ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Principal Concerns in Wisconsin: Focus on Future Leaders for Rural Schools. Data Brief
Author: Martin, Katherine
Date: 2013-02-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Principals,Rural Schools,Human Capital,Instructional Leadership,Futures (of Society),Career Readiness,Career Development,Leadership Role,Institutional Mission,Teacher Selection,Employment Patterns,Retirement,Context Effect

Common sense and recent research make it clear that schools cannot be successful without strong principals. Strong principals help improve student performance in many ways, from shaping a school's mission and culture to hiring, developing, and retaining its teachers. Even so, principals often get short shrift in today's debates about human capital in public education. Compared to the large body of research and policy attention given to teachers, the field knows surprisingly little about the principal workforce. This knowledge gap means that it often is hard for school districts and states to make strategic decisions to improve their principal workforces. Where do most principals come from? How long do they stay? How well do they perform? How many will need to be hired and developed in the future? Few districts or states know the answers. To address these and other important questions about their principals, states need, among other things, to build detailed longitudinal data systems like the ones they use to track teachers and students. But in some places those types of systems are still a long way off. In the meantime, system leaders can examine the administrative data they already have to paint a basic picture of their principal workforce, one that can help prompt deeper questions and discussions about the challenges and opportunities they face. This &quot;Principal Concerns&quot; brief offers an example of this type of analysis for Wisconsin. Why should Wisconsin be concerned about its principal workforce? After all, by some measures, the state's schools are doing well. Wisconsin's NAEP scores, for example, are consistently higher than the national average. Yet there is still much work to be done to ensure that all students achieve at high levels, and strong leadership is key to that success. Under the state's recently revamped accountability system, 266 schools across the state are not meeting performance expectations. In Milwaukee Public Schools, the state's largest school system, only 21 percent of schools met or exceeded the state's expectations. (Contains 3 figures and 11 footnotes.)
Qualitative Impact Assessment 2010: An Independent Study Conducted by BDRC Continental, Ltd., February-July 2010. Premier League Reading Stars
Author: National Literacy Trust (England)
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Parent Child Relationship,Reading Improvement,Reading Motivation,Reading Research,Reading Programs,Program Effectiveness,Program Evaluation,Qualitative Research,Outcome Measures,Educational Assessment,Educational Indicators,Library Services,Outreach Programs,Participant Satisfaction

Premier League Reading Stars (PLRS) is in its eighth year. To complement a pre-post quantitative survey, an impact evidence base was required to inform consideration of continued funding into 2011 and beyond. PLRS is very highly regarded among child participants, parents, and librarians. The structure of the scheme, its basis on football, and the energy and enthusiasm of the librarians all provide an incentive for children and their parents to enhance their enjoyment of reading. Meeting authors, visiting bookshops, and enjoying the professional skills of librarians to help choose appropriate materials is great fun, enjoyable, and certainly productive. It is very apparent that there are positive "unintended" consequences of PLRS, most notably the social and familial aspect of children spending quality time with parents and using reading as a means of bonding. The only substantive element of concern is the policy (or lack of it?) applied by schools at the participant recruitment stage. It was common to find children who were not "poor readers" and, possibly less of an issue, did not support the sponsoring club. One of the ways the scheme works is the power of the "I want to be like [footballer]." Some librarians reported that some better readers in a group are likely to make a similar "I want to be like him/her" positive impact on the whole group as they encourage the less engaged readers to enjoy reading, too. On the basis of this qualitative assessment, the researchers recommend that PLRS should continue its valuable and highly regarded work.
Words for Work Evaluation Report
Author: Melvin, Sally
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Program Effectiveness,Workplace Literacy,Communication Skills,Speech Communication,Strategic Planning,Listening Skills,Volunteers,Program Evaluation,Speech Skills,School Business Relationship,Grade 9,Literacy,Pilot Projects,Consciousness Raising,Behavioral Objectives,Educational Objectives,Outcomes of Education,Foreign Countries

Research (Martin, 2008) has shown that speaking and listening are the literacy skills most used in the world of work. Yet, employers frequently bemoan the lack of young people's communication skills, with many believing that it impacts their chances of making it through an interview and their future employability (Simon, 2009). Effective speaking and listening are therefore critical skills, and young people who enter the workforce need to be good communicators if they want to succeed in the workplace. The National Literacy Trust's review of its strategic plan highlighted the need to respond to these issues and to raise awareness of speaking and listening as a key literacy skill. The Words for Work pilot was devised in response to these challenges. The National Literacy Trust (NLT) wanted to run a pilot that focused specifically on speaking and listening skills, to raise awareness of them as key to overall literacy. It was felt that concerns expressed by employers could be effectively addressed by bringing volunteers from the business community into schools to work directly with young people on communication in the workplace. Words for Work (WFW) brought together year 9 pupils (13/14 year olds) and business volunteers from the local community to explore the use of speaking and listening skills in the workplace and unlock those skills in the young people involved, through a series of creative workshops. Appended are: (1) Words for Work Volunteer--Pupil Investigation, Workshop One--&quot;Get to know you&quot;; (2) Checklist for evaluating group presentations; (3) Delivery Outline for Words for Work Pilot; (4) Delivery Outline for Words for Work Pilot; (5) results for Bishop David Brown School from the post-pilot surveys; and (6) Words for Work Budget. (Contains 2 footnotes.)
Transforming Writing: Interim Evaluation Report
Author: Rooke, Jonathan
Date: 2012-11-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Writing Instruction,Program Effectiveness,Action Research,Teaching Methods,Research Projects,Feedback (Response),Writing Research,Formative Evaluation,Research Reports,Program Evaluation,Learner Engagement,Self Efficacy,Achievement Gains,Improvement Programs,Writing Improvement,Instructional Effectiveness,Educational Practices,Writing Workshops,Classroom Techniques,Teaching Skills,Teacher Developed Materials,Instructional Development

Transforming Writing is a two-year action research project which aims to develop a model for the teaching and learning of writing that more fully incorporates a focus on embedded formative assessment. In the first year of the project, the 12 participating schools developed a model of writing underpinned by Talk for Writing, an approach developed by Pie Corbett and Julia Strong. This interim report evaluates to what extent the model of writing developed by the teachers during the first year of research impacts on children's writing in terms of attainment, confidence and engagement. The evidence so far suggests that the focused use of formative assessment by teachers with children and by children with peers can make a major difference to children's writing progress in terms of attainment, engagement and confidence. This report identifies some of the successful classroom approaches to embedded formative assessment in writing teachers developed in the first year of the research project. The report suggests that during Transforming Writing research, teachers became evaluators and activators in the sense that Hattie (2012) proposes. Teacher interviews and reflections reveal that teachers were evaluating the effect their teaching had on the children's learning then using the powerful feedback that formative assessment provided to rapidly respond and adjust teaching of writing. Teachers saw their key role as evaluating their effect on children's learning of writing and then responding by implementing deliberate and focused interventions. Appended are: (1) Glossary; (2) Talk for Writing--what is it?; and (3) Table to show connections between the developing practice and findings of participating teachers on the Transforming Writing project in Phase 1 of the research project and the research of John Hattie. (Contains 21 figures and 14 footnotes.) [Funding for this paper was provided by Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.]
Family Matters: The Importance of Family Support for Young People's Reading. Findings from the National Literacy Trust's 2011 Annual Literacy Survey
Author: Clark, Christina
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Mothers,Fathers,Literature Appreciation,Role Models,Literacy,Parents as Teachers,Family Environment,Family Influence,Parent Role,Family Life,Reading Materials

Parents play a pivotal role in their children's education and literacy is one of the areas where parents have the relatively simple facilities, such as books or other reading materials, to become involved and to make a significant difference. In addition to reading with their children, parents can also show them that they value reading as a worthwhile activity by encouraging them to read and by reading themselves. These two activities are the focus of this short report on findings from the authors' annual research. A significant area of concern highlighted by the report is that fathers are far less likely to support their children's reading. Far fewer fathers than mothers encourage their children to read, with one in three fathers giving no reading encouragement to their children at all. Mothers are twice as likely to be seen reading by their child than fathers, with one third of dads never seen with a book, newspaper or magazine. This report shows that what parents say, and what they do, can have a considerable impact on young people's reading enjoyment, confidence and attainment. Appended are: (1) An introduction to the annual literacy survey; (2) Methodology; and (3) Sample characteristics. (Contains 3 figures, 13 tables, and 8 footnotes.)
Television and Language Development in the Early Years: A Review of the Literature
Author: Close, Robin
Date: 2004-03-00
Type: Information Analyses
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Language Acquisition,Preschool Children,Relationship,Television,Television Viewing,Mass Media Effects,Educational Policy,Literacy,Television Research,Language Research,Literature Reviews,Global Approach

In 2003, the National Literacy Trust commissioned Dr. Robin Close to conduct a literature review of published research in order to understand more fully the relationship between television viewing in the early years and language and literacy development. A priority of the National Literacy Trust is to understand the relationship between language development in children from birth to age three and later literacy development. As television is a central feature of modern western culture, the Trust wished to understand the effects of television viewing on children's language development and wider literacy. The literature review was intended to provide informational support for the Trust's Talk To Your Baby campaign. The review, however, was to be based on an objective assessment of available research evidence and not on any prior agenda of the organisation. The review is written in the format of a report rather than an academic review to provide useful information for professionals concerned with understanding issues surrounding television use by infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers in a critical period of their language development. This literature review investigates the relationship between television and language development in children from birth to age five. The aim of the review is to summarise international research pertaining to television and early language and identify the effects of high exposure (quantity of viewing) to television. It also considers caregiver roles in realising potential benefits or mitigating negative effects of television viewing.
Recess for Elementary School Students. Position Statement
Author: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, National Association for Sport and Physical Education
Date: 2006-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Health Promotion,Physical Education,Physical Activities,Childrens Rights,Elementary School Students,Recess Breaks,Physical Activity Level,Child Health

It is the position of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) that all elementary school children should be provided with at least one daily period of recess of at least 20 minutes in length. Recess is an essential component of a comprehensive school physical activity program and of the total education experience for elementary school students. Various organizations including the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the United States Department of Education (USDHHS & USDE, 2000), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 1997), National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC, 1998), and American Association for the Child's Right to Play (IPA/USA, n.d.) support school recess as an integral component of a child's physical, social, and academic development. This paper presents the recommendations of NASPE on recess implementation.
Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs. Position Statement
Author: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, National Association for Sport and Physical Education
Date: 2008-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Public Health,Physical Activity Level,Physical Education,Physical Activities,School Personnel,Nutrition,Community Involvement,Nutrition Instruction,Elementary Secondary Education,Youth,Educational Objectives,Goal Orientation,Program Implementation,Wellness,Family Involvement

The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) recommends that all PK-12 schools implement a Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program. Schools play an important role in public health, and the physical, mental, and social benefits of regular physical activity for youth are well documented. Leading public health, medical, and educational organizations, including NASPE, have made important physical activity recommendations for school-aged youth (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1997; Kaplan et al., 2005; NASBE, 2000; Pate et al. 2006; U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000). These recommendations are for children to accumulate at least 60 minutes of physical activity on all or most all days of the week. In 2004, federal legislation (PL 108-265) was passed which required all districts with federally funded school meal programs to develop and implement wellness policies by the beginning of the 2006-07 school year. The "Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004" directs school districts to set goals for physical activity, nutrition education, campus food provision, and other school-based activities designed to encourage student wellness. Furthermore, districts are required to engage a wide range of individuals in policy development and to have a plan for measuring policy implementation. Implementation of these wellness plans should result in an increase in school-based opportunities for physical activity. A Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program (CSPAP) encompasses physical activity programming before, during, and after the school day. NASPE recommends that a CSPAP include: quality physical education; school-based physical activity opportunities; school employee wellness and involvement; and family and community involvement.
A Coach's Code of Conduct. Position Statement
Author: Lyman, Linda
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: National Standards,Athletics,Behavior,Athletic Coaches,Ethics,Behavior Standards,Professional Identity,Professional Personnel,Responsibility

Coaches exert a profound impact on our youths; therefore, society sets high expectations for them. As such, whether coaches are compensated or work solely as volunteers, they are responsible for executing coaching as a professional. If we are to continue to enhance the cultural perceptions of coaching, we must strive to develop and master the standards that the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) has set forth. NASPE intends for the "National Standards for Sport Coaches" to provide direction for administrators, coaches, athletes and the community regarding the skills and knowledge that coaches should possess before coaching in various sport organizations, leagues and governing bodies. In this statement, which revises and replaces NASPE's 2001 Position Statement "Coaches Code of Conduct," NASPE's Sport Steering Committee establishes the Code of Conduct to which coaches at all levels should hold themselves accountable. (Original authors of this position statement are: Randy Crist, Rebecca Mowrey, and Valerie Wayda.)
Children's and Young People's Reading Today: Findings from the 2011 National Literacy Trust's Annual Survey
Author: Clark, Christina
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Literacy,Foreign Countries,Leisure Time,Literature Appreciation,Reading Habits,Trend Analysis,Reading Attitudes,Adolescent Attitudes,Childhood Attitudes,Surveys,Gender Differences,Ethnicity

This research was funded by law firm Slaughter and May and carried out with 21,000 children and young people across the UK. One of its key findings is that children and young people are reading less as their lives get more crowded. In 2005 the researchers found that four young people in 10 read daily outside of class. This research carried out at the end of 2011 found that only three young people in 10 now read daily in their own time. However, the number of children and young people who enjoy reading very much or quite a lot has remained static since 2005 (50% today vs 51% in 2005). These findings together suggest a clear issue with children's and young people's leisure time with many children and young people enjoying reading but pushing it out in favour of other activities. The research found that: (1) More than a fifth of children and young people (22%) rarely or never read in their own time; (2) More than half (54%) prefer watching TV to reading; (3) Nearly a fifth (17%) would be embarrassed if their friends saw them reading; and (4) 77% of children and young people read magazines in 2005 now just 57% do, comic reading has dropped from 64% to 50%, reading on websites from 64% to 50%. The researchers believe it is essential to make the time for children and young people to read as the research also shows a clear link between reading outside of class and their achievement. It found that young people who read outside of class daily were 13 times more likely to read above the expected level for their age. Appended are: (1) An introduction to the annual literacy survey; (2) Methodology: Participation rate; and (3) Sample characteristics. (Contains 15 figures, 42 tables, and 18 footnotes.)
Program Orientation for High School Sport Coaches. Position Statement
Author: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, National Association for Sport and Physical Education
Date: 2005-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: National Standards,Physical Education,Athletic Coaches,Athletics,Orientation,Secondary Education

The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) believes that prior to the start of each season, all high school head coaches, assistant coaches, and volunteer coaches should be required to participate in a comprehensive orientation to the sport program. This orientation should be planned and conducted by the athletic director or individual who has administrative responsibility for the overall sport program and monitors coaches' compliance with all school, program, and state association policies. This orientation is not a replacement for the need for coaching education, certification, and ongoing professional development. The orientation guidelines provided in this paper assume that all coaches hired by the school have appropriate background, preparation, and credentials to coach in their specified sport(s), as defined by the "National Standards for Sport Coaches" (NASPE, In Press), and that there are regular meetings between the athletic director and coaches. (Contains 12 resources.)
Words for Work Report 2011/12: Evaluation Summary
Author: Melvin, Sally
Date: 2012-11-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Literacy,Communication Skills,Self Esteem,Comprehensive Programs,Program Effectiveness,Program Evaluation,Partnerships in Education,Employment Programs,Student Surveys,Consciousness Raising,Knowledge Level,Improvement Programs,Pretests Posttests,Workshops

The National Literacy Trust's Words for Work programme is an innovative way for schools and businesses to join forces and address the nation's employability. Volunteers from the corporate world are partnered with secondary schools within their community to explore speaking and listening in the workplace through a range of workshops, aiming to develop confidence and knowledge of communication skills in context of employability issues for young people participating. Trust's staff tracked self-reflective surveys of 232 students before and after the project took place to measure changes in a number of areas around communication, confidence and thoughts about future employment. In addition, they tracked teachers' thoughts on 109 students' progress at three points during the project: pre, mid-point and post-project. These are the headline results of this evaluation: (1) The programme raised confidence in young people; (2) The programme raised awareness and knowledge of employment in young people; and (3) The programme helped young people to improve their communication skills. (Contains 2 footnotes.)