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Al's Morning Meeting

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Al Tompkins
Story ideas that you can localize and enterprise. Posted by 7:30 a.m. Mon-Fri.
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A dozen sites
I'm diggin'


*1. For anyone looking for a year-end project, consider this one from the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y. The paper put a face on every person murdered in Rochester for the year. Stunning and simple use of multimedia.

*2. The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times produced a fascinating story that sheds light on how easy it was to defraud the banking system during the housing boom.

*3. Watch a simple but telling video essay about how immersed children can get while playing video games.

*4. The Rural Blog discusses what failing auto companies mean to rural communities.

5. Salon investigates "Friendly Fire" incident that leads to document shredding.

6. Seven key questions about a car company bailout.

7. The Flip Cam has gone HD with a customizable cover.

8. A fun video to help you with digital conversion.

*9. In a weird way, I dig this photo essay on abandoned Christmas trees.

*10. The Atlantic sits down with China's Gao Xiqing, who oversees $200 billion of China's $2 trillion in dollar holdings. The lesson to the U.S. is "shape up."

11. You thought sub-prime lenders were gone? No way! They are making FHA loans.

12. Planet Money is a really good blog about money and finance.

All of my Diggin' sites are saved on Poynter's del.icio.us page.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. We will correct errors and inaccuracies when we become aware of them.


Failing Students Promoted Anyway
RELATED
I am now updating my column throughout each weekday with new resources and ideas. Check back for the latest posts, or stay updated by subscribing to the RSS feed.

New since the last newsletter:

Millions of Historical Documents Available Online

The Agony and Science of Migraines

Big Bucks to Buy Bullets
The Arizona Daily Star examined three main issues in a multi-part project about students who are promoted to the next grade level even after they fail essential classes. The story is especially timely with the end of the school year approaching. There is no doubt it raises questions for you to answer locally as well.

Intro:
"Why are some students promoted to the next grade even when they fail essential classes?"

Part 1:
"Nine in 10 students were promoted last year, but grades reveal nearly one-third failed basic subjects."

Part 2:
"Even students who are passing courses may not deserve those grades, tests show."

Part 3:
"The solution isn't easy, but something must be done, educators, politicians and business leaders say."

The Web page for the project includes a searchable database for readers to see how well individual schools are performing. 

The project includes a ton of multimedia and Web extras:

Prevalence of social promotion in Tucson [PDF]
Video: "Struggling to catch up"
Video: "Saturday school at Hohokam Middle School"
U.S. social promotion study [PDF]
Tuscon Unified School District's student intervention chart [PDF]
Tuscon Unified School District's old promotion policy
Audio slide show: "Students advance despite failing grades"
Poll: "Do you feel your students were promoted when they shouldn't have been?"

Posted by Al Tompkins 10:53 AM
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