In “Respecting Teachers in the Sunshine State,” a recent City Journal opinion piece, Marcus Winters argues that the new Florida law that effectively eliminates tenure for new hires, abolishes seniority-based layoffs, and allows educators’ salaries to be determined through performance-based schedules will save the educational system, which currently “treats teachers like interchangeable widgets.”

Jack Gillum and Marisol Bellow explore high erasure rates on tests in high performing D.C. schools in “When Standardized Test Scores Soared in D.C., Were the Gains Real?“  Many schools that received performance bonuses had much higher than average rates of wrong answers changed to correct ones, triggering investigations.  Most of the schools were cleared; however, uncertainty about the data still remains.  The article raises questions about whether pressures to achieve performance-based incentives might lead to corrupt behavior.

Finally, this recent feature in New York magazine takes a look at Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of the Washington, D.C. public school system, and her educational reform agenda.

“”Beach reading” only bugs me because it makes reading in general sound like a chore, and because it drapes a fake aura of naughtiness over mass market books, which sell millions of copies anyway and don’t need the bad publicity. It’s like calling a hot fudge sundae “decadent.”

It’s not decadent: it’s a sundae.”

From Ta-Nehisi Coates of the Atlantic, here is a column that argues against the concept of “beach reading.”

From U.S. News and World Report, here are accounts of nine road trips to college campuses situated in different parts of the country.

“I felt badly” or “I felt bad”?  The quick answer is that you should not say “I felt badly” unless you are describing a problem with your fingers or your sense of touch–the way in which you perform the physical act of feeling.  Here’s why:

Badly is an adverb, meaning it modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb.  In our example sentence, “I felt badly,” the verb is “felt,” meaning that badly modifies the way you feel–not your emotional state, but the literal action of moving your fingers.  Bad, on the other hand, is an adjective, meaning it modifies a noun.  In our example sentence, the noun is “I,” meaning that bad modifies something about me–in this case, my emotional state.  That’s why it’s correct to say “I felt sad” and not “I felt sadly.”

At the same time, there are occasions when you should use the word “badly,” namely when the verb you employ suggests action rather than a state of being.  “The actor performed badly” or “the discussion went badly,” for instance, are correct because performed and went are both action verbs, requiring an adverb to modify them.

It might surprise some of our readers to learn that this is a matter of great debate, dating back to at least this New York Times article from 1879.  Check it out for a far more elaborate, tongue-in-cheek explanation of the grammatical rules informing these phrases.

Here is a tricky SAT question from the October 2006 exam.

In an election, 2.8 million votes were cast and each vote was for Candidate I or Candidate II.  Candidate I received 28,000 more votes than Candidate II.  What percent of the 2.8 million votes were cast for Candidate I?

(A) 50.05%

(B) 50.1%

(C) 50.5%

(D) 51%

(E) 55%

Begin by asking yourself a) what do I already know? and b) what do I need to know?  In this case, we already know the number of total votes cast = 2.8 million, and we know that Candidate I received 28,000 more votes than Candidate II.  We need to know the percent of votes cast for Candidate I.  The percent of votes cast for Candidate I is the number of votes cast for him/her divided by the total number of votes cast.  We already know the total number of votes cast, so we only need to know the number of votes cast for Candidate I.

Can we write an equation to figure out the number of votes cast for Candidate I?  Let’s call that number x.

Let x = the number of votes cast for Candidate I

x – 28,000 = the number of votes cast for Candidate II (since candidate I received 28,000 more).

x + (x – 28,000) = 2,800,000

2x – 28,000 = 2,800,000

2x = 2,828,000

x = 1,414,000

Now we only need to figure out what percent of the total 1,414,000 represents.  Remember that percent is part/whole, so the percent of votes Candidate I receives is 1,414,000/2,800,000, which is 0.505, or 50.5%

Don’t make the mistake of oversimplifying this problem (as many students did) and figuring out that 28,000 votes is 1% of the total.  This is true, but it does not mean that Candidate I received 51% of the votes.  If you are performing only one step to solve a problem near the end of the section, you are definitely oversimplifying it.

Use “who” only to refer to people.

Maria and Julie are two sisters that equally share household responsibilities.

Maria and Julie are two sisters who equally share household responsibilities.

Use “which” and “that” to refer to things.

Use “that” in restrictive clauses–clauses that restrict the meaning of the noun in some way.

The house that caught fire is down the block from mine.

Here, we need to know that the house caught fire in order to know which house we are talking about;  in other words, the identity of the house is restricted by the fact that it is the one that caught fire, rather than any of the other houses that are also down the block from mine.

Use “which,” on the other hand, to refer to non-restrictive clauses–clauses that tell us something incidental about a subject, but don’t restrict the meaning of that subject.  In other words, use “which” for non-essential information.

The house, which caught fire last year, is painted blue and yellow.

Here, the information that the house caught fire is merely an aside; we don’t need to know it in order to know that we are talking about the blue and yellow house.

Notice that the clause containing “that” is not set off by commas, whereas the clause containing “which” is set off by commas.  Commas around a clause are another clue that the clause is non-restrictive, an indication to use “which.”

Here are a few more examples.

The candidate that who receives more votes will win the election.

The rock that she threw at the window is still on the front lawn.

The rock, which she threw at the window, was so heavy she needed two hands to hold it.

Here is a quick guide to some commonly confused and/or misspelled words.

You’re = you are.  “You’re a great poker player.”

Your = indicates possession (as in something that belongs to you).  “You forgot to bring your cards.”

They’re = they are. “They’re not paying attention.”

There = indicates location. “They keep looking over there.”

Their = indicates possession; something that belongs to them.  “They lost their money.”

Too = also. “They lost their dignity, too.”

To = preposition that indicates direction. “They went to the store.”

Two = 2 “They bought two cans of soda.”

It’s = it is. “It’s too early to get out of bed.”

Its = indicates possession; something that belongs to it. “The dog found its ball.”

The subjunctive mood is used to express a condition that does not exist, such as a wish or a possibility.  This means using “were” instead of “was” and “had” instead of “has,” “have,” or “would have.”

For example:

He wishes his pet turtle were still alive. NOT He wishes his pet turtle was still alive.

If I were in charge, things would be a lot different around here. NOT If I was in charge…

If she had slept more, she wouldn’t be so tired today.  NOT If she would have slept more…

This explains why Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof sings, “If I were a rich man,” (not “If I was a rich man”) and why Beyonce sings, “If I were a boy,” rather than, “If I was a boy.”

When pluralizing proper nouns, you should generally add the letter “s” to the end of the word. Do not use an apostrophe unless you want to indicate possession.

Ex: The Sextons live across the street. NOT: The Sexton’s live across the street.

Ex: The Batemans will attend the party. NOT: The Bateman’s will attend the party.

If the proper noun ends in s, sh, x, z, or ch (as in Lynch, not as in Bach) add the letters –es to pluralize.

Ex: The Rodriguezes are traveling to Italy this summer.

Ex: The Leaches brought their newborn home from the hospital.

Ex: In my math class there are three Jameses and two Lizes.

If, however, the proper noun ends in an “s” with a hard “z” sound, like Chambers or Hodges, keep it exactly the same even when you pluralize it.

Ex: The Addams are coming over for dinner. NOT: The Addamses are coming over for dinner.

There are, of course, always exceptions. For example, we keep up with the Joneses, not the Jones, so when in doubt, use your best judgment, or post a question to the comments!

Educators such as Harold Bloom, Stanley Fish, and Martha Nussbaum offer some helpful advice for college freshmen in a compendium of op-eds from last weekend’s New York Times.