This extended NYT piece uses a reductive “killer dichotomy” (nod to Ann Berthoff) to frame this “debate” about “literacy.”

What are the chances of IRA or NCTE professionals having equal space?

Without being explicit about it, Prof. Bauerlein says it is technology that contributes to the “new pattern of errors” that Andrea and Karen Lunsford found in their study.

http://chronicle.com/review/brainstorm/article/?id=662&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Under “Views” on the Inside Higher Ed RSS feed here, check out the piece by William Major on the “labor divide” within English Departments — and what one English professor suggests be done about it.

Is “standard written English” being undermined by email and text messaging? 

http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/793/story/282056.html

We might want to examine the list of sources that are suspected of spreading disinformation.  But I wonder if the public thinks that the DOE should be casting the first stones here.

http://www.nysun.com/new-york/education-department-employs-squadron-in-search/81584/

Education Department Employs Squadron in Search for  ‘Truth’

Employees at the city Department of Education’s press office have a new assignment: They are to scour a group of 24 education Web logs, e-mail Listservs, and Web sites in a hunt for factual errors and misinformation. Department officials are calling the unit the Truth Squad.

The squad’s latest triumph should appear today on a Listserv operated by the parent organizer Leonie Haimson — in the form of an e-mail message arguing that Ms. Haimson’s characterization of summer school programs as underfunded was incorrect.

Press officers have also posted responses in the form of comments to the blogs they read.

“We try to keep track of what people are saying about us, and we respond periodically,” a deputy schools chancellor, Christopher Cerf, who came up with the Truth Squad concept, said. “Because we believe in the truth.”

Seven people make up the Truth Squad: the department’s press secretary, David Cantor, five of his deputies, and the deputy communications director, Stephanie Simon.

(Click url for remainder of article)

http://www.nysun.com/new-york/education-department-employs-squadron-in-search/81584/

The quote at the bottom of this Chronicle piece is the only cautionary note in the story.  The headline of course does not mention the statistical insignificance of the predictive value of any part of the SAT.

http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=4YswhpypYNhjcqTywkvDqP9y25Jhvf6p