Carnegie Corporation Releases Time to Act: An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent Literacy for College and Career Success

Time to Act: An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent Literacy for College and Career Success, from the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Council on Advancing Adolescent Literacy, shows that while the goal to have a strong literacy base in grades K-3 is sound, it does not ” inoculate students against struggle or failure later on.” One of the main arguments is that middle and high school students use more complex texts that require advanced literacy skills, which are not typically taught in schools. This causes obvious  problems for students who are trying to master a new concept while at the same time struggling with literacy comprehension.

No Deal For Google Books Settlement

On Thursday, Sept. 24 the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York indefinitely delayed the settlement between Google and the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers, and other plaintiffs. The suit was over the company’s plans to scan all of the books from major libraries and include them in a database. Authors and publishers had protested copyright infringement, but after two years an agreement was reached.

Now, the plaintiffs have filed and been granted a motion to delay, which Google did not oppose, because of growing criticism of the proposed settlement. On Friday Sept. 18, the U.S. Justice Department asked the New York court to reject the deal citing “class action, copyright, and antitrust” issues.

Sec. Duncan Wants to Reauthorize the ESEA Now

Critics have been calling for changes to No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the latest reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), since it was passed. In a speech to key stakeholders, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan acknowledged problems with provisions in NCLB, but rather than dwelling on them, he is calling on Congress, with support from the Department of Education, to reauthorize the ESEA, and he wants to start now.

Lessons on Injecting Yourself into the Online Conversation

During the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing World Virtual Conference on Sept. 17, Tina Brown, author and founder of TheDailyBeast.com, gave the keynote address, “Engaging with Customers Where they Are, with Content they Value.” In addition to discussing her transition from the print to the blog world, she talked about what makes one blog’s content more valued than another’s. Here are highlights from her session.

New Survey Looks at K-12 Educators’ Social Media Use

Preliminary results from the  Survey of K-12 Educators on Social Networking and Content-Sharing Tools, co-sponsored by AEP members edWeb.net, MCH, and MMS Education, show that 62% of respondents have joined a social network and see a high value for this technology in education. Sent to 70,000 K-12 principals, teachers, and school librarians, the purpose of the study is to benchmark educators’ use and attitudes about Web 2.0 collaborative technologies like social networking, blogging, wikis, video-sharing, and more. According to the survey, Facebook is currently the leading social network that educators have joined—86% of educators who have joined a social network have joined Facebook.