September 3, 2009 | Past Issues

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 Office of Vocational and Adult Education

Thursday Notes contains Web site addresses and publications created and maintained by private organizations. This information is provided for the reader's convenience. The U.S. Department of Education is not responsible for controlling or guaranteeing the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this outside information. Further, the inclusion of a publication, other commercially available products or a Web site address does not reflect the importance of the organization, nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed, or products or services offered. Thursday Notes is a public document. Feel free to share, clip and use Thursday Notes.

Online Registration for New State Directors' Meeting Now Available

State directors and staff planning to attend OVAE's New State Directors' Management Workshop in Washington, D.C., October 20-22, can now register online. OVAE will give new state directors of adult education priority for registration, and staff and experienced state directors updating their skills may attend if space is available.

ECS Creates Community College Policy Center

Minnesota Governor and Education Commission of the States (ECS) Chair Tim Pawlenty announced[PDF, 29K] recently an agreement on behalf of ECS, the Academy for Educational Development, and Iowa State University to establish the new Community College Policy Center. Iowa State University will contribute research and leadership to the center. It will be a national resource for state policymakers, community college leaders, policy analysts and researchers in leveraging community colleges to achieve student attainment and workforce development goals.

New Professional Development Tool For ELL Leaders

The Center on Instruction has released a new Language Development for English Language Learners Professional Development Module, a four-hour train-the-trainer session for state and district leaders addressing the needs of English language learners (ELLs). This professional development module provides background knowledge on language development, language assessment of ELLs, and academic language instruction and vocabulary for the K-12 levels. Options include using the materials as a study group tool with other ELL professionals or as a self-study guide.

What Should Technology Standards Measure?

States developing technology standards for adult education may want to check out a draft framework for the new national assessment of technological literacy slated to measure students' understanding of—and skill in using—technology, starting in 2012. When completed, this new assessment will become part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which measures student achievement nationwide and state by state. New technology standards in the framework might include students' understanding of technology tools and their design, ways technology can be used to gather information and communicate ideas, and technology's impact on society.

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