Featured Resources
The ABCs of Culture in the Classroom
This professional development resource, featured on the Teaching Tolerance website, addresses the cultural gap that often spans between students and teachers. "The ABCs of Culture" 
uses video and personal narratives to examine classroom stereotypes and provides educators with strategies to build bridges across cultures.
America's Cradle to Prison Pipeline Report
This powerful report from Children's Defense Fund documents America's "Cradle to Prison Pipeline," where tens of thousands of children and teens are pushed onto the fast track to prison each year. This national crisis exists at the intersection of poverty and societal neglect where we witness the unfortunate truth that all children's lives are not valued equally. As Connie Curry and Julia Cass report in Part II, countless children, especially poor children "already are in the Pipeline to Prison before taking a single step or uttering a word."
Download the reportBuilding Collaboration Between Schools and Parents of English Language Learners: Transcending Barriers, Creating Opportunities
A new practitioner's brief by Beth Harry and Robin Waterman explores the roles of the parents of English language learners (ELLs) in American public schools. The brief discusses the high value that ELL parents place on their children's education as well as the sometimes stagnated desire to participate more fully in school/parent activities such as attending parent-teacher conferences and helping with homework. Language barriers and lack of cultural familiarity are shown as being a few of the challenges that impede effective parent-school collaboration.
Cities in Crisis: A Special Analytic Report on High School Graduation
A new analysis by America's Promise Alliance finds that our nation is facing a dropout crisis with the largest cities paying the biggest price. Every 26 seconds, one American high school student drops out of school, which adds up to more than 1.1 million students per year.
The Civil Rights Project, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
The Civil Rights Project is a leading organization devoted to civil rights research. Focusing initially on education reform, it has convened dozens of national conferences; commissioned over 400 new research and policy studies; produced major reports on desegregation, student diversity, school discipline, special education, dropouts, college access, and No Child Left Behind, and published twelve books. Its research has been incorporated into federal legislation, cited in litigation, and used to spur congressional hearings. The project was formerly located at Harvard University, but has since relocated to UCLA.
A Cultural, Linguistic, and Ecological Framework for Response to Intervention with English Language Learners
This new resource from the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCREST) addresses Response to Intervention (RTI) by identifying guiding questions for service providers who determine whether assessment and instruction are linguistically and culturally appropriate for the student's level of language proficiency. In addition, this brief considers student progress in relation to peers with regard to language and cultural background. The authors have also created a flowchart to help practitioners to implement RTI interventions for students who are English Language Learners.
Curriculum-Based Measurement in Mathematics: An Evidence-Based Formative Assessment Procedure
This report describes Mathematics Curriculum-Based Measurement (M-CBM) including a brief history, basic procedures, implications for practice, and further resources. It also reviews the research that supports the use of M-CBM.
Cyber-Bullying Resource
The website StopCyberbullying.org offers information for students, parents, educators, and law enforcement officials about the growing problem of cyber-bullying — "when a child preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones." The site is a project of the non-profit organization Wired Kids, Inc., which works against all forms of cyberabuse.
Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction for English Learners in the Elementary Grades
This practice guide, from the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, formulates evidence-based recommendations for teaching literacy to English Language Learners (ELLs) in the elementary grades based on the current body of studies for each area. The authors evaluated the effect sizes of interventions to measure their impact on programs and practices. The recommendations involve areas such as curriculum selection, sensible assessments for monitoring progress, and reasonable expectations for student achievement and growth, which would be helpful for curriculum directors at the time they make decisions about policy related to literacy instruction for ELLs in elementary grades. This resource pertains to the category: ELL, Grades K–3
Encouraging Girls in Math and Science, Center on Instruction
This National Center for Education Research (NCER) practice guide brings together the best available evidence and expertise to provide educators with specific and coherent evidence-based recommendations on how to encourage girls in the fields of math and science. This resource pertains to the following categories: Mathematics, Grades K–12; Science, Grades K–12
The George Lucas Educational Foundation
The George Lucas Educational Foundation serves to provide detailed articles, studies, documentary segments, expert interviews, and links to hundreds of resources that show best practices in action. The site's "Priority Topics" allow educators and administrators to browse articles and videos related to Assessment, Community Partnership, Emotional Intelligence, Mentoring, Parent Involvement, Professional Development, Teacher Preparation, and more. For more information, visit the Edutopia website .
Improving Literacy Instruction in Middle and High Schools: a Guide for Principals
This "quick start" guide for principals of both middle and high schools identifies three goals for secondary school literacy initiatives and provides elements of instruction required to meet these goals. It then outlines the critical elements of a school-level literacy action plan.
Instructional Time in Elementary Schools: A Closer Look at Changes for Specific Subjects
This 2008 report examines the magnitude of changes in instructional time in elementary schools in the years since NCLB took effect in 2002. It is also a follow up report to Choices, Changes, and Challenges: Curriculum and Instruction in the NCLB Era that was issued by the Center on Education Policy in July 2007.
LGBT Parents Involved in, Excluded from K–12 Schools; Children Often Harassed
Current estimates indicate there are more than seven million Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) parents with school-age children in the United States. However, the first comprehensive report to examine the school experiences of LGBT families demonstrates the lack of support for and the exclusion of LGBT families. Involved, Invisible, Ignored: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Parents and Their Children in Our Nation's K–12 Schools was released by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, in partnership with the Family Equality Council and COLAGE.
Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas: Getting to the Core of Middle and High School Improvement
This report from the Alliance for Excellent Education describes issues that must be addressed as students move beyond achieving basic reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills to more advanced literacy skills that will enable them to succeed in academic content areas. This resource pertains to the category: Reading, Grades 6–12
MAAP—"Mapping the African American Past"
Columbia's Center for New Media Teaching and Learning and Teachers College have launched, MAAP , a web-based teaching tool that uses video, audio, historic maps and more to bring African-American history in New York City to life. Curriculum and lesson plans are available on the site and adapted for students in different grades. The lessons are organized into themed modules: The development of the African-American community in New York City, Resistance and self-determination in the face of slavery and African-American contributions to building New York City. The MAAP website also acts as a portal to glossaries of concepts and terms, profiles of historical events and figures, videotaped commentary by faculty experts, film and music clips, and historical photographs and artwork.
National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (NCPIE)
NCPIE serves to advocate for parent and family involvement in their children's education in the hopes of enhancing the education of America's youth. NCPIE conducts activities that involve the coalition's member organizations and provides resources to help promote parent and family involvement.
National Council of La Raza's 2007 Report: Hispanic Education in the United States
Hispanic students are a significant and growing proportion of the United States student population. This statistical brief provides a summary of the key data concerning this growing segment of students.
News We Lose: Black Student Gains
The National Education Association (NEA) reports on the educational progress of black students that are often overshadowed by the work yet to be done. While the NEA does not seek to minimize the challenges, they do support the assertion that "Black progress over the past decade has been nothing short of spectacular."
Roots of Empathy
Roots of Empathy (ROE) is an award winning, evidence-based classroom program that has shown dramatic effect in reducing levels of aggression and violence among school children while raising social/emotional competence and increasing empathy. Within the ROE curriculum, a classroom adopts a participating neighborhood parent and infant for the school year. The class then participates in activities with the infant, using their growing attachment to learn about the needs of others and themselves. ROE teaches children valuable skills in: Emotional Literacy, Perspective Taking, Male Nurturance, Inclusion, Infant Safety, Violence Prevention and more.
STANCE Against Homophobic Bullying
The website Stance.org.uk offers information for educators as well as parents and teachers on homophobic bullying. STANCE provides a comprehensive resource pack, full of materials that address homophobic bullying. STANCE includes staff training materials (Book 4), information for pupils (Book 5), curriculum resources (Book 6), policy guidance (Book 2), materials to promote a positive social environment (Book 3) and much more.
The State of Black America, 2007
Published since 1976, The State of Black America is the annual Urban League report that addresses the issues central to Black America in the current year. The publication is a barometer of the conditions, experiences and opinions of Black America. It examines black progress in education and other relevant areas. The publication forecasts certain social and political trends and proposes solutions to the community's and America's most pressing challenges.
State Guidance Resources Related to the NEEAC Workshop "Assisting English Language Learners: Developing a Framework for Differentiating Learning Differences from Disability"
These documents, collected from different state departments of education, provide valuable insight on working with English language learners to distinguish learning difficulties from learning disabilities.
Still Looking to the Future: Voluntary K–12 School Integration
This Second Edition of "The School Integration Manual: Voluntary K–12 School Integration" from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Civil Rights Project at UCLA provides valuable guidance and information on how communities and school districts can promote racial diversity and address racial isolation in schools nationwide.
Teaching All Students to Read in Elementary School: A Guide for Principals
This "quick start" guide for elementary school-level instructional leaders is based on scientific research on reading and reading instruction as well as on studies of successful schools and interviews with successful principals. It includes critical elements of an effective reading program in elementary school, critical tasks for principals as literacy leaders, and special considerations for reading instruction after the third grade.
Where the Girls Are: The Facts About Gender Equity in Education
This report from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) takes a comprehensive look at girls' educational achievement during the past 35 years. "Where the Girls Are: The Facts About Gender Equity in Education" pays special attention to the relationship between girls' and boys' progress. Analyses of results from national standardized tests, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the SAT and ACT college entrance examinations, as well as other measures of educational achievement, provide an overall picture of trends in gender equity from elementary school to college and beyond.
Writing, Technology and Teens
A new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project addresses a major question in education: What connects teens' scholarly writing and the informal e-communication they exchange on digital screens? A considerable number of educators and children's advocates worry that the quality of writing by young Americans is being degraded by their electronic communication, with its lackadaisical spelling, punctuation and grammar, and acronymic shortcuts. Others wonder if this return to text-driven communication is instead inspiring a new appreciation for writing among teens.
