UC Davis School of Education Blog

RESOURCE: STEM Planet

2012-01-06T09:53:00.001-08:00

STEM Planet

http://www.stemplanet.org/

STEM Planet is a well designed website that is aimed at students of all levels and ages. The site is comprised of "employees of the National Network of Digital Schools (NNDS), a non-profit developer of the Lincoln Interactive online curriculum." These employees believe that students "succeed when their educational program offers a wide variety of learning opportunities." Visitors to the site will find that the learning opportunities consist of DIY experiments, discussion topics, polls, quizzes and activities. Some examples include making a homemade battery, origami engineering, taking a quiz on space phenomena, and exploring quantum mechanics. Visitors can join and comment on the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math "discussions" by simply registering on the site. Those only interested in reading the comments made in the forums under the discussion tab need not register. The "Experts" tab allows visitors to see all the great minds behind STEM Planet, including an extremely bright 14 year old.

RESOURCE: Afterschool Alliance: Afterschool and STEM

2012-01-06T09:51:00.001-08:00

Afterschool Alliance: Afterschool and STEM

http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/STEM.cfm

The importance of afterschool programs have been linked to improved reading and math grades and a steady decline in drug, cigarette, and alcohol use by those who participate in such programs. The Afterschool Alliance was established in 2000 with funding provided by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The website for the Alliance has a section on afterschool programs and the role they can play in learning and encouraging interest in STEM subjects. At the top right hand side of the "Afterschool & STEM" section, visitors can learn about the "curriculum", "allies", "funding", "research", "policy", and "resources" for STEM afterschool programs. There are almost a dozen resources for high quality activities, curricula, and programs, in the curriculum link, including "Thinkfinity" (free), "Design Squad" (free) and "FIRST Robotics". The "funding" link provides 11 sources of afterschool STEM funds from such companies as Honda, Intel and Motorola, as well as from a multitude of federal government agencies.

RESOURCE: Study Skills Tip Sheets & Advice

2011-11-04T14:03:00.001-07:00

Study Skills Tip Sheets & Advice

http://www.college.emory.edu/home/academic/learning/studyskillsconsultations/tips.html

Becoming a successful college student means adapting to the pace and rigors of academic expectations. Staff members at Emory University's College of Arts and Sciences have created this set of study skills tip sheets and advice to help students accomplish their goals. On the site, visitors will find nine different documents, including "Science and Math Tips for Success", "Note-taking", and "Essential Tips for Freshmen (and other students too)". The site also includes documents on getting ready for a test and time management. Visitors will also note that the site contains links to a GPA grade calculator and the equally important "Raise Your GPA Calculator".

RESOURCE: NOVA: scienceNOW: Explore Teacher's Guides

2011-11-04T14:02:00.000-07:00

NOVA: scienceNOW: Explore Teacher's Guides

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/educators/subject-anth.html

The vast and fascinating world of science and technology is made accessible and interesting via NOVA's fine programs. This particular website was designed by NOVA's scienceNOW group, and it offers a wide range of teacher's guides designed to be used in conjunction with the scienceNOW programs. The guides are divided into thirteen topical areas, including "Mathematics", "Physics" and "Space Science". The activities within each area are designed to be used for before and after viewing the scienceNOW programs, and they include activities around primate evolution, the 1918 flu epidemic, and mass extinctions. Visitors can also look over their science news updates, as well as research projects like Einsten@home, which deals with looking into waves from space.

RESOURCE: LD Online

2011-08-05T12:11:00.003-07:00

LD Online

http://www.ldonline.org

LD Online is a website focused on providing information on learning disabilities (LD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) which is geared towards parents, teachers, and professionals. The site is an educational service of public television station WETA, and also works with the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities. Visitors will find that the site addresses both children and adults with LD and ADHD, and those who are unfamiliar with LD and ADHD will appreciate the site's "Getting Started" link, which has "LD Basics", "ADHD Basics", "Questions + Answers" and a "Glossary". The "Multimedia" link of videos, audio, and transcripts will give visitors the opportunity to listen to or watch experts in the field. They can also listen to the personal stories of families, teachers, and kids with LD or ADHD. Practical tips for parents are also offered in the Multimedia link. Users will be pleasantly surprised by the optimism and determination of some of these kids, when reading their personal stories in the "Your Stories" section.

RESOURCE: Center for Research and Learning: Multicultural Teaching Strategies

2011-08-05T12:09:00.001-07:00

Center for Research and Learning: Multicultural Teaching Strategies

http://www.crlt.umich.edu/tstrategies/tsmdt.php

In recent years, there has been more of a concerted effort to teach educators how to incorporate different learning strategies in the classrooms. For some educators classroom settings may be much more diverse than when they were in college or graduate school, so it is important to offer resources to help make their classroom experience a successful one. The Center for Research and Learning at the University of Michigan has a website that is complete with factsheets and various documents that cover about fifteen different aspects of this process. The headings here include "Approaches/Teaching Methods", "Evaluation of Teaching", and "Scholarship of Teaching". Each section contains materials that have been classroom-tested for their effectiveness and they are ready to be used. The "strategies that anticipate and respond to difficult discussion" is top-notch, and it includes commentaries on managing student resistance and engaging classroom climate.

RESOURCE: Teaching & Learning Themes

2011-07-29T11:16:00.000-07:00

Teaching & Learning Themes

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pesl/themes/

The University of Nottingham, in the United Kingdom, has an innovative online program called Teaching at Nottingham that "offers both a window onto the University's teaching culture and a space for the critical evaluation of teaching practice". The tab "Teaching & Learning Themes" is definitely worth a visitor's time. The link "Student Perspectives On...Teaching, Learning and Assessment" are particularly interesting, as in each category has synopses of studies that were done with the aim of quantifying the students' perspectives in classes at Nottingham. Visitors can read about one such study in the Learning category titled "The good, the bad and the ugly: [pharmacy] students' experiences of group projects", which found that most students believed that group projects were good learning experiences for working as a team in their future careers, but preferred solo or two-person projects. The "Focus On..." link offers, among other categories, "Visual Learning", "Peer Teaching" and "Academic Tutoring" which focus on research about teaching

RESOURCE: Teacher Institute: Exploratorium

2011-07-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

Teacher Institute: Exploratorium

http://www.exploratorium.edu/teacher_institute/

The Teacher Institute at San Francisco's well-regarded Exploratorium was started in 1984, and since that time they have trained thousands of educators to excel at content-based discussions and to more effectively use web-based teaching resources. On the homepage, visitors interested in taking part in one of their workshops can learn more about their offerings, including their Summer Institutes. Other more geographically distant visitors (and those not so distant) should click right on over to the "Podcasts" area of the site. There are actually three sets of educational materials here, including the "Science Teaching Tips", "SmallTalk", and "Teacher Institute". In the "Science Teaching Tips" section, visitors can listen to almost 70 short episodes that include segments on how to teach about size and scale and the metric system. The "SmallTalk" podcasts are centered around nanotechnology and they feature short chats with scientists, artists, and writers. Finally, the "Teacher Institute" area features a few clips from past Institute gatherings for those who might be interested in attending one in the future.

RESOURCE: Financial Education in the Math Classroom

2011-07-15T10:29:00.001-07:00

Financial Education in the Math Classroom

http://mathforum.org/fe/

The Math Forum at Drexel University has a website that focuses solely on teaching financial education in the math classroom. This wonderful resource provides curricula, weekly problems, and forums for teachers using the site's myriad resources. Visitors will see that the site has two main topics or categories: "Finance Topics" and "Math Topics". In the "Finance Topics" area visitors will find such areas as "Interest Rates", "Mortgages" and "Spending". Visitors should look at the exercise which teaches students that "interest never sleeps" in the "How Long Will it Take to Pay Off My Credit Card?" area. Under the Math Topics link, visitors will find such essentials as "Fractions, Decimals & Percents", "Ratios & Proportions", and "Polynomials". "Bartering for Bananas" is an exercise that teaches students that when "thinking about financial choices, we often consider trade-offs and ratios and proportions offer a great way to model those trade-offs exactly."

RESOURCE: National Center for Blind Youth in Science

2011-07-15T10:28:00.001-07:00

National Center for Blind Youth in Science

http://www.blindscience.org/ncbys/default.asp?SnID=1019172110

The National Center for Blind Youth in Science (NCBYS) was started by the National Federation of the Blind - Jernigan Institute to increase the opportunities and resources available to blind youth in STEM subjects and related careers. The website emphasizes the importance of participation and education of teachers and parents in increasing opportunities. Under the "For Students" tab near the top of the page, the welcome letter is a great guide on how to get involved in the acquisition of town science education. The "For Teachers and Parents" tab also has a welcome letter that, among other encouraging words, provides a link to Braille-ready files for MATHCOUNTS! (a math competition), as well as a link to a library of instructional videos "which...highlight proper tips and techniques for empowering blind students in the classroom." Finally, parents are guided to resources that offer low-tech and high-tech solutions in the "Resources" section of the website.

RESOURCE: The University of Iowa: Center for Teaching

2011-07-15T09:33:00.000-07:00

The University of Iowa: Center for Teaching

http://centeach.uiowa.edu/

Like many large universities, the University of Iowa has a center for teaching designed to help instructors learn the best techniques for sharing their wisdom and knowledge in a host of different classroom settings. On this website, visitors can learn about some of the resources they have created to help educators, and a good first place to stop is the "Resources" area. Here visitors will find headings that include "Teaching Materials", "Large Lecture Classes", and "Teaching Technology". A quick look through the "Teaching Materials" area reveals helpful fact sheets on leading classroom discussion, incorporating low-stakes writing exercises into class meetings, and the ideas behind a concept maps. The site also includes links to their in-house publication, "TALK", which contains both material specific to the University of Iowa teaching environment and some nuts and bolts tips that can be used by anyone.

RESOURCE: EDSITEment!

2011-07-15T09:24:00.000-07:00

EDSITEment!

http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plans

The National Endowment for the Humanities has crafted this remarkable library of humanities lesson plans that can be used by educators, students, or the general public. The lesson plans are divided into topical headings such as "Art & Culture", "Foreign Language", "History & Social Studies", and "Literature & Language Arts". After clicking on one of these topical headings, visitors can search the plans by grade level and lesson plan titles. In the "Foreign Language" area, visitors will find offerings that include "French Connections" and "Charles Baudelaire: Po�te Maudit". History teachers will enjoy the "History & Social Studies" area, as it contains a special set of resources for teaching AP history, complete with worksheets and other materials. Finally, there is also a place for lesson plan writers to learn about opportunities for creating materials for the site.

RESOURCE: Computer Science Teachers Association

2011-07-02T08:43:00.000-07:00

Computer Science Teachers Association

http://csta.acm.org/

The website for the Computer Science Teachers Association is sprinkled with computer science word play, but their mission remains quite serious: "The Computer Science Teachers Association is a membership organization that supports and promotes the teaching of computer science and other computing disciplines." For instance, visitors can read an article under "Big News!" on the homepage titled "Why is K-12 CS Education Fading as Digital Economy Grows?" which highlights how much K-12 education in the US has fallen behind in terms of teaching computer science. The article states that "roughly two-thirds the country have few computer science education standards for secondary school education, and most states treat high school computer science courses as simply an elective." Visitors can download the full report for free, which includes state-by-state standards report cards. The "Get Connected!" section of the website can be found on the menu on the left-hand side of any page, and it provides visitors with links to podcasts, videos, their newsletter and blog.

RESOURCE: Teaching Geoscience Online

2011-06-21T09:37:00.001-07:00

Teaching Geoscience Online

http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/online

More and more schools are offering online courses in the sciences, and the geophysical sciences are no exception. Carleton College is deservedly well known for their "Cutting Edge" website of geoscience teaching resources, and here they present some helpful materials for those wishing to teach geoscience online. The resources were developed as part of their 2010 workshop titled "Teaching Geoscience Online". Visitors can scroll through the list of resources, which are divided into sections that include "pedagogy" and "online activities and courses". The materials include titles like "Student Motivation and Engagement in Online Courses", "Using Data to Teach Geology in College-Level Online Classes", and "Course Platforms for Teaching Online". A number of these resources could be used by anyone teaching online courses, not just those in the field of geoscience.

RESOURCE: NOVA Teachers

2011-06-21T09:34:00.000-07:00

NOVA Teachers

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers

NOVA consistently produces great materials, and their partner for this site, WGBH Teachers' Domain, is no slouch when it comes to bringing fantastic online resources to your classroom. Thus, it should come as no surprise that this partnership created such a wonderful source for some of the best classroom resources in science, technology, and engineering. You'll love how easy the site is to use, as well as how the resources are all tied to standards and include video and audio segments.

RESOURCE: Khan Academy

2011-04-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

Khan Academy

http://www.khanacademy.org/

The Khan Academy is a "not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere. " Designed as a type of educational tool and a living archive, the site contains over 2100 videos that include algebra lessons, calculus sessions, cosmology, and developmental math. The "tool" function comes in when visitors discover that they can create their own playlists of these videos for use after signing up for an account. It is a remarkable collection, and other subjects are covered here as well.

RESOURCE: TeacherTube

2011-04-15T09:13:00.001-07:00

TeacherTube

http://www1.teachertube.com/

TeacherTube is a professionally vetted site that allows educators to share informative videos with others around the world. The essential interface resembles that of YouTube, and visitors can search for videos by keyword, or they can also look for audio-only resources or helpful documents. Visitors can find a wide variety here including a teacher rapping about perimeters, discussion of the Lenape tribe, and a talk with Benjamin Franklin. This particular resource is compatible with all operating systems.

RESOURCE: American Council on Education - GED Testing

2011-04-08T09:16:00.000-07:00

American Council on Education - GED Testing

http://www.acenet.edu/Content/NavigationMenu/ged/index.htm

The General Educational Development (GED) test was created in 1942, as it was requested by the U.S. military to help returning WWII veterans who had not finished high school. The GED enabled the veterans to go on to college or university; civilians were able to take the GED for the first time in 1947, in New York. The American Council on Education's website has a section devoted to the GED, and offers visitors a brief history of the test in the "GED Testing Timeline". Visitors will enjoy the "Profiles of Success" link that features video or text stories of those who were able to succeed in their work or studies after taking their GED. The "Profiles of Success" area also allows GED graduates to submit their own story. The stories are divided up by fields, such as "military", "healthcare", and "law enforcement", and each brief video poses the same five questions to the graduate about what getting their GED means to them. Visitors will find the "Research and Publications" link contains research articles about the success of GED graduates in post-secondary schools, repeat GED takers, and "GED Information Bulletins".

RESOURCE: Teaching Time Savers

2011-03-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

Teaching Time Savers

http://www.maa.org/features/TeachingTimeSavers.html

The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) has a number of online materials designed for math educators, and their "Teaching Time Savers" feature is quite a pip. This series is edited by Professor Michael E. Orrison of Harvey Mudd College, and the articles are "designed to share easy-to-implement activities for streamlining the day-to-day tasks of faculty members everywhere." The feature started in 2006, and visitors to the site can look over the twenty or so pieces here. Some of the pieces featured here include "The List of Grievances and Special Requests", "Working for a Week", "Keeping Homework at Home", and "Activities That Make Every Minute Count". Faculty members are also encouraged to submit their own entries for possible inclusion, and details about getting in touch with Professor Orrison are made available here.

RESOURCE: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: Statway

2011-03-20T15:19:00.001-07:00

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: Statway

http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/statway

Created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the Statistics Pathway (Statway) is focused on providing educational resources on statistics, data analysis, and quantitative reasoning. The hope is that the Statway program will help students "understand the world around them and the math they can use right now." On the site, interested parties can take advantage of resources related to this mission, including the "Problem Solution Exploration Papers". These papers are designed to measure student success in community college developmental mathematics and to help identify problems of practice for potential future work. Visitors can also view materials from their recent summer institute, including presentations made by content specialists and others. The site is rounded out by the "Readings, Reports, Essays" area which includes some primers on improving developmental mathematics education.

RESOURCE: Edutools

2011-03-11T13:55:00.001-08:00

Edutools

http://ocep.edutools.info/index.jsp?pj=1

The Edutools website offers a unique service for the education community. They provide "independent reviews, side-by-side comparisons, and consulting services to assist decision-making in the e-learning community." Visitors to the site will find that Edutools compare reviews of "CMS" (Course Management System) and "OCEP" (Online Course Evaluation Project), as well as look at "Projects". Looking at the OCEP section of the website, visitors can choose to view the course by type (such as AP or college) or by discipline, or provider. Alternatively, visitors can look at all the courses at the same time. Once a method is chosen, visitors will be able to view several pages of information about the course, including "Course Developer and Distribution Models", "Scope and Scholarship", "User Interface", "Assessments and Support Materials" and "Communication Tools and Interaction". Each category has subcategories, and comments by OCEP. The CMS section has undergone a more community-oriented revamping, and now users of the products may submit reviews of the products if one hasn't already been given.

RESOURCE: National Archives: Teachers' Resources

2011-02-04T11:12:00.000-08:00

National Archives: Teachers' Resources

http://www.archives.gov/education/

The National Archives has developed this site to give teachers an array of resources to use in their classroom, and their offerings range from first-hand accounts of the Civil War to information about summer teaching workshops. The three main sections on the homepage include "Featured Activity", "Featured Exhibit", and "Professional Development". The "Featured Activity" includes collections of primary documents, accompanied by teaching guides, discussion questions, and other helpful items. One such collection includes "The Constitution at Work", which helps students learn how to analyze a number of key documents and then determine their connection to the U.S. Constitution. On the right-hand side of the page, visitors can find the "News, Events & Notices" area, which includes links to social media, regional events and programs, and information about National History Day.

RESOURCE: Schools That Work

2011-01-14T14:29:00.001-08:00

Schools That Work

http://www.edutopia.org/schools-that-work

Schools That Work is a part of Edutopia, which is funded by the George Lucas Educational Foundation and aims to give students a 21st-century education. Schools That Work is described as a "movement for change", and their website is designed to help "principals and teachers, parents and students, and schools and districts collaborate to change the futures of their young people." On the site, visitors can find lesson plans and teacher training tools to help implement the changes needed for a "school that works". One of the high school programs featured is "Merging Career Tech and College Prep", which was tried in three schools in California. Visitors can get the details on the program on the homepage, in addition to other features that include "The Online Learning Revolution", and "College Bound Culture". Clicking on any feature on the homepage will take visitors to a more detailed examination. The "How YOU Do It" menu, found on the right side of the feature page, takes visitors through the steps needed to implement the program. Some of the topics covered are "Ten Tips to Get Going", "Creating Industry Partnerships", and "Funding the Start-Up".

RESOURCE: Yale National Initiative

2010-11-19T12:15:00.001-08:00

Yale National Initiative

http://teachers.yale.edu/default.php

The goal of the Yale National Initiative is to "strengthen teaching in public schools", which it tries to do by encouraging the formation of new Teachers Institutes throughout the United States. Their website includes a link to the "League of Teachers Institutes", as well as their "League News". The newsletter of the Institute can be found under the link "On Common Ground", and it includes an archive of back issues that dates back to 1993. Some of the topics in the most recent issue are about planning a San Francisco Teachers Institute, and some of the 2008 national seminars and curriculum units. The "Curricular Resources" link on the website offers the curriculum units that each teacher that is a National Fellow in the national seminars is required to prepare. The teachers then use the curriculum in their school, and share it with other teachers in the school and district. The curricula for 2010 include such topics as "The Mathematics of Wallpaper", "Nanotechnology and Human Health", and "Evolutionary Medicine".

NETWORK TOOL: EduBlogs

2010-10-02T06:44:00.001-07:00

EduBlogs

http://edublogs.org/

Started in 2005, Edublogs has grown to include almost 60,000 blogs started by people all over the world. The Edublogs site can be used by anyone to create blogs with education content, and most school filters will allow their software to run correctly. The site includes a video introduction on how to get started, and teachers will appreciate that Edublogs includes discussion tools, video embedding, and social media options. Visitors can customize their blog by using over 100 different themes to give each one the personal touch. EduBlogs is compatible with all operating systems, and their site also includes a FAQ section and training guides.

RESOURCE: Activities for kids: Montréal Science Centre

2010-08-27T09:08:00.000-07:00

Activities for kids: Montréal Science Centre

http://www.montrealsciencecentre.com/kids.html

The Montréal Science Centre's Kids section of their website has some fantastic games and simulations that encourage kids to "embrace interactive challenges", and can shed light on topics adults will find interesting too. Visitors will find that many different topics are explored, including implementing sustainable international development on a natural disaster-hit island in the game called "Sayansi". Visitors hoping to be future forensic scientists or fans of the CSI TV series will enjoy "Interactive File on Criminalistics", which explores the autopsy of a murder. This game won an education prize in 2005, and is suitable for ages 10 and up. The "36 Solutions" game requires visitors to play brief games to reveal a modern invention, and hear what it's about. One of the games revealed an image of a freezer pop that was made of cough medicine and flavoring in order to make medicine more palatable to kids. The narrator emphasizes that the freezer pop is in medical, tamper-proof packaging, so kids don't mistake it in the freezer for a traditional popsicle. There are at least half a dozen other games to play on this site, and all are well worth exploring.

RESOURCE: NOAA Education Resources

2010-08-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

NOAA Education Resources

http://www.education.noaa.gov/

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has so many publications, booklets, and educational activities available across the agency, that they have created this website to make it easier for teachers, students, librarians and the general public to access them. Visitors will find that due to their extensive involvement in helping remedy the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the website's "Highlighted Program" is about NOAA's collection of resources regarding the oil spill, compiled for use in the classroom or as background material. Visitors can click on "Gulf Oil Spill Resources" to browse the large number of materials, including "Multimedia", "Lessons & Activities", "Real World Data" and "Background Information". There is a two-minute animation of surface oil on the Gulf from the day the rig caught fire, exploded and sank, to the day the leak was stopped, in "Surface Oil Movement in Gulf Animation" in the "Multimedia" menu. One of the lessons for students that may be of interest to many is how the oil spill affected the feathers of birds, and the best method to clean them.

RESOURCE: Shaping the Values of Youth: Sunday School Books in 19th Century America

2010-08-20T16:15:00.000-07:00

Shaping the Values of Youth: Sunday School Books in 19th Century America

http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/ssb/

Many things shape values in a society, and it is interesting to look at how different items, such as Sunday school books, help achieve this goal. This digital collection created by Michigan State University and Central Michigan University offers up a selection of the most well known representatives of this genre. First-time visitors should start out by reading the introductory essay by Stephen Rachman of the department of English at Michigan State University. After that, visitors can look over the books by title, author, or category. The categories are quite interesting, and they include "holidays", "immigrants", and "temperance". All told, there are well over 100 titles here, and visitors may wish to start their journey through these tomes by looking over "Are You Going to the Circus?" or "A Dialogue Between A Traveller and Yourself"

NETWORK TOOL: Glogster EDU

2010-08-13T09:01:00.001-07:00

Glogster EDU

http://edu.glogster.com/

Glogster is known for giving members of the public their own personal digital platforms, and now they have created an outlet just for educators. With Glogster EDU, educators and others can use this secure site to allow students to create and save workspaces online. Visitors just need to register on the site, and they will be able create interactive and multimedia learning environments that are both engaging and erudite. This version is compatible with all operating systems.

RESOURCE: A Gallery of Ray Tracing for Geometers

2010-08-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

A Gallery of Ray Tracing for Geometers

http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/23/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=3350

The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) has developed the Loci site to bring high-quality instructional materials to math educators everywhere. One of their more recent offerings is this article by Michael Grady of Southern Utah University on how to add animations to geometric constructions. The piece talks about how users might use computers and open source ray tracing software to add the dimension of time to their presentations and illustrations. The abstract for the article notes that "The web provides a viable medium for enhancing mathematical presentations with photo-realistic graphics and video." Visitors will note that the piece includes six different sections, including "Projections", "Rotations", and "References".

RESOURCE: Student Victimization in U.S. Schools: Results From the 2007 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey

2010-08-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

Student Victimization in U.S. Schools: Results From the 2007 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010319.pdf

This report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) takes a critical look at data from the 2007 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey. Authored by Jill Fleury DeVoe and Lynn Bauer, the report was released in July 2010 and it provides findings on "student reports of the presence of gangs and weapons and the availability of drugs at school, student reports of bullying and cyberbullying, and fear and avoidance behaviors of crime victims and nonvictims at school." The report includes a two-page "Highlights" section, tables, figures, and five appendices that report on selected items from the Survey's questionnaire. The report will be invaluable for school administrators, educational policy analysts, and others working in related fields.

RESOURCE: Looking Glass for the Mind: 350 Years of Books for Children

2010-02-26T09:44:00.000-08:00

Looking Glass for the Mind: 350 Years of Books for Children

http://content.lib.washington.edu/childrensweb/exhibit.html

The University of Washington Digital Collection of children's books starts off with a wonderful piece that touches on the beloved memories children's books bring back for so many, but also on the reasons why a university library would collect children's books. Several of the reasons given regard what children's books can teach us: printing and book illustration history, the "study of the gradual changes in familiar tales to reflect changes in societal acceptance and sensibilities," social and ethnic history, the historical role of women, and shifting views on education. After the homepage is the index to the exhibit with an introduction, a brief history of the first children's book publishers. To the left is the "Index" of topics that the books cover. Visitors will find a multitude, including "Fables", "Grammar, Spelling, Elocution & Rhetoric", "Math & Money", "Activity Books", and "Prejudice & Bigotry". Under the topic "Fables", visitors should check out The Baby's Own Aesop, illustrated by Walter Crane, who began an illustrating apprenticeship at the age of fourteen.

RESOURCE: The History Education Network

2010-02-12T15:45:00.001-08:00

The History Education Network

http://www.thenhier.ca/

Canada's History Education Network "is a collaborative network across the diverse fields of history, history education and school history teaching in Canada...to bring together people from across Canada and internationally to inform, carry out, critique, and implement research into history education." This website is loaded with resources for Canadian history teachers, but also for history teachers from any country, as there are valuable tools on the site that aid in the teaching of history in general, and at all grade levels. The "Practice" link, near the top of any page, has assessment tools to evaluate the most effective ways to teach history. Visitors should take a look at the "Best Practices in History Education", which includes "Instructional Plans", "Instructional Resources", and "Database of Articles of Practice Awards". The "Assessment Tools" includes "Critical Challenges from the Critical Thinking Consortium (TC2)". The "Make Your Voice Heard" section links to such features as "Forums", "Videos and Podcasts" and "Polls".

RESOURCE: Carnegie Connections

2010-02-12T15:44:00.000-08:00

Carnegie Connections

http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/carnegie-connections

The Carnegie Foundation For the Advancement of Teaching created the Carnegie Connections page to get news from the Foundation out to the public in a timely and interesting fashion. The news releases and reports here are organized into three main areas: "What We're Learning", "What We're Reading", and "What's Happening". In the "What We're Learning" area visitors can read about new research on teaching from the Foundation, along with links and commentaries from other groups, like the National Academy of Education and the Pew Research Center. Moving on, the "What We're Reading" area features links to thoughtful pieces of scholarship and commentary broadly related to education. The "What's Happening" area contains links to conferences of note, including the "Educating Nurses and Physicians" conference and the American Diploma Project Network Leadership Team Meeting.

RESOURCE: AMSER Science Reader Monthly

2010-02-12T15:40:00.000-08:00

AMSER Science Reader Monthly

http://www.amser.org/srm

If you are looking to find even more great educational materials in math and science, please take some time to visit Scout's sister site -- the Applied Math and Science Education Repository (AMSER) at http://amser.org. AMSER brings together thousands of authoritative applied math and science resources (all of them free and from trusted sources) and includes a suite of built-in free services to help users organize and share their favorite resources with colleagues and students. The newly developed AMSER Science Reader Monthly may be of particular interest to educators. The AMSER SRM combines resources from the AMSER collection with freely available articles, about applied math and science, from popular journals. These resources can include curriculum, learning objects, podcasts, videos, and websites. The AMSER Science Reader Monthly is designed to be a ready-to-use tool for math and science educators and it is free to use for everyone. The full collection of AMSER SRM issues can be found at http://amser.org/srm .

RESOURCE: Read.gov

2010-01-08T11:57:00.000-08:00

Read.gov

http://www.read.gov/

The Center for the Book, in the Library of Congress, was established in the late 1970s to promote reading, literacy and libraries. Their website offers a great many "Resources" on the menu on the left side of any page, including "Author Webcasts", "Booklists", and "Local/Community Resources". The "Author Webcasts" include videos of such authors as Tom Gjelten, Stephenie Meyer, Chinua Achebe, and Sara Paretsky. The "Books and Related Info For" menu on the left side of any page, has sections for "Kids", "Teens", "Adults", and "Educators and Parents". Within the "Kids" and "Teens" sections are classic books that have been digitized and put online to be read in all their original glory. Classics such as "A Apple Pie", "Baseball ABC", and "The Secret Garden" are beautifully captured. In the "Educators and Parents" section visitors can find wonderful lesson plans, exhibitions, and online activities. Visitors should not miss checking out "Contests: Letters About Literature" on the left hand menu to learn about several writing contests for young children and teens.

RESOURCE: Open Database of Educational Projects and Organizations

2009-12-15T16:40:00.000-08:00

Open Database of Educational Projects and Organizations

http://opened.creativecommons.org/ODEPO

Open Database of Educational Projects and Organizations (ODEPO) is an interactive semantic database for individuals and organizations involved in education. Currently, ODEPO includes more than 1,000 sites affiliated with various organizations, the majority of which were provided to us by educational repositories involved in the creation and expansion of Open Educational Resources (OER).

RESOURCE: Education Review: A Journal of Book Reviews

2009-12-15T16:32:00.000-08:00

Education Review: A Journal of Book Reviews

http://edrev.asu.edu/index.html

Education Review publishes reviews of recent books in education, covering the entire range of education scholarship and practice. Education Review is made available to the public without cost as a service of the Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education at Arizona State University and the Michigan State University Libraries.

RESOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics'

2009-12-15T16:23:00.000-08:00

National Center for Education Statistics

http://nces.ed.gov/

The National Center for Education Statistics is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations. NCES is located within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences.

RESOURCE: Higher Education in the United States: A Bibliography

2009-12-15T16:16:00.000-08:00

Higher Education in the United States: A Bibliography

http://www.zzbw.uni-hannover.de/HerbstStartHeus.htm

This extensive bibliography by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor emeritus Jurgen Herbst covers the historical literature of American higher education. It is organized in four sections: General Works, The Colonial Period, From Revolution to Reconstruction, and America in the Urban Age. Each section is subdivided into thematic lists of scholarly, historical journals, and government reports.

RESOURCE: British Education Index

2009-12-15T15:58:00.000-08:00

British Education Index

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/bei/COLN/COLN_default.html

British Education Index (1997- ), a freely accessible database of the full text of conference papers, working papers and electronic literature which supports educational research, policy and practice, initially a project in the JISC Electronic Libraries (eLib) Programme, administered by the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Great Britain.

RESOURCE: Arts Education Resources

2009-10-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

Arts Education Resources

http://www.artsedresources.com/

Arts Education Resources is a website aimed primarily at Sacramento area teachers. Its goal is to provide teachers with resources for arts education and to connect them professionally through Social Networking with its Ning community. While this site is tailored specifically for the Sacramento area, many of these resources will be beneficial to teachers, parents and arts supporters from outside of this area. It is our hope that this website will be a crucial tool in aiding teachers with the knowledge and power they need to teach the arts in their classrooms and to demonstrate its importance to a child's education.

In an effort to keep this website up-to-date, please send any information that you feel crucial to this site to info@artsedresources.com.

Suggestions and new information are always welcome!

RESOURCE: Expert Voices Gateway

2009-10-11T13:43:00.000-07:00

Expert Voices Gateway

http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/

Expert Voices is a "science teaching information exchange" sponsored by the National Science Digital Library (NSDL). The topics covered are science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and it's geared towards teachers of all levels, as well as students. The blogs are divided up into three sections: "Recent Posts", "Who Says", and "Hot Topics". "Recent Posts" are, as they sound, the most recent entries added to blogs, with a description of the entry, as well as the blog to which it was posted. "Who Says" lists the names of active blogs, sorted by audience level including "K12 Teachers", "University Faculty", "Librarians", "NSDL Community", and "Informal Learners". Some of the blogs fall into more than one of the aforementioned audience categories. Helpfully, there a "Larger Text" option is provided on the top of the far right hand side of every page.

To find this resource and more high-quality online resources in math and science visit Scout's sister site - AMSER, the Applied Math and Science Educational Repository at http://amser.org.

RESOURCE: U.S. Department of Education: Doing What Works

2009-08-24T10:43:00.000-07:00

U.S. Department of Education: Doing What Works

http://dww.ed.gov/

Educators across the United States are always looking for compelling new resources to use in the classroom, and this fine website sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education delivers high-quality resources for just that purpose. The Doing What Works website contains content based on the Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences' "What Works" clearinghouse. First-time visitors can orient themselves by playing the informational video featured on the homepage. After that, they can click on the "Find What Works!" area to learn about resources in the fields of early childhood education, English, math and science, and the psychology of learning. After making a foray into those areas, visitors can click on the "Featured Content" section, and then maybe take a guided tour of the features on the site. Visitors are also encouraged to sign up for updates and to sign up to access the Digital Teacher Workshop.

RESOURCE: Transforming America's Community Colleges: A Federal Policy Proposal to Expand Opportunity and Promote Economic Prosperity

2009-06-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

Transforming America's Community Colleges: A Federal Policy Proposal to Expand Opportunity and Promote Economic Prosperity

http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2009/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2009/0507_community_college_goldrick_rab/0507_community_college_brief.pdf

Community colleges are the bedrock of American higher education, and young and old alike use their facilities to gain specific technical skills and explore the world of the liberal arts. This May 2009 policy brief from the Brookings Institution's Blueprint for American Prosperity series offers a few policy suggestions on how the federal government might reinvest in community colleges across the nation. The twelve-page brief was authored by Sara Goldrick-Rab, Douglas N. Harris, Christopher Mazzeo, and Gregory Kienzi. The brief offers a number of concrete suggestions for the federal government, including the recommendation that they should establish national postsecondary goals and also devote a significant portion of existing funding to improve and evaluate teaching practices in these institutions.

RESOURCE: Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology

2009-05-15T09:36:00.000-07:00

Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology

http://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt

A number of organizations have created peer-reviewed journals to investigate the world of educational technology and learning in the past several years. The Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology is certainly one of the better journals on this subject, and they publish peer-reviewed pieces on topics that include online learning, gaming, and learning theory and technology. Over the past several years, the journal has been published three times a year, and their editorial board includes professors from Simon Fraser University, Queen's University, and Athabasca University. Visitors can browse through the articles by language, issue, title, or author. Additionally, visitors can sign up to receive their RSS feed and learn a bit more about the submission process. Recently published pieces include "Comparing students' perceptions of paper-based and electronic portfolios" and "Encouraging self-regulated learning through electronic portfolios".

ANNOUCEMENT: The University of California Center for Special Education, Disabilities, & Developmental Risk

2009-05-06T14:01:00.001-07:00

The faculty steering committee has constituted itself with the charge of leading the UC system in establishing a California-wide Center for Research in Special Education, Disabilities, and Developmental Risk (SPEDDR) as a Multi-Campus Research Unit that will unify and solidify UC resources. Primary aims of the Center are to enhance the University of California’s ability to attract from a national pool of talented students, win large extramural grants, improve national visibility of UC efforts, and enhance the doctoral preparation of the next generation of research, teacher education, and other related public service doctorates. Already, UCSB, UCR, UCSD, and UCLA and the UC Office of the President have each made ongoing financial commitments to the Center, and UCD and UCB have indicated their support.

http://ucspeddr.education.ucsb.edu/

RESOURCE: From Pi Beta Phi to Arrowmont

2009-04-26T19:51:00.000-07:00

From Pi Beta Phi to Arrowmont

http://www.lib.utk.edu/arrowmont/

A fraternity for women, Pi Beta Phi, built a settlement school in Tennessee to honor the 50th anniversary of the fraternity. This website has digital collections of letters, diaries, and scrapbooks related to the founding of the school, as well as historical photos of the surrounding community and an interactive gallery of artwork that resides at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, the institution that the settlement school has become. Near the top of the page is a link to a "Timeline" that puts the fraternity's founding and the opening of the school in the context of major world events. Visitors can start there to read a brief synopsis of each event on the timeline. To get look into what the school was like from a teacher's' perspectives, visitors should check out the beautifully digitized scrapbooks they made by clicking on the "Scrapbooks" link near the top of the page. Visitors should not miss the 360-degree image gallery to see every angle of some beautiful artworks that include a turned ash bowl and a raku vase. Click on "View Interactive Image" to start the art object turning, and then to slow it down or stop it or reverse direction, just drag the hand cursor onto the object. A zoom feature can also be accessed with the "+" or "-" at the bottom of the viewer.

RESOURCE: Making Civics Real: A Workshop for Teachers

2009-04-26T19:48:00.000-07:00

Making Civics Real: A Workshop for Teachers

http://www.learner.org/resources/series177.html

Civics can be a dreaded word for some students, but things just got a bit more interesting with this rather thoughtful and interesting video workshop created by the National Council for the Social Studies and the Center for Civic Education. Released as part of the Annenberg Media teacher resources, this eight part series helps teachers find ways to teach civics, complete with lesson plans and other materials. The workshop program videos include segments such as "Public Policy and the Federal Budget", "Electoral Politics", and "Freedom of Religion". Visitors can also take advantage of the series website which contains additional teaching tools and support materials designed to complement the activities from each program.

RESOURCE: Thinkfinity Literacy Network

2009-04-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

Thinkfinity Literacy Network

http://literacynetwork.verizon.org/tln/

The Verizon Foundation's easily navigable website of literacy resources is an invaluable tool for teachers, volunteers, adult learners, tutors, parents and students. The site is divided into the tabs "Teach", "Learn", "Manage" and "Volunteer". To access the almost 50 free online courses for "the best literacy instruction and lifelong learning habits," visitors should click on the "Free Online Courses" tab near the top of the page. The courses can be browsed, or searched by whom the course is geared to, such as parents, program managers and staff, teachers/tutors and volunteers (primary audience). Each course's description can be accessed by the link "Course Description", next to the title of the course. Enrolling in one of the free courses can be accomplished by clicking on the "Enroll Now" link, next to the "Course Description" link. Searching the whole website for such helpful information as lesson plans, interactives, worksheets and assessments is easy with the gold, cell phone-like feature on the right side of the page. Visitors can enter a keyword, or use drop down boxes to search by subject, grade, resource type or content partner. The grade levels include the usual K-12, but vocational education, adult education, community college and higher education are also represented.

RESOURCE: Education Today: The OECD Perspective

2009-04-10T09:16:00.000-07:00

Education Today: The OECD Perspective

http://browse.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/pdfs/browseit/9609021E.PDF

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has always maintained a strong interest in the educational state of affairs among its member nations, and this report from March 2009 offers a bit of insight into their work on everything from student performance to educational spending and equity in education. The 99-page report is based on results from OECD work produced since 2002, and the work is divided into nine sections. These sections include those dealing with early childhood, schooling, higher education, adult education, and lifelong learning. The format of the report is quite modular, as each section contains a bit about their key findings and conclusions and policy directions, along with various tables and charts.

RESOURCE: Multicultural Literature in the United States Today

2009-04-09T11:04:00.000-07:00

The United States is enriched culturally by immigrants from many nations. This edition of eJournal USA focuses on distinguished American writers from various ethnic backgrounds who add immeasurably to mutual understanding and appreciation through tales of their native lands and their experiences as Americans.

[http://www.america.gov/media/pdf/ejs/0209.pdf#popup]

From: http://www.america.gov/publications/ejournalusa/0209lit.html

RESOURCE: Consortium on Chicago School Research

2009-04-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

Consortium on Chicago School Research

http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/content/index.php

Many big city school districts have been through difficult straits over the past several decades, and Chicago is no exception. After the passage of the Chicago School Reform Act, the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) was created in 1990 in order to study school reform efforts across the city. Part of their mission is "to expand communication among researchers, policy makers, and practitioners." Visitors to the site can click their way through sections that include "Press Room", "Research & Publications", and "Data". In the 'Press Room", visitors can learn more about their recent work and also see read up on the various media outlets which have profiled their work. The "Research & Publications" area contains information on their research in progress and links to their finished publications, which include, "The Work of Chicago Public Schools' Principals" and "Changing Schools: A Look at Student Mobility Trends in Chicago Public Schools Since 1995". Lastly, the "Data" area contains contact information for those researchers who might be seeking to utilize the large quantitative data sets collected by the CCSR.

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Impact of Dropping the SAT

2009-04-01T10:56:00.000-07:00

For your review and discussion

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/03/26/sat

The Impact of Dropping the SAT

March 26, 2009

A new research study -- based on simulations using actual student applications at competitive colleges that require the SAT or ACT for admission -- has found that ending the requirement would lead to demonstrable gains in the percentages of black and Latino students, and working class or economically disadvantaged students, who are admitted.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Calisphere -- share your University of California-created web sites with us

2009-03-20T10:04:00.001-07:00

Do you have a web site you’d like to share that has been created by a UC campus faculty member, librarian, or researcher? Would you like to raise the visibility of a web site you’ve created? Is it an online exhibit, curated collection, or thematically-based grouping of materials? Does the web site feature resources such as photographs, maps, historical documents, current articles and research, multimedia, electronic books, or other online resources?

Let us know! We’d like to add it to Calisphere.

Context

Calisphere, managed by the California Digital Library (CDL), provides public access to primary source materials and freely available UC-created web sites. Calisphere offers more than 150,000 digitized items—including photographs, documents, newspaper pages, political cartoons, works of art, diaries, transcribed oral histories, advertising, and other unique cultural artifacts—selected from the libraries, archives and museums of the UC campuses, and from cultural heritage organizations across California. Calisphere is also a gateway to UC-created web sites that reflect the diverse interests and scholarship of UC, including the humanities, social sciences, math, and science resources. To date, we have published citations to over 500 websites—and we’d like your help to expand our registry.

Who uses Calisphere?

Calisphere is freely available to the public and is used by a broad range of people including UC students, K-12 educators and the general public. By incorporating UC sites in Calisphere, we increase their visibility and make them more broadly available.

Send Us Your URLs

Here’s how.

RESOURCE: Enhancing Education

2009-02-27T09:35:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

Enhancing Education

http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/enhanced/

Educators who are interested in incorporating new technologies into their classroom experience often wonder where to start. They may want to start by visiting the Enhancing Education site, which is maintained by staff members at the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning at Columbia University. The site is organized a bit like a weblog, as there are different posts organized into subjects that include "Noted", "Solutions", and "Primers". The "Noted" postings highlight interesting technologies that may be of interest to educators, and the "Solutions" entries are composed of a quick "how-to" that addresses a broad range of technologies and approaches to classroom learning. Finally, the "Primers" posts cover the basic elements of a compelling new technology or idea, including incorporating a weblog into the class or peer editing. Visitors can also view the top ten tags on the site, or take a look at the most recent posts.

IJME Announcements: Winter Publication, Call for Papers, Call for Reviewers

2009-02-15T23:04:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

This message from International Journal of Multicultural Education contains a publication announcement for our new issue: Vol. 10, No. 2; Call for papers for 2009 Special Theme Issue: Leadership for Educational Justice; and Call for Peer Reviewers. Many thanks for your continued interest and support of our work!

IJME Publication Announcement: Vol. 10 No. 2 International Journal of Multicultural Education, a peer-reviewed open-access online journal for scholars, practitioners, and students of multicultural education, has published its new issue at

http://www.ijme-journal.org/index.php/ijme/issue/current.

The new issue (Vol. 10, No.2) contains theme articles focusing on indigenous education. We invite you to review the Table of Contents here and then visit our web site to review articles and items of interest. We ask you to spread the news to others who may be interested in this free online publication. We welcome submissions of research reports (qualitative research), literature-based articles, practitioner articles, and reviews of professional and children's books. Please visit the website (www.ijme-journal.org) for more information.

Call for Papers for 2009 Special Theme Issue: Leadership for Educational Justice

Leadership from political and educational institutions are critical in realizing educational justice and equity for all students from various racial/ethnic, gender, class, language, religious, sexual, regional, and ability backgrounds. We seek research reports, literature-based articles,practitioner articles, and book reviews that present critiques, evidence,and/or ideas promoting successful organizational and individual leadership for educational justice and equity for all. The priority deadline for submission is April 1, 2009. The issue will be published in December 2009. Please contactijme@eastern.edu for inquiries.

Call for Peer Reviewers!

The International Journal of Multicultural Education (IJME) is a peer-reviewed open-access e-journal for scholars, practitioners, and students of multicultural education. Committed to promoting educational equity,cross-cultural understanding, and global awareness in all levels of education. IJME, the successor of EMME (Electronic Magazine of Multicultural Education),publishes two issues a year. Spring issues, appearing at the end of June, are typically on open themes of multicultural education. Fall issues on special themes come out at the end of December.

If interested in contributing as a peer reviewer, please register on line atwww.ijme-journal.org. The journal editor may also be contacted atijme@eastern.edu.

Thanks for the continuing interest in and support of our work.

Respectfully,

Heewon Chang, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief

International Journal of Multicultural Education

(http://ijme-journal.org/; ijme@eastern.edu)

Eastern University Loeb School Education

1300 Eagle Road

St. Davids, PA 19087

U. S. A.

ANNOUNCEMENT: CFA--International Journal of Multicultural Education

2008-12-26T00:10:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://ijme-journal.org/index.php/ijme

The International Journal of Multicultural Education (ISSN 1934-5267) is a peer-reviewed open-access e-journal for scholars, practitioners, and students of multicultural education. Committed to promoting educational equity, cross-cultural understanding, and global awareness in all levels of education, IJME publishes a variety of writings such as (1) reports of empirical research, typically in qualitative research orientation; (2) literature-based scholarly articles that advance theories and scholarship of multicultural education; (3) praxis essays that discuss successful multicultural education programs or practical instructional ideas and strategies; and (4) reviews of visual arts, professional and children's books, and multimedia resources.

IJME, the successor of EMME (Electronic Magazine of Multicultural Education), publishes two issues a year. Spring issues, appearing at the end of June, are typically on open themes of multicultural education. Fall issues on special themes are published at the end of December. The table of content of the Spring 2008 Issue is available below. Full texts will be available shortly in PDF format. To access the full texts and receive publication announcements at no cost to you, please register as Reader.

(Note: The content of EMME is also freely available from http://www.eastern.edu/publications/emme).

CALL FOR AUTHORS, BOOK REVIEWERS, AND PEER REVIEWERS

If you are interested in submitting scholarly articles or reviews of professional and juvenile literature to IJME, please register as Author. We recommend that potential authors and book reviewers visit the About page to be acquainted with the journal's section policies, as well as the Author Guidelines from which submission templates can be accessed. Book reviewers may visit Call for Professional Book Reviews or the Call for Children's Book Reviews. Open-themed submissions are accepted with rolling deadlines; submission for the special issues is generally recommended by March 1. The special theme for 2008 is indigenous education. We will consider submissions that address multicultural education issues involving indigenous population around the world. The deadline for submission is extended to April 30, 2008.

If you are interested in peer-reviewing articles, please register as Reviewer. Please note the registration process allows you to choose one, two, or all three roles at once.

Heewon Chang, Editor-in-Chief; Sara Hartmann, Assistant Editor Eastern University

ANNOUNCEMENT: Changing the Game: The Federal Role in Supporting 21st Century Educational Innovation

2008-12-19T23:11:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2008/1016_education_mead_rotherham/1016_education_mead_rotherham.pdf

The Brookings Institution has had a long-standing interest in the American system of education, and this thoughtful 73-page report takes a close look at how the federal government might best intervene in this particular area of American society. The report was released in October 2008, and it was authored by Sara Mead and Andrew J. Rotherham. In their report, the authors suggest that the federal government should create a new federal Office of Educational Entrepreneurship and Innovation within the Department of Education. The general premise behind such a policy idea is that such an office would "expand the boundaries of public education by scaling up successful education entrepreneurs, seeding transformative educational innovations, and building a stronger culture to support these activities throughout the public sector." The report contains eight chapters, an executive summary, and a set of conclusions.

RESOURCE: The Center for Measuring University Performance

2008-12-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://mup.asu.edu/

The Center for Measuring University Performance relies heavily on the initiative and insight of its advisory board and draws on the insight and recommendations of many colleagues throughout the country who contribute data, information, and perspective. The Center 's major research and publication effort began within the context of The Lombardi Program on Measuring University Performance , an activity supported by a generous gift from Mr. Lewis M. Schott. Over more than a decade, The Center 's staff developed a variety of methods for measuring and improving university performance. Originally developed to guide improvement at the University of Florida during the 1990s and later adapted to different institutional contexts at UMass Amherst, Arizona State University, and the University at Buffalo, the effectiveness of these techniques brought national attention and a commitment to translate the methodology from particular implementations at various universities to a general data driven perspective applicable to any research university

The Center's annual report, The Top American Research Universities , offers analysis and data useful for understanding American research university performance. The Center classifies universities into groups in accord with nine institutional characteristics. Institutions that have federal research expenditures as reported to NSF of at least $20 million and that fall within the top 25 on at least one of the nine measures fall into The Center 's definition of the top research universities. The Top American Research Universities annual publication provides a comprehensive set of data on over 600 institutions, and on occasion includes analytical discussions of topics related to research university performance.

Drawing on the experience of developing an institution specific series called Measuring University Performance , The Center 's program of research studies focus on critical elements of university management. The Center 's staff also has a keen interest in management variables, for it is clear that well managed institutions can extract significantly greater marginal revenue from existing resources. Other studies seek to understand relationships that affect resource acquisition. The Center publishes a series of papers and its staff writes for a variety of other publications on topics related to its mission.

The Center has a particular interest in the question of incentives and rewards. Universities exist in a controlled, regulated, and often isolated economic space within which pricing and production decisions do not occur in clearly defined ways. This inhibits our understanding of the university's economic structure and often defeats efforts to reward the outstanding performance of individuals or academic units. Active markets may affect only parts of the institution: top research faculty salaries, faculty clinical physician compensation, patent and license revenue to individual inventors, and salaries for football coaches. The rest of the institution--teaching faculty, regular research faculty, and most of the administrative staff--live in unionized or civil service environments with few measures of productivity or quality and a weak market for their services outside the institution. Absent markets and measures of performance, institutions tend to provide across the board increments to most employees, thereby eliminating rewards and incentives for improved performance.

The Center 's data and analysis have attracted considerable attention around the country, and The Center (with support from the GTE Foundation) has participated with a number of institutions and individuals in the United States and abroad in discussions about incentive and reward systems that lead to improved university performance. In a current research project, The Center focuses on the development of methods and data for the analysis of university budgets for a clear, comparative understanding of the critical investment decisions that lead to research university success and improvement.

Members of The Center staff have offered and continue to offer a graduate course ( Managing Universities ) on these issues in an effort to disseminate the analytical techniques and with the expectation that the critical discussions in this colloquium will refine and challenge the assumptions and data.

RESOURCE: 100 Best YouTube Videos for Teachers

2008-12-12T16:44:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/100-best-youtube-videos-for-teachers/

With the increasing use of technology in classrooms, it’s no wonder that teachers have a growing interest in using YouTube and other online media sharing sites to bring information into their classrooms. Here are 100 YouTube videos that can provide supplementary information for the class, give inspiration, help you keep control of class and even provide a few laughs here and there.

RESOURCE: The College Portrait

2008-12-12T16:37:00.000-08:00

I call attention to:

http://www.collegeportraits.org/

The College Portrait is a source of basic, comparable information about public colleges and institutions presented in a common, user-friendly format. It is designed to be trustworthy source of reliable data for prospective students and their families.

The College Portrait was created as part of the Voluntary System of AccountabilityTM, (VSA) - a program designed to provide greater accountability through accessible, transparent, and comparable information. The VSA and College Portrait are sponsored by two nonprofit organizations in Washington DC – the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC). More than 80 higher education leaders from 70 public institutions were involved in developing the College Portrait.

AASCU and NASULGC represent more than 500 public colleges and universities across the United States. Participation in the VSA is voluntary; however, over half of the 500 member institutions – nearly 300 at last count – have decided to join the VSA project. Each of these colleges and universities will be posting their College Portraits within the next few months.