Resources from National Center for Education and the Economy

National Center for Education and the Economy

Resource Title: America's Choice Curriculum and Instruction Materials for New Standards(TM)
Price: $8.00 each
Description: "How will the adoption of the New Standards Performance Standards or other state and local standards change my instruction and curriculum?" Classroom teachers with this query find that much is written about standards reform in general, but very little of it deals with how standards impact a classroom, its rituals, routines, procedures, artifacts, and the instructional strategies that enable students to progress toward achieving standards. These booklets describe a composite of "best practices" from successful standards-based classrooms at the elementary and secondary levels.

Resource Title: For Our Children: A Parent's Guide to New Standards
Price: Free
Description: Most Americans, particularly parents, believe that the expectations, or standards, that schools hold for our children are too low. Research, common sense and experience show us that raising expectations -- setting higher standards -- helps our children learn more. Research shows that students learn more when expectations are higher. The following pages illustrate how New Standards taps that desire to learn and helps children like yours live up to their academic promise.

Resource Title: New Standards(TM) Student Performance Standards
Price: Complete set (Elementary, Middle School, High School, Video) $120.00, any individual volume plus video is $45.00. Video only, $8.00.
Description: The performance standards are the result of a two-year effort to make standards operational. They not only provide clear expectations for student achievement, but also include numerous examples of student work that show what work that meets standards looks like. These standards are the basis of the New Standards assessment system. Published in three volumes – elementary, middle, and high school, each volume contains performance standards for English language arts, mathematics, science, and applied learning. A unique feature of the standards is a video showing standard setting work for the "speaking and listening" standard. The video shows how each student performance is linked to the standards and why that performance counts as standard-setting.

Resource Title: New Standards® Primary Literacy Standards
Price: $45.00
Description: The New Standards Primary Literacy Standards give teachers and parents examples of the kind of reading and writing that children should be able to do in kindergarten through 3rd grade. Drawn from real classrooms, these work samples even include a CD-ROM of recordings of children reading specially identified books that allow adults to rate their progress against the standards. The New Standards Primary Literacy Standards are an unprecedented set of grade-by-grade expectations in reading and writing for students in kindergarten through 3rd grade. They state what primary grade students should know and be able to do, and how well they should be able to perform. The Primary Literacy Standards challenge traditional classroom practice by giving equal weight to the teaching of reading and writing, linking the skills in one to the other.

Resource Title: Ramping-Up: Secondary Students as Writers
Price: $25.00
Description: Ramping-Up exercises are designed for use with secondary school students who have no history as writers and little, if any, interest in writing. The aim of Ramping-Up is simple: accelerate the students to the point where they can merge with the flow of their regular standards-based classroom and successfully handle demanding curriculum at their grade level. Ramping-Up is a cumulative sequence of five sets of writing exercises that are organized in such a way that the skills developed in previous exercises are reinforced and synthesized with new skills worked out in later activities. Th final assignment is not simply another exercise – it is a synthesis of all of the exercises and the culminating event of a series of exercises that work together to create a particular kind of writing experience. It is an experience aimed at generating confidence, fluency and skill in student writers who up to this point have had difficulty writing in the classroom.

Resource Title: Speaking & Listening for preschool through the third grade
Price: $45.00
Description: Book/CD-ROM from New Standards®. This resource spells out the skills children need to learn in preschool, in kindergarten and 1st grade, and know by 2nd and 3rd grade. It answers these questions for early childhood educators and childcare providers: How do children develop speaking and listening skills? Why is talking so important? What should children talk about — and why? What instruction helps children develop into competent — and confident — speakers?

Resource Title: Thinking for a Living – Education and the Wealth of Nations
Author: Ray Marshall and Marc Tucker
Description: You'll immediately understand how this groundbreaking book found its way to the top of the most influential American policymaker's reading lists - including President Bill Clinton's, who recommended the book to his entire staff. Why the widespread popularity? Because authors Ray Marshall and National Center on Education and the Economy President Marc Tucker present the most timely and compelling report available on the current state of our education system, and the enormous chasm that needs to be crossed between our students' preparedness and their abilities to function in a new economy. The need for education reform is real, the timeline is urgent, and the necessity for families, communities, and businesses to maximize the skills of future workers will never have a greater impact on our quality of life.

Resource Title: What Parents Need to Know About Reading and Writing
Price: $3.00
Description: Parents want to help their children become better readers and writers. To be able to do this, parents have to know what the standards are and how good is good enough when it comes to reading and writing in the primary grades. To help parents, New StandardsTM has created a clearly written and vividly illustrated handbook for parents. What parents need to know about reading & writing provides examples of what books children should be reading and samples of how they should be writing for grades kindergarten through third grade. At each grade level, the handbook provides tips that can help children meet their grade level expectations. These tips are displayed as a convenient, tear-out poster at the back of the handbook. With the information in this handbook, parents can make reading and writing a fun family experience. This handbook is a companion to the award-winning Reading & Writing: grade by grade — primary literacy standards for kindergarten through third grade