Research Roundup (LD News: March 2004)

By Dr. Sheldon H. Horowitz
Director of Professional Services, NCLD

There is no question that there is an "art" to teaching. And we all know that underlying good teaching practice is the "science" that speaks to which instructional strategies are most effective to deliver specific content to students in different settings and at different points in their educational careers. Teachers have a profound influence on student learning, and their ability to access information and support about research-based (or promising) instructional strategies, management techniques or curriculum design can have an enormous impact upon their students' success.

One valuable resource for parent and educators is the U.S. Department of Education Regional Educational Laboratory Program. The "Lab Program" was designed to help educators, policy makers, and communities improve schools and help all students attain their full potential. One way they do this is by ensuring that information about exemplary and promising programs, as well as other important lessons about school reform developed or learned in one site, can be appropriately applied elsewhere.

To read headlines from these laboratory sites, visit
http://www.relnetwork.org/

To search the laboratory Web sites by topic, visit
http://www.ed.gov/help/site/expsearch/labs.html

To visit the individual laboratory Web sites, see below:

• Appalachia Educational Laboratory (AEL): http://www.ael.org/
  States Served: Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia
  National Leadership Area: Educational Technology
  
  
• Mid-Atlantic Laboratory for Student Success (LSS): http://www.temple.edu/LSS/
  States Served: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC
  National Leadership Area: Educational Leadership
  
  
• Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL): http://www.mcrel.org/
  States Served: Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming
  National Leadership Area: Standards-Based Instructional Practice
  
  
• North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL): http://www.ncrel.org/
  States Served: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin
  National Leadership Area: Educational Technology
  
  
• Northeast and Islands Laboratory at Brown University (LAB): http://www.alliance.brown.edu/
  States Served: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands
  National Leadership Area: Teaching Diverse Students
  
  
• Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL): http://www.nwrel.org/
  States Served: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington
  National Leadership Area: Re-engineering Schools for Improvement
  
  
• Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL): http://www.prel.org/
  States Served: American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia (Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap), Guam, Hawaii, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau
  National Leadership Area: Area of Curriculum and Instruction Related to Reading and Language Mastery
  
  
• Southeastern Regional Vision for Education (SERVE): http://www.serve.org/
  States Served: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina
  National Leadership Area: Expanded Learning Opportunities
  
  
• Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL): http://www.sedl.org/
  States Served: Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas
  National Leadership Area: Family and Community Involvement
  
  
• WestEd: http://www.wested.org/cs/we/print/docs/we/home.htm
  States Served: Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah
  National Leadership Area: Assessment of Educational Achievement

Note: When you read a research article, you're likely to run across descriptions of how the researchers analyzed the data they collected and terms about statistical methods that are unfamiliar. In order to understand these research reports, you may need to expand your research 'lingo'. Visit Making Sense of Statistics in Research at: http://www.nichcy.org/resources/statistics.asp