- Bad Teachers Improving With Help From Peers – Miller-McCune
- President Barack Obama has endorsed peer review as a way to help struggling teachers, and so has the American Federation of Teachers, but nationally, such programs are few and far between since they were developed in Toledo, Ohio, nearly 30 years ago. In California, the Legislature funded them beginning in 1999 to help both new hires and tenured veterans. But California allows its 1,052 districts to shift Peer Assistance and Review money to other programs if they choose: They don’t have to tell the state how they spend it. …
- Teaching Religious Literacy in California’s Bible Belt – Miller-McCune
- A Central California community has added a fourth “R” to the core curriculum in its public schools: Religion. Sociologist Emile Lester answers our questions about the experiment. …
- In September 2000 — one year before the 9/11 attacks — this Central California community instituted a requirement that all ninth-graders complete a nine-week survey course on the world’s religions. It is believed to be the first school system in the U.S. to make religious literacy mandatory for graduation. …
- For Americans, Mobility Breeds Uniformity – Miller-McCune
- Researchers argue the much-decried homogenization of America is, in part, a product of our residential mobility.
- Auto Deaths a Side Effect of Higher Fuel Efficiency Standards – Miller-McCune
- Research confirms that increasing fuel economy standards does cost lives on the road. But economist Mark Jacobsen explains how that doesn’t have to be the case.
- HRELP – About | The Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project
- HRELP aims to document endangered languages, train language documenters, preserve and disseminate documentation materials, and support endangered languages. It operates from a donation of £20 million from Arcadia.
HRELP is based at SOAS, University of London, and consists of three programmes:
The Documentation Programme (ELDP) is providing £15 million in research grants to document the world’s most endangered languages
The Academic Programme (ELAP) Teaches postgraduate courses in language documentation and description, and field linguistics. It also hosts post-doctoral fellows, researchers, visitors, and conducts seminars and training
The Archiving Programme (ELAR) is preserving and disseminating endangered language documentation, developing resources, and conducting training in documentation and archiving
- California School Superintendent Declines Salary
- Fresno School Superintendent Larry Powell has agreed to give up $800,000 in salary that he would have earned over three years. Until his term expires in 2015, Powell will run 325 schools and 35 school districts with 195,000 students, all for less than what a starting California teacher earns. …
Powell’s generosity is more than just a gesture in a region with some of the nation’s highest rates of unemployment.
[My bookmarks live at delicious.com/camryl. In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Also, signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
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