ALA libraries report

Fairly dramatic changes in U.S. library funding, services and staffing have occurred in the last 18 months. According to a new report prepared by ALA, libraries of all types are feeling the pinch of the economic downturn while managing sky-high use. The report presents U.S. economic trends (2009), and summarizes trends in public, school and academic libraries across several library measures, including expenditures, staffing and services. The report also highlights trends in services provided to libraries by library cooperatives and consortia."

American Library Association. (2009). The Condition of Libraries: 1999-2009. Chicago: ALA.

http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2010/january2010/outlook_ors.cfm

Adolescent literacy report

With a vision of "Literacy for all!," the Carnegie Foundation discusses the importance and essential value of creating a 'culture of literacy'. Nevertheless, the report focuses just on basic literacy -- learning to read and write and mastering these essential skills. The report covers this complex issue that demands and deserves attention at the highest level. The authors address the impact and implications of not addressing this issue now -- undereducated adults who can't compete or even participate in the 21st century workforce and contribute to the economy.
Carnegie Report. (2009). Time to Act. New York. http://carnegie.org/fileadmin/Media/Publications/PDF/tta_Main.pdf

Teacher quality research

Good teachers improve performance of peers
The talents of great teachers appear to have a positive effect on their peers, according to North Carolina's report. Researchers looked at 11 years of state school data and found results suggesting that high-performing teachers' abilities not only resulted in better student performance in their classroom but in others at the same grade level. "If it's true that teachers are learning from their peers, and the effects are not small, then we want to make sure that any incentive system we put in place is going to be fostering that and not preventing it," said a co-author of the study.
Jackson, C., & Bruegmann, E. (2009). Teaching students and teaching each other: The importance of peer learning. Cambridge: National Bureau of Educational Research. http://www.nber.org/papers/w15202.pdf

National library status report

There's some very interesting info in the document about the state of school libraries in the US, including staff. And, when compared to the prior SASS report, should shed some important light on the health of the profession. The report contains information broken down by grade, school type, school size, school location, and SES level. Researchers can apply to NCES to receive access to the entire data set.
National Center for Educational Statistics
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009322

Female math anxiety research

Women teachers could be passing their math anxiety on to girls, according to University of Chicago researchers who surveyed the attitudes of female first- and second-grade teachers about math. Researchers found that girls with teachers who were uneasy about the subject were more likely to believe that boys were better than girls at math. Female students who believed the stereotype scored lower than other students on math tests, the study found.
Sian Beilock & Susan Levine. Female Teachers' Math Anxiety Affects Girls' Math Achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

National school libraries report

AASL's 2009 national survey of school libraries has been published. A special emphasis was placed on questions about teaching to ELLs. Main findings were that libraries increased hours and collections, but their budgets didn't.
AASL. (2010). School Libraries Count. Chicago: ALA.
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/researchandstatistics/slcsurvey/slcsurvey.cfm

Reading research

Research shows brain connections improve with reading practice
Students who practice reading can strengthen their brains -- especially the white-matter connections essential to learning, according to research by scientists at the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Researchers scanned students' brains, then enrolled struggling readers in an intensive reading program. Researchers again scanned students' brains, this time after 100 hours of reading practice, and found the training improved "not just their reading ability, but the tissues in their brain."
Marcel Just and Timothy Keller. (2009). Altering Cortical Connectivity: Remediation-Induced Changes in the White Matter of Poor Readers. Neuron, 64(5) pp. 624 - 631