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)