Diane Ravitch gives Arne Duncan an "F"

This recent article in the NYRBlog (Mar 7, 2012), "Flunking Arne Duncan" provides her rationale for giving the following grades:

Report Card: Arne Duncan

Fidelity to the Constitution: F
Doing what’s right for children: F
Doing what’s right for public education: F
Respecting the limits of federalism: F
Doing what’s right for teachers: F
Doing what’s right for education: F

(Image from ABC News)

IES grant funding competitions announced for FY 2013

IES has released FY2013 funding announcements for grant competitions in education research, special education research, and research training. The competitions are:

• Education Research Grants (84.305A);
• Special Education Research Grants (84.324A);
• Research Training Programs in the Education Sciences (84.305B);
• Research Training Program in Special Education: Early Career Development and Mentoring (84.324B);
• Statistical and Research Methodology in Education (84.305D);
• Accelerating the Academic Achievement of Students with Learning Disabilities Research Initiative (84.324D); and
• Evaluation of State and Local Education Programs and Policies (84.305E).

The Request for Applications for each competition is available at:
http://ies.ed.gov/funding/.

Great news about the ERIC database!

From the Communications team at ERIC...
"The ERIC team is pleased to announce that, in response to librarian requests, we are adding the peer-reviewed status to records indexed in ERIC from 1966-2003 to bring the backfile in line with currently indexed records. To determine whether a journal title is peer-reviewed, ERIC staff librarians are consulting three sources: Ulrichsweb, The Serials Directory, and publisher-provided information. The peer-review information gathered from these sources is being updated in the digital library on a journal by journal basis. Enhanced records have already begun to appear on the ERIC Web site at www.eric.ed.gov. Vendors will receive the changes on a monthly basis.
We expect that the updates to the ERIC backfile, consisting of more than
680,000 journal records, will be completed within this calendar year.
For more information, visit the ERIC Web site and see the new policy on the Peer-Reviewed Designation.  If you have comments or questions, please feel free to contact us at ericfeedback@csc.com."

TED launches new educationation channel

This report from the Chronicle today (March 12, 2012)
"The nonprofit group called TED, known for streaming 18-minute video lectures about big ideas, today opened a new YouTube channel designed for teachers and professors, with videos that are even shorter.
The new channel, called TED-Ed, was announced a year ago, but its leaders are only now unveiling the project’s first videos. There are only 11 as of today, but the goal is to add new ones regularly. Within three months from now, a new video could appear each day...
To produce the new videos, the group is connecting content experts with professional animators to create highly illustrated productions. The average length of these videos is about five minutes..
Among the first video topics are “How many universes are there?,” “Why don’t we see evidence of alien life?,” and “How pandemics spread (through history and across the world).”

Modern children's books help families explore diversity

As a diehard advocate of bibliotherapy (the therapeutic use of books), I can't resist passing along this nice article from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/08/living/kid-books/index.html?hpt=hp_bn8

Income level gaps exceed racial ones in educational achievement

This article from today's (3/6/12) Education Week, "Growing Gaps Bring Focus on Poverty's Role in Schooling," had this quote which summarized findings from several studies,
"But upward mobility through the mechanism of a good education, which is a widely held value in this country that cuts across the political spectrum, is in serious jeopardy."
Based on standardized test scores in reading and math from 1960-2007, one expert found that, "The achievement gap between poor children and rich children has grown significantly over the past three decades and is now nearly twice as large as the black-white gap."
A new book, Whither opportunity: Rising inequality, schools, and children's life chances  (currently on order but also available through LINK+), summarizes similar research.

New IES research and training grants awarded

Successful grant applications offer ideas and models for future grant proposals, so am passing this along.
Through the National Center for Education Research, IES recently awarded 26 new research grants under the Education Research Grants Program (CFDA 84.305A). These applications were considered under the June 2011 deadline and total spending for these grants is $49.8 million.
Descriptions and structured abstracts for each new grant are available at:
http://ies.ed.gov/ncer/projects/12awards.asp

Through the National Center for Special Education Research, IES recently awarded 26 new research grants under the Special Education Research Grants Program (CFDA 84.324A) and two new grants under the Postdoctoral Research Training in Special Education Program (CFDA 84.324B). All applications were considered under the June 2011 deadline and total spending for these grants is $48 million.
Descriptions and structured abstracts for each new grant are available at:
http://ies.ed.gov/ncser/projects/12awards.asp