31 January 2008
Well, as regular readers know, I sometimes check on the cartoons at Weapons of Math Destruction. I learned about this one yesterday. It’s about some fellows discussing an exorcism of a crazy character who maintains that students do not need to learn multiplication tables.
I have actually heard some mathematics educators contend that students should learn [...]
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30 January 2008
In a column entitled “Teacher speaking out about beating,” Rick Badie (columnist for the Atlanta, GA, US, Journal-Constitution describes his reaction to a terribly unfortunate incident in which a middle school teacher was injured by a student. Here are the first few paragraphs of his column:
The swelling has subsided, but her head still throbs.
Her nerves [...]
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After hearing Steve Inskeep of NPR’s Morning Edition perpetuate the myth that individuals with dyslexia suffer from reversals, I submitted the following comment via the NPR Web site.
Dear Mr. Inskeep,
I was sorry to learn that you have the mistaken idea that the Learning Disability called dyslexia is characterized by “seeing things backwards.” I was even [...]
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Professor Lauren Weiss and colleagues form the Autism Consortium published a paper in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine today that provides further and stronger evidence about genetic problems underlying Autism. They have identified changes in genetic structure that appear in a small number of children but not in those children’s parents.
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29 January 2008
BROOKLYN COLLEGE SCHOOL OF EDUCATIONFOUR TENURE-TRACK FACULTY POSITIONS 2007-2008
Brooklyn College is widely regarded as one of the best public urban colleges in the United States. As one of the eleven senior colleges of the City University of New York (CUNY), Brooklyn College shares the mission of providing access and academic ...
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A news story from the Salt Lake (UT, US)Tribune that ran prior to the defeat of the Utah initiative to implement a system of vouchers for K-12 education mentioned concern about private schools refusing to accept students with disabilities.
One thing Utah vouchers foes fear is that private schools will refuse ...
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28 January 2008
In “Massive Funding Cuts to ‘Reading First’ Generate Worries for Struggling Schools,” Kathleen Kennedy Manzo of Education Week reports about the views of educators and policy analysts on recent reductions in funding for the US government’s Reading First program. Ms. Manzo, whose article includes the opinions of both those who consider the RF program to [...]
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The US National Institutes of Health issued a call for recommendations about priorities for research on Autism. Under the title “Request for Information (RFI): Research Priorities for the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee Strategic Plan for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD),” the agency is seeking “input from ASD stakeholders such as individuals with ASD and their families, [...]
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The US Department of Education Institute for Educational Science has published the January 2008 edition [3(1)] of its electronic newsletter. The newsletter has regular features as well as special foci.
Welcome to the IES Research e-News, the electronic newsletter of the Institute of Education Sciences. This issue highlights the Institute’s efforts to promote the development and [...]
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Over on EBDBlog I posted an entry about a story recounting the use of theater to help children with Autism prepare for religious ceremonies. The reporter, James Ricci, has the following paragraph that serves as one of the indicators of the children’s success.
Over time, the initial goal of trying to “get him into our [...]
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27 January 2008
Consistent with the theory that genetic variations cause Autism, there were two articles about proteins involved in neural synapses in the journal Neuron last month. I present the abstracts here primarily as a prompt for others to read them. These studies are pretty important because the proteins in question, the production of which is [...]
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In an article entitled “Regents back McWalters on special-ed class sizes,” Linda Borg of the Providence (RI, US) Journal reported about a disagreement between a teachers’ group and an administrator about the number of students who could be assigned to a classroom. The administrator wanted to increase special education class sizes from 10 to 12 [...]
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24 January 2008
Consistent with the recent burst of interest about successful folks with dyslexia, Time magazine has an interview with Sir Richard Branson, the entrepreneur behind the Virgin brand of brand of businesses. Mr. Branson responded to questions submitted by readers, one of whom asked about dyslexia.
Has your dyslexia hindered you in the business world? —Skye O’Brien, [...]
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23 January 2008
After many years of valuable service to the Learning Disabilities community, Charles and Helen Schwab are passing along their popular Web sites, Schwab Learning and Sparktop, to two other organizations. The Schwabs will shift their focus to other mays to help children and youths with Learning Disabilities and their families.
Thanks for all the good [...]
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Elona Hartjes had a delightful and insightful post, one of many, on her blog some time ago. In the post she explains how she took an important lesson from a book she happened to read in a bookstore. She applies the lesson to her teaching.
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22 January 2008
The Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy continues to promote investment in research-proven programs. The coalition proposes a $3 billion investment in grants permitting scaling up of evidence-based social interventions.
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While we’re on the subject of Autism, what should one say when confronted with the idea that expert witnesses championing the purported link between thimerosal and Autism have received hefty fees for their work? Brian Deer of the London (GB) Sunday Times has dug through the records and found that one physician receive approximate [...]
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21 January 2008
Judge Stuart R. Berger of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City (MD, US) barred testimony by Mark Geier in a case based on the idea that thimerosal in a vaccine causes Autism. Depending heavily on expert testimony by Dr. Geier and others, Jamarr Blackwell’s parents sued the vaccine maker, Wyeth. On 21 December 2007 Judge [...]
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In its current newsletter (No 63, Winter 2007: “The Great Reading Disaster; Beware BSF”), the UK Campaign for Real Education alerts readers to a dozen contemporary concerns about the quality of education. There are sections recounting the “great reading disaster,” concerns about the government program called “Building Schools for the Future,” notes about how English [...]
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In “Schizophrenia takes a daughter away: Even a loving family with ample financial resources is powerless against the disease,” Scott Gold and Lee Romney of the Los Angeles (CA, US) Times describe the struggles of Tiffany Sitton and her family with Ms. Sitton’s schizophrenia. The reporters reveal how shortcomings in the mental health system have [...]
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In “A true rite of passage: Unusual theater project prepares autistic teens for bar and bat mitzvahs,” James Ricci of the Los Angeles Times describes an unconventional approach to helping children and youths with Autism learn to interact with others. He focuses his story on Elaine Hall and her son, Neal, explaining how Ms. Hall [...]
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Folks, your not-so-trustworthy administrator failed to update one of the side programs for this blog when he updated the basic software. So, the polls haven’t worked right recently. Thanks to those who let me know (through public and private channels). I’ve updated the polling software and I think it’s right now.
Please revisit What is [...]
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20 January 2008
As P. Z. Myers noted in a recent post, one of the plagues of blogging is handling the comment spam; not that Teach Effectively is anywhere nearly as popular as Professor Myers’ Pharyngula, but Teach Effectively does get hit with a lot of spam. People send robots to add comments to post for nefarious reasons [...]
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18 January 2008
The current Education Gadfly has a guest editorial by Shep Barbash entitled “Reading First’s Christmas massacre” in which Mr. Barbash decries the funding cuts to the Reading First program.
Reading First, funded at $1 billion per year, is among the most promising federal efforts to help the poor. Title I, funded at $12 billion [...]
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17 January 2008
There’s a bit of talk about “critical thinking.” A post over on Instructivist prompted me to consider alternative meanings for the adjective, “critical.” There are several connotations for it, so I thought, hmmm… it being the season of lots of news about polls and this being a democracy, let’s vote on what sort of critical [...]
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16 January 2008
Autism Speaks, the nearly 3-year-old advocacy organization that advocates for research and awareness of Autism, announced that it has awarded nearly $5 million for research to investigate the causes, biology, diagnosis, and treatment of Autism. According to Peter Bell, an executive vice president of Autism Speaks, “These grants will fund research projects that offer innovative [...]
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Through ACT 4 Juvenile Justice (ACT4JJ), which is a lobbying group, National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Coalition is seeking support for a statement of principles regarding reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA). The organization compiled the principles in an effort to strengthen federal-state partnerships, ensure that states receive the federal [...]
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Over on Snail-Snail, snail_snail has a couple of posts that illustrate fundamentals for behavior management. The recommendations, in the form of a list one should ask oneself, provide the basic background that should be in place before one attempts to employ more formal behavior modification procedures.
Under the titles “Onaway Elementary/Day N,” snail_snail raises questions [...]
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Liam Julian, who writes for the Fordham-sponsored Education Gadfly, has an editorial in the 20 December issue that amounts to a call for employing Direct Instruction. In “Check yourself before you wreck yourself,” Mr. Julian writes about the utility of checklists. He explains that when doctors use specific, scripted methods they are not criticized for [...]
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On the off chances that one of LD Blog’s three readers is looking for a position in higher education or organizations concerned with special education and related areas of teaching and research: Check http://SpedPro.org/. Many universities and other agencies post announcements there are open positions.
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13 January 2008
Just in case anyone doubts the need for preparing teachers to manage classroom behavior, here are five illustrations:
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11 January 2008
The Department of Educational Foundations, Secondary, and Special Education at the College of Charleston is seeking applicants for a tenure-track position in special education at the level of Assistant Professor to begin August 16, 2008. Qualifications include a doctorate in special education or a related field, a minimum of three ...
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TMAO, who blogs at Teaching in the 408, has a post discussing the semi-professional position into which many teachers feel they are pushed. TMAO proposes that abolition of some constraints (e.g., tenure) and adoption of some form of merit pay will help professionalize teaching. To be treated like a profession, though, teaching will almost certainly [...]
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I was pleased to happen upon a Web site entitled The Concord Review. The folks there—principally Will Fitzhugh—pitch the idea that academic excellence should be treated just as well as athletic excellence, so they have a varsity team of high school history writers. According to the home page, “Varsity athletics and athletes are celebrated everywhere. [...]
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Professor S. G. Ingesson interviewed Swedish teens and young adults who have dyslexia to learn about their educational experiences. His informants suggested a lot of interesting things to him. I was taken with one finding indicating that, as they aged, students reported differing feelings of well-being. Generally, they recollected that their feeling of well-being had [...]
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Over on WrightsLaw, Sue Whitney Heath responded to a question from a parent about a school that made a questionable decision about a student’s school placement. Under the headline “Behavior Problems: It Isn’t Okay Just to Teach the Easy Kids,” Ms. Heath provides advice to the parent about how to address the problem.
Your son is [...]
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In one more example of the mis-representation of “behavior modification,” another of those facilities aimed to serve (not the right word?) children and youths with behavior that their parents find unacceptable has been identified as a “behavior modification facility. Tranquility Bay, more accurately characterized as an extremely strict re-education camp, is the subject of a [...]
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I just have to screech about how unexpectedly difficult it was for me to find a tutor for one of my students who lives in Victoria. It's not a huge city, but it's big enough that I thought it should be straight forward finding someone qualified to work with a little girl with dyslexia. I called seven different tutors and tutoring businesses, and was not satisfied with the methods described by any of them. Some were actually a little weird, I thought. There are lots of people out there willing to take your money!
At the last minute, a colleague found a name in the back of an education magazine. Thank goodness it was a wonderful woman who does the Lindamood program!
Hmmm. This feels more like a whine than a screech; oh well, I did have all day to get over it...
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10 January 2008
Some time ago, blogger Doug Belshaw had a post providing guidance about managing behavior that I just discovered. In the post Mr. Belshaw gives tips about classroom management that are worth repeating. Although there are 10 items in his list, I’ll just illustrate them using a couple here:
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Few reasonable people champion the absolutist position that emotional and behavioral disorders are solely the result of biological or environmental problems. Still, when I come across work that re-emphasizes the mutual interaction of environmental and biological factors, I find it refreshing. In this review paper, Professors E. D. Leonardo and R. Hen present an integrated [...]
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In a story entitled “Teaching as a rewarding second career” in the Waynseboro (VA, US) News Virginian, Bob Stuart describes the experience of Chris Eldredge, an electrical engineer who changed careers and became a middle school math teacher. Mr. Stuart reports that Mr. Eldredge came to appreciate the importance of learning classroom management skills.
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Gül Dölen and Mark BaerPhoto by Donna Coveney
Professor Mark Baer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who studies how brains change as a result of experience, and his colleagues have identified bio-chemical factors (mGluR5 and FMRP) that, when re-balanced in mice bred to model Fragile-X syndrome, correct multiple defects associated with mental retardation and [...]
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9 January 2008
The Chronicle of Higher Education officially broke the news today of a substantial effort to bring qualified people into teaching. Under the headline "2 Fellowship Programs to Award Millions to Prospective Teachers" there is a story about a state- and a national-level program.
Let's hope that the people who go ...
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Folks, your not-so-trustworthy administrator failed to update one of the side programs for this blog when he updated the basic software. So, the polls haven't worked right recently. Thanks to those who let me know (through public and private channels). I've updated the polling software and I think it's right ...
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8 January 2008
Pat and I have a quiet tug-o-war between management and teaching. Although both of us recognize the importance of having both classroom management and instructional skills, she contends that the management skills are required. Pollyanna-ishly, I maintain that if one’s instructional management is strong, one will not need behavior management competence.
Too be sure, my [...]
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After a competition last spring, the US Department of Education awarded a project to AIR to host RTI4Success. The Web site for that project recently became available. It has few resources at this time, but it's likely to grow.
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Under the headline “Study shows stronger links between entrepreneurs and dyslexia,” Brent Bowers of the International Herald Tribune reported that a survey of business leaders showed an unusually high proportion of them consider themselves dyslexic. Liz Ditz covered this story a couple of weeks ago, which is fitting given her recurring coverage of high-achieving dyslexics. [...]
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7 January 2008
Earlier this month, the US Department of Education convened a meeting of people interested in employing response-to-intervention procedures to improve the education of students who are struggling to attain academic and social competence. Teams represented state education agency and related others from each US state.
The purpose of this meeting ...
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6 January 2008
Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media is promoting its "Tools for Reporting on Teaching: What to Look for in Classrooms," a Web site aimed at helping journalists know what to look for in teaching. It's a dang clever idea, because the illustrations set the agenda for reporters. Those who ...
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Hmmmm... someone's written a little script that reads a Web page and computes a readability level for it. It's selling itself by publishing a link to a company that sells loans ("cash advances") in the code that displays the shield shown here. (I excised that code, but one can probably ...
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