The U.S. Department of Education's Improving Literacy Through School Libraries (LSL) Program focuses on providing funding to public school libraries in districts with 20 percent or more family poverty. This grant is for local public school districts, charter schools, or state-administered schools that are considered local school districts by their State Educational Agency. Funds are used to improve reading achievement through updating the library collection, expanding Internet connections, purchasing new technology, providing professional development for library media specialists, and extending school library hours. Approximately 19 million dollars will be available for funding, and an estimated 100 grants will be awarded under this competition.
Northwest Regional Comprehensive Center
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March 2006 E-newsletter
Below is a listing of our archived monthly e-newsletters. You can view the resources we mentioned in each issue by clicking on the link or Search Resources to find any resource from an e-newsletter or event.
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On Thursday, March 30, 2006, 2-3 p.m. EST, the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality will be offering an interactive Webcast on Raising Student Achievement Through the Equitable Distribution of Teachers. This Webcast will focus on the fact that while teachers can make a real difference in the achievement of their students, schools with low-performing students have, on average, less qualified teachers than those with higher performing students. Much of these results can be attributed to the distribution of teachers and teacher qualifications. This Webcast will offer insights into the real roots of the problem and an opportunity to learn about the promising efforts that are being undertaken to address it at the national, state, and district levels.
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The Executive Summary of the Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth is now available. This project was funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and was conducted by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) and SRI International. The panel was appointed in 2002 by the U.S. Department of Education to conduct a review of the research on the literacy development of English language learners.
Among their findings are the following:
- Focusing instruction on key components, such as phonemic awareness, decoding, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing, has clear benefits, but differences due to children's second-language proficiency make it important to adjust instruction to meet the needs of second-language learners.
- Language-minority students who are literate in their first language are likely to be advantaged in the acquisition of English literacy.
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Evaluation of Title I Accountability Systems and School Improvement Efforts: Findings From 2002-2003
Researchers at SRI International, Policy Studies Associates, and the Consortium for Policy Research in Education surveyed district Title I administrators and principals, conducted school case studies, interviewed state administrators, and analyzed state accountability systems to capture the first full year of implementation of the No Child Left Behind accountability provisions.
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The U.S. Department of Education's Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative has made 32 video courses available online free of charge through their e-Learning website. Additional sessions will be filmed and added throughout the year. These sessions will increase teachers' content knowledge and teaching skills for improving student achievement in reading, mathematics, science, and history, and may be counted toward professional development through your district or state.
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This non-regulatory Guidance for Title I, Part D, Neglected, Delinquent, and At-Risk Youth replaces the prior 1997 non-regulatory guidance for the Title I, Part D program. The guidance describes the requirements of the Subpart 1 SA and Subpart 2 LEA programs and the evaluation requirements in Subpart 3. The guidance also provides suggestions for addressing many of these requirements. This document does not impose any new requirements beyond those in the ESEA and other applicable federal statutes and regulations.
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(Link is no longer available)
The National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning at Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) in Austin, Texas, has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to support a randomized control study to determine the effectiveness of afterschool programs on student academic outcomes. The deadline for applying is April 6, 2006.
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Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) has made available a new early literacy resource kit, "Pacific Early Literacy Resource Kit." The resource kit is intended to be used by teachers, administrators, parents, or policymakers and includes assessments, instructional activities, and research to support early literacy improvement efforts.
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This publication from Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) examines what research tells us about effective professional development in early reading and its role in improving student achievement.
