LD Links (LD News: August 2006)

Career Zone Offers Help for Transitioning into the Workforce
Learn about different kinds of occupations, take an assessment to see what job is right for you, and get a taste of the real world with a salary calculating tool. 

To visit this Web site, click here.

What Works Clearinghouse Presents Reviews on Education Issues
The What Works Clearinghouse Web site reviews a wide range of educational issues, including character education, dropout prevention, early childhood education, and English language learning, in order to help educators and education decision makers improve student outcomes.

To read these reviews and more on The What Works Clearinghouse, click here.

K-12 Statistics Available from The Center for Education Reform
The Center for Education Reform presents this list of facts about K-12 education, highlighting statistics about schools, enrollment, teachers, student-teacher ratio, expenditures, salaries and wages, and funding.

To view this site, click here.

Important Facts about the U.S. Education System and How Things Have Changed
The Center on Education Policy presents this practical guide to the U.S. Education System, providing background information and some interesting, little-known statistics about public education today. 

To download a pdf of Basic (and Sometimes Surprising) Facts about the U.S. Education System, A Public Education Primer (40 pages), click here.

The Importance of Reporting and Analyzing Graduation Rates
The Alliance for Excellent Education has released a report that explains why graduation rates are important and how they relate to effective high school reform.

To learn more, click here.

Helpful Resources for Parents of Children with Learning Disabilities or AD/HD
Use this helpful, four-step process for finding resources for your child with learning disabilities. This site has a list of tips and links to help start your search for local resources.

To view this resource from Schwab Learning, click here.

Reviews of All Public Schools in New York City Now Available
Insideschools.org has reviewed all 1,439 public schools in New York City. Search for schools, read Insideschools.org’s reviews on topics like special education and English as a second language, and post your own reviews on this site.

To use this tool, click here.

Communication Help for Hispanic Parents in the U.S.
This article from Colorín Colorado shares tips on how parents from Hispanic countries living in the U.S. can better communicate with their children’s schools.

To read this article in English, click here.
To read this article in Spanish, click here.

Learning Disability or Struggling with A New Language?
This article from Colorín Colorado gives tips on how you can tell when a student has a language-learning disability and when he or she is merely in the normal process of acquiring a second language.

To read this article, click here.

Job Search Help for Individuals with Disabilities

The Job Accommodation Network (JAN), a free service of the Office of Disability Employment Policy, U.S. Department of Labor, has developed a four-step approach to job searching, targeted towards individuals with disabilities. 

To use this guide, click here.

Video Clips Assist Instruction of Spoken Language

Reading Rockets offers these four video clips that help instructors teach the spoken language. The video topics are The Importance of Visual Input, Letters vs. Phonemes, Phonemic Segmentation, and The Alphabetic Principle.

To view these clips, click here.

First in Series of Briefs about College and Workforce Readiness Released
Ready by 21 is a new national initiative from the Forum for Youth Investment that challenges states and localities to ensure that all individuals are ready for college, work, and life by age 21. Read the first in a series of briefs created for state advocates to share the vision, messages, and state policies intended to improve college and life readiness in young people. 

To read the first brief in this series, click here.

Guide to Calculating the Cost of Quality Early Child Care
The Finance Project has developed this guide to calculating the cost of quality early care and education in order to assist policymakers, community leaders, and developers. 

To download a pdf of this guide (40 pages), click here.