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.

Rod Paige and former top aides organize a consulting group

This story ran in the Sunday Detroit News/Free Press, and discusses the consulting group organized by former Department of Education Secretary Rod Paige and his former top aides. It is expected this group will be retained by the Department of Education for advice. You can read the story at the Detroit Free Press web site

Hurricane Help for Schools

The U.S. Department of Education has developed the web site Hurricane Help for Schools to assist schools and students affected by Hurricane Katrina. Companies and organizations can respond to the needs of students and send resources directly to them, and schools will be able to directly contact the companies and organizations offering help.