Education Links

The following is a selected list of organizations and materials which can provide you with information useful in making presentations. PRESS is not explicitly endorsing any of the organizations or materials listed. We do want parents to be aware of their existence and how to contact the organizations or obtain the materials.

• Organizations
• Web Sites of Interest
• State Education Standards
• Books, Journals and Videotapes
• Phonic Programs

• American Federation of Teachers

• The Association for Direct Instruction

  This organization has as its mission the improvement of educational methods. Numerous studies and articles supporting the effective teaching technique of Direct Instruction can be found at this site.
  Wisconsin Chapter, Kathleen Schaefer, president, 2668 Tareyton Circle, Stoughton, WI 53589 (Dues are $20 annually for national and local chapters, or $10 if you wish to only join the local chapter.)

• The Center for Educational Reform

  Jeanne Allen, their president, has written The School Reform Handbook and was a guest speaker at the 1995 PRESS Education Conference

• Core Knowledge Foundation

  The foundation has produced a content-rich curriculum for use in elementary and middle schools. It has also developed books and curricular guides that can be used by parents in the home, such as What Every First Grader Needs to Know. The foundation operates the Core Knowledge Network, which publishes a quarterly newsletter.

• Education Consumers Clearing House

• Education Excellence Network

  A national information clearinghouse and source of expert advice and sound thinking on significant issues affecting education. This site is a project of the Hudson Institute.

• Education Policy Institute

  The EPI is a non-profit education organization dedicated to market-oriented approaches to education issues and problems, and to the protection and defense of individual rights in the context of education policy and practice.

• Language Arts Foundation

  P.O. Box 895, Haskell, OK 74436
  1-800-416-READ
  Recognizing the need to alter the course of American education, the Language Arts Foundation is designed to promulgate educational programs that will retain the positive aspects of traditional education while applying the findings of contemporary scientific research in devising curriculums that will offset the negative results of current educational practices.

• Mathematically Correct

  This website is devoted to the concerns raised by parents and scientists about the invasion of our schools by the New-New Math and the need to restore basic skills to math education.

• National Association of Scholars

  An academic organization dedicated to the restoration of intellectual substance, individual merit and academic freedom.

• National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators

  College of Education, University of Oregon, 805 Lincoln, Eugene, OR 97401
  This nationally funded center is one of the bright lights in the pantheon of educational organizations. The center has produced a number of worthwhile booklets and monographs, including Responsible School Improvement: A Guide for State Legislators, Why Businesses and Foundations Should Support Smart Schools, Responsible School Improvements: A Guide for Parents, Educators, and Community Leaders, How School Site Councils Can Help Improve Teaching and Learning: A Handbook for Site Councils and Educational Leaders on School Improvement, Shifting the Focus of State Education Legislation from Innovative Schools to High-Performing Schools, and Standards of Educational Reform for Educational Organizations.

• National Council of History Education

• National Right to Read Foundation

  P.O. Box 490, The Plains, VA 20198
  The National Right to Read Foundation was established in 1993 as an organization dedicated to eliminating illiteracy by returning scientific research based, direct, explicit , and systematic phonics instruction to every first-grade classroom in America. Through its website, the Foundation serves as a clearing house and conduit for information on reading instructional programs grounded in scientific research on reading. It also publicizes current Federal and State legislative actions related to reading instruction and provides information on the rapidly accumulating findings of scientifically based research on reading.

• Organization for Quality Education

  A group of Canadian parents, teachers, trustees, ratepayers and business people who are dedicated to reforming elementary and secondary education in the Province of Ontario. Several briefing papers are available that not only apply to Canadian educational issues but to educational issues in the United States.

• Parents Raising Educational Standards in Schools (PRESS)

  write to: PRESS, P.O. Box 26913, Milwaukee, WI 53226
  E-Mail address: presswis@execpc.com

• Society for Advancing Educational Research

  57 Allan Close, Red Deer, Alberta, CANADA T4R1A4
  This organization was founded by a Canadian physician who became interested in educational matters and began to research the area. He has spearheaded the charter school movement in Canada and become a valuable resource person for the Canadian government. Although his writings are aimed at Canadians, what he has to say is very applicable to education in the United States. His booklet Failing Grades: Canadian Schooling in a Global Economy ($6.00) is concise but well documented.

• Debra Saunders - San Francisco Chronicle

• Education Week Magazine

• EPIC

  Empowering Parents for Informed Choices in education is an interactive website providing reliable and up-to-date information about public and private K-12 schools in Milwaukee.

• Public Agenda Foundation

  Public Agenda is a nonpartisan, nonprofit public opinion research and citizen education organization. Its two-fold mission is to help leaders better understand the public point of view on major policy issues, and to help citizens better understand critical policy issues so they can make their own more informed and thoughtful decisions.

• Truth About Math

  The primary mission of this website, created by William Quirk, is to promote the development of broadly-accepted math standards which clearly describe the math content for each K-12 grade. This site will help combat the progressive mindset of the NCTM and the American education establishment.

The Assault on Parenthood

To be a good parent today is to commit nothing less than an act of political and cultural subversion, by fighting the government and our child-rearing institutions all the way, argues author Dana Mack. Through focus groups and private interviews, parents painted a devastating portrait of what it means to raise children today, even in the most stable of family environments. Mack contends that parents across the country are mounting a strong and concerted effort to reclaim their children from the negative influences that threaten them. This "counter-cultural movement" includes parent-driven alternatives to public schools, lobbying for family-friendlier workplace policies, and strong support of the Parental Rights movement.

Dumbing Down Our Kids

Another runaway hit by Charles Sykes, author, education critic and guest speaker at the 1995 PRESS Education Conference. After having scrutinized higher education in previous works, (Profscam and Hollow Men) Sykes sets his sights on the decline of public education in the primary and secondary grades. He points the finger at "the schools themselves and the values that dominate American education in the 1990's". Harsh criticism is heaped on educators who emphasize student feelings over learning, as witnessed by the avalanche of "self-esteem" programs, the Outcome-Based Education juggernaut and political correctness movements. Filled with easy to read statistical evidence and anecdotes to support any parent going up against the education "BLOB". This is a MUST read for all!!!

The Outcome-Based Education Movement

by Jeffrey M. Jones, M.D., Ph.D. 113pp., 128 refs., 8 figs., 8 tables. © 1995

Shortly after Dr. Jones learned of plans to institute transformational OBE in his daughters' school district, he decided to find out just what OBE and the various "philosophies" espoused by educators were all about. As a Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, he had access to its library system, public records, and works of scholars throughout North America. He produced an impressive monograph on the OBE movement, dealing with OBE at the local, state, and national level. When educators are questioned about OBE, parents often find them setting up smoke screens with statements like... "Well, I don't know what OBE really is." Dr. Jones' monograph has been used by Wisconsin state officials and journalists such as Robert Holland of the Richmond Times-Dispatch to determine what OBE is. He presents a bounty of information in an entertaining way. (Order Form)

Educational Philosophies: A Primer for Parents

by Jeffrey M. Jones, M.D., Ph.D., 52 pp. © 1995.

Have you ever attended a meeting where you offer an idea and an educator says, "Well, that's just fine Mrs. Smith, but your ideas just don't fit our district's philosophy?" Educators are fond of talking about their philosophies. Sometimes they are just using high sounding rhetoric. Or they imply that a philosophy is somehow research based. In the primer, Dr. Jones has collected a series of entertaining essays dealing with various educational philosophies and ideologies. Each essay can stand alone; however taken together they amplify the value of the individual writings. All are thoroughly referenced. The essays include the following titles: Behavioralism, Cognitive Learning Theories of Instruction, Holistic Constructivism - - A Rejection of the Scientific Method, Choosing Effective Instructional Programs, Learning to Read and Whole Language Ideology, and A Critique of the NCTM Curriculum Standards. These essays will arm parents in debates with others about educational philosophies. (Order Form)

Facts not Fear

A Parents Guide to Teaching Children About the Environment

by Michael Sanera & Jane S. Shaw, 300 pp.
Regnery Publishing, Inc., $14.95 © 1996.

This is a book for every parent whose child has come home from school with their heads filled with doomsday scenarios concerning the environment. Facts Not Fear is a wonderful guidebook to help parents counter the irresponsible claims of environmental extremists. This highly readable book explains in non-technical language the myths and facts behind several environmental topics and sets the record straight using sound scientific methods. Authors Michael Sanera and Jane Shaw explore topics such as overpopulation, global warming, ozone depletion, endangered species, acid rain, deforestation, air polution and many more. Each chapter is reviewed by acknowledged experts and includes answers to children's commonly asked questions. Parents will find this section indispensible, along with the suggestions for easy-to-do activities. This book is sure to help you appreciate and enjoy nature and not just look upon it with anxiety and alarm.

• The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them
  author E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Doubleday, $24.95, © 1996.
  The latest in a long list of books from the author of the What Your (*) Grader Needs to Know series. Spells out the problems in todays educational system and what can be done about them.

• Becoming a Nation of Readers
  The report of the Commission on Reading. (1985) This short book, which was prepared by 35 experts, reads easily and contains numerous references. $7.50. Mail orders to: Center for the Study of Reading, University of Illinois, 51 Gerty Cr., Champaign, IL 61820
  (Summary Statements taken from BNR)

• Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print
  author Marilyn Jager Adams ( A summary by the Center on Reading) This is a well written presentation which reviews current research. Adams concludes that phonics must be an important component of reading instruction. $7.50. Mail orders to: Center for the Sudy of Reading, University of Illinois, 51 Gerty Cr., Champaign, IL 61820.

• A Nation at Risk

• Saxon Publications

• Failing Grades (Videotape)
  This is a well done videotape featuring researchers from the United States and Canada. Data comparing the performance of American and Canadian children with those in other countries are presented. The American Follow Through project is discussed in detail as well as the limitations of the student-centered approach to learning, which focuses inordinately upon self-esteem and discovery learning. The 76-minute videotape can be obtained by sending $17.95 (US) to Society for Advancing Educational Research, c/o VICOM Limited, 11603-165 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA T5M3Z1

• The Charter School Idea (Videotape)
  This 56-minute video and companion booklet, patterned after Failing Grades, provides "a plain language review of the autonomous school concept - - a new direction for public education... The idea of the autonomous public school - - free of the usual school board and its strangling bureaucracy - - is catching on. The charter school captures the values of public education, remains fully accountable to parents and the larger community, and offers, for the first time, the prospect of breaking educational gridlock and reforming the entire system."
  Send $19.95 (US) to Society for Advancing Educational Research, 57 Allan Close, Red Deer, Alberta, CANADA T4R1A4.

• Phonics Tutor presents Alpha-Phonics

• The Phonics Game

• National Right to Read Foundation Resource List

• Phonics Pathways

  Phonics Pathways slowly builds and recombines the sounds and spelling pattern of the English language into syllables, words, phrases and sentences of gradually increasing complexity. Letters are added only one at a time, beginning with short-vowel sounds. Multisensory method addresses all learning styles.

  The United States Department of Education has included Phonics Pathways in its Beginning Reading Instruction Study which reviews and evaluates selected reading programs nationwide. This latest study follows Becoming a Nation of Readers and A Nation At Risk.

  To order, send $27.95 plus $4.00 S&H to: Dorbooks, P.O.Box 2588, Livermore, CA 94551

• Sing, Spell, Read & Write

  Using catchy phonics songs, games, storybooks, student books, prizes -- and an easy-to-read manual for parents or tutors -- you'll beam with pride as your child achieves independent reading ability in just 36 simple steps. With this program, geared for ages 5 through 8, your child's self-esteem and self-confidence will grow as he sings his way to excellence!

  This exciting and innovative program teaches seven complete subjects in one unified approach: reading, writing, phonics, spelling, speaking, reading comprehension and thinking. Songs, games and a treasure chest of prizes bring excitement and motivation to learning, and the step-by-step method ensures success all along the way. For more information, call 1-800-321-8322

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