I hope this posting doesn't overload you this morning. The following
notices are from today's Public Education Network weekly newsblast and I
thought all of them were worth sending out to you.

 

The 2006 Achievement Gap Study by the Northwest Evaluation Association
actually came out in November, but perhaps you didn't see it then. The
report is long, but the research brief (downloadable at the same site)
is more manageable.

 

The second notice is a nice look at research in the world of education.
I found it interesting and hope you will, too.

 

And the third looks ataspects of children's lives that are related to
their well-being and readiness for school, including parent-child
interactions at meal times, praising children, conversations and play,
reading habits, and parents'expectations.

 

THE 2006 ACHIEVEMENT GAP STUDY

Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) researchers have released a new
study on the achievement gap. The achievement gap is the difference
between the academic performance of students in poor versus wealthy
schools and between minority and non-minority students. The study
revealed that for every group at every grade, students from poor schools
grew less than students from wealthy schools and minority students
exhibited less growth than their non-minority peers. In general,
students enrolled in high poverty schools, African-American students and
Hispanic students begin school with lower skills, grow less academically
during the school year and lose more skill over the summer than their
wealthier and European-American peers. In the case of the
African-American students in these samples, the concern carries added
emphasis. Their rate of change over the two-year projection was the
lowest of all groups, suggesting that the achievement gap between
student segments remains a significant problem. "This study should be a
wake up call for educators, as it reveals real differences in student
achievement based on socio-economic status," said Allan Olson, president
of NWEA. "The use of growth data provides a clear picture of individual
student growth and helps inform educators on specifics areas where
students need focused instruction."

http://www.nwea.org/research/achievementgap.asp

 

 

 

MAKING RESEARCH RELEVANT IN THE CLASSROOM In today's high stakes
accountability environment, schools trying to implement research-based
strategies and curriculum face many hurdles. "The biggest one," says a
Houston area superintendent, "is the amount of research out there,
locating what you need, and having the time and the staff to actually
use research effectively." Educators aren't the only ones wrestling with
research issues. The U.S. Department of Education and organizations like
SEDL are working to bridge the gap between research and practice,
according to a recent article published in "SEDL Letter." Author Lesley
Dahlkemper writes that not only has the U.S. Department of Education
been working to expand the research base by funding more projects, but
is also working with universities to create a new crop of education
scientists. Although improving the knowledge base is critical, educators
need help adapting research findings to their own schools and
classrooms. Read the full article to learn more about the challenges of
applying high-quality research to improve schools.

http://www.sedl.org/pubs/sedl-letter/v18n03/Dahlkemper.pdf

 

 

 

NEW CENSUS REPORT ON CHILD WELL-BEING

This interesting and easy-to-read report from the U.S. Census Bureau
highlights many aspects of children's lives that are related to their
well-being and readiness for school, such as children's living
arrangements and their family's characteristics, early child care
experiences, daily interaction with parents, extracurricular activities,
academic experience, and parents' educational expectations. These data
show that income and family structure affect various aspects of
children's everyday life. Children living in families below the poverty
level, children whose parents have lower levels of educational
attainment, and children in families with single parents tend to have
less daily interaction with their parents, such as talking, being read
to, or sharing daily meals, than their counterparts in other situations.
Children whose families live below poverty and with lower levels of
family income are less likely to participate in extracurricular
activities and to be academically on-track than children living in
families above poverty and with higher levels of family income. 

http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/p70-109.pdf

 

 

 

Gail J. Price

Multimedia Specialist

National Center for Family Literacy

325 W. Main Street, Suite 300

Louisville, KY 40202

gprice at famlit.org

502 584-1133, ext. 112

 

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