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"Thank you for
efficiently maintaining your list of materials. I was glad to get
this. Your notices of new materials and resources provide easy
access to timely, useful professional assistance; furthermore,
your prompt responses notifying me of the expected dates my requests
will be filled, are a rare and much-appreciated courtesy. The opportunity
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Lyneen
Williams, Trainer TAMU-Kingsville
Department of Distance & Continuing Education
Reports on the Value
of Literacy Education
Education Reduces Crime: Three-State Recidivism
Study Executive Summary.
Stephen J. Steurer and Linda G. Smith. Lanham, MD: Correctional Education
Association and Management & Training Corporation, 2003. From Preface: “With
the increased numbers of inmates crowding our jails and prisons, it is
imperative for the public to reconsider the traditional view of the purpose
of incarceration. Rather than accepting the old adage of locking them up
and ‘throwing away the key,’ we must consider recent research
findings that show many prisoners can be rehabilitated, through education
and training, and eventually contribute constructively to society upon
reentry. These studies are demonstrating that prison can be a place where
criminals are transformed into law-abiding citizens, productive workers,
and good parents. If you think this is important, continue reading.”
One-Third of a Nation: Rising Dropout Rates and
Declining Opportunities.
Paul Barton. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service, 2005. Report documents
high and rising high school dropout rates, declining investments in second-chance
programs, and deteriorating opportunities for dropouts in the job market.
Section on declining second chance opportunities includes this statement: “All
of the ... federally-funded education, employment, and national service
programs combined (Job Corps, YouthBuild, Service Corps, Challenge, AmeriCorps,
Workforce Investment Act, Youth Opportunity Grants) are barely scratching
the surface of the need and demand. There are less than 300,000 full-time
training and educational opportunities for 2.4 million low-income 16 to
24 year-olds who left school without a diploma or got a diploma and can’t
find a job.” Clearinghouse at TCALL distributes free copies to Texas
educators only. Report is also available online: http://www.ets.org/research/pic/onethird.pdf.
Pathways to Labor Market Success: The Literacy
Proficiency of U.S. Adults.
ETS Policy Information Center. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service,
2004. Report probes the connections between adults’ literacy skills
and their success in the labor market. Using data from the National Adult
Literacy Survey (NALS), the authors compare the population’s prose,
document, and quantitative proficiencies with these adults’ socioeconomic
characteristics, labor force activity and experience, weekly wages and
annual earnings, and recent education and training activities. Clearinghouse
at TCALL distributes free copies to Texas educators only. Report is also
available online: http://ets.org/research/ — scroll down page to
find title.
The Status of Early Care and Education in the
States.
Erica Williams and
Anne W. Mitchell, Anne W. Washington, DC: The Institute for Women’s
Policy Reearch, 2004. A majority of women in the U.S. with very young children
are now in the labor force. This report describes a study revealing an
enormous gap between the early care and education needs created by this
new economic reality and the services available. The report also outlines
the need for early care and education by working parents and children in
the early stages of development, discusses the benefits of such care for
children, and provides an overview of the programs that now exist. National
and state-by-state data on availability, quality, and cost of early care
and education are presented, as well as steps recommended for state and
federal government to expand and improve services.
U.S. Adult Literacy Programs: Making a Difference:
A Review of Research on Positive Outcomes Achieved by Literacy Programs
and the People They Serve.
U. S. Programs Division of Pro-Literacy Worldwide and Allen Manning.
Syracuse, NY: ProLiteracy Worldwide, 2003. Because local programs are increasingly
called upon by funders, community agencies, and potential volunteers to
prove that they are effective, program leaders understand the value of
being able to prove that the students who attend literacy and adult education
programs make progress, and that their learning has benefits for them,
their families, their employers, and their communities. Dr. Allen Manning
conducted a review for ProLiteracy about the effects of low literacy and
the outcomes that are achieved by people who participate in these programs.
Some of the studies cited are not comprehensive research studies; however,
as a growing body of information, they demonstrate that literacy and adult
education programs are making a positive difference. Clearinghouse at TCALL
distributes free copies to Texas educators only. Report is also available
online: http://www.proliteracy.org/downloads/LitOutPDF.pdf
To Ensure America’s Future: Building a National Opportunity System
for Adults.
Gail Spangenberg, Byron McClenney, and Forrest, Chisman, et
al. New York, NY: Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy, 2005. Resulting
from an in-depth study of adult education and community colleges and the
critical need to strengthen links between the two, this report urges education
leaders and government policymakers to accept the challenge “as a
chance for strategic, forward-looking statecraft.” Report presents
the rationale and specific recommendations for creating a National Opportunity
System for Adults. “The gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have
nots’ in American society is growing, and the main pathway for the
education and training needed to hold decent jobs and function well as
parents and citizens is through the community college door,” the
report states. Although this has long been the case, the authors warn that
we are now at a critical juncture. “We ignore present realities
at our own peril. We can’t afford to keep doing business as usual.
A growing number of adults lack a high school credential. Too few adults
are enrolled in ABE, ESL, and GED or other diploma programs, and too few
are making the transition to community colleges.” We are reaching
only about three million adults with current programs, out of 30 to 50
million adults with low basic skills, and service and planning efforts
are fragmented and underfunded. “Creating this Opportunity System
is essential to the effective functioning of our democracy”, the
report argues, “and the United States needs it to remain globally
competitive.” Clearinghouse at TCALL distributes free copies to Texas
educators only.
Advisory Board Development and Nonprofit Management
Volunteer Management Practices and Retention of
Volunteers.
Mark A. Hager
and Jeffrey L. Brudney. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 2004. Findings
from a 2003 survey of volunteer management capacity among charities and
congregations are based on conversations with a systematic sample of charities
about their adoption of nine recommended practices for volunteer management
and how those practices affect the retention of volunteers. The practices
are: supervision and communication with volunteers, liability coverage
for volunteers, screening and matching volunteers to jobs, regular collection
of information on volunteer involvement, written policies and job descriptions
for volunteers, recognition activities, annual measurement of volunteer
impact, training and professional development for volunteers, and training
for paid staff in working with volunteers.
The Nonprofit Survival Guide: Finding Your Way
in the New Economy.
BoardSource.
Washington, DC: BoardSource, 2003. This special edition of Board Member
(Volume 12, Issue 5) discusses how some nonprofits keep their heads above
water while others sink fast in tough economic times. Understand the
new fundraising realties and the crucial role board recruitment efforts
play in keeping your organization flourishing in the brave new nonprofit
world. This special edition also contains interviews with nationally recognized
experts and leaders from UNICEF and United Way of America, who reveal the
strategies that can help boards save struggling nonprofits.
Intercultural Awareness
Becoming Culturally Responsive Educators: Rethinking
Teacher Education Pedagogy.
Cathy Kea, Gloria D. Campbell-Whatley, and Heraldo V. Richards.
Denver, CO: National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems,
2004. Despite the steadily increasing numbers of culturally and linguistically
diverse student populations in schools, not all teacher education programs
readily embrace multicultural education or culturally responsive teacher
education pedagogy. This brief has a twofold purpose:
(a) to demonstrate the need for rethinking current approaches to teacher
education pedagogy and
(b) to provide guidelines for developing culturally
responsive teacher education pedagogy.
Culturally Responsive Literacy Instruction.
Tandria Callins. Denver, CO:
National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems, 2004. In
order for culturally and linguistically diverse students to reach their
full potential, instruction should be provided in ways that promote the
acquisition of increasingly complex knowledge and skills is a social climate
that fosters collaboration and positive interactions among participants.
This brief discusses important features of such settings, effective methods
and materials, and cross-cultural communication skills and understandings
teachers should possess.
Educating Linguistically and Culturally Diverse
Students in Correctional Settings.
V. P. Collier and W. P. Thomas. Moscow, ID: Northwest LINCS Project.
2001. Originally published in the Journal of Correctional Education {52(2),
68-73}, this article provides an overview of the unique academic and sociocultural
challenges of serving linguistically and culturally diverse populations
in a correctional setting, particularly immigrants or those from a bilingual/bicultural
community with ancient ethnolinguistic roots. Teaching strategies are suggested,
such as the use of learners’ life stories and building new knowledge
on the learners’ their existing linguistic and cultural knowledge.
Research to Practice
A Chance to Earn, a Chance to Learn: Linking Employment
and English Training for Immigrants and Refugees New to English.
Heide Spruck Wrigley and Julie
Strawn. Chicago, IL: Illinois State Board of Education, 2001. Among the
millions of immigrants and refugees who have come to the US since 1990,
the most disadvantaged are adults with minimal formal education — those
who are new to both English and to literacy. These individuals need proper
training and job development in order to obtain work at a living wage and
help meet the workforce needs of the new economy. Wrigley and Strawn provide
an overview of educational patterns among immigrants and discuss the relationship
between ESL, literacy, and employment. Gaps in the research are described,
as well as recommendations about what works and doesn’t work in
existing efforts to serve this population.
Connecting with Parents in the Early Years: Executive
Summary.
Jean Mendoza,
et al. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois, 2003. This 8-page document
summarizes the book Connecting with Parents in the Early Years from the
Early Childhood and Parenting Collaborative. (Book is available as a loan
item.) This review of interdisciplinary literature concerns parent/teacher
connections in the early years. Communication strategies for families that
are difficult to reach are highlighted with suggestions to strengthen
family connections. School readiness and early childhood programs are discussed
with the focus on involving the family.
Forging New Partnerships: Adult and Developmental
Education in Community Colleges.
Hunter Boylan. New York, NY: Council for Advancement of Adult
Literacy, 2004. Paper describes national study of best practices in linking
community college adult education/literacy and developmental education
services. Among the questions explored are: How common is this linkage?
What forms does it take? What are its benefits? What are the barriers
to implementing it? How can those barriers be overcome? Clearinghouse at
TCALL distributes free copies to Texas educators only.
Identifying and Implementing Educational Practices
Supported By Rigorous Evidence: A User Friendly Guide.
Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy.
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences,
2003. The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and many federal grant
programs, call on educational practitioners to use “scientifically-based
research” to guide their decisions about which interventions to implement.
This approach can produce major advances in the effectiveness of American
education, yet many practitioners have not been given the tools to distinguish
interventions supported by scientifically-rigorous evidence from those
which are not. This Guide is intended to serve as a user-friendly resource
that educators can use to identify and implement evidence-based interventions,
so as to improve educational and life outcomes for the learners they serve.
Language Assimilation Today: Bilingualism Persists
More Than in the Past, But English Still Dominates.
Richard Alba. Albany, NY: Lewis Mumford Center
for Comparative Urban and Regional Research, 2004. Because of renewed immigration,
fears about the status of English as the linguistic glue holding America
together are common today. In a very different vein, multiculturalists
have expressed hopes of profound change to American culture brought on
by the persistence across generations of the mother tongues of contemporary
immigrants. Using 2000 Census data, the Mumford Center has undertaken an
analysis of the languages spoken at home by school-age children in newcomer
families in order to examine the validity of the claim. One of the specific
findings is that much third-generation bilingualism is found in border
communities, such as Brownsville, Texas, where the maintenance of Spanish
has deep historical roots and is affected by proximity to Mexico. Away
from the border, Mexican-American children of the third generation are
unlikely to be bilingual. One conclusion of this report is that both the
anxieties about the place of English in an immigration society and the
hopes for a multilingual society in which English is no longer hegemonic
are misplaced.
Language Teaching Methodology.
Theodore S. Rodgers. Washington, DC: ERIC
Clearinghouse on Language and Linguistics, 2001. Language teaching came
into its own as a profession in the last century. Central to this phenomenon
was the emergence of the concept of “methods” of language teaching.
This Digest defines and gives an overview of various schools of language
teaching methodology in terms of teacher and learner roles, and describes
ten scenarios that are likely to shape the teaching of second languages
in the next decades of the new millenium.
Practitioners Speak: Contributing to a Research
Agenda for Adult Basic Education.
Mary Beth Bingman, et al. Cambridge, MA: National Center for
the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy, 1998. This report summarizes
the results of these nine focus groups conducted in 1997 as part of NCSALL’s
work in developing a comprehensive research agenda for the field of adult
literacy. The focus groups gathered data on three related questions: What
issues concern practitioners in adult basic education? How do practitioners
see these concerns being addressed by current and future research? What
do practitioners see as the role of the PDRN in their states?
Teaching and Learning Writing: A Review of Research
and Practice.
Susanna
Kelly, Luxshmi Soundranayagam, and Sue Grief. London, UK: National Research
and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy, 2004. From the
Foreword: “Adults are more likely to need help with writing than
with reading. However, compared to reading, the teaching and learning of
writing for adults has received very little attention from researchers.” This
report on the first phase of a new research project includes two literature
reviews, a review of “the current state of knowledge about the development
of writing skills for adult learners”, and implications for policy
and practice. Clearinghouse at TCALL distributes free copies to Texas educators
only. Report is also available online:
http://www.nrdc.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_256.pdf
Teaching Our Youngest: A Guide for Preschool Teachers
and Child Care and Family Providers.
Early Childhood-Head Start Task Force. Washington, DC:
U.S. Departments of Education and Health & Human Services, 2002. Guide
draws from scientifically based research about what pre-school teachers
and childcare providers can do to help children develop their language
abilities, increase their knowledge, become familiar with books and other
printed materials, learn letters and sounds, recognize numbers and learn
to count. Clearinghouse at TCALL distributes free copies to Texas educators
only.
Tech Tonic: Towards a New Literacy of Technology.
Colleen Cordes and Edward
Miller. College Park, MD: Alliance for Childhood, 2004. Alliance for Childhood
researchers argue in this report that the high-tech, screen-centered life
style of today’s children — at home and at school — is
a health hazard and the polar opposite of the education they need to take
part in making ethical choices in a high-tech democracy. This report challenges
education standards and industry assertions that all teachers and children,
from preschool up, should use computers in the classroom to develop technology
literacy. That expensive agenda ignores evidence that high-tech classrooms
have done little if anything to improve student achievement, the authors
assert. The report strongly criticizes the extensive financial and political
connections between education officials and school technology vendors and
the increasing influence of corporations in policymaking for public education.
Clearinghouse at TCALL distributes free copies to Texas educators only.
Using Data about Classroom Practice and Student
Work to Improve Professional Development for Educators.
NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education.
Washington, DC: The NEA Foundation, 2003. With educational entities of
all types under pressure to report student test numbers and demonstrate
what students are learning, the authors of this paper argue that learner
data can “be understood as the work that teachers and students do
every day”. The authors “examine how data analysis can be the
focus of teacher learning and how it can help guide sound decision-making
about professional development.” Issues to address before data can
be used in this way are discussed and resources are listed.
Instructional & Professional
Development Resources
Helping Job Seekers Who Have Limited Basic Skills:
A Guide for Workforce Development Professionals.
John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development.
New Brunswick, NJ: Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy,
Rutgers, 2004. Guide provides program planners and frontline staff at public
and private career centers with an introduction to the steps involved in
planning, implementing, and improving a system of services that helps job
seekers who have limited basic skills to meet workplace skill requirements
and get and keep rewarding, financially sustaining jobs. Anson Green of
Texas Workforce Commission Adult Literacy says, “This is a great
primer for those looking for resources to get started or further your
plans to help students reach their employment goals. It is clear, full
of information and presents great options for improving services. Because
it is for workforce development professionals, it should help ABE practitioners
better understand the workforce perspective on this issue, which might
help you better understand how your local workforce system operates and
sees things.” Clearinghouse at TCALL distributes free copies to Texas
educators only. Guide is also available online: http://www.heldrich.rutgers.edu/Resources/Publication/132/Job
%20Seekers%2010.20.pdf
LINCS to Literacy: Training CD, Second Edition.
National LINCS Training
Team. Washington, DC: National Institute for Literacy, 2004. This CD-ROM
tutorial can be used by individuals or in training to help users learn
about the many features of the LINCS (Literacy Information aNd Communication)
System. LINCS provides a multitude of online resources for adult education
and family literacy audiences. CD highlights the ways in which LINCS can
be used to assist adult education teachers, tutors, librarians, policy
makers, state directors, researchers, employers and learners. Clearinghouse
at TCALL distributes the CD-ROM free to Texas educators only. Outside Texas,
contact National LINCS: http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/
Practitioner Toolkit: Working with Adult English
Language Learners.
National
Center for Family Literacy and National Center for ESL Literacy Education.
Washington, DC: Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U.S. Department
of Education, 2004. As the adult English language learner (ELL) population
continues to grow, many adult and family literacy programs are experiencing
new or rapidly expanding ELL populations and are not fully equipped with
resources to serve them. This Toolkit was developed as a resource to support
adult education and family literacy instructors who are new to serving
ELL adults and families. Components include responses to Frequently Asked
Questions; a first-day orientation guide; lesson plans; and research-to-practice
papers on critical topics. Part IV includes ideas on helping ELL adults
transition into other educational programs. Clearinghouse at TCALL distributes
free copies to Texas educators only. Toolkit is also available online:
http://www.cal.org/caela/elltoolkit/
 
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