The very first book I read my son when he was a teeny tiny infant was Goodnight Moon. He's now 2.5 years old, and I've probably read the book 500 times. Our shelves overflow with other children's books, he's learning the alphabet, and can recognize individual letters. As an avid reader myself, I love watching him learn. We're lucky that he attends a preschool where reading and literacy are highly valued, but I'm always on the lookout for ways that I can further influence his learning--and more importantly, his love of learning. Imagine my delight, then, when I discovered that there are blogs by literacy coaches--blogs packed with tons of information on early literacy.

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> Leslie Madsen Brooks’s blog posts

It's the end of the academic year in the U.S., and that means it's time for course evaluations. Course evaluations are controversial little beasts, and both student and faculty bloggers have plenty to say about them. Herein I share some of their laments and offer some tips on conducting a course (or program) evaluation that's really meaningful.

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> Leslie Madsen Brooks’s blog posts

I am not a constitutional scholar--not by a long stretch of the imagination--nor am I a philosopher or theorist of academic freedom. I am, however, seriously undecided about what to make of the recent academic uproar (or kerfluffle, depending on your perspective) over revelations that UC Berkeley law professor John Yoo authored memos that uphold the right of the U.S. to torture human beings. People inside and outside of the academy have called for his firing. Others claim that Yoo is protected by the academic freedom that comes with tenure.

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For the past few years, colleges have been jostling for position in "top 10" lists of the greenest college campuses. Any such listing is going to draw fire from alumni upset that their college isn't on the list--see, for example, Grist's (apparently unranked) list of 15 green colleges and the comments that follow it. But if we're ranking colleges as environmentally sustainable, how do we measure that sustainability? Tons of carbon reduction? Tons of trash reduction? Educational opportunities for students that emphasize sustainability theory and practice? Herein I point to some organizations' tentative answers, as well as provide a brief round-up of what some colleges are doing to green their campuses.

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On Thursday, the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt division told an audience at Georgetown University that the IRS would be looking into how colleges and universities spend (or don't spend) their endowments. (You can download his remarks here as a PDF.) Senator Charles Grassley (R - Iowa) and others have called for an investigation--and potentially regulation--of endowment spending by U.S. colleges and universities. Representative Peter Welch (D - Vermont) also amended HR 4137, a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act as the "College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007," to require "annual reporting by colleges and universities on how much of their endowment was paid out each year for the purpose of containing college costs." Welch also had proposed, but withdrew in February, an amendment that would have required colleges to withdraw at least 5 percent of their endowment each year and to use those funds to contain the cost of college for students.

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> Leslie Madsen Brooks’s blog posts