Colleagues,

Yesterday, on the Family Literacy discussion list, it was announced that

The U.S. Department of Education has launched a new Web site to  
provide teachers, administrators and other educators with  
recommendations on effective teaching practices and examples of  
possible ways to implement those practices to help promote excellence  
in American education and improve student achievement.

What's missing from the Doing What Works Web Site?

You may have guessed it. There is no mention of adults, not even in  
the What's Coming section of this Web site. The Institute of  
Education Sciences (IES), the U.S. Department of Education's research  
center, was reorganized by Congress. In the process, funding for a  
national adult literacy research center was eliminated. The result  
appears to be that the Department of Education's Doing What Works Web  
Site will not -- at least in the near future -- have anything that  
works -- anything that is based on the evidence of research and  
professional wisdom -- to offer adult and family literacy.

Some of you may be aware that the IES What Works Clearinghouse Web  
site, that also "collects, screens, and identifies studies of  
effectiveness of educational interventions (programs, products,  
practices, and policies)" for several years had a category for adult   
literacy research that, year after year, was empty. Eventually they  
solved the embarrassing problem by eliminating the category. A search  
of that Web site today, using the word "adult" produces only two  
references, both about adults reading to children. [ http:// 
ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/  ] There is no evidence in the What Works  
Clearinghouse about how to teach adults.

The irony, of course, is that while our field is (rightly) encouraged  
by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute for  
Literacy to base teaching practice on evidence, there is now very  
little evidence being produced or disseminated upon which to base  
that practice, and apparently none that meets the standards of the  
U.S. Department of Education.

Should we raise this issue with our elected officials in Congress,  
and with candidates for the next president of the United States?  
Should we ask the national organizations of which we are members to  
make this a top priority? Shouldn't adult education and literacy have  
a federally-funded national research center?

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net


On Nov 20, 2007, at 4:08 PM, Gail Price wrote:


> The U.S. Department of Education has launched a new Web site to  

> provide teachers, administrators and other educators with  

> recommendations on effective teaching practices and examples of  

> possible ways to implement those practices to help promote  

> excellence in American education and improve student achievement.  

> The first in the series focuses on English language learners. The  

> new "Doing What Works" site, <http://dww.ed.gov/>, offers a user- 

> friendly interface to quickly locate teaching practices that have  

> been found effective by the department's research arm, the  

> Institute of Education Sciences, and similar organizations. In  

> addition, it cites examples of possible ways, although not  

> necessarily the only ways, this research may be used to help  

> students reach their academic potential.

>

>

>

>

>

> 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

>

>

>

>

>

> Join us for the 17th Annual National Conference on Family Literacy!

> "Literacy Grows Families and Communities"

> March 30, 31, & April 1, 2008-Louisville, KY

> Register online at www.famlit.org/conference

>

>

>

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