On file: Despite the controversy surrounding Louisiana’s use of the Common Core education standards, only a few hundred people have submitted comments for a public review process of the English and math benchmarks. The Department of Education announced Monday that during the first month of an ongoing comment period, 723 individuals sent in 29,809 “pieces of feedback” on the multistate standards of what students should learn at each grade level. Sixty percent of commenters described themselves as educators, 23% as parents, 7% as district or school administrators and the rest as members of the public or other education institutions. The first meeting of the education standards review committees is set for Aug. 19 in Baton Rouge, with final recommendations to be made in February. The comment website remains open at www.louisiana.statestandards.com.
Drop by drop: Oil production from the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas will dip again in September, according to the latest report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Production of crude oil and the light oil condensate is expected to slide by 56,000 barrels daily, to around 1.48 million barrels per day. It will be the sixth straight monthly drop for Eagle Ford output. The industry has been hit hard by falling crude oil prices, with energy companies drilling and completing fewer wells. Oil prices were higher than $100 per barrel last summer but have been trading around the $45-level recently. Production in the Eagle Ford peaked in March at 1.71 million barrels, but has dipped every month since, according to the EIA. FuelFix.com has the full story.
Picking up the pace: U.S. productivity rose at a moderate pace in the April-June quarter as growth picked up and hiring remained steady. The Labor Department announced this morning that worker productivity increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.3%, up from a drop of 1.1% in the first quarter. The first quarter’s decline was revised sharply higher from a previous estimate of a 3.1% decline. The second quarter rebound occurred mostly because the economy grew faster: It expanded at a 2.3% annual rate, compared with the first quarter’s anemic 0.6% growth. Productivity is a gauge of how efficient workers are. It measures the output of goods and services for each hour worked. The Associated Press has the full story.
