Fewer third-graders passing reading tests in Virginia (WJLA)

Fewer third-graders are passing reading tests in Virginia. And that has education experts concerned about their future academic success.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Saturday that the pass rate for the reading tests fell for the second straight year. The average score has fallen from 84 percent to 72 percent in the past decade. [Read More]

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (Amazon)

Is your child halfway through first grade and still unable to read? Is your preschooler bored with coloring and ready for reading? Do you want to help your child read, but are afraid you’ll do something wrong? RAs DISTARreg; is the most successful beginning reading program available to schools across the country. Research has proven that children taught by the DISTARreg; method outperform their peers who receive instruction from other programs. Now for the first time, this program has been adapted for parent and child to use at home. Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is a complete, step-by-step program that shows parents simply and clearly how to teach their children to read. Twenty minutes a day is all you need, and within 100 teaching days your child will be reading on a solid second-grade reading level. It’s a sensible, easy-to-follow, and enjoyable way to help your child gain the essential skills of reading. Everything you need is here — no paste, no scissors, no flash cards, no complicated directions — just you and your child learning together. One hundred lessons, fully illustrated and color-coded for clarity, give your child the basic and more advanced skills needed to become a good reader.Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons will bring you and your child closer together, while giving your child the reading skills needed now, for a better chance at tomorrow. [Read More]

Liberals eye closer look at ‘right to disconnect’ in labour rule revamp: report (CTV)

The federal Liberals are considering whether a reshaping of federal labour standards should include giving workers the right to ignore their job-related emails at home.

The idea of putting into law a “right to disconnect” is one of several policy areas the Liberals identify as meriting further study in a report being made public ahead of the Labour Day long weekend.

Governments in Canada and overseas have taken a closer look at the right-to-disconnect concept after France adopted a law in 2016 giving workers the right to turn off their electronic work devices outside of business hours over worries that employees were doing unpaid overtime, or being driven to burnout. [Read More]

‘I swept floors after the NFL, I’d do it again’: Terry Crews leads the charge of actors defending Cosby Show alum Geoffrey Owens’ side job after he was pictured working at Trader Joe’s (Daily Mail)

Dishwasher, cocktail waitress, Target cashier – these are just some of the jobs that actors have had to work between roles.

And now Hollywood is talking about their side gigs loud and clear to defend Geoffrey Owens.

Actors have come out en masse to defend the former Cosby Show star after he was pictured working at Trader Joe’s last week.

‘I swept floors after the NFL,’ Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Terry Crews tweeted. ‘If need be, I’d do it again.’ [Read More]