Federal web resources and newsletters

Last week my colleague Bob Seidel and I presented a pre-conference training about federal policy at the Association’s Summer Changes Everything™ national conference. We distributed a list of our go-to federal websites and favorite email newsletters to share with attendees. It was well-received, so I wanted to make it available in this space as well.

Federal Web Resources

• United States Senate—Links to Senators’ and Committee pages.  Information about legislation and history.
• United States House of Representatives—Links to Representatives’ pages and legislative resources.
• Federal legislation—In the spirit of Thomas Jefferson, legislative information from the Library of Congress. Recently introduced bills take a day or two to post.
• Architect of the Capitol—Helpful information for planning your visit.
• White House—Links and content about a wide range of topics across the administration.
• U.S. Department of Education—Funding, policy, research, news and more.
• Federal grants—Find and apply for federal grants.
• Federal programs by category—Searchable catalog of federal assistance programs.

Newsletters

Fritzwire—Topics and areas covered in Fritzwire are education-federal legislation and Hill activity; hearings, meetings and other items of interest; other information including new publications; websites and information on the stimulus package; and job opportunities. Distributed daily.

Join by…sending Fritz Edelstein an email at fritz@publicprivateaction.com and request to be added to the list.

ASCD SmartBrief—Provides summaries and links to major education stories and issues, as well as education employment opportunities. Distributed daily.

Join by…visiting the SmartBrief sign up page.

PEN Weekly—Brief paragraphs from notable education articles from across the country for the past week along with selected funding opportunities from the Public Education Network. Distributed Fridays.

Join by…visiting PEN’s website and following the instructions in the lower left-hand section of the homepage.

ED Review—Update on U.S. Department of Education activities relevant to diverse stakeholders. Distributed biweekly.

Join by…sending Adam Honeysett at Adam.Honeysett@ed.gov an email asking to be added.

SparkUpdate—The Spark Update provides the latest and most relevant information and resources on children’s issues. SparkAction sifts through an enormous amount of information each week so they can point child advocates and organizations working on behalf of children, youth and families to the most up-to-date news, tools and information on issues of concern. Distributed weekly.

Join by…visiting SparkUpdate page and entering your email in sign-up box on the right side of the page.

1 comment November 16th, 2010

Summer School Cuts Wrong Way to Go

The American Association of School Administrators recently released a survey involving over 400 school administrators that found more than one-third (34 percent) of respondents are considering eliminating summer school for the 2010-11 school year, a rate that has roughly doubled each year, from 8 percent in 2008-09 to 14 percent in 2009-10.

What’s happening in your local school district?  We agree with the U.S. Secretary of Education who recently described this trend as the “wrong way to go”.  But what if you were in the role of a serving on school board where you had to make difficult budget choices?  How successful have you been in making the case for summer in an environment where resources are scarce?  What are the most compelling arguments you can make?

1 comment May 25th, 2010

President’s budget supports summer data collection

There’s some great news in the President’s proposed budget for summer learning!

In the U.S. Department of Education’s $738.8 million request for the Institute of Education Sciences:

The National Center for Education Statistics will add fall testing to the data-collection schedule for the 2010 Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, better known as ECLS. This would allow researchers to get a better handle on “summer learning loss,” the achievement dip that occurs when students are out of school over the summer and which affects different population groups differently.

This is one of several recommendations that the Association made to the Administration on easy and low-cost ways for the federal government to address data collection needs on summer learning.  What are some other areas of research that you would like for us to identify?

Add comment February 15th, 2010