ABC’s Charlie Gibson drew laughs during Friday night’s presidential debate when he estimated the pay for Saint Anselm College professors at $200,000 per couple. How far off was he? Inside Higher Ed and blogger Sherman Dorn follow up today.

The creator of the popular Dave’s ESL Cafe had some advice for teachers today on using the Web as part of instruction: “Don’t be afraid of knowing less than your students.” They may be more Internet-savvy than you, but that’s part of the experience.

“As soon as you get online, you’re pioneers,” Dave Sperling told hundreds [...]

In White Plains today and tomorrow is a gathering of 600 instructors whose job it is to teach the quirky and perplexing language that is English. The New York State Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages is holding its annual conference at the Crowne Plaza and trading ideas about using technology in class. [...]

The choices go well beyond Dora the Explorer, superheroes and various other commercial characters, reports Associated Press. There is a widening assortment of insulated, container-carrying, anti-microbial, purse-like totes for sale along with the familiar boxes. “Character lunch boxes” make up a third of the market nowadays, after once dominating it, says AP. [...]

It was just a month ago that MIT’s Marilee Jones wowed the room at Graziella’s in White Plains, where she gave a passionate presentation to local guidance counselors. She asked them pointedly: “Are you an educator or a marketeer?” She deplored the competitiveness in education and the current obsession with credentials.

Ouch. The news today is [...]

Howard Smith of the Tarrytowns schools is the latest superintendent to start a blog, linked here. There’s plenty to talk about, including the huge construction project under way at Sleepy Hollow High School/Middle School. (That building is sporting quite a different look from the old days.)

Debra Kaplan, Smith’s colleague down the road in Dobbs Ferry, [...]

A Westchester County legislator has joined the discussion about the new English testing policy that requires immigrant students to take a standard reading exam after one year in American schools. Legislator Jose Alvarado, a Democrat from Yonkers, says he’s calling on state and federal leaders to change the federal No Child Left Behind policy.

Class, the vocabulary word for today is ghetto.

Newt Gingrich dropped this word into a speech Saturday criticizing bilingual education and calling for English language immersion. He referred to Spanish as “the language of the ghetto.”

“The American people believe English should be the official language of the government. … We should replace bilingual education with immersion [...]

That was the question posed to a room full of local guidance counselors yesterday in White Plains. Marilee Jones, dean of admissions at MIT, urged her audience to be the former, not the latter, because competitiveness in education is tormenting American kids like never before.

A whole generation, she said, is being raised to please adults. [...]

When I was in Catholic grade school, we raised money for “pagan babies.� Each classroom collected coins into a box and eventually raised enough cash to support a child in a far-off developing nation. As a bonus, we were allowed to choose names for them. Wherever those kids are now, I hope they never found [...]

Sarah Lawrence College President Michele Tolela Myers has inspired a lively discussion about the annual “Best Colleges” ranking by U.S. News & World Report magazine. In Sarah Lawrence style, Myers is questioning authority, challenging a ranking system that she says penalizes colleges like hers that do not use SAT scores in the admissions process.

Problem is, [...]

Here’s a little factoid that got my attention today: The average American child spends more time in front of the television than in school.

This comes from the people at the TV Turnoff Network, organizers of TV Turnoff Week. This year it’s April 23-29. Registration is under way for local training sessions in Rockland on [...]

We cover high school sports, so why not keep tabs on the local academic competitions? White Plains math teacher Les Roby just sent us the latest results from the Westchester Academic Challenge of Knowledge Organization tournament, known by the acronym WACKO. He reported to us on the last tournament and now he’s back with another [...]

I have a story in the paper today about bilingual education, and I heard some feedback from an immigrant from Brazil who came to the United States about nine years ago. Rachel Nobre wanted to point out that Spanish-speaking students have many more resources available to them — including bilingual and dual-language programs — than [...]

Remember that testing requirement that a local principal called torture for students with limited English? The rule has made a similar impression in Virgina, where a half-dozen school districts are in a standoff with the U.S. Department of Education.