In-Depth Research Guide: Education
Librarians for Education:
Alana Kumbier, Research & Instruction, x3372
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,
- American Educational Research Journal from 1964-2003 in JSTOR - Vols. 1-10 from 1964-1972 & Vols. 40-43 from 2003-2006 in print - Clapp Library L11 .A66
- Educational Leadership 1992+
- Phi Delta Kappan 1992+
- Review of Educational Research from 1931-2003 in JSTOR
- Teachers College Record 1996+
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 Complete 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+
SocINDEX with Full Text 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 WorldCat 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.
| 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 American Education (Clapp Ref LB17.U54 1996). 3 volumes.
Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society, edited by Paula Fass, 2004.
Encyclopedia of Education (Clapp Ref LB15.E47). 10 volumes.
Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology edited by Neil Salkind, 2007. A Sage eReference title.
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.
Routledge International Encyclopedia of Education. (Clapp Ref LB15 .R633 2008).
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).
Education at a Glance presents information "about the comaprative state of education across its member countries." There are numerous tables and charts. Reports are available from 2001 to the last full calendar year. This URL will bring up the 2008 report. If reports from earlier years would be preferred, merely change the year at the end of the URL.
Global Education Digest "offers a comparative look at education statistics & spending across the world."
LexisNexis Statistical International, federal & state demographic & economic statistics, 1973+.
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.
School Choice: The Findings summarizes the research on charter schools, vouchers, public vs. private schools and their effectiveness. (Clapp Lib LB1027.9 .W34 2007).
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
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.
EDuHound: Everything for Education K-12 is an excellent site for K-12 educational resources (It includes links to resources for most subjects taught in those grades, plus community resources, grants, funding, professional sites for teachers, etc.
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.
Math Forum @ Drexel has an Ask Dr. Math feature with sections for math questions in elementary, middle, high school, college & beyond.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is a colorful and easy-to-use site with an abundance of resources for math teachers at all levels.
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) draws from over 260 journals for articles dealing with concerns of K-12 teachers & librarians.
Teachers (Library of Congress) links to the institution's educational resources. There are teachers' guides, lesson plans, and several high-quality digitized holdings, including American Memory, Today in History, Lyrical Legacy, Community Roots, & Poetry and Literature Center. Additionally, the Learning Page contains teacher-created lesson & unit plans for grades 4-12 that supports the use of primary source documents in the study of history and literature.
Teaching Tolerance is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center and is frequently updated. It is a valuable tool using the computer and many combinations of print and video resources to promote tolerance and help children and adolescents express their thoughts on this subject.
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
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.
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
ARC/Assessment Resource Center provides "practical assessments & evaluation resources in education, non-profit organizations, government, and business."A University of Missouri site.
CRESST: National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the Office of Educational Research and Improvement. This site, out of UCLA's Graduate School of Educations & Informational Studies, 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.
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
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.
Wellesley College Library • WCIS • Alana Kumbier • last modified: August 26, 2009