The Carnival of Email #3: Yet Another Freakin' Snow Day Edition

We lost our seventh day of school today. At this rate I'll need to ready lesson plans for the 4th of July.

So, to pass the time, here's another installment of the Carnival of Things in My Email Box. Enjoy!

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The RIAA is getting slapped again for the way they find students to sue for file sharing. Whenever I read a story about the RIAA I'm always reminded of one of my favorite Onion stories, Kid Rock Starves to Death.

Professors have it better than your average schoolteachers. You can get a sense of that from reading this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education where one recent PhD in Economics talks about his hiring process.

One of the difficulties I have getting content onto the blog is that I don't make writing a priority. It's with the best of intentions--being a father and a husband always should come first, after all--but I really liked what I read here about appointment writing. The column is written by a professor at Eastern Washington University, so you know it must be good.

The description of this audio clip from NPR says it all:

Matt Miller has a radical but simple proposal to improve the nation's public schools: federalize funding to eliminate disparities in per-pupil funding between poor and affluent communities. He also proposes a single set of federal standards for math, science and reading, instead of letting each state set its own standards. Scott Simon speaks with Miller, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

It's an impossible, unconstitutional idea, but isn't that the way it usually goes for the fun ones?

The above link came from the Edutopia newsletter, which is easily the most multimedia of all the newsletters that fill my email box. It's a definite recommend for anyone interested in schools.

A study out of Arizona State University says that the "dropout trajectory" can start as early as kindergarten. I'm not sure that what they're saying here is new--we've long known what the correlates of dropping out are--but the way they're saying it is certainly eye-opening.

Out of Cincinatti, the usual editorial on how gifted kids are often overlooked in the schools. I think that if we want to encourage excellence we need to fund excellence; the state of funding for gifted and talented programs is abysmal.

The Association of Washington School Principals does a very nice job with their online newsletter. It's great for anyone interested in school leadership in Washington State.

Democrats like No Child Left Behind too. Given that Ted Kennedy has signed on with the Obama campaign, it seems reasonable to suggest that there wouldn't be a whole lot of change in the law should be be elected president.

Education Week's On Special Education blog is a very well-written look at both special ed and gifted education. Their Digital Directions insert has an interesting audio interview with Chip Kimball, the new superintendent of the Lake Washington School District, who used to be the district's CIO.

Back down to Arizona, where they're spending tens of thousands of dollars.....to recruit kindergarteners. Hooray for the free market?

The Washington Post looks at the movement to extend the school day and year as a way to increase student learning. To me it's a question of mandates--there's no way to teach everything that needs to be taught in a 6 hour day, so either give me more time or tell me what not to teach.

At the Chronicle of Higher Ed they're bemoaning the loss of the loveable eccentric on our University campuses. Support the cause--be weird!