2011 Math & Reading Assessments: Nation's Report Card

Visit The Nation's Report Card to see recently released Mathematics and Reading assessment results.

Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the US

A new report updating the NCES series on high school dropout and completion rates.

New IES Report: Comparative Indicators of Education in the US and other G-8 Countries

This report describes key education outcomes and contexts of education in the G-8 in five topical areas: population and school enrollment, academic performance, contexts for learning, expenditures for education, and educational attainment and income. Results are drawn from the OECD)ongoing Indicators of Education Systems, as well as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which is also coordinated by the OECD.

IES Report on Dropout Prevention Services and Programs

A new report from IES provision estimates about services and programs offered in public school districts for dropout prevention. You can access the report here.

Higher Education Today discusses Schools of Education

The University of the District of Columbia hosts a lively discussion about Schools of Education with Dr. Margaret Crocco, Dean of the University of Iowa College of Education and Dr. Richard Vedder, Director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. 

Tikatok provides free "Writing Across the Curriculum" content for educators

Posted in eSchool News on September 21. Designed for K-8, this guide covers the writing process from prewriting to publishing, and included activities, organizers and worksheets.

The Condition of Education 2011

Has been released in e-book format for Kindle, ipad, Nook and more, along with its traditional PDF format. The Condition of Education 2011 "summarized important developments and trends in education using the latest available data."

Michigan Online Resources for Educators (M.O.R.E.) debuts its Facebook page

The new M.O.R.E. Facebook page will include announcements, new resource updates and plus chances to win prizes in online scavenger hunts, photo contests, lesson plan contest and other fun activities. Go to the new M.O.R.E.Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/more.mel.org and select “like” to become eligible for all contests.

Don’t forget to visit M.O.R.E. at http://more.mel.org and create your free account to organize selected lesson plans aligned with the Michigan grade level and high school content expectations.

A Framework for K-12 Science Education

National Academies Press new publication, A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas, outlines expectations for students in science and engineering in K-12, and the revisions to curriculum, instruction, assessemnt and professional development for educators that needs to occur to meet these expectations.

World Journal of Education available in Academic OneFile

World Journal of Education was recently added in full-text to the Academic OneFile database. Sciedu Press, which produces this new journal, is a division of the Canadian Center of Science and Education.

Detroit Free Press reports UDM, Marygrove fixing teacher-training programs

A brief article on MDE performance scores on the state's MTTC (teacher certification exam) in the Detroit Free Press on Sunday, August 7.

NY Charter Schools investigated over admissions methods

Another investigation of Charter Schools, this time in NYC regarding violations of the state's charter school admission policy.

Michigan's Charter School admissions policy is "A charter school may not be selective. It may not screen out students based on disability, race, religion, sex, test scores, etc. It may predetermine the ages, grades, and number of students it will serve. A random selection process must be used if the number of applicants exceeds the school’s enrollment capacity" (there are some schools that are restricted, such as Strict Discipline Academies)

Recently, the Philadelphia Academy Charter School the founding CEO and his successor were charged with stealing almost $1 million.

ChildStats.gov release America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2011

Indicators for 22 federal agencies and partners make up this report America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2011.

Charter Schools in Detroit: Test Scores don't measure up

A Detroit News analysis of Michigan Merit Exam results show of 25 charters in Detroit or nearby, only 6 had higher math or science proficiency scores than the Detroit Public School's average, (Charter high schools in Detroit not making grade, Detroit News, July 7, 2011, Mike Wilkinson)

Visit AFT Teach on Facebook

AFT TEACH (Together Educating America’s Children) provides educators with practical tools, professional knowledge, and inspiration to meet current challenges in education. Through TEACH, you can find out about resources, conversations and innovative work that educators need to know about.

New Journals Available through JSTOR

New Journals have been added to JSTOR. A title that may be of interest to the College of Education is The Journal of Museum Education--through 2007 (3 year moving wall)

From the Chronicle: Detroit's Troubled Schools Draw New Education Dean to Wayne State

The Chronicle of Higher Education features a story about Dr. Carolyn Shields, who will be starting as the new Dean of WSU's College of Education on July 1. This article talks about her vision for DPS partnerships, including connecting with area cultural institutions. The article also discusses Dr. Shields intent to overhaul the College of Education's core curriculum.

Failing Detroit schools moved to a new system

The Associated Press reported the Governor, Rick Snyder, and Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts, are moving the worst of Detroit schools to a new school system.  Eastern Michigan University is partnering with Detroit on the plan and will train teachers hired at the new system's schools.  Snyder also announced the creation of a program to raise money to help Detroit students attend college.

JSTOR Moving Wall increased for Taylor & Francis Titles

The "moving wall" for education titles from Taylor & Francis publishers has increased to 7 years from 5 years in JSTOR.

British Educational Research Journal
British Journal of Sociology of Education
Cognition and Instruction (available through current through InformaWorld)
Comparative Education (available through current through InformaWorld)
Journal of the Learning Sciences
Language Acquisition (available through current through InformaWorld)
Oxford Review of Education
Psychological Inquiry (available through current through InformaWorld)
Rhetoric Review (available through current through InformaWorld)
Theory into Practice (available to 1 year ago through Business Source Complete)

This means the most recent 7 years of these publications will not be available in full-text through JSTOR.

Articles from journals not avaialable through WSULS may always be ordered through our Request Digital Delivery service.  You can easily get to the form by using the 360 link to full-text link in a library database, or by looking up the article using our Citation LInker

 

 

 

Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools

From the School Survey on Crime and Safety, NCES presents this report that provides a first look report at the findings.

Important points:

During the 2009–10 school year, the rate of violent incidents per 1,000 students was higher in middle schools (40 incidents) than in primary schools or high schools (21 incidents each).

Some 10 percent of city schools reported at least one gang-related crime, a higher percentage than that reported by suburban (5 percent), town (4 percent), or rural schools (2 percent).

A higher percentage of middle schools reported that student bullying occurred at school daily or at least once a week (39 percent) than did high schools or primary schools (20 percent each).

Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools

From the School Survey on Crime and Safety, NCES presents this report that provides a first look report at the findings.

Important points:

During the 2009–10 school year, the rate of violent incidents per 1,000 students was higher in middle schools (40 incidents) than in primary schools or high schools (21 incidents each).

Some 10 percent of city schools reported at least one gang-related crime, a higher percentage than that reported by suburban (5 percent), town (4 percent), or rural schools (2 percent).

A higher percentage of middle schools reported that student bullying occurred at school daily or at least once a week (39 percent) than did high schools or primary schools (20 percent each).

The Condition of Education 2011

The National Center for Education Statistics, released The Condition of Education 2011, presenting 50 indicators on demographics, resources and outcomes associated with US schools and education.

Report findings include:

• In 2007-08, about three-quarters of the 2003-04 freshman class graduated with a regular diploma from public high schools.

• From 2000 to 2009, undergraduate enrollment in postsecondary institutions increased from 13 million students to 18 million. During this period, undergraduate enrollment in private for-profit institutions quadrupled – from 0.4 million students in 2000 to 1.6 million in 2009.

• Between 1975 and 2010, the percentages of White, Black and Hispanic 25- to 29-year-olds who had a bachelor’s degree increased. Yet, during this period, the gap in bachelor’s degree attainment between Blacks and Whites increased from 13 to 19 percentage points, and the gap between Whites and Hispanics increased from 15 to 25 percentage points.

To view the full report please visit
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2011033

Education Dept. Withdraws Federal Support for School Libraries

American Libraries reports that the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program was zeroed out under the Department of Education’s allocation for FY2011 funding (PDF), released on May 17.

Free Access to Routledge Education Journals

Routledge has offered free access for the month of April to their Education Journals. There are over 238 journals to choose, with topics covering the History of Education to Open & Distance Education and eLearning, and all topics in-between.

Education Secretary reports 82% of schools could be labeled as failing

During a House Education Committee hearing on March 9, the Department of Education's 2012 budget request, Arne Duncan reports on the state of education and the need for NCLB reform. You can watch the hearing here:  C-SPAN.org Sec. Duncan Defends TY2012 Education Budget

IES releases Projections of Education Statistics to 2019

The new report includes statistics on enrollment, graduates, teachers, and expenditures in elementary and secondary schools, and enrollment and earned degrees conferred 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 2019.

New Report from IES: Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 1972–2008

"This report builds upon a series of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports on high school dropout, completion, and graduation rates that began in 1988. The report includes discussions of many rates used to study how students complete or fail to complete high school. It presents estimates of rates for 2008 and provides data about trends in dropout and completion rates over the last three and a half decades (1972-2008) along with more recent estimates of on-time graduation from public high schools. Among findings in the report was that in October 2008, approximately 3 million civilian noninstitutionalized 16- through 24-year-olds were not enrolled in high school and had not earned a high school diploma or alternative credential. These dropouts represented 8 percent of the 38 million non-institutionalized, civilian individuals in this age group living in the United States." From IES Newsflash 12/8/2010

Thirty Sources Added to ERIC

The ERIC digital library recently added thirty sources to the collection. Content will become available as it is received from the publishers.

Journals:
• American Educator
• Australian Journal of Indigenous Education
• Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood
• Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE Journal)
• Current Research in Social Psychology
• Education in Rural Australia
• IEEE Transactions on Education
• International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership
• International Journal of Learning and Change
• Journal of Adult Education
• Journal of Applied Psychology
• Journal of Creative Behavior
• Journal of Ethnographic & Qualitative Research
• Journal of Research in Character Education
• Journal of Technology Education
• Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication
• Pedagogy, Culture & Society
• Personnel Psychology
• Research in Comparative and International Education
• School Social Work Journal
• Science Education International
• TESL-EJ

Grey Literature Sources:
• Horizon Research, Inc.
• Math Solutions
• New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER)
• NZCER Press
• Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness
• Teaching and Learning Research Initiative
• Tennessee Higher Education Commission
• Washington State School Directors' Association

From ERIC News. To subscribe, go to http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/resources/html/news/index.html and follow the directions under @ERIC Update

Google Science Fair opens January 11

The inaurual Google Science Fair will be launched January 11, 2011. Google has partnered with NASA, CERN, National Geographic, Scientific American and the LEGO Group to create a new open, accessible and global STEM competition. The Google Science Fair is a global competition that any student aged 13 - 18 from around the world is eligible to enter. Students can enter as individuals or as teams of up to three.

To sign up for fun and free resource kits for your classroom or school (with bookmarks, stickers, posters and more!) and a reminder notification when GSF registration opens, please visit the Google Science Fair at: http://www.google.com/sciencefair

NCES Report Released: Indicators of School Crime and Safety 2010

The Indicators of School Crime and Safety 2010 "report covers topics such as victimization, teacher injury, bullying, school conditions, fights, weapons, availability and student use of drugs and alcohol, and student perceptions of personal safety at school. Indicators of crime and safety are compared across different population subgroups and over time. Data on crimes that occur away from school are offered as a point of comparison where available." IES Newsflash

Education Week reports on federal research study of early-grade math programs; some programs show more improvement

"Two years into the nation's largest experimental evaluation of commercial mathematics programs for early elementary school, the Institute of Education Sciences has found some curricula have an advantage over others, but so far there has been no decisive win in the ongoing battle over the best way to teach math." Education Week, S. Sparks, November 10, 2010.
WSU affiliates: Click here to read the whole story

Education Week reports on federal research study of early-grade math programs; some programs show more improvement

"Two years into the nation's largest experimental evaluation of commercial mathematics programs for early elementary school, the Institute of Education Sciences has found some curricula have an advantage over others, but so far there has been no decisive win in the ongoing battle over the best way to teach math." Education Week, S. Sparks, November 10, 2010.
WSU affiliates: Click here to read the whole story

Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts in the US

"The Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts report provides basic information from the Common Core of Data about the nation's largest public school districts in the 2008-09 school year. The data include such characteristics as the number of students and teachers, number of high school completers and the averaged freshman graduation rate, and revenues and expenditures." Data from Detroit Public Schools (listed in the report as Detroit City School District) is included in this report. As reported in IES Newsflash

New Education Publications available online through library databases

New full-text titles available through the Academic OneFile database.

Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue (from Information Age Publishing, Inc.)
Distance Learning (from Information Age Publishing, Inc.)
English Language Teaching (from Canadian Center of Science and Education)
International Education Studies (from Canadian Center of Science and Education)
Journal of Research in Character Education (from Information Age Publishing)
Middle Grades Research Journal (from Information Age Publishing, Inc.)
New Teacher Advocate (from Kappa Delta Pi)
Ovidius University Annals, Series Physical Education and Sport/Science, Movement and Health (from Ovidius University of Constanta)
Quarterly Review of Distance Education (from Information Age Publishing, Inc.)

Have you seen: Curriki

Developed by the founder of Sun Microsystems, Curriki provides access to free online textbooks and curriculum support materials.  Use the Browse by Topic under Find Resources to target specific curricular areas.

Rebuilding Detroit Public Schools: A Documentary

Michigan Radio looks at school reform in Detroit and New Orleans in its 2 week series Rebuilding Detroit Schools: A Documentary.
Their stories include interviews with students and transcript from a special call-in show hosted by Charity Nebbe called “A Tale of Two Cities: Lessons the Motor City Can Learn From the Crescent City,", which aired on both Michigan Radio and WWNO New Orleans.

Graduation and Dropout Rates 2007-08 from NCES

"Nationwide, 75 percent of public high school students who started as freshmen in the fall of 2004 graduated high school in 2008—up from 74 percent who graduated on time in the spring of 2007.

Other findings include:

• The Average Freshmen Graduation Rate increased by at least 1 percentage point in 16 states and the District of Columbia.
• Four percent of high school students dropped out of school during the 2007–08 school year. This marks a decrease of at least half a percentage point for 14 states and the District of Columbia from 2006-07."

To view the full report please visit
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2010341
Source: NCES Newsflash

Condition of Education 2000-2010 released

NCES announces the release of the Condition of Education 2000-2010

Check out the site map to find a visual overview of special analysis topics such as High Poverty Public Schools.

"Report findings include:

• In 2007-2008, about 20 percent of all elementary students and 9 percent of secondary school students attended high-poverty schools, compared with 15 percent and 5 percent respectively in 1999-2000.
• The reading achievement gap between low- and high-poverty 8th-grade students was 34 points in 2009 and the mathematics achievement gap was 38 points.
• In 2007-08, about 28 percent of high school graduates from high-poverty schools attended 4-year institutions after graduation, compared with 52 percent of high school graduates from low-poverty schools, based on reports from school administrators.
• Between 1971 and 2009, the percentage of White, Black and Hispanic 25- to 29-year-olds who had a bachelor’s degree increased. But, during this period, the gap in bachelor’s degree attainment between Blacks and Whites increased from 12 to 18 percentage points and the gap between Hispanics and Whites increased from 14 to 25 percentage points."

Reported in NCES (IES) Newsflash

Nation's Report Card releases 2007 scores

Michigan 4th Graders dip slightly. Story reported on M-Live

See 4th and 8th grade Reading results for Michigan and more on the Nation's Report Card

Nation's Report Card releases 2007 scores

Michigan 4th Graders dip slightly. Story reported on M-Live

See 4th and 8th grade Reading results for Michigan and more on the Nation's Report Card

New Report from NCES: Teacher's Use of Educational Technology in U.S. Public Schools 2009

The Teacher's Use of Educational Technology in U.S. Public Schools 2009 presents data from a spring 2009 Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) survey on the availability and use of educational technology by public elementary/secondary school teachers.

Fast Facts:

• Ninety-seven percent of teachers had one or more computers located in the classroom every day. Internet access was available for 93 percent of the computers located in the classroom every day. The ratio of students to computers in the classroom every day was 5.3 to 1.
• Teachers indicated that a system on their school or district network was available for entering or viewing the following: grades (94 percent), attendance records (93 percent), and results of student assessments (90 percent). Of the teachers with one of these systems available, the percent using it sometimes or often was 92 percent (grades), 90 percent (attendance records), and 75 percent (student assessments).
• A higher percentage of teachers in low poverty schools than in high poverty schools used email or list-serve to send out group updates or information to parents (69 percent compared to 39 percent) or to students (30 percent compared to 17 percent), used email to address individual concerns with parents (92 percent compared to 48 percent) or with students (38 percent compared to 19 percent), and used a course or teacher web page to communicate with parents (47 percent compared to 30 percent) or with students (36 percent compared to 18 percent).(low and high poverty schools are based on the percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch of less than 35 percent and 75 percent or more, respectively).

Text drawn from IES Newsflash Subscription Service notice of 5/5/2010

U.S. Falls Short in Measure of Future Math Teachers (New York Times)

On April 14, the New York Times published the story U.S. Falls Short in Measure of Future Math Teachers which discussed a recently published study by lead author William H. Schmidt, MSU professor, which showed that "American college students earned a C on a new test comparing their skills with their counterparts in 15 other countries...(t)he 52-page report provides the first international comparison of teacher preparation based on a test given to college students in a significant number of countries."

Here is a the study, published in 2007.
Here is the MSU press release

Here are books in the WSU libraries on math teacher preparation

Reauthorization of Elementary & Secondary Education Act Report Released: A Blueprint for Reform

The Blueprint for Reform provides the Obama Administration's vision for the federal role in elementary and secondary education. It focuses on teacher effectiveness, college and career readiness, support of school choice.

President Obama unveils Educational Technology plan

On March 5, the Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology plan was unveiled issued by the Obama Administration. It provides a blueprint for individualized, digital learning approaches to enhance education, with a focus on STEM education for students and enhancing online teaching skills in Teacher Education. It touches on Information Literacy skills in the President's Grand Challenge Problem 2.0: Design and validate an integrated system for designing and implementing valid, reliable, and cost-effective assessments of complex aspects of 21st century expertise and competencies across academic disciplines. Those 21st century competencies include student's abilities to access, retrieve, evaluate and ethically use information.

Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier

"In Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier, FRONTLINE presents an in-depth exploration of what it means to be human in a 21st-century digital world." [from Frontline description]

Watch the documentaries, interviews and participate in discussions on the impact of technology on education, relationships and communities.

Building a Better Teacher

From Sunday March 8 New York Times Magazine, Doug Lemov a former teacher, a principal, charter-school founder, and now educational consultant, discusses the qualities of effective teachers.

New Yorker profiles Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education

The February 1 issue of the New Yorker offers a profile of Arne Duncan, the current US Secretary of Education under the Obama administration. Wayne State affiliates can access the full article through our ProQuest Research Library database subscription here:

Class Warrior: Arne Duncan's bid to shake up schools

Fixing Michigan's schools: A five-part report

From the Sunday, Feburary 7 Detroit News and Free Press, a five-part report on Michigan Schools, Fixing Michigan's Schools, discusses the state of education and college (and workplace) preparation. Includes an Education Scorecard and sample questions from the NAEP and the MEAP.

WGVU Interview with MORE

Listen to an interview on WGVU with Deb Biggs-Thomas, director of the MORE--Michigan Online Resources for Educators initiative.

Edublog Awards 2009

Check out the 2009 winners of the Elluminate sponsored Edublog awards.

Current Article Abstracts available in JSTOR

You can now search for current articles in the following education publications in JSTOR

Child Development
Educational Researcher
Review of Research in Education

You will need to use the SEARCH FOR ARTICLE article linker button to link to the full-text of articles from these publications from the past 5 years.

Educational Technology in Public School Districts

From IES, this Educational Technology in Public School Districts First Look report presents data from a Fall 2008 survey on the availbility and use of educational technology, including student acceptable use policies for social networking applications and institutional access to online resources.

Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2009

Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2009 provides the most current detailed statistical information on crimes occurring in school as well as on the way to and from school. 

Other findings include:

• Students age 12-18 were victims of about 1.5 million crimes at school in 2007, with about 45 percent of these crimes reported as violent crimes ranging from simple assault and serious violence.
• Preliminary data show that among youth ages 5 to 18, there were 43 school-associated violent deaths from July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008.
• There was an overall decline in the victimization rates for students ages 12 to 18 at school between 1992 and 2007, however there was no measurable difference in the rate of crime at school between 2004 and 2007.
• During the 2007–08 school year, 85 percent of public schools recorded that at least one violent crime, theft, or other crime occurred at their school.
• During the 2007–08 school year, a greater percentage of teachers in city schools (10 percent) reported being threatened with injury than teachers in town schools (7 percent) and suburban or rural schools (6 percent each).

(Source: IES Newsflash Service)

ERIC Grey Literature and Book Source List

ERIC has released a list of organizations that contribute grey literature, published reports and books to ERIC. This new source list  can be found in the “Our Collection” area of the Web site at www.eric.ed.gov/nonjournals.

The list was created with the encouragement of the library community to highlight the depth and breadth of the ERIC Collection, particularly in the grey literature area. Among the hundreds of sources listed are professional associations, research foundations, federal and state agencies, policy organizations, university affiliates, and commercial publishers, along with links to their sites.
(Source: Posting to [sla-dedu] ERIC Adds New Source List to Web Site by Jane Atwell, Sr. Communications Specialist, ERIC Project)

Detroit Students Score Record Low on National Math Scores

"Sixty-nine percent of fourth-graders and 77 percent of eighth-graders scored below basic skill levels in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a standardized test that serves as a nationwide yardstick in measuring student learning." Robert Bobb, DPS Emergency Financial Manager, blames "school principals and a failing curriculum that doesn't prepare students for the national test." (Detroit News, 12/8/09)

More about the NAEP, scores and the instrument at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/mathematics/

Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto NAEP Scales: 2005-2007

Since 2003, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has sponsored the development of a method for mapping each state’s standard for proficient performance onto a common scale—the achievement scale of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). When states’ standards are placed onto the NAEP reading or mathematics scales, the level of achievement required for proficient performance in one state can then be compared with the level of achievement required in another state. This report presents mapping results using the 2005 and 2007 NAEP assessments in mathematics and reading for grades 4 and 8.(IES Newsflash Service)

Read the Report: Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto NAEP Scales 2005-2007

IES Releases new report Achievement Gaps

Achievement Gaps: How Black and White Students in Public Schools Perform in Mathematics and Reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) provides detailed information on the size of the achievement gaps between Black and White students at both the national and state level and how those achievement gaps have changed over time. Most of the data in this report is derived from the results of the 2007 main NAEP assessments, and is supplemented with data from the long-term trend assessments.
.
The site also has a State Comparison Tool.

View the webcast of the 7/14 press release

(Source: IES Newsflash)

Alarm Sounds at Teacher Schools

The Detroit Free Press (10/11/2009) reports on 2 (UDM and Marygrove) teacher education programs facing tough sanctions that could lead to their termination, primarily because of low pass rates on the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification. WSU student, faculty and staff access only.

High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2007

This report builds upon a series of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports on high school dropout, completion, and graduation rates that began in 1988. The report includes discussions of many rates used to study how students complete or fail to complete high school. It presents estimates of rates for 2007 and provides data about trends in dropout and completion rates over the last three and a half decades (1972-2007) along with more recent estimates of on-time graduation.

Among findings in the report was that among reporting states in 2006, the averaged freshman graduation rate (AFGR) was 73.2 percent. The report also shows that students living in low-income families were approximately 10 times more likely to drop out of high school between 2006 and 2007 than were students living in high-income families. In October 2007, approximately 3.3 million civilian noninstitutionalized 16- through 24-year-olds were not enrolled in high school and had not earned a high school diploma or alternative credential.

PreK-3rd Research and Evaluation Small Grants Program

The Foundation for Child Development (FCD) announces a request for proposals for its PreK-3rd Research and Evaluation Small Grants Program. A maximum of two awards of up to $50,000 each will be awarded to researchers proposing to use one or more datasets from the PreK-3rd Data Resource Center. The deadline for proposals is November 2, 2009.

The goal of this project is to inform the Foundation for Child Development's PreK-3rd initiative and build the research field by facilitating the analysis of rich, complex, longitudinal datasets that contain a wide range of variables on the child, family, school, and neighborhood. The Web site disseminates datasets and user guides developed to provide researchers with detailed guidance in creating their own extract datasets.

IES Releases new report Achievement Gaps

Achievement Gaps: How Black and White Students in Public Schools Perform in Mathematics and Reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) provides detailed information on the size of the achievement gaps between Black and White students at both the national and state level and how those achievement gaps have changed over time. Most of the data in this report is derived from the results of the 2007 main NAEP assessments, and is supplemented with data from the long-term trend assessments.
.
The site also has a State Comparison Tool.

View the webcast of the 7/14 press release

(Source: IES Newsflash)

New Report Released: America's Children: Key national Indicators of Well-Being 2009

The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics has released America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009.  This report continues a series of annual reports to the Nation on conditions affecting children in the United States.  Indicators are supplied by NCES, IES and 21 other federal agencies.

Items of note from the report's section on education

• Performance of 4th and 8th graders in mathematics is at an all time high and performance in reading improved between 2005 and 2007. 
  
• The percentage of children ages 3-5 who were read to every day in the last week by a family member declined, from 60 percent in 2005, to 55 percent in 2007. 
  

The report has three demographic background measures and 40 selected indicators to describe the population of children and depict child well-being in the areas of family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health. This year's report has a special feature on children with special health care needs. (From the IES Newsflash Service)

New Multicultural Databases at the libraries

See our 3 most recently added library databases: African American Experience, Latino American Experience and American Indian Experience. Each of these has an Education category which covers topics like access to education, discrimination and topics specific to the experience of the group like Brown v. Board of Education, Bilingual Education and Linguistic Genocide. The databases also include access to primary resources, topic guides and K-12 lesson plans which may be used to our TED students.

To access the databases, go to the library homepage and click on Article Databases. You can type in the name of the database, or select the beginning letter of the database name to select and access from the alphabetical list.

To directly access the databases, use the following links:
African American Experience http://elibrary.wayne.edu/record=e1000738~S47
Latino American Experience http://elibrary.wayne.edu/record=e1000770~S47
American Indian Experience http://elibrary.wayne.edu/record=e1000769~S47

Remember that you can directly link these databases in your course Blackboard or website by using the direct links provided above.

2008 Arts Report Card

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has released the results of the national arts assessment, the 2008 Arts Report Card

The assessment is a nationally representative sample of approximately 7,900 eighth-grade students from about 260 public and private schools. Approximately one-half of these students were assessed in music, and the other half were assessed in visual arts.

From the IES Newsflash Subscription Service

WSU Library News Spring 2009

Here is the WSU Library News from Spring 2009, with live links

Nation's Report Card

The 2008 Long-Term Trend Report Card was released on April 28, 2009. The Nation's Report Card site you can access reports for economics, U.S. History, reading and other curricular areas, watch webcasts and access data tools.

Indicators of School Crime and Safety 2008

NCES has released the report Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2008.A joint effort by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and NCES, this annual report examines crime occurring in school as well as on the way to and from school. Data on crime away from school are also presented to place school crime in the context of crime in the larger society. (Source: IES Newsflash 4/21/2009)

New version of NAEP Data Explorer released!

The new NAEP Data Explorer (NDE) takes advantage of the latest internet technology to present users with a friendlier interface, enhanced analysis selections, and improved reporting options. NDE users will find powerful graphing capabilities, achievement levels as variables or statistics, new Large Central City and National Private jurisdictions, and the option to perform gap analysis on any combination of variables, years, or jurisdictions.

The new NDE will also improve the way in which the user is able to interact with the reports he has created, customizing them and exporting them beyond the NDE application into a variety of formats, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PDF, and HTML. (IES Newsflash 4/9/2009)

NCES updates the Career/Technical Education (CTE) Statistics

The CTES website includes tables describing career/technical education (CTE) at three levels: 1) secondary/high school CTE, 2) postsecondary/college career education, and 3) adult education for work. These tables are updated periodically to incorporate new CTE-related topics and data from new surveys. In this update, two sets of tables were added to the postsecondary/college career education tables:  1) a set of 21 tables with state-level information on institutional offerings and credentials awarded in CTE, and 2)  a set of 7 tables describing CTE students' enrollment characteristics, for the 12 states that were oversampled in the 2003-04 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study. (IES Newsflash 4/8/2009)

NAEP Presentations at the 2009 AERA/NCME Meetings April 12–17, San Diego, California

NCES has a listing of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) related professional development training sessions that will be offered at the AERA conference in San Diego.

2008 Digest of Education Statistics

The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences has released the report "Digest of Education Statistics, 2008." The Digest's primary purpose is to provide 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. IES Newsflash 3/18/2009

Michigan Online Resources for Educators Debuts!

The Library of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Education and Wayne State University today announced the official launch the Michigan Online Resources for Educators (MORE), a growing Web-based collection of thousands of high-quality, digitally available information resources that are aligned with State of Michigan grade-level and high school content expectations.

MORE contents are culled from well-known education resources like ThinkFinity and include lesson plans, curriculum guides, interactive games and Web sites, career-development guides, parenting information and much more.

Each MORE category includes links to sub-categories that distill the resources down to individual teaching concepts. For example, within the English Language Arts section, users can choose from sub-topics like American Literature, Debate, Expository Writing, Listening Comprehension or Speech, and then dig deeper into lesson plans and creative teaching aids like ABCs of the Writing Process and the Linguistic Lesson Plans Database.

Helping Michigan educators even further, many of the resources available within MORE are already aligned with the State of Michigan’s grade-level content expectations (GLCEs) and high school content expectations (HSCEs), and additional resources are on track for alignment. This alignment is not done by machines but by Michigan educators working in their content areas. Flanagan applauded the efforts that have made MORE a reality.

Seeking to keep educators firmly a part of the GLCE and HSCE alignment process, the MORE partners will hold spring and summer alignment workshops and teacher participation is crucial. Teachers and media specialists interested in being a part of this valuable work should contact Barbara Fardell, manager of educational technology in the Department of Education’s Office of Grants Coordination & School Support, at fardellb@michigan.gov.

State Education Reforms website adds ELL policies

The recent NCES State Education Reforms (SER) website modifications include the addition of a a new table on state policies regarding the teaching of English Language Learners in the "staff qualifications and development" area. To locate these tables on the website, please look for the "Updated!" and "New!" tags next to the table titles. (IES Newsflash Subscription Service [IESWebmaster@ed.gov])

Course Credit Accrual and Dropping Out of High School

The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences has released the report "Course Credit Accrual and Dropping Out of High School, by Student Characteristics."

Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, this report examines the number of credits earned by high school students and the relationship between course credit accrual and dropping out. Findings indicate that high school dropouts earned fewer credits than did on-time graduates within each year of high school, and the cumulative course credit accrual gap increased with each subsequent year.

International Comparison: Math & Science Achievement for US 4th and 8th Grade Students

This report from the National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences summarizes the performance of U.S. fourth- and eighth-grade students on the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), comparing their scores with their peers internationally as well as documenting changes in mathematics and science achievement since 1995. The report also describes additional details about trends in the achievement of students within the United States, by sex, racial/ethnic background, and the poverty level of the schools they attend.

TIMSS is sponsored by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), an international organization of national research institutions and governmental research agencies. The United States participate in all four TIMSS administrations: 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007. (IES Newsflash 12/9/2008)

Purdy Library Reference Area Redesign

To create a more comfortable environment for our library users, we will be installing new furniture in the computer and reference area on the first floor of Purdy Library.This installation will begin December 18 and will last through the holiday break. Library users will not have access to this area during that time. However, the stacks will be open to users and reference services will be available. We apologize for any inconvenience and encourage patrons to visit the Undergraduate Library or the Science & Engineering Library during the upgrade.

Click this link to see a simulation of the redesigned Purdy Reference area. The first 50 seconds of this video is the Purdy side of the library.

Public School Enrollment report issued by IES

The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences has released the report "Public Elementary and Secondary School Student Enrollment and Staff From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2006-07."

This report presents 2006-07 school year information at the national and state level on student enrollment by grade and by race/ethnicity within grade, the numbers of teachers and other education staff, and several student/staff ratios.
From IES Newsflash service, 11/24/2008

From Education Week: "Study to Size Up Doctoral Programs"

"Two national education groups are launching a first-time effort to assess—and possibly even rank—the hundreds of doctoral programs that prepare education researchers.

The field of education produces an estimated 1,800 doctorates a year, according to the American Educational Research Association, which is overseeing the three-year study with the National Academy of Education, known as NEAD. Such programs, however, have come under scrutiny in recent years, with scholars and policymakers complaining that they suffer from uneven quality and “mission muddle.” Education Week, October 29, 2008

WSU Students, Faculty and Staff can access the Oct 29, 2008 issue of Education Week via the ProQuest Research Library database:

Student Victimization in US Schools--New Report from NCES

The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences has released the report "Student Victimization in U.S. Schools Results From the 2005 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey."

This report provides estimates of student victimization as defined by the 2005 School Crime Supplement (SCS) to the 2005 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). This report incorporates findings from student respondents ages 12-18 in grades 6-12 that were interviewed during the 2005 school year.

It shows that student victims of crime are more likely to report conditions of an unfavorable school climate, security measures at school, and exhibit fear and avoidance behaviors. Additional topics covered in this report include the prevalence and type of student victimization at school and selected characteristics of victims, including their demographic characteristics and school type; and victim and nonvictim reports of the presence of gangs and weapons and the availability of drugs.
Posting from IES Newsflash 10/21/2008

RAND Research Brief: Florida's Middle School Reading Coaches: What Do They Do? Are They Effective?

This research brief reports the results of a study examining the implementation and effectiveness of a middle school reading coach program in Florida. "Reading coaches in Florida middle schools have helped teachers and administrators build their knowledge and skills, and have had a positive influence on students' motivation to read, but their impact on achievement is mixed, a report on the little-studied topic says." (Education Week, 9/17/2008)

Projections of Education Statistics to 2017 NCES Report Released

The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences has released the report "Projections of Education Statistics to 2017."

This publication provides projections for key education statistics. It includes statistics on enrollment, graduates, teachers, and expenditures in elementary and secondary schools, and enrollment and earned degrees conferred 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 2017. 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 2017. In addition, the report includes a methodology section describing models and assumptions used to develop national and state-level projections.

To view, download and print the report as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008078
(From IES Newsflash Subscription Service announcement 9/17/2008)

Reading First Heads for Extinction

From Education Week, July 15, 2008: House and Senate panels decided to eliminate its funding in the fiscal 2009 budget. The Ed Money Watch blog weighs in on this decision.

Policy Archive--Education

PolicyArchive is digital archive of global, non-partisan public policy research. Through the PolicyArchive, you can access summaries and full texts, videos, reports, briefs, and multimedia material of think tank, university, government, and foundation-funded policy research. PolicyArchive is supported by the non-profit Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) in partnership with the Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) University Library and major U.S. charitable foundations.

NCES Report Released: Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts in the U.S. 2005-06

The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences has released the report "Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts in the United States: 2005-06 (NCES 2008-339)."

"This annual report provides basic information from the Common Core of Data about the nation's largest public school districts in the 2005-06 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. Findings include: In 2005-06, these 100 largest districts enrolled 23 percent of all public school students and employed 22 percent of all public school teachers. The districts produced 20 percent of all high school completers (both diploma and other completion credential recipients) in 2004-05. Across the districts, the averaged freshman graduation rate was 69.5 percent. Three states -- California, Florida, and Texas -- accounted for almost half of the 100 largest public school districts. Current per-pupil expenditures in fiscal year 2003 ranged from a low of $5,104 in the Puerto Rico School District to a high of $18,878 in the District of Columbia Public School District." IES Newsflash

Encyclopedia of Language and Education (2nd Edition) available online

The 10 volume Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd Edition, is available online through the WSU libraries.

"In this second, fully revised edition, the 10 volume Encyclopedia of Language and Education offers the newest developments including two new volumes of research and scholarly content essential to the field of language teaching and learning in the age of globalization. In the selection of topics and contributors, the Encyclopedia reflects the depth of disciplinary knowledge, breadth of interdisciplinary perspective, and diversity of sociogeographic experience in the field." (Springer.com, About This Book)

avorite Children's Authors and Illustrators available online

The 8 volume Favorite Children's Authors and Illustrators (edited by Primm) is now available online.

You can link to it directly through the following (you can also put this link in your Blackboard site if you like. Students will be able to link directly to the resource)

http://elibrary.wayne.edu/record=b3327537~S1

After you link to the record, click on Connect to online resource-WSU on-site and authorized users

When you get to the online book, click eTable of Contents OR eBook Index to get to the contents of the books

A new task force addresses shortcomings in education reform

"A new task force of national policy experts with diverse religious and political affiliations, in public policy fields including education, social welfare, health, housing, and civil rights today launched a campaign calling for a “Broader, Bolder Approach to Education” to break a decades-long cycle of reform efforts that promised much and have achieved far too little.

Co-chaired by Helen Ladd, a Duke University professor of public policy studies, Pedro Noguera, a sociologist at New York University and an expert on educational policy, and Tom Payzant, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a former Boston schools superintendent and U.S. assistant secretary of education, the Task Force’s framework points to the many flaws in the approach of the current No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law and charges that the nation's education and youth development policy has erred by relying on school improvement alone to raise achievement levels of disadvantaged children. Task Force News Release, June 10, 2008

Cultural Attitudes Affect Girls' Math Performance

The article Culture, Gender and Math in the May 2008 issue of Science, reports on research which compared the results of more than 276,000 15-year-olds in 40 countries who took a test in 2003 run by the OECD. On average, girls scored 2 percent lower than boys in mathematics. When they compared the gaps in mathematics scores to various measures of gender inequality, they found a possible reason for those national variations. In the countries that had the greatest gender inequality, such as Turkey and Korea, girls tended to fare worse compared to boys. In countries with more equality, such as Norway, Sweden, and Iceland, the gender gap in mathematics test scores disappears. (As reported in the Choronicle of Higher Education, 5/30/2008).

Condition of Education 2008

The National Center for Education Statistics has released The Condition of Education 2008, a congressionally mandated report that provides an annual portrait of education in the United States

• This year, public school enrollment is expected to approach about 50 million students. Total public school enrollment is projected to set new records each year from 2008 to 2017, at which time it is expected to reach 54.1 million.
• Minority students make up 43 percent of the public school enrollment overall.
• In 2005–06, about a third of Black students and a third of Hispanic students attended high-poverty schools compared with 4 percent of White students.
• Average reading scores of 4th- and 8th-graders were higher in 2007 than in 1992.
• Average mathematics scores increased 27 points for 4th-graders and 19 points for 8th-graders between 1990 and 2007.
• Among public high school students in the class of 2005, about three-fourths graduated on time.
  

IES Newsflash 5/29/2008

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