“They really cannot read … paragraphs (or) sentences that are connected,” says Sheida White, a researcher at the U.S. Education Department.

Slate offers suggestions for parents to help your child learn to read. None of it works for parents who can’t read well, but I suppose they’re not reading Slate.

It’s a bit Orwellian, notes  Medgadget. Just a tad.

From the DOD project overview:

We are looking for innovative applications that explore and harness the power of advanced interactive multimedia computer technologies to produce compelling interactive dialogue between a Service member and their families via a pc- or web-based application using video footage or high-resolution 3-D rendering. The child should be able to have a simulated conversation with a parent about generic, everyday topics. For instance, a child may get a response from saying “I love you”, or “I miss you”, or “Good night mommy/daddy.”

The proposal asks for “convincing voice-recognition, artificial intelligence, and the ability to easily and inexpensively develop a customized application tailored to a specific parent.”

If the father or mother dies, will Virtual Parent 2.0 be able to step in? This is just too spooky for me.

In concept, of course, well-delivered education eventually yields higher economic output and fewer social ills. But there’s scant evidence that an extra dollar invested in today’s schools delivers an extra dollar in value — and ample evidence that this kind of bail-out will spare school administrators from making hard-but-overdue choices about how to make their enterprise more efficient and effective.

“Depend upon it sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully,” said Samuel Johnson.

A Detroit elementary schools is asking parents to donate toilet paper, light bulbs, paper towels and trash bags.  Detroit spends more than $11,000 per student.

Update: To save $1.1 billion, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting five days from the school year; currently the state funds a 180-day year.  I think raising class sizes — which means laying off teachers — would be better for students.

From the Wall Street Journal:

According to the study, mathematicians fared best in part because they typically work in favorable conditions — indoors and in places free of toxic fumes or noise — unlike those toward the bottom of the list like sewage-plant operator, painter and bricklayer. They also aren’t expected to do any heavy lifting, crawling or crouching — attributes associated with occupations such as firefighter, auto mechanic and plumber.

Other jobs at the top of the study’s list include actuary, statistician, biologist, software engineer and computer-systems analyst, historian and sociologist. There seems to be a bias towards desk jobs.

Some of the low-scoring jobs were a surprise. Nurse? Well, there’s lots of stress and some physical exertion, but the pay is high. Is EMT a bad job while parole officer is a good job? If firefighter is such a bad job, why do so many people want to do it? Some people like to be active; some like stress.

In other career news, applicants for retail jobs are finding ways to cheat on personality tests, reports the Journal.  Some take the test multiple times, get advice from a friend who passed, look for answer keys online or get a friend to take the test for them. In your free time, do you prefer to stay home or go out? Do you think other people’s feelings are their own business? Are you bothered when something unexpected interrupts your day?

I took a personality test in 1978, when I applied for a lousy job at a local newspaper. It went on so long and repeated so many questions that I got too tired to remember my lies.  But they did call me in for an interview, so I guess I have a personality.

When I was hired by the San Jose Mercury News, I never took the personality test. My boss was too new to know he should send me through HR. Colleagues said they’d been asked whether they’d rather be a snake handler or a trapeze artist. I’m still pondering that one.

The National Head Start Association wants to get $4.3 billion for Head Start in the economic stimulus package.

Forty years of evaluations have demonstrated that Head Start does next to nothing to prepare its young charges — needy three- and four-year-olds — to succeed in kindergarten and beyond, and that whatever gains it yields quickly dissipate once the kids enroll in school.

The major reason it’s ineffective as a pre-school program is because it has no curriculum and little cognitive content, because most of its staffers are “child care workers,” not teachers, and because the National Head Start Association itself has defied every effort by policymakers to transform it into the pre-literacy program that it ought to be and that these kids truly need.

If funding were tied to a cognitive curriculum, would Head Start leaders buy into it?

SANDUSKY, OH—In a moment of confusion, area teenager Eric Dooley briefly walked into a local teen outreach center Tuesday, a place that neither he nor any of his teenaged friends would ever knowingly enter. “Oh, geez. I’m sorry,” the 15-year-old said as he quickly assessed the four battered foosball tables, outdated PlayStation console, overly friendly counselor, and garish orange and purple paint scheme — all intended to appeal to him — before exiting the facility in less than six seconds.

“Dooley reportedly joined a gang later that afternoon,” the story concludes.

Ø Only 9.6 percent of 4th and 8th grade ELLs scored “proficient” or higher in mathematics on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 2007, compared with 34.8 percent of students as a whole.

Ø The gap was similar on the 2007 NAEP in reading: 5.6 percent of ELLs scored proficient, compared with a national average of 30.4 percent.

One-fourth of ELLs showed no progress in a year. That varies from Maine, where 44.9 percent failed to improve, to Connecticut, where  just 1.4 percent made no progress.

English-Learners Pose Policy Puzzle reports that only a third of ELLs are foreign-born and nearly half are the children of immigrants.

Seventeen percent of ELLs are third-generation Americans with both parents born in the United States.

I’m guessing third-generation kids are mislabeled. They speak English fluently but read and write poorly for reasons other than the fact that some Spanish is spoken at home.

The report includes profiles of immigrant students from different cultures, countries and educational backgrounds.

. . . central office administrators split the order among 21 vocational schools to avoid competitive bidding required for purchases over $10,000. As a result CPS paid about $12,000 too much, according to Inspector General James Sullivan. “We were able to find the same machines cheaper online,” he said.

“We also look at it as a waste of money because the schools didn’t even know they were getting the equipment, schools didn’t know how to use the machines and weren’t prepared to implement them into the curriculum,” Sullivan said.

Several employees have been fired for the cappuccino caper.

Ms. Teacher sounds off on merit pay, which is backed by the incoming president and his Education secretary.

. . . we need to demand a place at the table and demand that those in leadership positions in the NEA and AFT speak to us in the trenches about what we think merit pay ought to look like. To do otherwise is simply put, stupid.

Rita Phillips has tips on preparing students to take tests — and have fun doing it.