Search sites and strategies for my final project

For my final project, I am considering doing something that involves one or more of the following:

• teaching writing in urban schools
• relevancy and/or validity of state test scores and/or internal exam scores as it relates to writing
• role of digital technology in student motivation or performance as it relates to writing

My ideas are very vague at this point.  I'm trying to think of something that will be useful to me in my current job, and something that relates to this course.

Currently, I work for SABIS Educational Systems, a company that globally manages many public and private schools, including several charter schools in the U.S. My focus is on curriculum support and development for the K-6 English program.  Among other things, I conduct teacher observations, write mock state exams, create teacher guides, review internal and external exam scores, and align our curriculum to state standards.
 Recently, our focus has been on improving student performance on both state exams and internal exams. I am convinced that one of the main problems that keeps our students from performing well on writing exams is that they are simply not motivated. My supervisor disagrees and believes that our teachers are not knowledgeable about how to relate our writing curriculum to state exams.  She put together a lovely and informative presentation that teaches teachers to review state tests and rubrics, and then incorporate that information into their writing units. While this is helpful and good to know, I do not believe that it will solve the problem that we are in.  Our students know how to write, they just don't want to do it. I suspect that digital writing will offer some type of solution. However, like most public schools, our schools operate on very tight budgets. Frankly, there is minimal technology available for teachers to use with their students. English classes never are scheduled for a day in the computer lab. Computer labs are booked for the entire year for testing and computer classes. Some classrooms have SMART Boards, though. I would like to learn more about how these can be used to motivate students.

All of this brings me to the point of this post.  What are some search sites, search strategies, and databases I could employ to collect information to investigate these topics? In the past, I have utilized the full text databases in the University of Minnesota library. These might prove useful, but I have not yet looked to see what is available on this topic.  I am quite certain that the National Council of Teachers of English will have information.  Some state departments of education might also have relevant information.  I expect these will be the places I begin looking for information.  They are reputable and have a vested interest in the field of education.  Another avenue might be to use Google to search for teacher websites, blogs, etc.  There are so many sites for and by teachers that address writing, student motivation, and incorporating digital technology.  The lack of resources at our charter schools is certainly not unique, so I can probably find information from other educators about they have addressed the same problem.

When evaluating websites, I look for several different things.  First, I look at the domain name.  Anything ending in .com tells me that I need to take a look at the site developers, authors, background, etc. Not all .com sites are irrelevant, but it is important to discover who is producing them and why.  A similar principal applies to .org websites.  Many of these have a particular bias that may or may not discount their credibility.  Sites ending in .gov are generally credible, but they might not have information as current as others. When looking at .edu sites, I note whether it comes from a K-12 or post-secondary school.  I also evaluate the look and feel of a site to determine whether or not I want to use it as a source.  If the site is poorly designed, difficult to navigate, or visually unappealing, I am less likely to use it.  If a site is easy to navigate, contains good information, and is credible, then I will use its links to outside sources to find other helpful sites.

I'm still learning how to effectively use Google Reader and Diigo tools, so I don't yet know how I will use them as I conduct my research.  The highlighting and notetaking feature on Diigo is appealing, and I would like to learn more about that.  Google Reader seems a bit overwhelming at this point.  I need to learn more about filtering and sorting all of the information as it comes in.