Ironic Sans has created a video tracking the incorrect use of lay and lie in the TV series Mad Men.  This is a commonly tested diction error on the writing section of the SAT, so pay attention!  Also frequently tested is the difference between raise and rise.  Like lay, raise takes an object; like lie, rise does not take an object.

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

In her recent American Prospect article, Sara Mead argues that, in terms of educational reform, we should shift our focus toward early literacy rather than older students.

“Why focus on early literacy? Because whether children can read well by the end of third grade is a strong predictor of how they are likely to do in the future — in school, at work, and as parents and citizens. The facts are sobering. Children who do not learn to read proficiently by the end of third grade are unlikely ever to read at grade level. These youngsters are at high risk for later school failure and behavioral problems, for dropping out of high school, and for a host of negative life outcomes once they reach adulthood. For example, poor reading skills in the early elementary grades are highly correlated with later delinquency. According to the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 38 percent of all youth in juvenile detention read below the fourth-grade level.”

Students who do not learn to read by the end of third grade are at a severe disadvantage, as this is the age when students stop “learning to read” and start “reading to learn.”  These same students may be act out and create behavioral problems within the classroom precisely because they lack the literacy skills necessary to succeed at higher levels of education.  The article is a good reminder of the importance of developing early literacy skills and making reading a primary focus within the curriculum.

From U.S. News and World Report, here are ten recommendations for parents to help their college-bound kids.

Bill Marx of PRI’s The World has posted a summer reading list of fiction and non-fiction in translation.

Paste a sample of your writing into the box on this website to find out which famous writer you write like.   Disclaimer: it may lack accuracy: pasting a sample of Alice Munro yielded a result of Stephen King.  And this blog post?  Arthur Conan Doyle!

Faced with a growing collection of books and periodicals and a decreasing amount of space in which to store them, Stanford University’s Engineering Library has started to faze out print forms in favor of digitizing them, according to NPR.

For the moment, the Engineering Library is the only Stanford library that’s cutting back on books. But Keller says he can see what’s coming down the road by simply looking at the current crop of Stanford students.

“They write their papers online, and they read articles online, and many, many, many of them read chapters and books online,” he says. “I can see in this population of students behaviors that clearly indicate where this is all going.”

And while it’s still rare among American libraries to get rid of such a large amount of books, it’s clear that many are starting to lay the groundwork for a different future. According to a survey by the Association of Research Libraries, American libraries are spending more of their money on electronic resources and less on books.

Continue reading here.

This weekend’s episode of  On the Media talked about bookselling, eBooks, and the changing landscape for the publishing industry.  The full audio and transcript can be found here.

The New York Times has compiled a searchable collection of demographics and student performance on standardized tests over the past ten years for every school district in New York, “to help put the numbers in context.”

According to a recent MDRC study, small non-selective high schools are graduating more students than their larger counterparts.  From the study’s overview, here is a brief rundown of the findings:

• By the end of their first year of high school, 58.5 percent of SSC enrollees are on track to graduate in four years compared with 48.5 percent of their non-SSC counterparts, for a difference of 10.0 percentage points. These positive effects are sustained over the next two years.
• By the fourth year of high school, SSCs increase overall graduation rates by 6.8 percentage points, which is roughly one-third the size of the gap in graduation rates between white students and students of color in New York City.
• SSCs’ positive effects are seen for a broad range of students, including male high school students of color, whose educational prospects have been historically difficult to improve.

However, Clara Hempbell of the New School’s blah blah blah wonders whether the “collateral damage” caused by opening these small schools outweighs the possible benefits.  “As the large dysfunctional schools were closed, thousands of students were diverted to remaining large schools.”  With the increase in enrollment came a decrease in attendance and graduation rates.

Follow this story in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the Houston Chronicle.