Carnival of Email #4: Spring Break is Over Edition

The Sunday afternoon before you go back to school after spring break is melancholy defined. This is even more true when you were sick the two weeks before spring break.

In laryngitis news, I can finally talk almost normally after THREE WEEKS of whispering. My poor daughter keeps wondering why daddy won't say anything, and even with the progress I've made my voice still fails me on occasion. It'll be nice to have oral communication back again.

On with the carnival!

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The Innovate Journal of Online Education has published their newest issue; there's a great article on "healthy video gaming" that breaks a lot of assumptions. This is a good resource for anyone interested in Web 2.0 and what it could mean for the classroom.

The College Board is eliminating four unpopular AP courses, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education via the Washington Post. If you were thinking of taking AP French, Italian, Latin, or Computer Science next year, never mind.

The ASCD Smartbrief lead off Friday with the good news about the NAEP writing scores. The Associated Press weighs in here; the NY Times with a gloomier take here; and my good friends at the Fordham Foundation provide video here.

A 7-year old in Washington DC spanked a girl on the bottom. Once upon a time that would have meant a trip to the principal and a swat of his own; this principal thought it made more sense to call the cops. That feels like overkill, but the same article says that Maryland suspended 22 FIRST GRADERS last year for sexual harassment.

Having daughters makes you a democrat says a researcher out of Yale. One wonders where our current president went off the rails, then.

Courses with dual face-to-face and online components are proving their merit, says the ESchool News. I've taken online courses, and I've taken traditional courses that require online work, but I've never taken one like what this article describes.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced that we'll soon have a national graduation rate formula, because for too long states have been able to define dropouts in whatever way suits them, making comparison impossible. This is a good idea that we should have had long ago. DoE press release here; NASSP here.

A blog that I really should add to the blogroll is The School Law Blog from Education Week. It seems like they keep it pretty relevant, and seeing the law behind the stories always helps add a deeper understanding.

The Summer Institute for the Gifted does a nice newsletter on what's going on in the gifted ed community. I looked into the program a couple of years ago for one of our most amazing girls; I'd be curious to talk with anyone who has had kids attend.

Education Sector celebrated April Fool's Day with some sort of Mad Lib; similarly unfunny was The Fordham Foundation's jab at Ed in '08. These are obviously folks with a lot of time on their hands.

Every thought that has ever been had about the achievement gap can be found in this post at the Freakonomics Blog from the New York Times.

Bruce Oliver is a former school administrator who writes a monthly column for Just Ask Publications that's pretty good reading. This month he's looking at formative assessments and the power they can have in the classroom. It dovetails nicely with what I heard at WERA last month.

In the "A proper anticipatory set makes all the difference!" department, girls are getting sucked in to science via its application to cosmetics. The mind boggles.

Three "No shits" in a row to close:
Choosing the right books for kids can be a challenge. Yes. Yes, it can.
Smaller class size leads to higher student engagement. Gosh. Why would that be true?
100% proficiency may not be possible. You mean we can't get 100% of kids to do what we want them to do? Damn.

Midway closed!