31 January 2008
WMD on calculators
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
Teacher beaten
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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Reversals plugged on NPR
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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More de novo findings
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 Job Postings
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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Vouchers and special education
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
Reading First cuts
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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Last call for Autism research priorities
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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IES news
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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Another confusion of LD with the generic
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
Synapses and Autism
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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Class size spat
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
Richard Branson Interview
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
Schwab Learning to Great Schools and Sparktop to Professor Garfield Foundation
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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Ms. Hartjes? lettuce
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
Emphasizing excellence
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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Big $$ witnesses
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
Autism-thimerosal expert not redux
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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CRE newsletter
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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Schizophrenia robs family
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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