David and Colleagues,

 

While I sadly agree with you that the Doing What Works Web site totally
ignores adult education, this is a great site for family literacy
programs that serve English language learners in the elementary school
setting. One example with which I am very familiar is the Toyota Family
Literacy Program (TFLP), which has been funded in 20 cities across the
nation and 60 elementary schools, each providing comprehensive family
literacy services to immigrant parents/families.  Hundreds of school
systems have applied for a family literacy grant to provide these
services and we often direct programs to resources like Doing What
Works.  Moreover, school districts across the nation with a recent
influx of ELL families are clamoring for information on how best to
provide services, and the Doing What Works Web site will help those
school districts tremendously.  We just know that it takes all levels of
education working together to address these challenges and we work
diligently to form collaborative partnerships to solve problems and move
our parents and children forward in their educational endeavors.

 

Sylvia Cobos Lieshoff, Ph.D.
Training Specialist
National Center for Family Literacy
325 West Main Street, Suite 300
Louisville, KY 40202-4237
phone: 502.584.1133 ext. 156
fax: 502.584-0172
e-mail: slieshoff at famlit.org
web: www.famlit.org

 

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
<BLOCKED::http://www.famlit.org/conference> 

________________________________

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David J. Rosen
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 8:08 AM
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List; National Literacy Advocacy List
sponsored by AAACE
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 850] Doing What Works Web Site

 

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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