"10 City Schools to Focus Reading Skills on Content" (NYTimes)

A recently announced pilot program is expected to overhaul the way children in 10 city schools are taught to read. The pilot program, which will involve about 1,000 children, represents a shift from the Bloomberg administration’s longstanding approach to teaching children to read, known as “balanced literacy.” Under that approach, children are encouraged to select books that interest them, at their own reading levels, from classroom libraries. The theory behind the approach is that it is more important to ensure that young children are truly engaged by books than to dictate that everyone read the same thing.

"A Plan to Test the City’s Youngest Pupils" (NYTimes)

The Bloomberg administration, which has made accountability the watchword of its overhaul of public education, is asking elementary school principals across the city to give standardized tests in English and math to children as young as kindergartners. The New York Times, August 26, 2008

SAT Scores Flat as Test-Taking Edges Upward

Flat SAT scores may be good news when the increased numbers of students taking the test are figured in. Education Week, August 26, 2008

Schools' Cash-to-Kids Plan Doesn't Pay Off

A controversial initiative that pays high-school students for passing Advanced Placement tests has failed to spur more kids to make the grade. The New York Post, August 20, 2008

Value-Added Evaluation Being Tried in Ohio Schools

The new "value-added" designation on Ohio schools' report cards indicates whether or not students are getting a year's worth of learning in the school, measured by much more than test results. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 24, 2008

Bush Education Law: Shift Ahead?

This could be the last time students go back to school under the current No Child Left Behind law. While opinions on the law are split (see the 40th Annual PDK/Gallup Poll), it's sure that the new president and Congress will be dealing with the law next year. The Christian Science Monitor, August 21, 2008

Starting Kindergarten Later Gives Students Only a Fleeting Edge, Study Finds

By the eighth grade, kindergarten's younger students catch up academically with older students. The study, "Kindergarten Entrance Age and Children's Achievement: Impacts of State Policies, Family Background, and Peers" will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Human Resources.  ScienceDaily, August 18, 2008

Slowing Speech Eases Child's Ability to Listen

Wichita State audiology professor Ray Hull says that students young and old better understand teachers who speak more slowly than the average adults do. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 22, 2008

Is the Semicolon "Girlie"?

Salon staff wonder about favorite punctuation marks. Salon.com, August 21, 2008

New Research Center to Focus on Education Technology

The National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies was approved in the recent reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.  Education Week, August 19, 2008

Lights, Camera . . . Debate; and Worksheet on How to Watch a Presidential Debate

NCTE consultant Frank Baker gives advice on how to use a media-literacy perspective when watching the presidential debates.  Cable in the Classroom, September 2008 (scroll down to article and worksheet)

Computer Time Doesn't Have to Replace Reading Time

NCTE President-Elect Kylene Beers says, "Kids may not be spending as much time reading a novel, but they're spending a lot more time reading things online."  WBZTV.com, August 25, 2008 (watch video interview)

Raving over reading

"Mary Lou Chumbley has a single computer in her second-grade classroom at April Lane Elementary — so it's not technology that's sent reading scores at the school soaring to the highest in the Yuba City Unified School District." (The Appeal Democrat)

When Schools Offer Money As a Motivator

"More and more school districts are banking on improving student performance using cash incentives -- a $1,000 payout for high test scores, for example. But whether they work is hard to say." (The Wall Street Journal)

Weak economy spurs growth for community colleges

"Two-year community colleges are seeing record enrollment as families squeezed by tough economic times steer high school graduates away from more expensive four-year universities." (The New York Times)

Basic English skills test scores show dramatic leap after Casa Grande students attend all-day kindergarten

Reports on all-day kindergarten initiative that resulted in 92 percent of the students learning the skills required to succeed in first-grade.

Tots show benefits from early emphasis on reading

Initial test results of the Early Reading First program, which focused on teaching 3 and 4 year old children early literacy skills, show the children came a long way.

The future of the book

This Ithaca Journal article describes how "Digital screens provide new option for literary lovers"--and the enduring interest in "old-fashioned" paper-based books.

What Your Frosh Know (and Don’t)

From Inside Higher Ed, this article reminds college professors of the things that their incoming first-year class of students do, and do not, know, based on the annual list released by Beloit College.

Will Colleges Friend Facebook?

This Inside Higher Ed article describes a company's new Facebook application, which addresses privacy concerns for colleges that want to engage and support students in social networking.

Author's 40-year search for story behind Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

This Hunts Post Online (UK) discusses a newly published book that outlines the personal story behind Ian Fleming's well-known novel.

Walter Dean Myers, A 'Bad Boy' Makes Good

NPR Story on the relationship between authors Walter Dean Myers and Richard Wright.

PBS Launches An ABCs Offensive With New Shows

NPR story provides details on new PBS shows: Super WHY and Martha Speaks.