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In-Depth Research Guide: Education

Librarians for Education:

Jacqueline B. Fitzpatrick, Research & Instruction, x3497
Pamela Bristah, Collections, x2076

Contents

Library Instruction Guides

Related Academic Department

Offcampus Access · Databases A-Z · Research Guides by Subject | by Course · Reference Books Online · Library Catalog
Find articles & essays 

A note about journals, particularly online journals

Most journals offer free access only to sample articles at their corporate Web sites. To optimize your searches, use one of the topical databases, such as ERIC or Education Full Text, below. Wellesley has subscriptions to many online education periocals, which you can link to when you search for the title in the Wellesley Library Catalog. For example,

Looking for a different title or year? Search the Library Catalog for additional titles and formats.

Begin at the beginning: ERIC

ERIC, the Educational Resources Information Center, is a free reference service from the U.S. Department of Education. The Educator's Reference Desk hosted by the Information Institute at Syracuse University, includes a free version of the ERIC database we offer above (under Find Articles & Essays). You can also find lesson plans and other guides.

The folks at ERIC used to produce ERIC Digests, short reports on topics of current interest to educators that provide broad overviews and references to more detailed information. This work has been continued by private individuals and made available at this site. The ERIC Digests may also be found by searching the ERIC article database (above), but not as easily.

ED Pubs is your source for free publications from the Department of Education. You will see an "order" form, but the items are free and often available online.

Academic Search Premier The world's largest scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database. Dates of coverage vary by title.

InfoTrac OneFile  A good starting point for scholarly and popular articles in every discipline, 1980 to present · contents

JSTOR is a full-text collection of journal articles from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. First issues are in the collection but not those from the latest five years.

For social and psychological aspects of education issues:

PsycINFO 1887+
Sociological Abstracts Articles on all aspects of sociology and other social science articles, 1963 to present

For historical aspects of any topic:

Historical Abstracts 1954+ (world history, not US & Canada)
America: History and Life 1964+ (US & Canadian history)

For comparative/international aspects: PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service): 1972+

For popular phrases or legal aspects of education:

LexisNexis Academic 1980's+
Tip: search distinctive phrases, such as "mainstreaming" or "California and Proposition 13 and special"

Other databases may be useful to you, depending on your specific topic and approach. AskUs for some customized suggestions.

Find books 

You can find more than books in the catalogs below. You can also find out which journals a library subscribes to, and lists of videos, music, etc.

Wellesley College Library catalog

For books and materials not available at Wellesley, check WorldCatWC via FirstSearch.

CogNet offers online versions of over 400 books from MIT Press on psychological and cognitive topics such as girls and video games, classroom lessons, and the uses of analogy. Click on Books or use the search box and limit to "Library."

Harvard University Catalog Gutman Library at Harvard is fairly receptive to Wellesley students in need of education materials. Look for location "Gutman", or use the "modify search" button to limit to Gutman..

Wellesley Free Library Catalog A local source of children's literature. See also Wellesley College's Education Curriculum Collection.

WorldCat

Find background information 

General encyclopedias, such as the Encyclopedia Americana (Clapp Ref AE5 .E333 2005) often have useful bibliographies and general coverage on many aspects of education to get you started with your research.

Encyclopedia Of African-American Education / [Electronic Resource] / Edited By Faustine C. Jones-Wilson ... [Et Al.]
Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1996

Encyclopedia of American Education (Clapp Ref LB17.U54 1996). 3 volumes.

Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society WC An e-book, edited by Paula Fass c 2004.

Encyclopedia of Education (Clapp Ref LB15.E47). 10 volumes.

Encyclopedia Of Multicultural Education / [Electronic Resource] / Bruce M. Mitchell And Robert E. Salsbury Mitchell, Bruce M
Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1999

Encyclopedia of Special Education, 2nd ed.(Clapp Ref LC4007.E53 2000). 3 volumes.

International Encyclopedia of Education, 2nd ed. (Clapp Ref LB15.I569 1994). 12 volumes.

International Encyclopedia of Higher Education (Clapp Ref LB15.I57). 10 volumes.

Biographical Sources

American National Biography Over 17,000 biographies of deceased notable American men and women, through 1995.

Directory of American Scholars, 1942+ (Clapp Ref LA2311.C32).

General Education Topics and Statistical Sources

Besieged: School Boards & the Future of Education Politics, Clapp Lib LB2831 .B49 2005.

Condition of Education , 1975+ (Clapp Ref L112 .N377a).

Digest of Education Statistics, 1975+ (Clapp Docs L11 .D48).

Global Education Digest "offers a comparative look at education statistics & spending across the world."

LexisNexis Statistical WC 1973+. International, federal & state demographic & economic statistics.

National Center for Education Statistics Encyclopedia of ED Stats. Online updates of the Digest of Education Statistics, Condition of Education (both above) and other projections and indicators. NCES also sponsors a FastFacts site. NCES is also your source for many federal surveys and programs known by their acronymns (CCD, TIMSS, NAEP, SASS, HS&B, etc.)

NCES K-12 Practitioners' Circle Statistics packages & disseminates statistical information for parents, teachers, administrators, students, librarians, support staff, and community members.

Statistical Abstract of the US, 1879+ (Clapp Docs HA202 .A2). Start here, go anywhere!

Wellesley College Library also maintains a Statistics and Data page with links to both assembled statistics and raw data sources. You might want to start with the section of the Statistics page devoted to Education.

 

Some key educational websites 

Bilingual Education/ESL

The Center for Applied Linguistics covers topics such as English Language Learners, Foreign Languages, Literacy Education, Refugee Concerns, etc.

National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) "Portraits of Success" A joint project of NABE, Boston College, and the Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown University, caps a national effort, supported by experts, to develop a database on successful bilingual education.

National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs NCELA (formerly NCBE, the National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education) is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement & Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students and operated by George Washington University. See especially "Language & Education Links."

Curriculum Resources: (K-12)

ALPS: Active Learning Practices for Schools An on-line collaborative between teachers and administrators from around the world with educational researchers, professors, and curriculum designers at Harvard's Graduate School of Education and Project Zero. Find downloadable curriculum design tools, model lessons, projects and activities.

Awesome Library 15,000 carefully reviewed and rated resources, including the top 5 percent in education. A "filtered" site that preserves quality.

B.J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper BJ is a 13-year-old who started this site when he was 9. The Discovery Channel now hosts this helpful list of personally-reviewed sites for students.

BlueWeb 'N A searchable, browsable database of annotated and rated K-12 sites. Great for active lessons, activities, projects. Sign up to get e-mail updates.

[Child Care & Early Education] Research Connections is a multidisciplinary database of over 8,000 resources, including peer-reviewed journal articles, books, research reports, grey literature, governments documents, etc.

Corporation for National Service Resources for teachers and school administrators.

EdHelper has weekly education highlights plus a broad table of contents section with worksheets, tests, suggested lesson ideas in math, science, geography, language arts, literature, a test prep section, etc.

Education Development Center, Inc. Founded by MIT scientists, the EDC support 325 projects around the globe, with resources for math, science, urban schools, literacy, early childhood education, etc.

Education World, The Educator's Complete Resource Guide to the Internet Lesson plans, gateway to educational sites, from editors of Education World.

ENC [Eisenhower National Clearinghouse] Browse this nationally-recognized site providing resources & support for math & science educators.

Federal Resources for Education Excellence (FREE) More than 30 Federal agencies make hundreds of federally supported education resources available to teachers and students.

Gateway to 21st Century Skills "is a Consortium effort to provide teachers with quality materials & tools found on federal, state, university, non-profit & commercial Internet sites."

Global Schoolhouse Focuses on collaborative learning, provides online opportunities for teachers to collaborate, communicate, and celebrate shared learning experiences.

Kennedy Center/ArtsEdge Curricula, lessons, and activities for integrating the arts into classroom teaching for K-12.

Lessonplanz is a searchable directory of free online lesson plans & resources for all grades & subjects.

LETSNet, the Learning Exchange for Teachers and Students Lesson plans organized by subject with links to Internet resources, developed by faculty and students from Michigan State and Ameritech.

New York Times Learning Network Connections for students, teachers and parents, with emphasis on using the Times as a learning tool. Includes a daily lesson plan and education news.

No Child Left Behind official government Web site.

PBS TeacherSource Over 1400 lesson plans and activities, including web-based lesson ideas, from teh Public Broadcasting Service and its affiliates.

Reeko's Mad Scientist Lab Science experiments for parents, teachers, and children of all ages. Tough to read the screens, but a great kids' humor sensibility, with science word of the day, secret messages to decode, and humorous mouse-overs.

Teacher Reference Center (TRC) WCdraws from over 260 journals for articles dealing with concerns of K-12 teachers & librarians.

TeacherServe An interactive curriculum service for high school English and History teachers, provided by the National Humanities Center.

Yahooligan's Teachers Guide From the folks at Yahoo. Links to subject areas, lesson plans, graduated guidelines for K-8 students on how to cite internet sources.

Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute Lesson plans and curriculum units generated by participants in Yale University-sponsored workshops since 1978. A collection with great depth.

Educational Policy & Laws

Clearinghouse on Educational Policy and Management (CEPM, formerly ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management), operated by the College of Education, University of Oregon. Explore "hot topics," such as class size, charter schools, vouchers, and school reform. Full-text "Research Roundups" and "Policy Reports" are also available.

Committee on Education and the Workforce has a compilation, in 5 volumes, of Federal Education Laws. This committee also has another page: Links to Additional Resources with sections on Legislative Research, Senate Quick Links, House Quick Links, & White House/Other Government Links.

Institute for Educational Policy Studies George Washington University hosts this site, which sponsors research and policy analysis and includes the Institute for Equity and Excellence in Education, the Institute for Curriculum, Standards and Technology, and the Institute for the Study of Language and Education.

National Clearinghouse for Comprehensive School Reform provides information for schools and districts looking for research-based strategies and assistance. There are useful links to the CSR Library and CSR Resources.

North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) This non-profit group has a page devoted to Educational Policy and Research, and includes Timely Topics, such as charter schools and alternatives to grade retention.

Regional Educational Laboratories (REL) Network Gateway to 10 RELs who work to ensure that those involved in educational improvement at the local, state, and regional levels have access to the best available information from research and practice. Each REL specializes in an area, such as assessment, language and cultural diversity, etc.

Educational Research: Standards, Assessment, Reports

Assessment Web Sites A compilation from the University of Missouri, Rolla.

CRESST: National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing Funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, CRESST covers topics related to K-12 educational testing.

Developing Educational Standards A comprehensive listing of sites concerned with educational standards and curriculum frameworks. Search for government resources and activities at the national level, by subject and by state.

EdRes.org is now hosting some former materials from the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation. Get balanced information concerning educational assessment, evaluation and research methodology.

Educational Research Online is, purportedly, the largest free-access Web site for full-text educational reports, papers, & journal articles. A Google search line is included which will list articles and reports from the ERIC database.

MCAS The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, from the state department of education.

Nation's Report Card The National Assessment of Educational Progress, from NCES.

Test Reviews Online Get information and reviews of all kinds of assessment instruments, sponsored by the Buros Institute, the publishers of the Mental Measurements Yearbook.

Educational Technology

Catalyst Tools, resources and support to help you teach with new technologies.

Check out the Educator's Reference Desk educational technology pages for high-quality materials formerly found at the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology.

Higher Education

Academic360.com Job listing links to faculty, staff, and administrative position announcements.Chronicle of Higher Education The current issue of news from the higher ed world is available free. Clapp subscribes to CHE in paper for previous issues.

College and University Homepages An internet directory, from the University of Texas.

World Lecture Hall Syllabi and course materials from faculty world-wide who are using the web to deliver instruction.

History of Education

American Cultural History: The Twentieth Century A decade-by-decade look at everything from architecture to fashion to literature to television., for the years from 1900-1999. This site from the Kingwood College Library is rich with links and now has included a link to their new 19th century site. Good for background/context.

American Memory Based at the Library of Congress, this project provides primary educational materials, with collections in 19th-century Books and Periodicals, the History of the American West, and African-American Pamphlets, among others. A special Learning Page for teachers and students shows how to make the most of the materials available here.

History of American Education Web Project Broadly covers the history of education and educators in the United States. Created by Prof. Robert N. Barger and students in his class. Prof. Barger cautions that "sources which the students used contained a rather triumphalist view of American educational history." Reader, you are warned.

History of Education Quarterly - JSTOR provides access to issues from 1961 up to the last 5 years. Clapp has print issues from 1978 to the present (Call # L11 .H67).

Making of America is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. Materials are from two collections/locations, Cornell University and the University of Michigan.

19th Century Schoolbooks Over 30 19th-century schoolbooks digitized by the University of Pittsburgh libraries, including McGuffey Readers.

Job Resources

Academic Employment Network Click "Job Listings" for free listings. Under "Resources," find certification requirements, school district profiles, and cost of living comparisons for most states.

Education Week job listings can be found on this Home Page of Education Week & Teacher Magazine.

MonsterTrak Targeted job listings and resume database for Wellesley College students & alumnae. See the Center for Work & Service for details about obtaining a password.

monster jobs Search under "Education, Training and Library."

National Association of Independent Schools List of online job centers, including Klingenstein Center at Teachers College, Columbia University, independent school associations, and placement agencies.

National Public School Locator The National Center for Educational Statistics offers this locator, as well as one for private schools. Data is generally 2-3 years behind current year.

State Departments of Education A link to each state's department of ed on the web.

Massacusetts-specific Resources

Boston Public Schools Includes family resources and a section for educators on teaching and learning.

Commonwealth Communities Info on Massachusetts cities and towns.

Massachusetts Department of Education Information on the Commonwealth's educational programs and policies, including education laws, reform initiatives, data, and K-12 resources. Curriculum Frameworks will take you to the most recent standards. School and district profiles are also available.

Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure Test dates and information for 33 fields of certification.
You can also link directly to the MA Tests for Educator Licensure information booklets.

News

Education Week The major K-12 education news weekly. In addition to a digest version of the current issue of EW, the site offers a searchable archive (1989+), the monthly publication Teacher Magazine, special reports and job listings.

Edupage An e-mail service from EDUCAUSE that summarizes developments in information technology, sent three times a week to subscribers. Synopses are extracted from mainstream media.

Harvard Education Letter Research Online A bimonthly newsletter that covers timely topics in depth, from the perspective of both research and practice.

NEGP Weekly The National Education Goals Panel, an independent executive branch agency of the federal government charged with monitoring national and state progress toward the National Education Goals. This site highlights digests of education stories in the press that relate to the eight National Education Goals. You can sign up to receive e-mail bulletins.

New York Times: Education Free access (with free registration) to recent articles on education topics.

Professional Development

Instructor Magazine Strategies for meeting students' needs, integrating the curriculum, and developing professionally, from Scholastic, Inc.

North Central Regional Educational Laboratory: Professional Development has sections on critical issues affecting professional development, supporting materials, and NCREL's choices of additional educational internet links.

Wellesley College Library • WCIS • Jacqueline B. Fitzpatrick • last modified: February 12, 2008