10-Year Look Shows Math, Achievement Gap Gains

Education Week just-released Quality Counts At 10, a report that takes a look at 10 years of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data, finding an overall correlation between states' standards-based reform and improvements on reading and math test scores in grades 4 through 8.  States like New Jersey and Texas show the largest gains in closing the achievement gap.

For more information:  http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2006/01/05/index.html

Few Advances Made in Adult Literacy in Last Decade

Adult literacy dropped or was unchanged across every level of education between 1992 and 2003. About 11 million adults in the U.S. are not literate and 30 million adults have below basic English skills, according to a study sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics.

For more information: http://www.nap.edu/books/0309096529/html/

New Guide Offers Advice on Helping Adults Become Literate

A new report from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), A First Look at the Literacy of America’s Adults in the 21^st Century, indicates that in order to serve current needs, adult education programs must be research-based and accountable for results, and in order to reduce future need, accountability and high standards must be brought to schools at every grade level, including high school.  

For more information: http://www.ed.gov/nclb/methods/reading/adultliteracy.pdf

Disability and Aging Report Now Available

The final report and recommendations from the Mini-Conference on Disability and Aging, Disability and Aging: Seeking Solutions to Improve Health, Productivity and Community Living, is now available.  This report summarizes the deliberations of the event and presents the high-priority, agreed-upon recommendations across five policy arenas: social engagement and productivity; healthy long-term living; economic security; assistive technology and universal design; and positive messaging.

For more information: www.whcoa.gov/about/policy/meetings/mini_conf/FINAL%20REPORT_07_21_05.pdf.

New Audio-Video On Adolescent Literacy
 
Audio and video are now available from the Alliance For Excellent Education’s November 7^th 2005 symposium on adolescent literacy, titled Toward a More Literate Nation: Raising the Bar for reading and writing instruction in the high schools.
 
For more information:  http://www.all4ed.org/events/Nov7symposium.html
 
Progress Monitoring Content Module Developed

The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) has funded the Research Institute on Progress Monitoring (RIPM) to develop a system of progress monitoring to evaluate effects of individualized instruction on access to and progress within the general education curriculum.  RIPM has developed a key document, titled Progress Monitoring: Study Group Content Module, which is designed to provide an introduction to implementing student progress monitoring in reading using curriculum-based measurement (CBM) as well as step-by-step instructions for using CBM to screen, monitor, score, and use data to assist in decision making.

PDF available at: http://www.progressmonitoring.org/pdf/cbmMOD1.pdf
 
For more information:  http://www.progressmonitoring.org/

Supply of E-Toys Exceeds Knowledge about Their Benefits

More electronic toys and programs for young children are marketed as educational every year, yet we have little research-based knowledge about how educational they really are. A new report out this month from the Kaiser Family Foundation titled, A Teacher in the Living Room?, is based on research from three types of electronic multimedia (videos and DVDs, computer software and video games).
For more information:  http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/7427.pdf