Spellings Report

Well, the final draft of the Spellings Commission report is out. Interestingly, when I tried to find the URL for it to link it here, no dice - the Department of Ed web site has a link to a page that explains that the site is down right now. (Conspiracy, no doubt... or maintenance on a Sunday in summer. Whatever.) Here, though, is a story from a blog called ePluribas Media that has what I think is a very reasonable summary of the draft, along with links to previous drafts and a description of the process. I'll add that blog to my roll, too, I think.

So the Commission's final report isn't calling for standardized tests per se, but some kind of standardized assessment.

Meanwhile, the WPA listserv has been abuzz both with talk about the Commission report and some ideas (from me and others) about possible responses. My idea: come up with an exandable database of assessment possibilities that institutions can adapt for their purposes so that we have some common foundations for assessment, and maybe that will keep the wolves at bay.

Another big subject on the WPA list, though, has been the new plagiarism policy at Syracuse, which Becky Howard worked to craft. Here (yay, yay, yay) is evidence that public work can have an effect. It's just that it takes such a stinking long time.

These aren't the easiest times, goodness knows. There's this. There's Israel-Lebanon, which makes this look like nothing. But we need to do what we can, right? Fight the good fight? Glass half full... even if, as one of my friends from the gym said this a.m., it's half full of Tang.