[AAACE-NLA] Doing What Works Web Site

[John Comings]

The enabling legislation for IES requires it to fund a national adult 
literacy research and development center.

--On Wednesday, November 21, 2007 8:08 AM -0500 "David J. Rosen" 
<djrosen at comcast.net> wrote:

>
> Colleagues,
>
>
> Yesterday, on the Family Literacy discussion list, it was announced that
>
>
> The U.S. Department of Education has launched a new Web site to provide
> teachers, administrators and other educators with recommendations on
> effective teaching practices and examples of possible ways to implement
> those practices to help promote excellence in American education and
> improve student achievement.
>
> What's missing from the Doing What Works Web Site?
>
>
> You may have guessed it. There is no mention of adults, not even in the
> What's Coming section of this Web site. The Institute of Education
> Sciences (IES), the U.S. Department of Education's research center, was
> reorganized by Congress. In the process, funding for a national adult
> literacy research center was eliminated. The result appears to be that
> the Department of Education's Doing What Works Web Site will not -- at
> least in the near future -- have anything that works -- anything that is
> based on the evidence of research and professional wisdom -- to offer
> adult and family literacy. 
>
>
> Some of you may be aware that the IES What Works Clearinghouse Web site,
> that also "collects, screens, and identifies studies of effectiveness of
> educational interventions (programs, products, practices, and policies)"
> for several years had a category for adult  literacy research that, year
> after year, was empty. Eventually they solved the embarrassing problem
> by eliminating the category. A search of that Web site today, using the
> word "adult" produces only two references, both about adults reading to
> children. [ http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/  ] There is no evidence in the
> What Works Clearinghouse about how to teach adults.
>
>
> The irony, of course, is that while our field is (rightly) encouraged by
> the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute for Literacy
> to base teaching practice on evidence, there is now very little evidence
> being produced or disseminated upon which to base that practice, and
> apparently none that meets the standards of the U.S. Department of
> Education. 
>
>
> Should we raise this issue with our elected officials in Congress, and
> with candidates for the next president of the United States? Should we
> ask the national organizations of which we are members to make this a top
> priority? Shouldn't adult education and literacy have a federally-funded
> national research center?
>
>
>
> David J. Rosen
> djrosen at comcast.net
>
>
>
>
>
> On Nov 20, 2007, at 4:08 PM, Gail Price wrote:
>
>
>
> The U.S. Department of Education has launched a new Web site to provide
> teachers, administrators and other educators with recommendations on
> effective teaching practices and examples of possible ways to implement
> those practices to help promote excellence in American education and
> improve student achievement. The first in the series focuses on English
> language learners. The new "Doing What Works" site, <http://dww.ed.gov/>,
> offers a user-friendly interface to quickly locate teaching practices
> that have been found effective by the department's research arm, the
> Institute of Education Sciences, and similar organizations. In addition,
> it cites examples of possible ways, although not necessarily the only
> ways, this research may be used to help students reach their academic
> potential.
>
>  
>
>  
>
> Gail J. Price
>
> Multimedia Specialist
>
> National Center for Family Literacy
>
> 325 W. Main Street, Suite 300
>
> Louisville, KY 40202
>
> gprice at famlit.org
>
> 502 584-1133, ext. 112
>
>  
>
>  
>
> Join us for the 17th Annual National Conference on Family Literacy!
>  "Literacy Grows Families and Communities"
>  March 30, 31, & April 1, 2008-Louisville, KY
>  Register online at www.famlit.org/conference
>
>  
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>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>



John Comings, Director
National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy
Harvard Graduate School of Education
7 Appian Way
Cambridge MA 02138
(617) 496-0516, voice
(617) 495-4811, fax
(617) 335-9839, mobile
john_comings at harvard.edu
http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu