NBC Connecticut - Cracking Secret Codes (May 18, 2011) - QR Codes, or Quick Response codes are popping up in advertisements, on buses and even on plants and we'll tell you what they can reveal...

Inside Higher Ed - Teaching Them How to Think (June 9, 2011) By any reasonable measure, George Plopper is a skilled and successful teacher. The associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute won awards for his teaching in 2000 and 2001...

Diverse Issues in Higher Ed - Senate Committee Puts For-profits Back in Spotlight Following Education Department Ruling (June 8, 2011) - The for-profit college sector got a fresh lambasting Tuesday from members of the U.S. Senate committee that has been leading the charge for tighter controls over the proprietary schools they say are preying on minorities and the poor...

NACE - The Myths and Realities of Small-College Career Services (June 8, 2011)  Jerry Houser says there is a wide gap between the myths and the realities of providing career services at a small college.  Houser, director of career services and associate dean at Willamette University, says one of the biggest myths is that, like larger institutions, small colleges should bring lots of organizations on campus to recruit...

Inside Higher Ed - From Tenured to Adjunct (June 7, 2011) - In February, the eight-campus University of Louisiana System approved changes in its procedures for dismissing tenured professors that faculty leaders said could significantly erode the protections of tenure. On Monday, the American Association of University Professors issued a statement denouncing recent actions by the university system as demonstrating just how weak those rights now are in the university system...

Inside Higher Ed - Redefining Community College Success (June 6, 2011) -  An Education Department committee last week further honed its recommendations for how to overhaul the way the government measures the success of community colleges. Though there was general agreement among the panel's members on crafting completion measures that, for example, count successful transfers to four-year institutions as well as those who earn associate degrees, there was strong disagreement about whether the government should require community colleges to report their students' employment outcomes...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - California Community-College Student Questions Legality of E-Textbook Fees (June 6, 2011) - A community-college student in California says that a course fee levied by the institution for access to an e-textbook and related online materials is unfair-and may violate state law...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Just Showing Up: Educators Focus on Attendance to Help Students Succeed (June 5, 2011) - The age-old practice of taking attendance is gaining new emphasis in some college classrooms, with administrators and faculty viewing stronger incentives for showing up as a way to further their goals of improving retention and increasing graduation rates...

Inside Higher Ed - Promoting 'Consumer Friendly' Transfer (June 3, 2011) -  To make it easier for students to earn and transfer college credits across institutions, policy makers and educators should work together by supporting broader articulation agreements and adopting more prior learning assessments, several experts argued at a Center for American Progress event Thursday...

Chronicle of Higher Ed - Facilitating Community-College Transfers (June 3, 2011) - Once upon a time, community colleges, originally known as junior colleges, were meant as places where many students would attend for two years, earn an associate's degree, and then transfer to a four-year college...

Inside Higher Ed - Thank You for the Scholarship (June 7, 2011) - Before scholarship recipients at Barton College receive money for the spring semester, the advancement office attempts something the students' mothers have probably failed at numerous times - getting them to write thank-you notes...

Hartford Courant - Still Learning English, Refugee Wins Scholarship (June 7, 2011) - The cheers and claps started strong, but only grew louder and more boisterous until it seemed that every senior at Bulkeley High School was hollering or whistling for their classmate. Day Moo needed several seconds to realize the award was for him... Moo wants to become a mechanical engineer and will be the first in his family to attend college when he enrolls at Manchester Community College ...

Manchester Patch - Young Job Seekers Adapting to Tough Economy (June 3, 2011) - Many high school upperclassmen and college students spend their summer vacation working at either restaurants, retail stores, or internships. Unfortunately for this demographic, with the recent economic troubles and job competition, it has been harder for these young workers to find a three-month summer position...

CT Mirror - Major education changes will have to wait until next year (June 9, 2011) - In a General Assembly session that will be remembered for some major legislation--starting with a budget package that closed a $3.67 billion deficit--a lack of action in one area left advocates disappointed: Major education reforms were put off for another time despite widespread acknowledgment that the state's education system is broken...

CNN Tech - Twitter finds a place in the classroom (June 9, 2011) - Students tap away at their cell phones, laptops and iPads during Enrique Legaspi's high-tech history lesson. In some grade schools, pulling out these devices during class would result in a one-way ticket to the principal's office. But Legaspi encourages this behavior, as long as the kids are using Twitter...

CT Mirror - Legislature hoping third try will be the charm in RttT competition (June 6, 2011) - With the announcement of a new pot of federal Race to the Top education grants, state legislators are hoping a series of initiatives including tracking student outcomes, consolidating early education programs and providing funding for teachers to earn degrees will bring success after two failures...

CT Mirror - Malloy signs into law bill scrapping college requirement for substitute teachers (June 6, 2011) - Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has signed a bill that requires substitute teachers to just have a high school diploma to be hired, scrapping the requirement that every teacher have a bachelor's degree...

CT Mirror - High school dropout age will increase to 18 in three school years (June 6, 2011) - State Representatives have voted to wait for three school years to raise the age to 18 that students must be to dropout of high school. The dropout age for the upcoming school year will be 17, but legislators had been considering increasing that to 18...

CT Mirror - After 8½-hour debate, Senate closes the book on the next budget (June 9, 2011) - The Senate closed the book Tuesday on the next state budget, approving a final package of adjustments that plugged a $400 million hole, canceled a controversial utility bill surcharge, and effectively granted advance approval to a $1.6 billion union concession deal...

CT Mirror - Legislative analysts lack details to confirm full concession savings (June 6, 2011) - Nonpartisan legislative analysts say they can vouch for less than 40 percent of the $1.6 billion in labor savings figured into the next biennial budget, and are unable to assess the rest--more than $1 billion--because of unanswered questions or insufficient data, according to a memo submitted late Monday to the General Assembly...

CT Mirror - State workers say health care concessions are biggest worry (June 4, 2011) - Questions about changes to their health coverage are the biggest concern state employees have about the $1.6 billion concession deal between the Malloy Administration and union leaders, workers who attended a  closed-door briefing at the State Armory Saturday told reporters afterward...

Inside Higher Ed - Car Sales and College Graduation (June 9, 2011)  What do new auto sales data and the U.S. Education Department's Digest of Education Statistics have in common?  Not enough. Both are eagerly anticipated and extensively covered by the news media - particularly during spring months. Both contain key indicators necessary for informed, high-stakes decisions that affect the nation's economy. But that's where the similarities end...

Confessions of a Community College Dean - Consolidating Boards (June 8, 2011) - Several alert readers sent along info that Connecticut and Rhode Island are considering streamlining their internal education governance systems, presumably to save money...

Inside Higher Ed - Structures and People (June 6, 2011) - "What about Dave? Um, I mean the Registrar?" In working through the implications of some recent and pending retirements, I'm running headfirst into the legacy of structures built around individual people. In any rational organization, Smith would have reported to Jones. But Smith and Jones just couldn't get along, so Smith was moved to report to Johnson. When Smith retires, it's fair to ask to whom the replacement should report...

CT Mirror - Community colleges should help students keep hope alive (June 3, 2011) - The Connecticut Mirror last week reported Higher Education Commissioner Michael Meotti's belief, seconded by Gov. Dannel Malloy, that Connecticut's community colleges might need to turn away people who, as Meotti put it, "have no ability to be successful in a college classroom."  Our campuses are crowded, Commissioner Meotti said, and there is little funding expansion. So we should weed out the predestined failures to make space for those who can succeed...

Harvard Business Review - Better Time Management Is Not the Answer (March 15, 2011) - Managers tell us all the time they have "a time management problem." Their days, they say, are often hijacked by unplanned events, interruptions, crises - matters that can't be ignored. They go to work planning to do certain things as a boss and at day's end they realize they've done none of it...