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Many students attend two, three, four or more colleges en route to a degree, writes Chad Alderman on The Quick and the Ed. With AP and online courses, plus low-cost community college options, even more will be rolling their own education. So why not let course-givers provide credits, instead of ...
World
Chad
The Science on Women and Science, is a collection of essays by researchers who disagree on why women lag behind men in science careers. Is it gender bias? Differences in ability or interest? Sean Cavanagh summarizes on Curriculum Matters:
Some of the essayists, like Spelke and Ellison, argue ...
Other
Pittsburgh students are the best in the nation -- and the world -- in ability to spell "'Roethlisberger," reports The Onion. During the Steeler quarterback's rookie season in 2004, only 43 percent of students could spell Roethlisberger, said Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl.
"In just five ...
Other
Darwinian evolution? Intelligent design? In a letter to a Kansas school board, Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster devotees demand that Pastafarian beliefs be taught in public schools along with other theories of creation.
Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent ...
Other
Future teachers will be required to repudiate the American dream -- "the idea that in this country, hardworking people of every race, color and creed can get ahead on their own merits" == at University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus, writes Katherine Kersten in the Minneapolis ...
Other
Ed Gillespie
Notes From A Homeschooling Mom is hosting the Carnival of Educators. (Email Andrea if you want to be a future carnival host.)
Siobhan Curious, a British literature teacher, writes about an 18-year-old student who's desperate to pass her course after seven weeks out of school trying to help his ...
Other
Alternatives to Virginia's state exam, such as assessing portfolios of students' work, are proliferating, reports the Washington Post. The pass rate is soaring. Are the alternative assessments too easy?
The Virginia Grade Level Alternative, like the multiple-choice test, assesses students' ...
Congress
Virginia Foxx
As paternity testing has soared, more men have learned they're not the fathers of the kids they've been raising. But non-dads may be stuck paying child support for other men's children, reports the New York Times Magazine.
In most states, judges put the interest of the child above that of the ...
Other
President Obama promised a national science fair to spotlight young inventors and show young students how "cool science can be." It's part of his Educate To Innovate campaign: Sesame Street's Elmo and Big Bird, corporations, companies, video game programmers and scientists have pledged to ...
White House
Parents would pay a detention fee for their misbehaving children if two board members in Nutley, New Jersey get their way. Detention costs the district about $10,000 a year in overtime and maintenance. The board members want to fine parents of "habitual" detainees.
However, the policy may not ...
Other
Todd Farley's Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry gets a review in the Washington Post. After rising from scorer to trainer to test writer, Farley concluded that standardized tests are "less a precise tool to assess students' exact abilities than just a ...
Other
How to Lose Your Self of Steam & Other Teaching Lessons I Never Learned From Professional Development is Bellringers blogger Carol Richtsmeier's light-hearted look at her years as a journalism teacher.
Her response to students who don't turn in an assigned story, but claim they "tried"resonates ...
Other
To get their children into "gifted" kindergarten classes, affluent New Yorkers are hiring tutors to test-prep three- and four-year-olds, reports the New York Times. A "gifted" public education is free, while private school may cost $20,000 a year. So the cost of tutoring seems small by ...
Other
When it's noisy, kids don't learn language skills, writes Ashley Merryman in Newsweek.
Kids in noisy environments hear enough words that they learn to communicate. But they miss out on the additional language necessary to master the more sophisticated nuances of phonics, vocabulary, and ...
Other
Overparenting has sparked a backlash, claims Time, which sees a "revolution under way, one aimed at rolling back the almost comical overprotectiveness and overinvestment of moms and dads."
The insurgency goes by many names — slow parenting, simplicity parenting, free-range parenting — but the ...
Congress
Better science education wouldn't fix Star Trek's bad science, argues John Scalzi. But it doesn't matter.
. . . even movies with bad science can still inspire the science-minded. Aside from James Kirk, the main characters in Star Trek are a science officer, a linguist, a mathematical whiz kid, a ...
Other
A burka-clad Barbie will be sold in a charity auction for Save The Children. (Go to the link to see the photo.)
Barbie can leave her box only if escorted by Mullah Ken, sold separately, writes Tim Blair.
Other
EPA
Is Northern Virginia's Thomas Jefferson High, a science-and-tech magnet, too successful, asks The Washingtonian. "Why You Should Hate This School" is the subhead.
The public school admits only 16 percent of applicants. In addition to "whiz-kid scientists, computer jocks, and chess champions . ...
Other
To help teens succeed in school, parents' role starts at home, concludes a new book, Families, Schools and the Adolescent.
For example, while helping with homework makes a difference for elementary students, it has little impact for middle and high schoolers, concludes Nancy Hill, a Harvard ...
