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Best Sources For Even More Info
To really learn about what is happening to schools today, you can
choose from some excellent books that are available. We have an
extensive list of suggestions in a separate page for books on education.
There are also many, many excellent websites available, offering
everything from overview articles to umbrella national organizations.
Here are some suggestions ...
News Updates
There are many developments every week in grassroots activities as
well as in political action and legislation. Here are some free
sources for regular updates. You can easily join up or drop off
these lists at any time.
- Get on the Loop!
For direct
e-mailed reports on education news news on education in Illinois and
the U.S., click here to get information
on news from the Illinois Loop!
-
Education Intelligence Agency: weekly updates on education news,
with a strong, primary focus on teachers' unions and the inner
workings of school districts, prepared by Mike Antonucci This is a
powerful, insightful source with unique stories and features (and a
biting sense of humor!) Enthusiastically recommended -- click on the
blue envelope in the lower right to be added to the weekly
"communique".
- SchoolReformers Insider Update: A weekly report
of highlights and links to the most important developments in
education reform, prepared by David Kirkpatrick for the
SchoolReformers group of the Henry Hazlitt Foundation.
Blogs on Education Reform
"Blogs" are a wonderful way to stay on top of the news, and it is
delightful to report that there are now several high quality blogs
prepared by some very concerned and capable education reformers. Here
are some of the best:
Other Websites on Illinois Schools
- Elmhurst: Marcia Tsicouris publishes a website, "A
Parent's Voice", collecting several of her well-written POVs
about the Elmhurst district and education in general.
Special Education
Personal Websites, and Article Collections
In addition to the organizational sites listed below, here are some
other highly recommended sites with excellent resources and links,
written by some very committed and wise education reformers.
- Archive of articles by
Nancy Salvato, a local educator and writer.
- Links, Articles, Essays, and Opinions on K-12
Education -- Collected and annotated by Bastiaan Braams, New York
University: Here's an excellent and up-to-date collection of articles
on serious education reform. Highly recommended!
- Dr. Martin Kozloff -- Education Resources:
Prof. Kozloff, Distinguished Professor at the University of North
Carolina in Wilmington, has prepared an extraordinary huge
collection of solidly factual resources on education topics and
issues. His material is terrific and powerful, and he pulls no
punches. Highly recommended!
- More great stuff from one of the best minds within education's ivory towers:
Papers by Dr. Martin Kozloff, Distinguished
Professor at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington
-
Wisdom and encouragement from a leader who leads by example, Terrence Moore, Ph.D.,
of Ridgeview Classical School in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Dr. Moore offers an enticing list of
short but valuable essays on grammar, phonics, character development, discipline and kindness,
Latin, philosophy, and other topics.
-
Here's a gold mine of fresh thoughts and effective suggestions!
Brains Are Fun -- This is a wonderfully extensive and engrossing website, with mostly original
materials by Rory Donaldson, on effective teaching methods, classroom
management, direct instruction, homework and other topics. Some highlights of this excellent site:
-
School Sanity: Advocating Schools, Not Asylums:
Articles and essays by English teacher James O'Keeffe
-
Improve-Education.org: A nifty collection of insights and articles by Bruce Price. Some of these gems include:
- In Praise Of Stark Lucidity
- Latin Lives On: 333 words identical in Latin and English
- Let's Get Serious About Education
- "Let's hug Annie" is not the same as "Let's hug, Annie"
- "1984"--The Cover Up: The great novel's enduring message and how some educators try to trivialize it
- The Plight of Poetry
- Some schools are fact-free zones
-
"Zigsite" - the personal website of Dr. Siegfried Engelman, major force behind
Direct Instruction. Includes numerous articles and essays on DI, Project Follow Through,
and other education issues.
- Some marvelous essays on the real world of teaching:
Teacher, Teacher: Essays on Teaching and Education (article index) by Tina Blue.
Click on that link for a full list, but here are just a few highlights:
-
The Irascible Professor (Dr. Mark H. Shapiro):
A fun, witty and probing collection of essays and articles on teaching, with a
special interest on teaching in college settings to ill-prepared students.
-
National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA):
an impressive set of papers on education issues and policies,
categorized into these areas:
School Choice and Charter Schools
Minorities, Women, and Education
Testing, International Comparisons and Curriculum
Federal Funding and Programs
State and Local Programs
Teachers and Teachers Unions
Public Education Issues
-
Wikipedia entries on "Education Reform":
Here is a listing of Wiki topics under the heading of "Education Reform".
In best Wiki form, these links are all over the map in terms of quality, objectivity,
truthfulness and usefulness, but a prudent and careful investigator can find much of interest.
Organizations -- Education Issues
First, a warning! Some organizations with words like "reform" or "quality"
in their names have little interest in either reform or quality. As an object lesson,
here's one report from the highly respected Education Intelligence Agency:
NEA? Never Heard of It.
Communities for Quality Education (CQE), the
new advocacy organization created, run and funded by the National
Education Association and its affiliates, now has new digs on DC's
trendy Dupont Circle and its own web site
(www.qualityednow.org). But
you'll search in vain for any mention of the union or the union
officers and employees who comprise CQE's board ...
The "About Us" section identifies no one. The "frequently asked
questions" are not, except for the one about how CQE will be
funded. The answer, however, is "with the help of individuals and
organizations that share our goals and our priorities." The
"Contact Us" page contains no names, and the words "union" or
"NEA" do not appear on any page.
With that warning made, now let's list some organizations that do want to see improvements in schools!
This list is presented for your convenience in seeking
additional information and resources and in researching additional
perspectives and points of view. While we generally find most of the
topics at these sites to be interesting and helpful, we do not
necessarily endorse everything you may find there.
- No
Child Left Behind: Official website from the U.S. Department of
Education
- NCLB Resources: list of organizations supporting
education reform
- NCLB - information for Illinois
- The Heartland Institute - School Reform News:
Edited in Chicago, School Reform News is a leader in getting
information about school reform and school choice direct to the
people who need it most, parents, school board members and
legislators. Both the printed monthly magazine (subscription is
free) and the website emphasize factual, information-rich articles
rather than opinion pieces.
- Center for
Education Reform: a national, non-profit advocacy organization to
provide support and guidance to parents, teachers, community and
civic groups, policymakers and grassroots leaders, and all others
working to bring fundamental reforms to their schools.
-
Education Consumers Clearinghouse
- Thomas B.
Fordham Foundation
- Fordham: Links on education and reform
- SchoolReformers
-
School Reformers -- Activist Toolbox
- The Heritage Foundation -- Education
-
Link Institute: A non-profit organization committed to promoting and supporting
schools with rigorous academic content and virtue-based character education.
Link Institute advocates the implementation of two specific programs that it regards
as models of excellence in the areas of content and character.
They are the
Core Knowledge Sequence produced by the Core Knowledge Foundation
in Charlottesville, VA as a baseline K-8 curricular guide and Core Virtues,
a literature-based character education program written by Dr. Mary Beth Klee,
that complements the Core Knowledge Sequence.
- Public Agenda: Education -- an excellent site
for understanding public views and opinions on education issues.
- Town Hall: Education Issues Library
- Core
Knowledge Foundation
-
Hillsdale Academy
-
National Heritage Academies
- The
Textbook League: much info about errors in textbooks, with a
complete index
- Northwest
Professional Educators: "NPE [is an advocate] for higher
standards, accountability, and common sense education policies which
place students as our highest priority and which reflect local
community standards established by parents, teachers, and school
boards. We promote an academic experience which develops students'
wisdom, knowledge, skills, and confidence to become good people and
citizens with a strong work ethic."
- National Council
on Teacher Quality: a nonprofit organization that aims to foster
public understanding and acceptance of a commonsense approach to
teacher quality that measures teacher success in improved student
achievement. NCTQ assists interested states and districts in crafting
sound teacher policies. Past issues of TQ Bulletin, the Teacher
Quality Clearinghouse (a collection of news and research on teacher
quality), and further information on NCTQ are available at the NCTQ website. This website has extensive
information organized by topical areas, including:
- Teacher
Preparation and Certification
- School Staffing
- Teacher Pay
- Evaluating and Improving Teacher Performance
- Accountability
- National
Association of Scholars (NAS): "An organization of professors,
graduate students, and college administrators committed to rational
discourse, rigorous standards in teaching and research, and academic
freedom."
- Foundation for
Individual Rights In Education: "FIRE is a nonprofit educational
foundation devoted to free speech, individual liberty, religious
freedom, the rights of conscience, legal equality, due process, and
academic freedom on our nation's campuses."
-
Landmark Legal Foundation: pursues legal investigation and
action, particularly in regards to dubious political activities of
national teacher unions. The website includes a long list of
articles and reports on the NEA and legal battles.
State and Local Organizations of Broad Interest
Wait! -- don't skip over this too fast!
There are organizations all over the United States (and in other
countries) supporting authentic academics and researched-based
methods. While the organizations in this section have a special
interest in their local areas, they offer websites with a wealth of
information of value to reformers in every state.
- California:
- Connecticut: Simsbury (CT) Math Wars
- Florida: Broward County (FL) Gifted Advisory Committee
- Iowa: Parents for Evidence Based Education is "a
nonpartisan, grassroots organization with the belief that education
policy should be instituted based on high quality, mainstream,
relevant research, rather than by the unsubstantiated 'beliefs,'
'philosophies' and 'ideas' that guide our current system."
- Florida:
Independent Voices for Better Education
- Georgia: AFA
Network of Georgia: Education Forum: this grassroots
organization hosts a large and well-organized information website.
- Hawaii:
Education Beat Hawaii: "Promoting informed education choice for teachers, parents and communities"
-
Indiana Education Online - discussion forum and list of links
regarding education issues in Indiana, some in favor of educational
reforms, and others in favor of the status quo.
- Kentucky: Education Research from a Parent's Point of View
Extensive coverage of education reform issues in Kentucky, from Richard Innes
- Maine: Alliance for Real Math in Maine Schools
- Massachusetts:
- Michigan:
-
Minnesota Education Reform News: A terrific state site with a range of
material of interest to all U.S. parents.
- Minnesota: Ed Watch -- focused on school-to-work schemes,
especially as part of federal grants and federal policy
- Missouri: Math Matters, Clayton
- New Hampshire: SAU 16 Info, Exeter (NH)
- New York:
- Ohio: Dublin Math Matters, Dublin
- Oregon:
- Pennsylvania:
Commonwealth Education Organization: a very active and information organization,
focusing on public awareness of education issues. Their websites includes a number of well-considered
opinions on education issues of concern to all parents.
- Texas:
- Utah:
- Virginia:
PBSfx: Parents for Better Schools (Fairfax County, VA) --
This beautifully designed and very informative site has a wealth of information
with a focus on math and reading methods.
- Washington State:
- Wisconsin:
-
Wisconsin Policy Research Institute: studies a wide scope of policy issues with surprising depth
and insight. Some of its papers on education are among the best to be found anywhere.
See listings for both its WPRI Reports
and articles from its periodical, Wisconsin Interest.
-
PRESS: Parents Raising Educational Standards -- This respected
Milwaukee group started by Leah Vukmir has had a tremendous impact upon schools in their
city and suburbs. The website has a great deal of information of general use,
though it has not had much of an update since Leah was elected to the Wisconsin legislature in 2002.
-
School Choice Wisconsin:
Headquartered in Milwaukee, home of the nation's largest and oldest
voucher program for low-income families, School Choice Wisconsin
supports expanded educational options for parents through the use of
school vouchers, charter schools, and innovative public-private
partnerships. School Choice Wisconsin's experienced staff works with
students, parents, taxpayers, and communities interested in school
choice programs in Wisconsin.
- CANADA: Organization for
Quality Education (Canada)
Organizations -- Parent Choice
Stats and Data
Books on Education
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