PBS Launches Free Educational Resource

Earlier this month, PBS launched PBS Teachers (http://www.pbs.org/teachers), a "front door" Web site for all of the educational resources and services PBS offers. The site offers plenty of quality resources for classroom teachers and home-schooling parents.

The site also provides a one-stop resource for educators searching for wide-ranging curriculum resources, video archives, and more.

The site offers lots of free teaching resources that include:

• Thousands of free standards-based lesson plans, classroom activities, interactive resources, and more—organized by subject, grade level, and curriculum topic.
• Hundreds of curriculum resources from local PBS stations—forming a local-national search, combining the best educational resources from around the country.
• PBS' newest blog, "Media Infusion" (http://www.pbs.org/teachers/mediainfusion), which will showcase ideas for and encourage conversations about using media and technology in the classroom, to be hosted by practicing classroom teachers and educational technology experts.
• Dedicated areas for early childhood educators, library media specialists, and technology coordinators.
• Showcases for public broadcasting's video content—including on-demand streaming video from selected PBS programs, customizable local PBS station TV schedules, and Shop for Teachers, a source for purchasing video programs.

At first glance, this appears to be a solid resource for teachers, especially teachers with Internet access in their classrooms (many of the lessons direct students to watch a brief streaming video from the PBS archives). Take a look at the site and let me know what you think.

The Journal of Advanced Academics

I'm thrilled about a new product we've launched: the Journal of Advanced Academics. Because you are reading this, I'll assume you are interested in the history of this professional journal. It's a big assumption, so if you just want to read about the new journal specifically, visit the Journal of Advanced Academics information page.

The Journal's History

I started Prufrock Press more than 18 years ago with one product, the Prufrock Journal. The idea behind this journal was to offer teachers involved in secondary gifted education a source of information and ideas for the middle school and high school classroom. I was the journal's editor, publisher, designer, and "mail room" manager. I took out a loan from the local teachers' credit union (I was a high school English teacher at the time) to publish the first issue. I printed 5,000 copies and mailed them as complimentary samples to teachers across the country. Because I could not afford the permit for a bulk mail imprint, I licked and stuck a stamp on each of the 5,000 copies.

By the journal's fourth year, I was running out of steam and wanting to expand Prufrock Press into other projects that demanded my time. I spoke to Dr. Tracy Cross, a respected professor at Ball State University, about taking over the journal, refocusing it as a peer-reviewed journal, and renaming it the Journal of Secondary Gifted Education. The journal would now focus on research and critical theory related to secondary gifted education programs.

Over the years, I've had the chance to work with some wonderful editors of the journal: Tracy Cross (Ball State University),  Paula Olszewski-Kubilius (Northwestern University), Rena Subotnik (American Psychological Association), Marcia Delcourt (Western Connecticut State University), and Bonnie Cramond (University of Georgia). The annual JSGE advisory board meeting offered me a chance to interact with some of the best minds in the field of education.

As the years passed, however, the defining focus of the journal seemed to grow dated. Gifted education at the secondary level seemed too narrow a concept to embrace the new menu of programs being offered to gifted and talented students. For better or worse, the secondary "gifted program" expanded to include Advanced Placement programs, International Baccalaureate programs, early entrance to college, dual-enrollment in high school and college, and various new acceleration approaches. 

Furthermore, the term secondary became a liability: What do you call it when a fifth grader is allowed to take a precalculus course at the high school or a junior in high school heads off to college? Were those situations covered by a secondary journal?

A New Vision for the Journal

For more than 2 years, the advisory board and current and former editors and I struggled to re-envision the journal. That new vision for the journal launched this month with the premier issue of the Journal of Advanced Academics (JAA).

This journal is in a unique position to critically evaluate trends related to advanced academic education.

In particular, JAA publishes articles that feature:

• strategies for increasing academic achievement,
• programs that promote high levels of academic achievement and engagement, and
  
• programs that prepare students to engage in high-level and rigorous academics.

Under the leadership of Del Siegle and D. Betsy McCoach (University of Connecticut), this journal promises to be the preeminent source of critical analysis and research related to those strategies, programs, and approaches that support and enhance advanced academic achievement for students of all ages. Potential authors should visit JAA's author and manuscript support Web site at the University of Connecticut.

I invite you to subscribe to the Journal of Advanced Academics. I believe it offers a new and innovative view of the education of gifted and talented students.