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.