Education

I just spent a glorious day at the Mississippi NBCT Summit on the campus of the University of Mississippi. The highlight of the summit was a pinning ceremony for many of this year's Mississippi teachers who achieved Board Certification, which included a husband and wife team! The summit also featured NBPTS President Ron Thorpe, as well as State Senator Gary Tollison, chair of the MS Senate Education Committee.  I was part of a panel that responded to Thorpe's remarks and offered our own take on the future of teaching in Mississippi.

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Twenty-five percent of ACT test takers in 2012 were prepared for college, according to ACT’s 2012 Condition of College and Career Readiness report. Sixty-seven percent were ready to pass a college writing course, 52 percent were prepared to read a social science textbook, 46 percent were ready for college algebra and 31 were likely to pass biology. Forty percent of ACT test takers reached the readiness benchmark in three areas. Twenty-eight percent didn’t qualify in any subject. Passing an ACT benchmark means a student has a 50 percent chance of earning a B or better and a 75 percent chance of earning at least a C. Thirty-seven percent of test takers want to earn a professional or graduate degree, 45 percent will settle or a bachelor’s and 5 percent are aiming at an associate degree.

Karen Lewis, the fiery leader of the Chicago Teachers Union who led a strike last year and became a nationally known anti-school reform figure,  has been elected to another three-year term as president. Today she will lead the first of … Continue reading →

It's a movie, starring Tyra Banks and a young Lindsay Lohan, that's about the struggles of being a doll.

Be sure to check out this op-ed on Yahoo Finance regarding Senator Warren's proposal to cut interest rates on federal student loans.This Ed Money Watch post has a rundown of all of the pending proposals, including the one sponsored by House Republicans that will be up for a vote next week.

Vouchers have been at the center of the school choice movement for many reformers, but they may be in trouble. Here making that argument is Abby Rapoport of The American Prospect, where this appeared. By Abby Rapoport When news broke … Continue reading →

SUPPOSEDLY, E! has confirmed that Beyowulf is pregnant according to several sources.

"A young Houston couple is planning to give away $4 billion—but only to projects that prove they are worth it. Can they redefine the world of philanthropy?" The New Science Behind Philanthropy (WSJ via @mikepetrilli)

Hello everyone! A bit late this week due to spontaneous napping. Napping Is Good. I hope you all managed to find a little corner of time for some top left activity this week? I took some time to draw out a calendar for the summer (I can never find a diary that really has the layout that suits, so I keep a small pocket diary and have a squared-paper notebook which I rule up into day, week, month or other time period diary pages at whatever resolution I need depending on the time of the academic year and can also interleave them with lists as needed - this last round I ruled up the rest of the exam period with one line = 15 minutes for the heart of the working day (for student appointments etc.), June with half hour slots and lots of blank space underneath for having lists of tasks in, and a 'all summer 'vacation' on one page' one for planning more generally (things like when I can work from home and therefore take delivery of a new bed - much needed, and a TLQ problem since at least last summer, which is finally close to being resolved)), and it's kind of depressing how many weeks already have a meeting or some other annotation in them, and how little time there really is, what with conferences and conference papers and the like (before anyone gets kindly indignant on my part, like most UK academics I'm on a 12-month contract, not one of those nine month ones). That makes prioritising some Top Left activities even MORE important, right?No topic this week, unless you start one yourselves. Weekly reporting format:goal from last weekwhat you achievedanalysis of last week: what worked, what went wrong, what might need to change. analysis of next week (optional, but lets see if it is useful): what's coming up, any restrictions or particular time management challenges goal for next week: TLQ goal(s) for the next weekRoll call Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Amanda: (1) Analyze data from last week, (2) Run qPCR experiment, (3) Read 2 papers.Contingent Cassandra: finish/hand in grades (upper right but necessary), get at least a bit of exercise (4).Daisy: revise, revise, revise, and revise some more. Revisions to supervisor by end of weekElizabeth Anne Mitchell: Pull together latest drafts, list what needs to be done, and where to shop them when finished. This latter will affect the order of the articles.JaneB: a) do as much data collection for interim report as possible b) draft results section of DCP2Jodi A Campbell: Restructure chapter two, write 2500 words of chapter two, get through 8 ILL booksluolin88: one hour revising.Matilda: this week's goal is a tiny one. To make a nice weekly plan, and record my actually activity.metheist: My writing goal then is 2000 words for chapter 4. I will go to the gym 2 days this week and also cook 2 days.Propter Doc: Plan data analysis for project A. Write two blog posts. Think about project B.theorydave: Convert list of bullet points into a coherent results section for paper