FREE WEBINAR
Joellen Killion is the deputy executive director for Learning Forward, a nonprofit membership association focused on improving professional learning for teachers.

Robert Pianta is the dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and director of the school’s Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning.
WHEN: Tuesday, April 12, 3 p.m.
WHAT: The presentation, "Recalibrating Professional Development for Teacher Success," will explore how schools can create greater coherence in professional development programs—and in turn make teachers more successful—by aligning learning activities with clear objectives for teacher growth and by leveraging available research on instructional effectiveness. It will also highlight ways in which interactive technology can be used to deliver and manage professional development.
WHERE: Come to the CLIC to view this webinar with other Curry students or click here to register for the free webinar and view it on your personal computer.
NOTE: All Education Week webinars are archived and accessible "on demand" for up to six months after the original live-streaming date.

IES GRANT OPPORTUNITIES
IES has released FY2012 funding announcements for grant competitions in education and special education research and training. Letters of intent are due by April 21, 2011. Several of the grant programs are appropriate for NAEP research—for instance, Education Research Grants (84.305A); Special Education Research Grants (84.324A); Statistical and Research Methodology in Education (84.305D); and Evaluation of State and Local Education Programs and Policies (84.305E).

Go to http://ies.ed.gov/funding/ for complete information. See recently funded NAEP research at http://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/. Also, be sure to take advantage of the periodic series of IES webinars related to research funding opportunities; see http://ies.ed.gov/funding/webinars/.

FREE TRAINING
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) will sponsor a three-day seminar (May 23-25, 2011) in Washington, D.C. on using NCES international databases: the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). The overall goal of the seminar is to provide researchers with opportunities to gain access to some of the most comprehensive education data resources in the nation and to use the PISA, TIMSS, and/or PIRLS data in substantive research.

Advanced graduate students and faculty members from colleges and universities nationwide, and researchers, education practitioners, and policy analysts from state and local education agencies and professional associations are invited to apply.

There is no fee to attend this seminar. NCES will provide training materials as well as computers for the hands-on practice. For out-of-town participants, NCES also will pay for transportation, hotel accommodations, and a fixed per diem for meals and incidental expenses during the training seminar. There are also some limited webinar slots.

Deadline for applications: April 24, 2011

For more information or to register, please go to http://ies.ed.gov/whatsnew/conferences/?id=815&cid=2

To learn more about the International Activities Program and to view reports and products, please visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/SurveyGroups.asp?group=6.

NEWSLETTER
Click here to read previous issues of the Education Services newsletter.

SPEAKER TOOLKIT
As you prepare for a presentation, you may find these Reminders at the Podium to be of value as you field questions about your research or when you are moderating a panel.

Consider exploring these resources for additional tips:
Presentation Zen (Blog)
      Suggested Posts:
         Presentation in the TED Style
         What Is Good PowerPoint Design?
         Tom Peters on Presentations

Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations
Peter de Jager offers six pieces of advice for creating effective presentation slides, including tips for colors, backgrounds, and font.

SUMMER DATA CONFERENCE
You are invited to attend the STATS-DC 2011 Data Conference in Bethesda, Maryland, July 27-29.

The STATS-DC 2011 is a two and a half-day conference designed for education researchers, policy makers, and data system managers who want to share innovations in the design and implementation of education data collections and information systems. The Conference also includes training and business meetings for state CCD and EDFacts data coordinators. In addition, there will be a range of sessions targeted toward data collection and management, as well as information about changes in how the U.S. Department of Education collects and uses data.

The Data Conference will offer more than 80 presentations, demonstrations, and workshops conducted by practitioners from K-12 information systems.

You are invited to submit a proposal for presenting a session that will add to the conference’s usefulness. Presentations on all relevant topics will be considered, but the major focus will be on education data system design and management, data standards, data delivery methods, and strategies for improving data use.

For more information about or to register and optionally submit a proposal for the conference, visit http://ies.ed.gov/whatsnew/conferences/?id=807.

The proposal submission deadline is Friday, April 29, 2011.

DATA SETS
Need data sets? The Inter-University consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), an international consortium of about 700 academic institutions and research organizations, maintains a data archive of more than 500,000 files of research in the social sciences. It hosts 16 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.

ICPSR's is more than just a repository of data sets. It sponsors educational activities that include the Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research, a comprehensive curriculum of intensive courses in research design, statistics, data analysis, and social methodology. ICPSR also leads several initiatives that encourage use of data in teaching, particularly for undergraduate instruction.

ICPSR-sponsored research focuses on the emerging challenges of digital curation and data science. ICPSR researchers also examine substantive issues related to its collections, with an emphasis on historical demography and the environment.

EDITING A DIGITAL MAP
WHAT: Digitizing & Editing with ArcGIS 10
This workshop will review creating digital maps using "layers" and demonstrate how you can edit these types of maps using ArcGIS 10 software.
WHEN: Wednesday, April 13 from 2 pm to 3 pm
WHERE: Alderman Library Electronic Classroom