large publication contains data from the Common Core of Data, National Public Education Financial Survey, Fiscal Years 1990 through 2002. Data have been adjusted to 2002 dollars using the Consumer Price Index. Full dollar amounts and per pupil amounts are presented for each data item."

This publication contains state-level data on revenues by source and expenditures by function, including expenditures per pupil. All data were reported to NCES by state education agencies."

To download, view and print the publication as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007317

Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well-being in Rich Countries

From the UNICEF Innocenti Research Center in Italy, this Report Card released February 14, 2007, "provides a comprehensive assessment of the lives and well-being of children and young people in 21 nations of the industrialized world. Its purpose is to encourage monitoring, to permit comparison, and to stimulate the discussion and development of policies to improve children’s lives."

Full Text SAGE Journals now available!!

As of January 2007, in partnership with the Michigan Librarian Consortium, WSU now provides access to over 400 Sage Journals across 40 disciplines, through the Sage Collections Plus E-Journals. You can read more about the collection http://www.mlc.lib.mi.us/cms/sitem.cfm/databases__econtent/ejournals_/sage_ejournals/

To access the full-text SAGE Education journal collection, click on the letter C under Articles & Databases on the library homepage, select the CSA Illumnia Databases link.

When you get to the database page, click the Specific Databases link.
Scroll down and select Education: A SAGE Full-Text collection
(While you are here, you can click the BROWSE FULL TEXT link to the right to view the titles in this collection, and directly link to a title)
Scroll up to the top and select the CONTINUE TO SEARCH link to search the collection.

You can also link directly to the full text articles in these publications from any database by using the Article Linker button.

Have questions about the SAGE full-text collection, or any other library resources? Please give me a call!

New Online SAGE Journal Collection Available

WSU, through the Michigan Library Consortium (MLC), now has full-text online access to 10 discipline-specific SAGE journal collections. Included are SAGE’s Psychology and Education journals.

A full title list is available here: http://www.sagepublications.com/promos/MLC_titles.pdf

You can access the SAGE online collections through the CSA Illumina database platform.
From the library homepage, click the letter “C” under Articles & Databases
Click CSA Illumina in the list.
When you get to CSA Illumina, click the specific databases link
Select the full-text collection you would like to search.

Announcement from the Michigan Library Consortium http://www.mlc.lib.mi.us/cms/sitem.cfm/news__announcements/sage/

New Field Name for searching research in ERIC

For those of you who may have used the search term research and RECORD TYPE as the search type to search for research in the ERIC (FirstSearch) database, the RECORD TYPE field has been removed from ERIC. The field name is now PUBLICATION TYPE.

To search for research articles in ERIC (FirstSearch), use research as your search term, and select PUBLICATION TYPE as your search type.

New Peer Reviewed Search Limit in ERIC

In the ERIC FirstSearch database you can now limit your search to Peer Reviewed journals.


However, ERIC is not retroactively applying the Peer Reviewed field to all citations in its database, so if you use the Peer Reviewed limit, you will only be retrieving materials published after November 2004.

Peer Review is being applied according to the Refereed designations applied in Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory. Although considered an authoritative source on information on periodicals published throughout the world, it is important to remember that Peer Review status is self-reported by the publishers.

Note that if you do not limit your search to Articles while performing a Peer Reviewed limited search, you will get ERIC Documents in your search results. ERIC is also applying the Peer Review designation to ERIC Documents published by NCES and the What Works Clearinghouse after 2004.

Quality Counts 2007: From Cradle to Career: Connecting American Education From Birth to Adulthood

Education Week has released its annual Quality Counts report. This years report "begins to track state efforts to create a more seamless education system by looking at performance across the various sectors, and at state efforts to define students’ “readiness” to succeed from one stage to the next." The report contains a "Chance-for-Success Index, developed by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, which provides a state-focused perspective on the importance of education throughout a person’s lifetime."

Michigan ranks 25th on the Chance for Success Index.

Happy New Year!

Hello and Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a good (and restful) break. I'll have lots of news to share for the coming semester, including changes to ERIC and library resources available through the Blackboard Content System.

Journal of Educational Controversy

This new peer-refereed journal will be published semiannually by the Center for Educational Pluralism of the Woodring College of Education at Western Washington University. The journal publishes primarily original essays in response to the dilemma or controversy announced in the theme for the issue. The first issue was published in November.

"The Journal of Educational Controversy raises controversies that result from teaching and learning in a pluralistic, democratic society."

2 new books available from RAND

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.

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).

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

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”

School 2.0: What is the future of education?

Michigan REMC 12 Director Mike Oswalt shared an excellent PowerPoint on School 2.0 at http://techplan.edzone.net/TDM2006/DIDYOUKNOW.ppt that was recently shown at the Michigan Technology Directors meeting. (Originally posted to the TTW blog).

Children's Books: Free Online Resources

The Notebook section of the most recent issue of American Educator noted these two freely available sites which have children's books available. The International Children's Digital Library has online books in 38 languages. SillyBooks.net has animated books with audio, and includes corresponding puzzles, games, lesson plans and learning activities.

United States High School Sophomores: A Twenty-Two Year Comparison, 1980-2002

Using questionnaire and test data collected in 1980, 1992, and 2002, this report presents time series data on three cohorts of high school sophomores. The report presents information on the changing context of cohort demographics, family characteristics, school characteristics, and school experiences, after school activities, and future plans and expectations. Tested achievement is also presented with results in math from 1980 to 1990 and 2002, and results in reading from 1990 to 2002. (NCES Newsflash Service)

College Rankings Reformed

"COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES have the raw materials with which to build a better rankings system, but many institutions do not want to abandon the current model. As a result, students
rely on commercial guides that provide little useful information, according to a report (College Rankings Reformed) scheduled to be released today by a research group in Washington." From the Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 22, 2006

Education Sector decribes itself as an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan education policy think tank devoted to developing innovative solutions to the nation’s most pressing educational problems. Its founder is Andrew J. Rotherham, former director of the 21st Century Schools Project at the Progressive Policy Institute.

Educating School Teachers

A recent report, from the Education Schools Project (led by Directed by Arthur Levine,
who recently left the presidency of Teachers College, Columbia University to become president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation), concludes that "a majority of teacher education graduates are prepared in university-based programs that suffer from low admission and graduation standards." The Educating School Teachers report "provides an examination of the successes and failures of university-based teacher education programs, offers “criteria for excellence” on which to judge the quality of programs, and sets forth a comprehensive five-point plan for improving programs and changing teacher-education policy. The report identifies several model teacher education programs at the nation’s 1,206 university-based education schools."

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to WSU! I hope everyone had a restful, productive, relaxing, exhilarating summer!

We have a few new things to share for Fall 2006--let's take a look
A new library web portal specifically designed for our first-year students (but a good page for any undergraduate) http://www.lib.wayne.edu/fye/

An online Assignment Planner, to help students organize and manage library research assignments: http://www.lib.wayne.edu/planner

Even more selections of Drop-In Workshops, including RSS and Blogging, Using Google and EndNote http://www.lib.wayne.edu/services/instruction_tutorials/drop_in.php (Remember, these workshops are for everyone--students, staff AND faculty)

EndNote X has been released. You can download this newest version at http://computing.wayne.edu/software

A new online APA Style Guide, with lots of examples
http://www.lib.wayne.edu/resources/subject_guides/guide.php?id=164

And don't forget about our old favorites:

See what's new in the library's collection through the New Titles List http://www.lib.wayne.edu/resources/new_books/index.php

Use the GET IT button in the library catalog to have books paged for you and ready for pick-up at any library circulation desk.

Have a great semester!

New report examines alignment of high school, college and work

Closing the Expectations Gap 2006: An Annual 50-State Progress Report on the Alignment of High School Policies with the Demands of College and Work is a recently published report from Achieve.org, a "a bipartisan, non-profit organization that helps states raise academic standards, improve assessments and strengthen accountability to prepare all young people for postsecondary education, work and citizenship." Achieve's Board Members include Michigan's Governor, Jennifer Granholm.

This report examines progress states are making in closing the gaps between high school standards and requirements and postsecondary and workplace expectations, which were identified through a 50 State survey done by Achieve.org in December 2005.

The issue of K-12 and postsecondary/workplace gaps was also recently discussed in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (Powerful Forces Draw Academe Into the Fray 3/10/2006), which referenced the following additional reports on the topic.

A Nation at Risk (1983)
The Governance Divide: A Report on a Four-State Study on Improving College Readiness and Success (2005)
Betraying the College Dream (2003, Stanford)
School & College (Special Report, Chronicle of Higher Education, 2006)

Copyright law impede progress in Educational Technology

A recent report from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society explored the impact that copyright law provisions have on the use of digitial technology in education.

"Drawing on research, interviews, two participatory workshops with experts in the field, and the lessons drawn from four detailed case studies, the white paper identifies four obstacles as particularly serious ones:
* Unclear or inadequate copyright law relating to crucial provisions such as fair use and educational use;
* Extensive adoption of digital rights management technology to lock up content;
* Practical difficulties obtaining rights to use content when licenses are necessary;
* Undue caution by gatekeepers such as publishers or educational administrators.

The report is available online, and it titled The Digital Learning Challenge: Obstacles to Educational Uses of Copyrighted Material in the Digital Age

2005 Digest of Education Statistics Available

Announcement from the NCES Newsflash Service:
The 41st in a series of publications initiated in 1962, the Digest of Education Statistics provides a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from prekindergarten through graduate school. The Digest contains data on a variety of topics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to educational attainment, finances, and federal funds for education, libraries, and international comparisons. Some examples of highlights from the report include the following items.

--> Enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools rose 22 percent between 1985 and 2005. The fastest public school growth occurred in the elementary grades (prekindergarten through grade 8)
-->Public secondary school enrollment declined 8 percent from 1985 to 1990, but then rose 31 percent from 1990 to 2005, for a net increase of 20 percent.
-->The number of public school teachers has risen faster than the number of students over the past 10 years, resulting in declines in the pupil/teacher ratio.
-->Between 1994 and 2004, the number of full-time college students increased by 30 percent compared to an 8 percent increase in part-time students. During the same time period, the number of men enrolled rose 16 percent, while the number of women enrolled increased by 25 percent.

New Journal: Journal of evidence-based practices for schools

We have recently added a subscription to the Journal of evidence-based practices for schools. Please note that this journal is available in print only, it has not been made available online from the publisher. We currently have volume 6 (issues 1 & 2)in our collection in the Kresge Wing of Purdy/Kresge Library. (We are missing the most current issue, v.7 (1) Winter 2006, but have a request into the publisher for a replacement).

Fellowships in Child Development

The Foundation for Child Development is accepting applications for its Young Scholars Program. Eligible researchers will have earned their doctoral degrees within the last 15 years, and be full-time, faculty members of a college or university in the United States. Applicants must hold a Ph.D. or its equivalent in one of the behavioral and social sciences or in an allied professional field (e.g., public policy, public health, education, social work, nursing, medicine). Three to four fellowships of up to $150,000 for use over one to three years (maximum) will be awarded competitively. Please note tenure equivalent positions are not eligible for the fellowship.--Program description from the FCD website.

Search any library easy with WorldCat Online!

From The Chronicle of Education Wired Campus Blog:

The OCLC Online Computer Library Center, a nonprofit group, announced this week that it was making available to the public WorldCat’s search engine of library holdings. WorldCat, which is maintained by the library center, is a database of materials from 10,000 libraries worldwide. Previously, only library patrons could gain access to WorldCat’s search tool. Now available through WorldCat.org, the search tool also helps people locate the library nearest them that has the book, article, or video or audio recording they are looking for. "People are starting their searches on the Web rather than in the library, and that’s where we want to be," said Bob Murphy, a spokesman for the library center.—Andrea L. Foster

APA citation style for Dissertations from the ProQuest Databases

The APA style manual does not have an example of how to cite dissertations in the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. A representative from APA recently posted the following to an inquiry on the EBSS (Educational, Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarians) listserv.


"The ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database appears to include dissertations abstracted in Dissertation Abstracts International. If the reference you are citing was abstracted in DAI but obtained from ProQuest (similar to Examples 54 and 55 in the Publication Manual), I would probably add that information to the reference entry as well:

Gibson, G. (2006). Between voice and silence: Identity development in Black adolescent females (Doctoral dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo). Dissertation Abstracts International, 54, 100. Retrieved August 15, 2006, from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database.

If there is no DAI information available, then you could simply skip right to the retrieval information."

Citing Wikipedia: A policy for students?

Dr. Alan Liu from UC Santa Barbara, developed a policy for his students on the appropriateness of using Wikipedia as a resource for class assignments. His original posting, along with additional commentary, is available at Kairosnews: A Weblog for Discussing Rhetoric, Technology and Pedagogy.

ETS Poll: Americans See Math and Science as Key to U.S. Competitiveness

"In a major new opinion survey on education reform, a majority of adults, parents, high school teachers, administrators and college faculty believe that our nation's schools are coming up short in putting students on the path to compete for highly technical scientific and engineering jobs with young people from other countries and are going to have to challenge students more if America is to maintain its global economic edge."

"The results are from Keeping Our Edge: Americans Speak on Education and Competitiveness, ETS's sixth annual "Americans Speak" public opinion poll. The poll was conducted for ETS by Democratic pollster Peter Hart and Republican pollster David Winston." ETS Press Release

Teaching students about plagiarism: An internet solution to an internet problem

In this article from the latest issue of the online journal Innovate, Eleanour Snow from Univ. of South Florida generally discussed the problem of plagiarism in higher education, and describes how she developed and used an online tutorial as a proactive approach to the problem of plagiarism in her own classroom.

The Condition of Education 2006

"Today, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released The Condition of Education 2006. This annual report summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The 2006 report presents 50 indicators on the status and condition of education and a special analysis on international assessments. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available." NCES Newsflash Service

2005 science assessment National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

Results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2005 science assessment were just released, detailing national performance at grades 4, 8, and 12 and state performance for most states at grades 4 and 8.

National findings since the previous assessments in 1996 and 2000 show:

• 4th grade students scored higher than either previous year, and lower-performing students made the largest gains since 2000.
• 8th graders’ overall performance remained unchanged compared with either previous year; gains by lower-income students narrowed the gap since 2000.
• Scores for 12th graders remain unchanged since the last assessment, but are lower than in 1996. However, the White-Black gap has widened since 2000.

(NCES Newsflash Service)

What predicts achievement? Self-discipline or IQ?

An article published in the December 2005 issue of Psychological Science reports on a study of 140 8th grade students and predictors of final grades. The authors, from the Positive Psychology Center at U Penn, discuss their findings from the study that suggest that the "degree to which students practiced self-discipline" was twice as likely as IQ to predict final grades. The article, titled Self-Discipline Outdoes IQ in Predicting Academic Performance of Adolescents, by Angela L. Duckworth and Martin E.P. Seligman, is available online thorough WSU in Psychological Science, v. 26, issue 12, page 939.
(Reported in AFT On Campus, May/June 2006.)

Michigan Online Learning Requirement from ESchool News Online

Read this article about Michigan's Online Learning Requirement, and check out eSchool News Online, a commercial publication that focuses on disseminating current news on education technology in all its aspects--from legislation and litigation, to case studies, to purchasing practices and new products.

New Access to Your WSU Library Account

Beginning today, you will be able to use your WSU Access ID and Password (same as Pipeline, Blackboard and WSU e-mail) to access your WSU "My Library" account. Once you log in to your library account, you can renew books, save searches, or check on holds.

Try it for yourself. Log in to your library account

Calories In, Calories Out: Food and Exercise in Public Elementary Schools 2005

"This study, prompted by concern over the rate of obesity among school-age children, was designed to obtain current national information on availability of foods and opportunities for physical activity in public elementary schools. The report includes findings on the types of food sold at one or more locations in schools and in their cafeterias or lunchrooms; the types of food sold at vending machines and school stores or snack bars, and times when foods were available at those locations; food service operations and contracts with companies to sell foods at schools; scheduled recess, including the days per week, times per day, and minutes per day of recess; scheduled physical education, including the days per week, class length, and average minutes per week of physical education; activities to encourage physical activity among elementary students; and the physical assessment of students." From NCES Newsflash Service

James Manning named as Acting Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education

James Manning, of Virginia, was appointed by President Bush today to be Acting Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education at the Department of Education. Manning replaces Sally L. Stroup as the department’s top higher-education official.

Mr. Manning was formerly the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of Education, and also served as Acting Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid.

Some biographical information is available from this press release from 2003, when Manning was named Chief Operating Officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Additionally, Manning was appointed in 2002 as acting Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Department's Federal Student Aid office. The posting of that announcement from the Dept. of Education reads: "Manning is a veteran of the Reagan and prior Bush administrations, having worked from 1989 to 1993 in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education as chief of staff and deputy assistant secretary. Since June 2001, he has served as the Deputy Secretary's chief of staff, advising him on major budget and policy decisions and day-to-day operations. In between, Manning was chief executive officer of the Congressional Award Foundation."

Manning is also a former Director of International Events for the National Basketball Association.

From the Capital to the Classroom: Year 4 of the No Child Left Behind Act

"On March 28, 2006, the Center for Educational Policy released its fourth annual report on the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act. The report is a comprehensive analysis of how the law is being implemented at the state, district and local levels. Based on a survey of 50 states, 299 school districts and 38 case studies of school districts, the report provides the most up-to-date information about the law's implementation and shares the opportunities and challenges that it has presented for states and districts" (From the CEP Website)

The Center for Educational Policy describes itself as a national, independent advocate for public education and for more effective public schools. Funders include The George Gund Foundation, The Gates Foundation and Phi Delta Kappa International.

EBSCO Offers Free Access to Teacher Reference Center

EBSCO Publishing (http://www.epnet.com/) is offering free access to the new Teacher Reference Center, a bibliographic index of more than 260 titles from teacher and administration trade journals, periodicals, and books. The database, delivered via the EBSCOhost platform, is available as a free resource to anyone interested in teaching and education.

Teacher Reference Center is currently available at http://www.libraryresearch.com/, along with EBSCO Publishing’s free Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA) database. In the coming weeks it will move to http://www.teacherreference.com. Existing EBSCOhost customers may request to have Teacher Reference Center added to their existing EBSCOhost profiles at no additional charge. http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/wnd060410.shtml#3[ITI NewsLink NewsBreaks]

Windows Live Academic Released in Beta

A beta version of Windows Live Academic was released this past week. If you are familiar with Google Scholar, you will see many similarities with Windows Live Adademic. It currently claims to index content related to computer science, physics, electrical engineering, and related subject areas, and limit to peer reviewed materials.

School Libraries and Student Achievement

"A study funded by the Ontario Library Association offers the first Canadian finding that shows a positive correlation between student achievement and library resources and staff. Released April 6, School Libraries and Student Achievement in Ontario includes assessment data from more than 50,000 students and over 800 of the province’s publicly funded elementary schools.

Among the findings were:

• Grade 3 and 6 students in schools with teacher-librarians are more likely to report that they enjoy reading.
• Schools with trained library staff are more likely to have a higher proportion of grade 6 students who meet Ontario standards on reading test scores.
• Schools without trained library staff tend to have lower achievement on the grade 3 and 6 reading tests."

From American Libraries Online.

WSU COE Library and Research News Friday Roundup

Paying Back, Not Giving Back: Student Debt's Negative Impact on Public Service Career Opportunities

PIRG has issued a new report which looks at the issue of unmanageable debt as it pertains to college graduates entering two critical public service careers: teaching and social work.

The state Public Interest Research Groups are a network of independent, state-based, citizen-funded organizations that advocate for the public interest. Each state Public Interest Research Group is independent and locally based. The state PIRGs work together nationally to share ideas and resources and cooperate on regional and national issues. The Michigan PIRG is PIRGIM (Public Interest Research Group in Michigan).

ERIC's Structured Abstracts Initiative

ERIC acknowledges the recent focus on evidence-based decision-making in the Educational Community, and has begun a structured abstract initiative for research submitted directly to ERIC through its Online Submission System. (These are the types of reports formerly submitted through the Clearinghouses as ERIC Documents).

ERIC wants to make it simpler for decision-makers and researchers to see at a glance such key elements in the abstracts as Background, Purpose, Research design and Findings.

Contributors of research through ERIC's Online Submission System located in the My ERIC section of the ERIC Web site are asked to provide this information when submitting research report for review and inclusion in the ERIC database.

Guys Read--literacy for boys

Jon Scieszka is a former elementary school teacher, and children's book author. His innovative program GUYS READ, was established to help boys read. Take a look at his innovative website for inspiration on encouraging guys of all ages to read.

Claiming Common Ground: State Policymaking for Improving College Readiness and Success

A new report out today from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education says that states can improve their students’ readiness for college and the workplace by: (1) better aligning high-school curricula and college admissions standards; (2) providing more state funds for elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education; (3) creating information systems to track students’ progress from high school through college; and (4) holding all educational institutions accountable for the outcomes of their students. Those recommendations have been previously made by other policy experts, and described in depth in a special report, “School & College,” published this month by The Chronicle. (From the Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog)

School & College

This special website from the Chronicle of Higher Education accompanies their upcoming publication SCHOOL & COLLEGE, which will report on how well (or not so well) America is preparing its young people to make the most of a college education. SCHOOL & COLLEGE will look into the ways in which society is dealing with the issues that will determine the future of education — day to day, year to year, kindergarten through college.

The website has links to articles, discussions, other resources and an order form for the print or digital version of the published report SCHOOL & COLLEGE.

Early Childhood and Child Care free online database

Research Connections provides researchers, policymakers, policy influencers, and practitioners with one-stop access to a continually updated, comprehensive, and searchable collection of Original Research and related resources including Syntheses, Datasets, Statistics, Instruments and Measures, and comparative State Data Tools. Research Connections' goal is to promote high quality research and the use of that research in policymaking. (description from the website)

New library resource for readers "Fiction Connection"

Are you a fiction reader? Easily find books you know you’ll love! The WSU Library System announces the addition of Fiction Connection to our user-friendly patron resources. You can now use Fiction Connection to find book suggestions based on books you have already read, authors you like, or topics of interest. You can access Fiction Connection through the BooksInPrint database (Click here to connect). Easily create a personalized list of recommended titles based on characteristics you enjoy. Fiction and biography titles are included and suggestions can be printed or e-mailed for later review.

For more information on using Fiction Connection, contact me at ag6887@wayne.edu or 313-577-4217.

Interactive learning fails reading test

An article from the Sydney Morning Herald, reporting on a study published in Education 3-13 which found that children using an interactive software story program experience a significant drop in recall when compared to a group that experienced the story with voice and text only.

The Partnership for a Nation of Learners

WASHINGTON, DC--The Partnership for a Nation of Learners (PNL), a leadership initiative of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), will sponsor a series of five, monthly one-hour professional development web casts designed to help local museums, libraries and public broadcasters work collaboratively to address local needs.

Although geared toward these public agencies, the site and broadcasts are excellent resources for thinking about how K-12 educators and schools can collaborate with these institutions.

A Teacher in the Living Room? Educational Media for Babies, Toddlers, and Preschoolers

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in new electronic media products for very young children, including those as young as one month old. A driving force behind this new market is the advertising and package labeling that makes claims about the educational benefits of specific products. A Teacher in the Living Room? Educational Media for Babies, Toddlers, and Preschoolers, a new report prepared for the Kaiser Family Foundation, examines the educational claims about commercially available educational media products (videos and DVDs, computer software and video games) for very young children and what kind of research has been conducted to substantiate the educational claims. (Announcement from OCLC Abstracts v. 8 n. 51)

Journals Indexed in ERIC

You can easily access a list of journals indexed in ERIC. Please note that those journals marked with a gold star are those that are currently indexed (after the ERIC reorganization in 2004, some journals were dropped from database coverage, and many are still in the process of being contacted for inclusion in the ERIC database).

Have a journal you believe should be covered by ERIC--let them know! Click here to contact ERIC with your journal recommendations.

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) unveils new website design

NCES has a new website design. Here's what they have to say about it:

"We have added our newest information to the homepage and also restructured our menus to make finding what you are looking for easier. The biggest difference is the navigation bar across the top of every page that enables you to find items of interest no matter where you are on our site.

We are also in the process of redesigning the way we present publications and survey areas. An example of the new publication template can be found at http://nces.ed.gov/programs/crimeindicators/.

We have also made available an RSS feed to help you keep abreast of all NCES news."

TCRecord: No Child Left Behind

The new online issue of TCRecord is devoted to No Child Left Behind, and includes articles such as The Expansion of Federal Power and the Politics of Implementing the No Child Left Behind Act and book reviews on a number of new titles relating to No Child Left Behind and its impact on education.

New Journal Subscription: Journal of School Leadership

The WSU Library System is pleased to announce a subscription to a new journal--the Journal of School Leadership. Our subscription begins with the September 2005 issue, volume 15 issue 5. (This journal is available in print only. It is not yet available online from the publisher.)

Carnegie Foundation Overhauls Its Classification System

As reported in the November 18, 2005 Chronicle of Higher Education
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching unveiled on Thursday the most sweeping changes in more than three decades in its system of classifying American colleges and universities.

The methodology is a "fundamental reconsideration" of the foundation's approach to institutional categorization, Carnegie officials said. Five new categories of institutions will augment the single-scheme method that has been in place since 1970. Carnegie's officials said they hoped the new classifications would bring greater precision to the categorizing of more than 4,000 institutions.

The five new categories that the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is adding to its classification system for colleges and universities are as follows:

Undergraduate instructional program:Classifies institutions based on the level of undergraduate degrees awarded (associate or bachelor's); the proportion of bachelor's-degree majors in the arts and sciences and in the professional fields; and the extent to which an institution awards graduate degrees in the same fields in which it awards undergraduate degrees.

Graduate instructional program:Examines the nature of graduate education, with a focus on the program mix. Classification is based on the level of graduate degrees awarded (master's, professional, or doctoral); the number of fields represented by the degrees awarded; and the mix or concentration of degrees by broad disciplinary domain. Institutions are classified according to the breadth of graduate offerings and the concentration of degrees in certain fields or combinations of fields.

Enrollment profile:Groups institutions by the mix of graduate or professional students and undergraduate students, giving an approximate measure of a student populations' "center of gravity." Such distinctions can have implications for infrastructure, services, and allocation of resources, the foundation says.

Undergraduate profile:Classifies colleges and universities with respect to the proportion of undergraduate students who attend part or full time; the achievement characteristics of first-year students (including entrance-examination scores, which correspond to the selectivity of undergraduate admissions); and the proportion of entering students who transfer from another institution. Differences in those areas inform how an institution serves its students, including issues such as student services, the scheduling of classes, extracurricular activities, and time required to get a degree, among others, the foundation says.

Size and setting:Categorizes institutions by enrollment and residential character, variables that correspond to institutional "structure, complexity, culture, finances, and other factors," the foundation says.

Test Banks available for use in Blackboard

WSU has a license for Respondus software, which can be used to develop tests, quizzes and activities that can be uploaded into your Blackboard course site. Respondus has a Test Bank Network, where you can search for Publisher test banks in Respondus format, which are available for many of the leading textbooks in higher education. Instructors who adopt a participating textbook can download the Respondus-formatted test bank using their Respondus software [see how this works].

To learn more about using Respondus, or to get a copy of the Respondus software, go to the Office for Teaching and Learning website.

State Education Data Profiles

Search for statewide information in elementary/secondary education,postsecondary education, public libraries and selected demographics forall states in the U.S. You can select up to 4 states to compare at a time.In addition to getting statewide data you will also get data on U.S.averages and the ability to dynamically graph the results. The data used for the State Education Data Profiles data tool comes from many NCES sources and has just been updatedwith 2003 public library information and 2004-05 postsecondary educationinformation.

Nations Report Card in Reading and Mathematics

National and state-by-state results of the 2005 Nation's Report Card in reading and mathematics, detailing fourth and eighth grade achievementon the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were justreleased.

Findings since the previous assessment in 2003 show:

• Fourth-grade students scored higher in both reading and mathematics.
• Eighth-graders scored higher in mathematics, but reading scoresdecreased.
• Many of the differences in achievement between Black or Hispanicstudents and their White counterparts have narrowed.
• Most states did not see a change in reading scores for 4th or 8thgraders.
• Thirty-three states and jurisdictions showed an increase in 4th-grade mathematics scores.

Summer Seminars for Teachers

The Gilder Lehrman Summer Seminars are designed to strengthen participants' commitment to high quality history teaching. Public, parochial, independent school teachers, and National Park Service rangers are eligible. These weeklong seminars provide intellectual stimulation and a collaborative context for developing practical resources and strategies to take back to the classroom. Seminars are tuition-free.

In addition, seminars offer:
Stipends of $500
Books, room and board in college dormitories
In-service and new teacher credit
Deadline for Applications:Applications must be submitted by February 1, 2006. Limited to thirty participants per seminar by competitive application. Preference given to new applicants.

2005 Citations in ERIC FirstSearch database

You can now access all of the citations for 2005 recently added to the ERIC database through the library's FirstSearch interface for ERIC. The FirstSearch interface allows you to search the ERIC database, and link directly to online available full-text resources through the WSU Library System using the Get it @ WSU (Article Linker) function. Click on the article title to get to the Get it @ WSU link.

Digest of Education Statistics Released

The National Center for Education Statatics (NCES) NCES has just released the Digest of Education Statistics, 2004. Topics in the Digest include: the number of schools and colleges;teachers; enrollments; graduates; educational attainment; finances;federal funds for education; employment and income of graduates;libraries; technology; and international comparisons.