November 1996 NWREL Web Site Sports New Look,
Easier Access
If you haven't visited the NWREL Web site on the Internet, now is the time. If you're making a repeat visit, you'll find a lot of changes that make it easier and faster to find the information you need.
The Laboratory's redesigned Web site is more visually oriented and easier to use than its first incarnation. The opening home page, previously filled with text and hypertext, now displays icons for seven areas of interest regarding NWREL: Organization, Programs and Services, What's New, Resources, Links, Board and Staff, and Location.
Once you venture into one of these submenus, a row of buttons across the top of the screen provides a shortcut back to any of the major categories or to the home page itself. For a quick way to keep up with changes and additions to the NWREL Web site, simply click on the "What's New" category. From there, go to the "New on NWREL Web Site" to get a list of changes and coming attractions. Other categories in "What's New" include News from NWREL (press releases), Vacancy Announcements, and Events.
A new and notable category on the Web site is a searchable database of promising practices in the Northwest: "The Best of the Northwest." Currently, practices are drawn from the National Diffusion Network's Program Effectiveness Panel, state-recognized Title I schools, and peer-identified promising school programs. They can be searched with any combination of the following categories of descriptors: the type of recognition; educational themes such as rural education, professional development, and eight others; the system level, such as the classroom, school, or district; the student-age group; and the five Northwest states. As time goes on, the database will be expanded to include practices from additional sources.
Another new resource—the School Improvement Research Series (1987-95)—appears in a searchable form. It includes topical syntheses, close-ups, and snapshots of teaching and learning practices and their effects on student achievement, attitudes, or social behaviors.
The improvement series continues to attract attention nationally as well as within the region. For example, Close-up #17 in the series: "Reducing the Dropout Rate," has been selected by Discovery Channel School to be linked as a curriculum resource for a program on Goals 2000: Preventing Truancy and Dropouts. The program is scheduled to air January 17, 1997; the Discovery Channel School can be reached at http://school.discovery.com Visitors to NWREL's redesigned Web site will also find it easier to order publications by NWREL staff members. More than 500 products and publications currently available from NWREL, ERIC, professional associations, and commercial publishing houses will be accessible through NWREL's Web site.
While the Laboratory's Web site has been redesigned and improved, its gopher site (text only) has been phased out, reflecting the World Wide Web's ever-growing predominance in cyberspace. The NWREL home page is located at http://www.nwrel.org.
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