"Transforming teacher education through clinical practice"-- New report from NCATE

Released Nov. 16, this new report sponsored by NCATE emphasizes clinical preparation as the key to reforming teacher preparation programs. The entire report is available here.
An article from Inside Higher Ed provides an overview stating in part, "At the report’s core is the assertion that for teachers to be effective, they need educations grounded in immersion and clinical practice. The report calls for more rigorous accountability; strengthening candidate selection and placement; revamping curriculums, incentives and staffing; and identifying what works and supporting continuous improvement. " All of this probably shounds familiar if you went to hear Jane West speak at the Alumni Center a couple of weeks ago.

New COACHE report on best institutions for tenure track faculty

Harvard's Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education has published the results of their most recent job-satisfaction survey of tenure-track faculty in four-year institutions. They state, "two inescapable conclusions: first, that positive climates and cultures are the sine qua non of pre-tenure faculty retention and success; and second, that climates and cultures—and institutional quality—are defined and defended by tenured faculty in their roles as colleagues, collaborators, mentors and chairs."


This Inside Higher Ed article (Nov. 15, 2010) provides an overview with one summary table. The criteria include clarity of tenure expxectations, climate/culture/collegiality, and "nature of the work" in several areas (research, teaching, etc.). The COACHE site has links to the report and all tables (about half way down on the left under "latest news")

National survey finds college students lack basic research skills

The newest in a series of studies and reports from Project Information Literacy is summarized in today's (Nov. 10, 2010) Chronicle of Higher Ed. I wanted to highlight just a couple of their findings that I can attest to based on my own years of experience working with student researchers...

"Alison J. Head, a co-principal investigator for the project, said the results suggest that today’s students... [are]basically taking how they learned to research in high school with them to college, since it’s worked for them in the past... findings show that college students approach research as a hunt for the right answer instead of a process of evaluating different arguments and coming up with their own interpretation.  'Not being aware of the diverse resources that exist or the different ways knowledge is created and shared is dangerous.' she said. 'College is a time to find information and learn about multiple arguments, and exploring gets sacrificed if you conduct research in this way.'”

NCES study finds states lowered proficiency levels

To read the full report, visit http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/2010456.asp

Additional resources for understanding state proficiency standards, including profiles of proficiency standards for each state, frequently asked questions, and copies of past reports, are available at
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/studies/statemapping.asp

Some excerpts from an article in today's Education Week~

"With 2014 approaching as the deadline by which states must get their all their students up to “proficient” levels on state tests, the U.S. Department of Education’s top statistics agency released data today suggesting that some states may have lowered student-proficiency standards on such tests in recent years.

For the 47-state study, researchers for the National Center for Education Statistics used student test scores to figure out where the proficiency levels on various state tests would lie on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Their results suggest that between 2005 and 2007, various states made their standards less rigorous in one or more grade levels or subjects in at least 26 instances. In 12 instances, particular states appeared to make their standards more stringent in one or more grade levels or subjects.

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, adopted nearly eight years ago, states are required to show that all students have attained proficient levels of performance in reading and mathematics by the end of the 2013-14 school year, and most states are far from reaching that goal.

“I think as 2014 looms, ... clearly what a lot of states are doing is changing the bar so that a lot more students will become proficient,” said Mark S. Schneider, who served as the NCES commissioner from 2005 to November 2008....

But the study uses a methodology that is controversial among some testing experts. They caution that the standardized exams that states use and the more rigorous NAEP—the congressionally mandated program known as “the nation’s report card”—are too different to put on the same scale....

The results, nonetheless, are expected to figure in growing efforts to develop common academic standards for what K-12 students should know and be able to do. So far, 48 states are taking part in a push to craft such standards, while federal education officials are at the same time making plans to award $350 million in grants to help states plan common assessments.

Longitudinal data on late high school dropouts from NCES

It appears we are disproportionately failing to graduate those students already most disadvantaged. From the report summary...

"....presents information about selected characteristics and experiences of high school sophomores in 2002 who subsequently dropped out of school. It also presents comparative data about late high school dropouts in the years 1982, 1992, and 2004. The findings only address dropping out in late high school and do not cover students who dropped out before the spring of 10th grade. For this reason, the reported rates are lower than those based on the students' entire high school or earlier school career. Key findings include the following:

* Forty-eight percent of all late high school dropouts come from families in the lowest quarter (bottom 25 percent) of the socioeconomic status distribution, and 77 percent of late high school dropouts come from the lowest half of the socioeconomic status distribution.

* Most late high school dropouts (83 percent) listed a school-related (versus a family- or employment-related) reason for leaving. These reasons included missing too many school days, thinking it would be easier to get a GED, getting poor grades, and not liking school.

* The overall late high school dropout rate was lower in 2004 than in 1982 (7 percent versus 11 percent, respectively) and lower in 1992 than in 1982 (6 percent versus 11 percent), but it showed no statistically significant difference in 2004 compared with 1992."

To view, download and print the report as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009307

NCES issues new report on adult literacy

"Basic Reading Skills and the Literacy of the America's Least Literate Adults: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) Supplemental Studies."

The 2003 NAAL assessed the English literacy skills of a nationally representative sample of 18,500 U.S. adults (age 16 and older) residing in private households. NAAL is the first national assessment of adult literacy since the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS). The NAAL project comprised four assessment components: the core literacy tasks, the main literacy assessment, the Fluency Addition to NAAL (FAN), and the Adult Literacy Supplemental Assessment (ALSA). Results from the main literacy assessment are reported as averages and as the percentage of adults in each of four literacy levels: Below Basic, Basic, Intermediate, and Proficient. This report focuses on results from the FAN and the ALSA.

The Adult Literacy Supplemental Assessment (ALSA) was administered to adults unable to successfully answer the core literacy tasks. Instead of completing the main literacy assessment, these adults completed the ALSA, which gathered information about their letter-reading, word-reading, word-identification, and basic comprehension skills.

The Fluency Addition to NAAL (FAN) measures the basic reading skills of America's adults. The FAN was administered to all adults who participated in the NAAL project following the completion of the main literacy assessment or the supplemental assessment.

Key Findings:

* Seven million adults, or about 3% of the adult population, could not complete even the most basic literacy tasks in the main assessment and were given the supplemental assessment.

* Nearly 1 in 5 adults in the nonliterate in English group had a high school diploma or GED. Among them, more than half (representing roughly 600,000 adults) had earned their high school degree in the US.

* For those for whom Spanish is a first language, a delay in learning English is associated with low basic reading skills. Those who learned English before age 11 had basic reading scores similar to average native English speakers (97 words read correctly per minute); however, for those who learned English after age 21, average scores were 35 points (or about one-third) lower. Due to the correlational nature of these data, it is impossible to make causal attributions, i.e., to say that a delay in learning English causes low basic reading skills.

* Adults who took the main literary assessment were able to read, on average, 98 words correctly per minute (wpm), in comparison to 34 wpm by those in the supplemental assessment.

To view, download and print the report as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009481

New NCES/IES Report: Comparative Indicators of Education in the United States and Other G-8 Countries: 2009

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-seven indicators are organized in five sections: (1) population and school enrollment; (2) academic performance (including subsections for reading, mathematics, and science); (3) context for learning; (4) expenditure for education; and (5) education returns: educational attainment and income. This report draws on the most current information about education from four primary sources: the Indicators of National Education Systems (INES) at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
Download the report from: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009039

2009 Horizon Report is out -- emerging technologies and education

The newest version of the Horizon Report was released at EDUCAUSE conference this week.

"The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the NMC’s Horizon Project, a research-oriented effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have considerable impact on teaching, learning, and creative expression within higher education. A collaboration between the NMC and ELI, the 2009 Horizon Report is the sixth in the annual series.

Each year, the Horizon Report describes six areas of emerging technology that will have significant impact on higher education within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years." (from the Website)

AACU issues "new" report on assessing student learning in higher ed

Assessing student learning has probably been at the front of your mind for ages now, or at least you felt like it should be. Read the report, “Our Students’ Best Work: A Framework for Accountability Worthy of Our Mission,” and you too can amaze and impress your colleagues with your knowledge of current issues in higher ed :-)
An excerpt from the Jan. 8 Inside Higher Education article about the AACU report:
"AACU, in contrast, believes that colleges must “actually use assessment to improve student learning,” and its re-released report, updated and reinforced in several ways, is meant to be a roadmap to help both the higher education establishment and individual colleges figure out how to do that. By arguing both for the idea that colleges must measure student learning and strongly against the use of “mass testing,” which it argues would be an “enormous misuse of time and scarce resources,” the AACU statement seeks to walk a middle path in the contentious debate over whether and how colleges should measure and report student learning."

NCEE report on teacher preparation to work with students with disabilities

A new report from REL Southeast:
"The study examines the extent to which elementary education teacher preparation programs in 36 randomly selected colleges and universities in the six Southeast Region states integrate content related to students with disabilities. Findings show most programs require one disability-focused course, two-thirds incorporate fieldwork related to students with disabilities, and more than half incorporate disability content into their mission statements."

Report links here: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp?projectID=171&productID=124

Lots of $$ and not much gain in reading ability

From the Executive Summary...
"This report presents findings from the third and final year of the Reading First Impact Study (RFIS), a congressionally mandated evaluation of the federal government’s $1.0 billion-per-year initiative to help all children read at or above grade level by the end of third grade. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (PL 107-110, Title I, Part B, Subpart 1) established Reading First (RF) and mandated its evaluation...

• Reading First produced a positive and statistically significant impact on amount of instructional time spent on the five essential components of reading instruction promoted by the program (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension) ingrades one and two.
  

• Reading First produced positive and statistically significant impacts on multiple practices that are promoted by the program, including professional development in scientifically based reading instruction (SBRI), support from full-time reading coaches, amount of reading instruction, and supports available for struggling readers.
  

• Reading First did not produce a statistically significant impact on student reading comprehension test scores in grades one, two or three.
  

• Reading First produced a positive and statistically significant impact on decoding among first grade students tested in one school year (spring 2007)."

Links to the full report, Executive Summary and Appendices are available here: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20094038.asp

Newest data on elementary/secondary schools from NCES

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.

To view, download and print the report as a PDF file, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009305

Parental involvement in school improvement plans --NREL report

This study of schools requiring improvement (per NCLB) in the Northwest region shows that only 46% of the school improvement plans included the required parental involvement components (as specified in NCLB). Limitations of the study include the fact that only 84% of improvement plans were available to the study authors, and the report does not address actual implementation of parental involvement activities, just specification in the plan. The report authors surveyed the literature to find reports of parental involvement activities that were correlated with improved academic performance.

Summary of recent WWC reports

Perhaps the What Works Clearinghouse should be called the "What Works and What Doesn't Clearinghouse." Of course it does not roll quite so trippingly off the tongue, but what distinguishes WWC from other publication & information venues is that they publish results of what was not found or supported. This is of course closely tied to whether or not you agree to their criteria for what works and what doesn't :-) Here is a rundown of recent reports:

Practice Guides!
- Dropout Prevention
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/practiceguides/#dp_pg
- Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/practiceguides/#adlit_pg
- Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/practiceguides/#turning_pg

Intervention Reports in the Following Topic Areas!

Beginning Reading:
- Reading Mastery
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/beginning_reading/rdgmastery/
- Open Court Reading(c)
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/beginning_reading/open_court/
- Houghton Mifflin Reading(c)
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/beginning_reading/houghton/

Early Childhood Education:
- Breakthrough to Literacy
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/early_ed/btl/

Dropout Prevention:
- Accelerated Middle Schools
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/dropout/ams/
- New Century High Schools Initiative
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/dropout/new_century/

Middle School Math:
- Mathematics in Context - http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/middle_math/math_context/

Quick Reviews!
- Abstract Examples in Learning Math Study
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/quickreviews/abmath/
- Arkansas Teacher Performance-Pay Study
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/quickreviews/littlerock/
- Board Games and Numeracy Skills Study
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/quickreviews/boardgames/
- Los Angeles Charter School Performance Study
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/quickreviews/charterschool/
- Sixth Grade in Middle School Study
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/quickreviews/sixthgrademiddle/
- Student Incentives in Charter Schools Study
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/quickreviews/payforas/
- Teach For America Study
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/quickreviews/tfa/
- Texas Advanced Placement Incentive Program Study
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/quickreviews/texasapip/

Trends in faculty & librarian attitudes

Whew! I got a little behind in the run up to the new term. I'll try and get caught up with my postings in the next couple of days.
The new Ithaka Report on the most recent survey results also identifies trends in faculty attitudes "related to online resources, electronic archiving, teaching and learning and related subjects..." In addition to providing a link to the white paper, this Web page also links to several more targeted presentations such as the short powerpoint on "What Characteristics of a Scholarly Journal Are Important to Authors?"

State funding for higher education: Fiscal year 2007

The fifth annual SHEEO State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) study of state support
for higher education was issued today. There is an article summarizing the reports findings in today's Inside Higher Education; it includes a table comparing public higher ed institutions in all states. Nevada has higher than the national average for per student appropriations but appears to net considerably less of the tuition.

Two new REL reports released

New from REL West -
"Characteristics of California school districts in improvement"
This descriptive analysis provides a statistical profile of California's Title I school districts in program improvement. As an independent analysis of these districts in the aggregate, it is intended to inform the context for district improvement as California rolls out and refines its district intervention strategies.
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp?id=152

New from REL Central -
"Preparing teachers to teach in rural schools"
The Central Region states have greater percentages of rural students and schools than the U.S. average. This report describes how nine teacher preparation programs in the region prepare their graduates for teaching positions in rural settings.
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp?id=10

Effects of Preschool Curriculum Programs on School Readiness

The National Center for Education Research within the Institute of Education Sciences today released the report on the Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research (PCER) initiative, an efficacy evaluation of several preschool curricula. The report, Effects of Preschool Curriculum Programs on School Readiness, provides individual results for each curriculum evaluated. Under the PCER initiative, twelve research teams were funded to implement and conduct research on 14 preschool curricula in a variety of settings serving predominantly low-income children under an experimental design. Evaluation data were collected from all research sites in fall and spring of the preschool year and spring of the kindergarten year using a common set of measures. The goal of the PCER initiative was to identify the impact of each preschool curriculum on five student-level outcomes (reading, phonological awareness, language, mathematics, and behavior) and six classroom-level outcomes (classroom quality, teacher-child interaction, and four types of instruction). This final report presents findings for the impact of each curriculum on student-level and classroom-level outcomes.

2008 Schott report on graduation rates of black males

Today's Inside Higher Education notes, "A new analysis shows just how poorly many states are doing at graduating black males from high school. The Schott Foundation for Public Education last week released an “education inequity index,” comparing black male and white male graduation rates for high school — and the figures may be chilling for colleges hoping to boost black male enrollments. Nationally only 47 percent of black male students are graduating from high school with their cohorts, and in 10 states, the gap in black male and white male graduation rates is at least 30 points, let by Wisconsin, where the black male rate is 36 percent and the white male rate is 87 percent. Michigan, Illinois and Nebraska also have gaps of more than 40 percentage points. The states with the narrowest gaps (or none) tend to be states where there are relatively few black students, Vermont and Maine for example."

Nevada ranks 16th highest in the inequity index and has lower than national averages for graduation rates of both black (40%) and white (55% ) males.

"For over five years, The Schott Foundation for Public Education has tracked the performance of Black males in public education systems across the nation. Past efforts by Schott were designed to raise the nation’s consciousness about the critical education issues affecting Black males; low graduation rates, high rates of placement in special education, and the disproportionate use of suspensions and expulsions, to name a few.

The 2008 edition, Given Half a Chance: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males, details the drastic range of outcomes for Black males, especially the tragic results in many of the nation’s biggest cities. Given Half a Chance also deliberately highlights the resource disparities that exist in schools attended by Black males and their White, non-Hispanic counterparts. The 2008 Schott report documents that states and most districts with large Black enrollments educate their White, non-Hispanic children, but do not similarly educate the majority of their Black male students...

• More than half of Black males did not receive diplomas with their cohort in 2005/2006.

These trends... are evidence of a school-age population that is substantively denied an opportunity to learn, and of a nation at risk." (from the Executive Summary at http://www.blackboysreport.org/node/106)

Career & Technical Education Trends, 1995-2005

Since a substantial number of students come to our campuses from (or in conjunction with) the community college system, I thought this recently released (July 2008) report, or at least the Executive Summary, might be of interest.
"The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences has released the report "Career and Technical Education in the United States: 1990-2005," the fourth volume to describe trends in career and technical education (CTE, formerly known as vocational education). The compendium looks over time at CTE offerings, who participates in CTE, what types of CTE students take, who teaches CTE, and the labor market and further education outcomes attained [emphasis added] by CTE participants..."