My latest roundup of links and tools…

Do buildings matter?

• Jay Matthews wonders how much we should care about decrepit school buildings.

Math matters

• Daniel de Vise provides an even-handed overview of the math scene.

Moving forward in Manassas

• It’s always nice to read about a superintendent who gets it.

Extremely handy

• I use this online stopwatch a lot in my presentations.

Sylvia is skeptical

• A few weeks back, Sylvia Martinez had a great post about Curriki and the like. I wonder what she thinks about my letter last year to U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings (see also my follow-up post)?

Follow the numbers

• I am appreciating Jon Becker’s use of large-scale data to ferret out interesting questions and issues. Check out his posts on digital equity and math achievement to see what I mean.
• Eduwonkette – a.k.a. Jennifer Jennings – is the queen of using data in interesting and provocative ways in her posts. She and Jon are good models for the rest of us who have access to data.

Send this to your wife or neighbors and spark a good conversation about your kids

• If you somehow haven’t run across it yet at another blog, be sure to read Clive Thompson’s article in the New York Times about the brave new world of digital intimacy. Lots of conversation-provoking stuff in there…