Newest data on 100 largest public school districts (2008-09)

This annual report provides information from the Common Core of Data about the nation's largest public school districts in the 2008-09 school year. The data include such characteristics as the number of students and teachers, number of high school completers, the averaged freshman graduation rate, and revenues and expenditures. Clark County and Washoe are both included in this group. Clark County still comes in at #6. There were some astounding variations in annual per pupil expenditures, i.e., these ranged from a low of $6,363 in the Granite District, Utah to a high of $23,298 in Boston, Massachusetts.

The full report is found here: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011301.pdf

Improving group work in your classes

Good article in today's CHE (Mon., Nov. 8) on using team based learning (TBL) to improve group work in classes (large and small). Included a link to an informative video of TBL used in several classes at UT-Austin. Included interviews with faculty and students, overviews of the key steps to make this process work, etc. http://www.utexas.edu/academic/ctl/teaching/tblvideo.php
There was also a link to a web-site for a community of practitioners, with a growing "case bank" of activities: http://teambasedlearning.apsc.ubc.ca/
If you're already doing a successful TBL activity, submit a poster proposal (Dec. 15 deadline). The national conference will be here in Las Vegas next March: http://tblc.roundtablelive.org/

Teaching the academic essay as conversation

Having myself written a couple of articles about using conversation as a metaphor for the research process, I immediately jumped into this post by Dr. Kelli Marshall where she talks about her students' writing problems as a result of never having been taught that "they need to “enter a conversation,” using what other people say as a springboard for their own ideas/thesis." I couldn't agree more. Even if you're not familiar with the Burkean Parlor metaphor, experienced writers will recognize the need to read widely in order to write well. As Peter Elbow also addressed this conversational nature of academic writing when he said, “this is what we academics do: carry on an unending conversation not just with colleagues but with the dead and unborn” (1995, p. 79).

IES compares effectiveness of 4 early elementary math curricula

Four math curricula, (1) Investigations in Number, Data, and Space, (2) Math Expressions, (3) Saxon Math, and (4) Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Mathematics (SFAW), were compared for effectiveness in the 1st and 2nd grades of 110 schools in 12 participating districts in 10 states. A brief overview of the findings and links to the full reports are located here: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20114001/

Advice for dissertation writers and the advisors thereof...

Interesting post in today's Chronicle (Nov. 1, 2010) directed primarily to faculty advising students working on dissertations. The suggestions however are useful as well for those actually writing the dissertation, so I encourage both groups to have a look. Here are the major areas addressed:

• Create a collaborative environment.
• What is your student really interested in?
• Steer them away from the beginning.
• Perfect is the enemy of done.
• A time to read, a time to type.

New study on bullying in high schools

According to the press release, "... a new study by the Josephson Institute of Ethics (the largest ever undertaken of the attitudes and conduct of high school students), [shows that] half of all high school students (50 percent) admit they bullied someone in the past year, and nearly half (47 percent) say they were bullied, teased, or taunted in a way that seriously upset them in the past year. The study reports the responses from 43,321 high school students. The margin of error is less than 1%." The Internet is cited as a factor in increasing the frequency and severity of bullying. 

NCATE and TEAC are now CAEP

As you may have heard from speaker Jane West yesterday, or via some other news source, the two major accrediting bodies for teacher education programs have now merged into the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. West called this a positive step in creating a unified voice for teacher preparation programs. Here's an excerpt from the new organization's web site:
"October 22, 2010, was a historic day for educator preparation. The NCATE and TEAC governing boards voted to create a single accrediting body for educator preparation. The two organizations will consolidate into one organization, CAEP, within a two-year period. The new organization will offer accreditation options."