Tips for revising and submitting your final essay

As I read and respond to your essays, here are some important tips, reminders, and cautions:

• You MUST choose a format (MLA, APA, etc) and then submit your essay within the guidelines of the format chosen, including proper title page, headings, page numbering, etc. You must title your essay (and do NOT format your title in any way, no UL, no QM, no BLD) and include all proper information on the essay, including page numbers. Select a reasonable font (Times, for example) and use ONLY 12 pt. size and 1" margins all around with double spacing only.

• Be careful with your clarity and specificity. . .avoid "it," "this," "how," "thing," etc.; see 24 here for more help and 19 here.

• Details, details, details. If you mention your school, doesn't it have a name? If you mention a real person, doesn't he/she have a name? Do not avoid details, add them, look for them, use them.

• Stating something doesn't make it true. All, I mean ALL, claims made in an academic essay must be supported by evidence. That evidence must be credible. And if that evidence is from a source, it must be CITED and cited properly.

• Giant paragraphs are not appealing to readers. Consider the length of your paragraphs as well as your sentences. In general, paragraph and sentence lengths are best if you have purposeful VARIETY.

Consuming Kids

Consider this documentary about the impact of a consumer culture on children:

Consuming Kids

Attacking Public Schools. . .A Historical Perspective

This Op-Ed raises the problems with attacking public schools.

And if you look at the online comments, some seem to believe that schools are worse today than in the past. Which raises the question: Just when were the good old days?

1947?

1955?

What the general public believes and says about education. . .

Read this letter in the Greenville News. . .and be sure to read the comments thread. . .

Teacher equity?

See this study from Peske and Haycock (2006) about the inequities in teacher assignments:

Teaching Inequality

From Krashen

Sent to the NY Times, May 10, 2010

In his speech at Hampton University ("Obama asks graduates to close

education gap," May 9), President Obama remarked that "…..students

in well-off areas are outperforming students in poorer rural or urban

communities, no matter what skin color. Globally, it’s not even

close. In 8th grade science and math, for example, American students

are ranked about 10th overall compared to top-performing countries."

The president is correct: Students in those well-off areas, who attend

well-funded schools, do very well. They don't rank 10th overall

world-wide: They score at the top oiin international tests of science

and math, while American children in "poorer rural or urban

communities" score below the international average. Our overall

performance is unimpressive because such a high percentage of children

in the US live in poverty, among the highest of all industrialized

countries (about 22.5%, compared to Sweden's 2.5%).

This means that there is nothing seriously wrong with American

education. The problem is poverty.

Stephen Krashen

Professor Emeritus

University of Southern California

Corridor of Shame, School reform, poverty, etc.

See my blog on poverty and education, FYI: Living & Learning in Poverty

After watching Corridor of Shame, take a look at the schools' report cards mentioned in the film.

What about the poverty index for schools in SC?

What are the assumptions in this Op-Ed by State Superintendent of Education candidate and FU professor Nelsen?