Doing Research and Educational Study on the Internet

Go to the PV Search page

Centers and Laboratories

• ERIC
  • AskERIC - The front door to a wealth of research and instructional resources. Recommended starting point: the AskERIC Virtual Library.
  • Assessment and Evaluation on the Internet - An extremely comprehensive, annotated list of what seems like every assessment link on the Internet. Search this part of ERIC (a new feature).
• The National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST). Check out the Technical Report Summaries for a quick look at the research available here. You can download full reports but will need the Adobe Acrobat reader to view them.
• The National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education has a page on Educational Research that focuses on such topics as language acquisition and instructional programs.
• The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory offers the School Improvement Research Series: Research You Can Use - almost a decade's worth of research. Recent topics include effective schools practices, TQM, hands-on math, and integrated curriculum.

Data Banks

• The Argus Clearinghouse - Exceptional indices on a variety of topics, including Education.
• Developing Educational Standards - If it deals with educational standards or curriculum frameworks, you can probably find it linked to this Putnam Valley site.
• The Guide to Math and Science Reform (sponsored by the Annenberg/CPB K-12 Math and Science Project) - A searchable "database of more than 1000 entries that describe projects and organizations dedicated to significantly improving K-12 mathematics and science education in America."
• Theory Into Practice Database - Brief descriptions and examples of some fifty instructional theories, put together by Greg Kearsley, an adjunct professor of education at the George Washington University.

Other Organizations

• Critical Issues in Educational Change (maintained by the RMC Research Corporation) - Links to sites, articles, and reports on such topics as time on task, 21st century high schools, and cultural diversity.
• RAND Research Areas - The Rand Institute studies many issues, only some of which are related to education. On this site you will find a 1994/5 set of articles collected under the title of New Hope for America's Schools and a more recent report on the RAND Discovery Microworld Project.
• Research-Based Dialogue (from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) - Research, expert opinion, and links dealing with important contemporaty educational issues.
• US Department of Education
  • National Center for Education Statistics - Read or order documents, examine statistics, search topics, find experts. Some documents require Adobe Acrobat in order to be read., but many do not. You can jump directly to the Center's list of Recently Released Publications or its longer list of NCES Publications.
  • Collection of Research Syntheses. The DOE's link to its extensive collection of reports, including
    • ERIC Digests - A searchable list of several hundred reports. You can read either the full reports or summaries.
    • Education Research Reports - Just under a dozen reports. Sample topic: What Do Student Grades Mean? Differences Across Schools.
    • Educational Research and Improvement Reports and Studies - Major reports and studies from DOE (just be warned that the page can take a long time to load because of all its graphics). Sample documents: Technology and Education Reform, Education Reforms and Students at Risk: A Review of the Current State of the Art, and Prisoners of Time: Research (What We Know and What We Need to Know).

Publications

• Education Policy Analysis Archives - High quality articles about important educational topics, ranging from instructional practices to governmental policies.
• Education Week - The articles are great but this site's biggest asset is a section called In Context that contains background information on key topics.
• Engines for Educators - It's a book, in hypertext form, that musters argument, examples, and some evidence to try and convince you that students learn best (to borrow Dewey, for a moment) by doing.
• Journal of Technology Education - Articles about teaching technology and teaching using technology.
• Technology & Learning - The table of contents and a little bit more from the printed version.
• University of Colorado at Denver Scholarly Publications - Various articles on a range of topics. Take a look.