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• IRA seeks applicants for Teacher Advisory Panel

  2/9/2010 8:45:00 AM

  Included in the bylaws adopted by the membership of the International Reading Association in February 2009 were guidelines for the formation of a new advisory group to the IRA Board of Directors—the Teacher Advisory Panel. The panel will consist of 12 classroom teachers appointed by the Board of Directors and will serve as an advisory body of the Association.

  A policy and process for appointment of this new group is now available. Any IRA member and full-time classroom teacher interested in applying for this important new advisory group may find further information and download an application form at the following page on the IRA website.

   

   

  IRA General News

• Jumpstart offers research grants

  2/9/2010 8:30:00 AM

  Jumpstart, a national nonprofit early education organization, provides small grants up to a maximum of US$5,000 for promising research that addresses significant questions on the processes and impact of Jumpstart for early reading development and social-emotional development. The intent of such grants is to provide researchers with the opportunity to develop important perspectives on the influence of Jumpstart in the lives of young children who live in low-income and high-stress communities. Up to three grants will be awarded each year. Funded studies may be carried out using any research method or approach as long as the focus of the project is on examining the Jumpstart program. Priority will be given to applications that use rigorous research designs and methodologies.

  Jumpstart is currently serving over 10,000 preschool-age children each year in over 300 preschools, Head Start programs, and child care centers. Jumpstart volunteers are community members ages 25 to 75 (5%) or college and university students (95%) at over 60 higher education institutions. The volunteers operate two 2-hour Jumpstart supplemental educational intervention sessions each week that focus on early language, literacy, and social skills. The curriculum is designed to help children develop the alphabetic principle and engage in rich language and literacy activities.

  Applications must be submitted by April 2, 2010. For further information and the application form, visit the Jumpstart webpage.

   

  Awards and grants

  Early Childhood Literacy

• Family Literacy Teacher of the Year nominations sought

  2/8/2010 9:30:00 AM

  The National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) and Toyota has announced that they are accepting applications for the 2010 Toyota Family Literacy Teacher of the Year.The winner will receive $7,500 for his or her family literacy program as well as a free trip to the 2010 National Conference on Family Literacy in San Antonio, Texas. Last year's winner also was featured on an electronic billboard in New York City's Times Square.

  The application, which should be completed online, is due no later than Feb. 24.

  This will be the 14th year that Toyota has sponsored the Toyota Family Literacy Teacher of the Year award in conjunction with NCFL. The winner will be chosen by a panel of family literacy specialists at NCFL, who will review nominations for high-performing teachers from across the United States. The selected educator will be honored at the National Conference on Family Literacy's opening general session on April 11, 2010 in San Antonio, Texas. In addition, several finalists will be selected who will receive a $500 scholarship.

   

   

   

  Professional Resources

  Teacher Training Announcements Family Literacy Curriculum

• Achievement gaps persist for top students, study says

  2/8/2010 9:00:00 AM

  Achievement gaps between students of different genders and racial, economic, and linguistic groups are large and persistent for the nation’s top-performing students, even as they seem to be narrowing for K-12 students as a whole, according to a new report.

  For the analysis, released Feb. 4 by the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University in Bloomington, researchers analyzed data stretching back as far as 1996 from 4th and 8th grade reading and math tests administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress and from state assessments in those subjects.

  They found that achievement gaps between girls and boys, white and disadvantaged minority students, poor students and their better-off peers, and English-language learners and their English-speaking counterparts have either widened, stayed the same, or declined by a hair since the late 1990s. Read more of this premium article courtesy of EdWeek .org online.

  Research and Reports

  Assessment

• Get up to speed with literacy podcasts on current research, implications

  2/8/2010 8:00:00 AM

  Create a dialogue between researchers, teachers, parents, principals, and policymakers in a simple, podcast format you can download, share on a social networking site, or just send as a link to someone you know who is interested in hearing what literacy researchers have to say as they discuss the implications of their research.

  New podcasts are posted on 1st and 3rd Mondays through April.

  The podcasts are a collaboration with the editors of Reading Research Quarterly and the Journal of Literacy Research, coordinated by Betsy Baker, associate professor of literacy studies at the University of Missouri. They're a great way for college students to “get up to speed” on current research in reading, writing, and literacy. Upcoming programs:

  February 15
  Shayne Piasta
  Alphabet learning and early literacy
  See Reading Research Quarterly 45(1)
  
  March 1
  Caitlin Dooley
  Teaching language arts in a high stakes era
  See Journal of Literacy Research 41(3)
  
  March 15
  Carmen Medina
  Literature discussions with immigrant elementary children
  See Reading Research Quarterly 45(1)
  
  April 5
  John Guthrie
  Reading motivation among African American and Caucasian students
  See Journal of Literacy Research 41(3)
  
  April 19
  Christopher Lemons
  Children with Down Syndrome:  Predictors of Differential Growth
  See Reading Research Quarterly 45(2)
  

  Professional Resources

  Teacher Training Methodology Research Curriculum Literacy and Technology

• Survey: Principals say recess helps boost learning in children

  2/5/2010 10:43:27 AM

  When most people talk about how to improve education, they tend to focus only on what happens in the classroom. But elementary principals, who are the key instructional leaders in the learning process, report in a new Gallup poll that the most unexpected opportunity to boost learning may exist on the playground at recess.

  The first-of its-kind survey of almost 2,000 principals nationwide, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, and Playworks, revealed enthusiastic support for recess among principals, who see it benefiting kids both in the classroom and in life. Key findings from the survey include:

  • Four out of five principals report that recess has a positive impact on academic achievement.
  • Two-thirds of principals report that students listen better after recess and are more focused in class.
  • Virtually all believe that recess has a positive impact on children’s social development (96%) and general well-being (97%).

  Read the full report, State of Play.

  Early Childhood Literacy

  Motivation Assessment Research Socioeconomic Factors

• Detroit high school graduate takes time to really learn to read

  2/5/2010 9:49:25 AM

  Amiya Olden remembers well the day she graduated from Denby High. She handed her diploma to her mother, Karen Olden, who read it to her."Then when someone asked me to read it, I could remember the things that she read, and I knew what I had to say," recalled Amiya Olden, now 22. Amiya could not read her own diploma.

  But don't feel sorry for her. Two summers ago, she took charge of her life when she walked into ProLiteracy Detroit in Midtown and signed up to improve her reading. Nineteen months ago, she was reading at a second-grade level; now she reads at a fifth-grade level. And she has no intention of stopping. It's the first time Amiya Olden has loved learning.

  Amiya Olden could have been a poster child for a reading crisis that affects nearly 2 million Michigan residents older than 16: They read below a sixth-grade level, sometimes way below, which makes it difficult to function, to find jobs and to improve their lives. A study released last year by the state Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth found that a stunning one out of three working-age Michigan adults don't have the reading skills to get a family-sustaining job, that an estimated 44% read below a sixth-grade level and that 60% of students entering community colleges require remedial classes before they can start post-secondary work. Read more in this column by Rochelle Riley in The Detroit Free Press online.

  Struggling Readers

  Motivation Urban Issues Special Needs Family Literacy Socioeconomic Factors Reading promotion Adult Literacy Opinion

• Rapprochement with insurgents leads to reopening of Afghan schools

  2/5/2010 9:23:57 AM

  Over the past year dozens of schools have reopened in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, in part due to an accommodation with Taliban insurgents, Education Ministry officials say. Of the 283 state-funded schools in the province, over 220 were closed in 2008 due to general insecurity and direct attacks, Helmand’s department of education said.
  
  “Two years ago we had only 56 functioning schools in Helmand Province but in the past year we have reopened over 60 schools and now we have about 116 functioning schools,” Mohammad Wali, deputy director of the provincial education department, told IRIN.
  
  Asif Nang, a Ministry of Education (MoE) spokesman in Kabul, told IRIN even more schools (105) had reopened in the past year, meaning that the province had about 170 functioning schools. He attributed the reopenings to local support and a tacit rapprochement with the insurgents. “Tribal and religious elders have helped us a lot and have convinced the government’s opposition [the Taliban] to allow the reopening of schools,” Nang said. Read more in IRIN News online.

  Global Literacy

  Issues in the News Socioeconomic Factors

• Insitute of Education Sciences seeks evaluators of Race to the Top Awards

  2/5/2010 9:13:03 AM

  The Insitute of Educaion Sciences of the U.S. Department of Educaion is requesting applications to evaluate Race to the Top Awards (Phase 1 and Phase 2) under its Evaluation of State and Local Education Programs and Policies Program (84.305E). Applications will be accepted on or before April 1, 2010, June 24, 2010, and September 16, 2010.

  The April 1st deadline is only available for applicants intending to evaluate Race to the Top Awards. This first round allows applicants to start their evaluations at the same time that Phase 1 awardees are expected to be implemented. Applications to evaluate Race to the Top Awards can also be submitted to the June or September deadlines. The Request for Applications for 84.305E is available at the Institute's website.

  Assessment

  Professional Resources Methodology Standards

• "Millennials" are reading news online

  2/4/2010 9:36:38 AM

  Will the next generation read news reports? It looks like it. Some 62% of Internet users in the United States ages 12 to 17 are going online for news and political information or find out about current events, said a study conducted by the Pew Research Center published February 3. During special events such as general elections news consumption rose to 77%.

  This is indeed an impressive number, even more so if you compare it with the 73% of teens who use social networking websites or the 89% of boys and 70% of girls who report they have a game console.

  It also stands up well compared with the 72% of adult internet users who get their news online, a number that has held fairly constant since 2002 according to PEW. In general, it says the use of online news has increased dramatically since its first analysis, in 2000, when it found just 35% of online adults were reading political news online. Read more in this article in The Guardian online or read the study at the Pew Research Center online.

  Literacy and Technology

  Issues in the News Technology Adolescent Literacy Socioeconomic Factors

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