Having trouble accessing government information? See the Libraries’ guide to Alternative Sources for Federal Information and Data.
PLCY 530: Educational Problems and Policy Solutions: Home
Guide to writing a policy brief
Find Scholarly Articles
Public Policy
-
PAIS IndexA bibliographic index to the literature of public policy, social policy, and the social sciences in general. Includes full-text articles.
Education
-
Education Full TextCovers more than 770 periodicals in the field of education, and selected books and annuals. Indexing from 1983-present; Full text coverage includes more than 350 journals from 1983-present.
Note: We are limited to 8 simultaneous users. -
ERICProduced by the Educational Resource Information Center, ERIC provides indexing and abstracting for journal and report literature (1966 to the present) in education and related disciplines.
Additional databases
-
EconLitAccess research articles, citations, and abstracts on economics, accounting, capital markets, econometrics, economic forecasting, government regulations, labor economics, monetary theory, urban economics, and more. Major index to economic literature from the American Economic Association.
-
Google ScholarEnables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web.
-
PsycInfoDatabase from the American Psychological Association covering the academic research and practice literature in psychology and related disciplines (medicine, education, social work, etc.) from over 60 countries in more than 29 languages. It provides indexes to journals, dissertations, book chapters, books, technical reports, and other documents from 1887 to the present.
-
PubMedDatabase of biomedical literature from the National Library of Medicine covering journal articles about medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, biology and public health from 1950 to the present; multiple mobile apps available, provides access to MEDLINE, etc. Includes links to full text of UNC-CH's electronic journal subscriptions.
-
Sociological AbstractsDatabase covering over 2500 journals in sociology, both theoretical and applied, and related disciplines including anthropology, economics, education, medicine, community development, philosophy, demography, political science, and social psychology. Articles in 30 different languages from about 55 countries.
Current Education Debates and Policy
Policy Briefs
-
Google Think Tank Search EngineSearches the websites of institutions that generate public policy research, analysis, and activity. These sites are affiliated with universities, governments, advocacy groups, foundations, and non-governmental organizations. The list represents a mixture of partisan and non-partisan think tanks.
Education trade journal and news
- Education Week - trade journal
- EdNC - North Carolina news
Education Blogs
- NC Newsline (not exclusively education focused)
- Civitas Institute
- Diane Ravitch's Blog
- Larry Cuban on school reform and classroom practice
Legislative information
-
CQ AlmanacCoverage and analysis of U.S. congressional legislation from 1945 to today, including how bills are changed, derailed, or ultimately passed during an annual session of Congress.
Advanced Google Searching
Below are advanced Google search techniques along with an example of each.
- To search one specific website; site:ncleg.gov
- To search one type of website; site:.edu
- To eliminate one website; -site:ncleg.gov
- To eliminate one word, you can also use the - sign; -France
- To search for a specific filetype; filetype:pdf
- To search for a specific phrase, put those words in quotation marks; "temporary assistance for needy families"
- In our library databases, you may use OR or AND when you are conducting a search. OR will give you more results and AND will give you less. In Google, it assumes all the words you search are needed, so you don't need to write AND. If you'd like to search using OR, Google version of OR is |, Morocco|Spain means Morocco OR Spain.
- To eliminate AI results from your search; -ai
Policy Actors
-
White House - Briefing RoomLink to White House/President's statements and releases, press briefing, presidential actions and more.
-
SCOTUS blog"Independent news & analysis on the Supreme Court"
-
ProQuest CongressionalComprehensive source of current and historical U.S. Congressional material, including bills, testimony, reports, documents, selected prints, the Congressional Record, the U.S. Code, Federal Register, and the Code of Federal Regulations.
-
Congress.govProvides access to legislative information, including the full text of the Congressional Record, a directory of congressional committees and members of Congress, the weekly floor schedule for the House, and a schedule of daily committee hearings.
-
Interest GroupsListing of some major U.S. interest groups by issue area from Vote Smart.
Public opinion
-
Roper Center's iPollOffers extensive database of opinion poll datasets. Roper’s iPOLL allows searching at the question level. The Center archives national opinion polls back to 1935, both U.S. and some international polls. Holdings include survey results data from academic, commercial and media survey organizations such as Gallup, Harris Interactive, Pew Research Associates, ABC, CBS, Wall Street Journal and many more. Many datasets are available for instant download in ASCII or SPSS format. Datasets not available for immediate download may be requested from the Center to be queued for digitization.
NOTE: First time users to NEW Roper iPoll need to self-register for access at login. Your credentials from Classic iPOLL will NOT work without new registration as of 8/14/2020. Classic iPOLL will no longer be updated after Sept 1, 2020.
Find Newspaper Articles
-
America's NewsAmerica's News is the most comprehensive U.S.newspaper resource available. It provides information on people, issues, and events in the local area or around the country. Updated daily, America's Newspapers offers tens of millions of current and archived full-text articles from newspapers nationwide in a single, fully searchable online database. It includes the complete electronic editions of 827 newspapers - with 75% of these sources not available in any other library database.
-
Nexis UniCovers general, regional, and international news, company and financial information, legal information (including law reviews, case law and legal rulings), and other topics such as biographical information. Many files are full-text.
-
New York Times Academic PassUNC Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff now have full, year-round access to The New York Times, including smartphone, tablet, and browser access, thanks to a sponsorship from the University Library. For app downloads, visit NYTimes.com/mobile.
Access DOES include NYT Cooking, but does not include e-reader editions, Premium Crosswords or The New York Times Crosswords apps. Pass users also receive access to the New York Times archives (1851-2002) which includes 5 PDF downloads from the Times Machine per day via timesmachine.nytimes.com/browser. Archive articles outside that date range are not subject to that limit. Digital access is available only during the time that our New York Times Site License is active.
To set up your account: Please consult https://guides.lib.unc.edu/nyt-academic-pass for detailed directions on setting up your account.
Find Statistics
-
National Center for Education StatisticsPrimary statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Education.
-
NC School Report CardsFind data for NC public schools (and some charter schools) including performance, personnel, digital access, crime, suspensions and expulsions, plus school/district profiles.
-
Kids Count Data CenterThe premier source for data on child and family well-being in the United States. Access hundreds of indicators, download data and create reports and graphics on the KIDS COUNT Data Center that support smart decisions about children and families.
-
Civil Rights Data Collection (Department of Education)Collects data on leading civil rights indicators related to access and barriers to educational opportunity at the early childhood through grade 12 levels.
-
Bureau of Labor StatisticsGood resource for topics on student loan debt and wealth disparity.
-
Peer City Identification ToolCompare peer cities on equity, resilience, outlook and housing through data in tables and graphs. Tool designed by Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
-
PolicyMapAccess social, economic, health and demographic data about U.S. communities and markets in this online mapping tool. View data on map, in table or chart format, and download those data that are openly available. Reports provide a summary snapshot of an area: Community Profile, Community Health Profile, Rental Housing Report, and Housing Mortgage Report.
UNC Catalog Search
Interlibrary Loan
Can't find the article, book, or report you need at our library? You can request it from another library through interlibrary loan.
orcid.org/0000-0003-2533-582X