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.
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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)