Recommended Links
The following are links to recommended organizations and web sites that provide information on learning disabilities, ADHD, and other issues.
You can also see this list organized by type of organization, by focus, or by audience.
National Center for Technology Innovation
The National Center for Technology Innovation (NCTI) advances learning opportunities for individuals with disabilities by fostering technology innovation. NCTI helps researchers, product developers, manufacturers, and publishers to create and commercialize products of value to students with special needs.
National Center for Family Literacy
The National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) inspires and engages families in the pursuit of education and learning together. Since 1989, the NCFL has helped more than one million families make educational progress by pioneering and improving family literacy programs. NCFL offers free resources for parents, educators, and community organizations.
National Association of State Directors of Special Education
Since 1938, NASDSE has focused on improving the educational services for children and youth with disabilities by making sure that students with disabilities are able to participate in their education and successfully transition to post-school education, employment, and independent living.
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is an independent research and innovation lab that focuses on the challenges of educating children in a rapidly changing media landscape. We conduct original research on emerging education technologies and collaborate with educators and media producers to put this research into action. The Center also aims to inform the national conversation on media and education by working with policymakers and investors.
FreeReading is a free, open-source reading program addressing literacy development for grades K-3. Leveraging the collective wisdom of researchers, teachers, reading coaches, and other education and industry professionals, FreeReading provides a high-quality, cost-effective framework for intervention programs supporting K-6 literacy. Schools and teachers can use the complete, 40-week, research-based intervention program for K-1 students, or use the library of lessons to supplement existing curriculum in phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing.
Edutopia offers teaching and learning resources for teachers and students that inspire collaboration, critical thinking, and communication. Edutopia's mission is to transform the learning process by helping educators implement six core learning strategies, including project-based learning and technology integration.
EDSITEment offers a treasure trove for teachers, students, and parents searching for high-quality material in the subject areas of literature and language arts, foreign languages, art and culture, and history and social studies.
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
To help foster a love of reading among children, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library provides age-appropriate books to young children by mailing each enrolled child a new book every month. The program allows any child access to books, regardless of income. More than 1600 local communities provide books to about 700,000 children every month through the program.
Communities In Schools (CIS) works within the public school system, determining student needs and establishing relationships with local businesses, social service agencies, health care providers, and parent and volunteer organizations to provide needed resources. CIS strategically aligns and delivers needed resources so that students can focus on learning.
Common Core State Standards Initiative
A state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Common Core State Standards provide a consistent framework to prepare children for college and the workforce by defining the knowledge and skills students should have in their K-12 education in order to succeed.
Children's Literacy Initiative
Children's Literacy Initiative (CLI) is a nonprofit that works with K-3 teachers to transform instruction so that children can become powerful readers, writers, and thinkers. CLI's goal is to close the gap in literacy achievement between disadvantaged children and their more affluent peers. CLI provides training and coaching to teachers and administrators, and quality children's books to classrooms.
The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
The Campaign is a collaborative effort by foundations, nonprofit partners, states, and communities across the nation to ensure that more children in low-income families succeed in school and graduate prepared for college, a career, and active citizenship. The Campaign focuses on the most important predictor of school success and high school graduation — grade-level reading by the end of third grade.
America's Promise Alliance is the nation's largest partnership dedicated to improving the lives of children and youth by ensuring that they get the fundamental resources they need to succeed: caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, effective education, and opportunities to help others. America's Promise brings together more than 400 national organizations representing nonprofits, businesses, communities, educators, and policymakers.
American School Counselor Association
The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) supports school counselors' efforts to help students focus on academic, personal/social, and career development so they achieve success in school and beyond. ASCA provides professional development, publications and other resources, research and advocacy to more than 31,000 professional school counselors.
Alliance for Excellent Education
The Alliance for Excellent Education is a Washington, DC-based national policy and advocacy organization that works to improve national and federal policy so that all students can achieve at high academic levels and graduate from high school ready for success in college, work, and citizenship in the twenty-first century. The Alliance focuses on America's six million most at-risk secondary school students — those in the lowest achievement quartile — who are most likely to leave school without a diploma or to graduate unprepared for a productive future.
Common Core Video Series by EngageNY
This 15-part series, made with the New York State Education Department, shows how to implement the Common Core for ELA/Literacy and Math in schools and classrooms.
Common Core Instructional Shifts on EngageNY
This document from EngageNY offers an overview of the shifts required in the Common Core English Language Arts and Math standards.
The English Language Arts Standards: Key Changes and Their Evidence
This video created by the writers of the standards shares five critical shifts from earlier standards: text complexity; analysis, inference and evidence; writing to sources; mastery of writing and speaking; and academic vocabulary.
Achieve the Core shares its condensed version of three shifts as well as tips for getting familiar with the shifts. Additional tools for implementation are also provided.
The Balance of Informational and Literary Texts in K-5
Standards author Susan Pimentel discusses the ways in which the standards balance informational and literary text for elementary grades.
