Reading

Data to explore implementation of federal graduation rate definition

Florida has released some data on high school graduation rates, using the new federal definition that requires high schools to be responsible for dropouts who immediately enroll in GED programs (previously, those dropouts were deleted from the state’s official longitudinal rate which had been following 9th graders through graduation or attrition). This data provide an […]

Teaching humans who cheat on rationality

In the past year, for diversion I’ve read some books intended for a general audience written by psychologists–several of my department colleagues would find these watered down from research journals, but I can justify the brain candy: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow Antonio Demasi, Self Comes to Mind  Claude Steele, Whistling Vivaldi  Roy Baumeister and John Tierney, […]

Buy these books on dropping out and graduation

Two new books I saw at the History of Education Society meeting in Chicago and strongly recommend on a topic I began my career with: Russell Rumberger, Dropping Out (Harvard University Press, 2011). This is the definitive summary of research on the subject. It is depressing at times, but if you care about the subject, […]

Unsettled schools, two centuries ago and now

I could get used to days like this again, where I spend most of the day doing nothing but reading what I choose, in this case two books. My undergraduate papers are due next week, and so next weekend I will be swamped with other stuff, but I had the chance to finish two books […]

New York Times describes the fall of the blog

The death of the blog was announced today by the paper of record: Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter. I’d say more, but I’m approaching my character lim