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The U.S. Department of Education still ranks near the bottom of the list of big federal agencies when it comes to employee job satisfaction, at least according to a survey released last week by the non-profit Partnership for Public Service.
But it seems that the department’s employees are a tiny bit happier than they were on the same survey last year.
Out of 32 large federal agencies surveyed about issues such as leadership effectiveness, work/life balance, and pay, the Education Department came in 30th. Last year, on the same survey, the department ranked 27th out of 30.
Still, the department’s overall score improved a little, going up 1.6 points, for a total score of 57.3 The absolute happiest place in the government, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, had a score of 81.8 on the same survey. And the “most improved agency,” the U.S. Department of Transportation, went up a whopping 15.8 points to 60.4.
The rankings relied on a survey administered by the Office of Personnel Management in February and March of this year.
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Classes have NOT been cancelled some Rio Grande Valley schools are expected to open late due to Tropical Storm Hermine.
I’ve been a parent for 13 years. I’ve written about education and childhood development for nearly half that long. And because I make it my business to learn about how kids learn, I’ve read a small library’s worth of everything from mainstream parenting books to research papers on childhood neurological development.
With of all of this reading and writing about children and learning, I’ve assumed I am something of an authority on the topic. Then I read Benedict Carey’s recent New York Times‘ article about good study habits and the “sketchy educational research” that have led so many parents astray.
Yikes. Suddenly, what I thought were some indisputable truths about learning, well, aren’t. Here are just a few myth-busting findings on studying that blow conventional wisdom out of the water:
- Assign kids one calm, quiet study space to do homework. Car
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Three quick LSAT related things to share today:
1. My USNews.com post today: Are you REALLY ready for the October LSAT? – great advice from three LSAT experts, so check it out.
2. On Wednesday, September 15th (8 pm EST/5 pm PST) join me for my next Blog Talk Radio Show. The topic will be: “LSAT Prep Options At Every Price: What You Need to Know.” Guests will include (tentatively): Blueprintprep.com, SimuGator.com, and LSATFreedom.com. Tune in live and ask questions via chat. If you aren’t available for the live show, leave questions in the comment to this post and I’ll try to incorporate them into the show. You can listen to any of my Blog Talk Radio shows on this site or by downloading them on iTunes for FREE.
3. LSATFreedom is giving away a free LSAT Prep course. Just sign up for their newsletter here.
Ly (pronounced LEE) was in the lunchroom for what he calls “the riot.” Days later, he was followed home from school and punched in the face on his front stoop.
He had arrived from Vietnam two years earlier, speaking nearly no English, the son of poor, uneducated parents. He thought America would be like the Hannah Montana TV episodes he had watched in Vietnam. What he found was closer to The Wire. So he kept his head down, sought silent refuge among his countrymen and tried to make his way through the broken system.
Dec. 3 was a turning point. He realized the system must change — and that he and his fellow immigrants were the ones to make that happen.
Their method? Guided by local activists, and despite reservations from some parents, about 50 Asian students boycotted school for a week.
“Before, I was timid. I didn’t really want to get myself into trouble,” says Ly, 18. Then he realized, “If everybody’s silent, nobody speaks up, the problem keeps going on without being resolved. I
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How can you tell if a college or university will cut the price for your child?
You can get an idea by looking at a school’s Common Data Set.
If you don’t know what a Common Data Set is, you’ll want to read the posts that I wrote last week on this valuable document:
Researching Colleges With the Common Data Set
Common Data Set 101
Today I want to focus on the financial aid section of any school’s Common Data Set. You’ll find all the financial aid information located in Section H of the document. I’m going to use Macalester College in St. Paul for my example simply because I learned from Alexa, which ranks websites by Internet traffic, that the biggest concentration of people visiting my blog come from Minneapolis-St. Paul. Who knew?
To obtain Macalester College’s Common Data Set, I just Googled the school’s name and Common Data Set. Macalester has i
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Posted by: Jai Glossop in
School Entry on September 5th, 2010
I’m having fun with this K-12 school design work. That’s because I’m learning. I love learning new stuff.
Background: Last month we wrote a 25-page proposal to create a new MATCH School. We’ll find out this month if we advance to the next ground of the competition (which would mean writing a 55-page application).
In the next round, we would need to describe more specifically how we would teach little kids to read (since right now our model is only Grades 6 to 12).
There are so many juicy issues to explore.
One is the big debates is the usefulness of “reading strategies.”
This blog has two videos. The first one is a 6-minute video explaining the “reading strategies” approach.
The second video, 10 minutes long, from UVa prof Dan Willingham, attacks reading strategies. He believes there is massive overuse of this approach. He says strategies do help – but just a little, short-term. He recommends no
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