Short Takes

Lecture Tools.  Freeware (for now) to aid with classroom interaction.

Here's an interesting article about the inter-rater reliability for peer review in medicine.  Too bad they didn't study the same for psychometrics journals.  Now that would have been interesting.

You may remember me blogging not long ago about the Dept of Ed's strategic plan, and wishing for goals and data tied to employment.  If this Huffington Post article can be believed, something like that may be in the works:

In January, the Education Department suggested one answer: for a program to be eligible, a majority of its graduates' annual student loan payments under a 10-year repayment plan must be no more than 8 percent of the incomes of those in the lowest quarter of their respective professions. The earnings data would come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

This is limited to certain programs.  Don't have a stroke.

Finally, I just discovered this institute, which has an interesting article on student debt (pdf):

Ten percent of borrowers who graduated from four-year colleges and universities in 2008 owed
at least $40,000 in student loans, up from 3% in 1996 (in constant 2008 dollars).

And it's those who can least afford it who borrow most.