Another report: Charter school performance lags

August 23, 2006

Gee, I wasn’t counting — is this the third report in a couple of months that notes no great improvements in performance at charter schools?

The National Center for Education Statistics released a report Tuesday showing fourth graders in public schools testing higher than fourth graders in charter schools.  According to the Los Angeles Daily News, for example:

Fourth-graders in traditional public schools did significantly better in reading and math than comparable children attending charter schools, according to a report released on Tuesday by the federal Education Department.

Other news reports:  Associated Press in the Boston Globe; Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Utah; Jay Matthews in the Washington Post.

Leave a Comment » | Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Charter schools, Education, No Child Left Behind Act, Pedagogy, Public education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Twisting history still: D. James Kennedy

August 23, 2006

Voodoo history just will not die.

Several years ago I caught the tail end of a television program featuring the Rev. D. James Kennedy railing against evolution and especially Charles Darwin.  What caught my aural attention was a rant claiming that Darwin somehow bore responsibility for Stalin’s manifold evils perpetrated in the old Soviet Union.

That is bogus history of the first order, of course.  Stalin banned the teaching of evolution, and he banned research even based on evolution. 

Soviet genetics, top of the world in the early 1920s, was set back decades (and still has not recovered).  Some top scientists were fired; some were imprisoned; some were sent to Siberia in hopes they would die (and some did); a few disappeared, perhaps after being shot.  Soviet anti-Darwinian science contributed to the massive crop failures of the 1950s that led to the starvation of more than 4 million people.  Claiming that Stalin loved Darwinian theory is bad history revisionism of first order.  (If you’re Googling, look for the story of Trofim Lysenko, Stalin’s henchman against biology.)

Kennedy is at it again.  The past couple of weeks have featured new rants against Darwin, leading up to a promised climax this weekend in which Kennedy will claim Darwin was responsible for Hitler and Nazi atrocities — again a fantastic claim, since Hitler directly repudiated Darwin, never expressed support for the idea of evolution, and since anti-Darwin quackery led to any number of stupid science moves in Nazi Germany, such as a ban on blood banks for fear that soldiers would get Jewish blood and turn Jewish (no, you can’t make that stuff up — see Ashley Montague’s essay in his 1959 book, Human Genetics).

Unfortunately for Kennedy and his Coral Ridge Ministries (CRM), his advance flackery got the attention of biologists like P. Z. Myers and others, like the Jewish Anti-Defamation League.

There is much bogus history to deal with there, and so little time.  Check out the links.  More to come from here, I hope.

2 Comments | Bogus history, Creationism, Evolution, History Revisionism, Hoaxes, Holocaust, Holocaust denial, Intelligent Design, Plagiarism, Religious Freedom, Voodoo history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

More maps!

August 23, 2006

This is too good to leave in comments.  A reader named Chris commented on my earlier post about NOAA maps with a list of sources.

Humans generally take in information much faster visually, and retain it longer.  Maps provide a key tool for teaching history.  The more the better, I think.

Chris wrote:

The NOAA data center is one of many really neat places to get data, images, and materials. Here are a few more (and let me know if you want more on any one topic, as I collect links like these – and happen to work in the field!):

Earth Observatory Science site. Free! One of the best sites out there.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

Visible Earth:
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/

Find Space Objects! Easy views from your location. Cool.
http://www.heavens-above.com/

Space weather/environment. Great insight into the sun and upper atmosphere.
http://spaceweather.com/
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/

Elevation, land use, maps, and lots of other GIS data:
http://seamless.usgs.gov/

Learning technologies. Some fantastic educational materials:
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/index.html

Direct Readout Data. Great images.
http://directreadout.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Distributed Active Archive Center.
http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/www/

More great free images.
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Cheers!
Chris

Leave a Comment » | Education, Geography - Physical, History, Maps, TEKS, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Joe Rosenthal – Iconic Iwo Jima photo revealed a lot about war and Americans

August 22, 2006

Photo by Joe Rosenthal, Associated Press

 

Joe Rosenthal died. He took the photo of the U.S. flag-raising atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima that became an icon of the Pacific War, of dedication to duty, and of the deeper, sometimes darker currents of war and life in the U.S.

The Los Angeles Times captured the basics of the story, noting that the photo Rosenthall took was the second raising of a larger flag, a smaller one having been raised a bit earlier. (Other worthwhile stories include those in the Seattle Times, Scotsman.com, and The San Francisco Times.)

Mt. Suribachi, though little more than a large mound on the island, is the highest point there and visible all around the island. The raising of the flag on that spot was a morale booster for U.S. troops and a morale-buster for holdout Japanese troops engaged in one of the nastiest, bloodiest battles of a nasty, bloody war. As the LA Times noted, a third of all U.S. Marines to die in the war died on Iwo Jima: 5,931. Nearly 7,000 U.S. servicemen died, in total — and, fighting to the death from deeply hidden tunnels, nearly all of the Japanese defenders died. Read the rest of this entry »

8 Comments | Atomic Bomb, Famous Battles, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Heroes, History, Patriotism, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

A Baptist with more sense for history than lab science

August 21, 2006

Brett Younger is pastor at Fort Worth’s Broadway Baptist Church.  In the Baptist Standard he tells a story of a near-disaster in his high school chemistry class, on the way to urging Christians to use common sense on the issues of evolution in public school science classes.  One more voice of reason, for sanity.

2 Comments | Creationism, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Public education, Religious Freedom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

More belt than Bible

August 21, 2006

Corporal punishment of students is still legal in Texas. A few school districts use it, extensively — and to good effect, they argue. The Dallas Morning News featured the practice in a front-page story on Sunday, August 20. Read the rest of this entry »

2 Comments | Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Corporal punishment, Education, Education reform, Paddling or spanking, Public education, School discipline, Teaching, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

E-learning courtesy

August 21, 2006

Setting up the on-line portion of a college course is rather new.  I found this ancient-by-internet-terms Michael Leddy at Orange Crate Art suggests students need to show manners and sense in e-mailing professors, in a well-crafted post, How to e-mail a professor. 

The comments provide good advice for professors, too.

Leave a Comment » | Education, On-line education, On-line learning, Teaching, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Portraits of the presidents

August 21, 2006

Small, painted, plastic figurines.

*

You need to see it to appreciate it — it has interesting historical data on each president. At January River.

(A tip of the backscrub brush to Inkbluesky)

* Yes, that’s our 13th president, Millard Fillmore. The January River site says it was Fillmore’s wife who installed the bathtub. . .

Leave a Comment » | Millard Fillmore | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Great maps from NOAA

August 21, 2006

This is just one of several stunning images available from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC).

Downloadable, available on CD-ROM — this is good stuff for PowerPoint presentations and other classroom use.

1 Comment | Education, Geography - Physical, Maps, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

More carny barking!

August 20, 2006

A nice mention today from the Carnival of Bad History, hosted by David Beito at Liberty and Power (part of the History News Network site) — pointing to my posts correcting the history behind folding the U.S. flag.

Go visit and browse around.  As usual the Carnival of Bad History has some wonderful posts, and the blogs they come from are generally first rate.

And, if you’re visiting Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub on recommendation of the Carnival — thank you, take a look around, and leave some comments!

1 Comment | Bogus history, Education, History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Forgotten Texas history: Battle of Medina

August 19, 2006

1813?

Reporter Art Chapman in today’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram makes a plea to remember the deadliest battle for Texas independence, fought years before the Texas Revolution.

On Aug. 19, a group of battle re-enactors will commemorate the Battle of Medina, fought in 1813 between Spanish forces and members of the Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition. (Austin American-Statesman photo and caption)

 

Read the rest of this entry »

8 Comments | Famous Battles, Freedom - Political, History, Lesson plans, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Rote memorization, or killing a child’s potential?

August 18, 2006

Althouse tees off on the content and tone of an article in the New York Times that describes a school in the United States where young boys spend nine hours a day in rote memorization of the Qur’an.

During my law school time our informal study group had one guy who could study the tarnation out of any topic we had.  Tom got his high school education in a Catholic system, and he had four years of Latin.  It wasn’t exactly rote memorization, but it was a lot of work dealing with a system of writing that is difficult to master, at best, and language-logic defying at worst.  In the group, we determined (over a few fermented grain beverages) that this experience had well prepared Tom to deal with the oddities of legal thought.  Of course, it may have been just that Tom had learned to study with all those stern taskmasters who taught the Latin courses.

Readers here know I think school should grab a student’s interest whenever possible to improve the educational value of any topic offered.  Rote memorization has a place — I required history kids to memorize the Gettysburg Address and the Preamble to the Constitution last year — but it is a place in a larger menu of educational offerings. 

Howard Gardner claims there are different domains of genius available to everybody.  Of the eight (maybe nine) domains he has identified, how many of them are neglected by pure, rote memorization of an untranslated text? 

Ann Althouse is right.  One question we need to consider is, how many others were outraged by that article in the Times, and for the right reasons?

Update:  P. Z. Myers also found the article’s description of the school troubling.  He gets a lot more traffic than I do — a lot more comments are available there, at Pharyngula, “This is not a school.”

Leave a Comment » | Curricula, Education, First Amendment, Pedagogy, Religious Freedom, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

A plagiarism how-to

August 16, 2006

Back in May, Alex Halavais at A Thaumaturgical Compendium offered advice on how to plagiarize to avoid detection.  Of course, it also lets the cat out of the bag on how to detect such plagiarism, which was his tongue-in-cheek intention all along.  Halavais has some other stuff worth reading, and a very impressive resume.  Any teacher grading essays should read the plagiarism post.

(Tip of the backscrub brush to but she’s a girl . . .)

1 Comment | Accuracy, Education, Plagiarism, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Carnival of History XXXVII

August 15, 2006

It just gets better every time you go!  The 37th Carnival of History is up at Mode for Caleb. 

There’s a pointer to my James Madison post of some days ago, where I noted the need for a new, popular biography of Madison, to round out and balance the couple dozen fine books on the American Revolution, and the people who made it and cemented it into place. There’s also a pointer to a very interesting bit of Madison/Jefferson trivia, their use of codes, at the American Presidents Blog.

(I know some people who would love to do the Madison book, should any of you be publishers in need.)

Leave a Comment » | History, James Madison, Religious Freedom | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Texas adds financial literacy standards

August 15, 2006

Teachers in Texas got notice in the past week of the financial literacy standards the State Board of Education approved over the summer. There is a push on nationally to add these standards in every state. The Department of the Treasury has been working to push such standards and create materials for teachers to use in classrooms.

Most Texas school districts were working on such a curriculum, I think — every one I checked was, if that’s any indication.

Odd side note: The National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) provided meetings with the Department of the Treasury and guidance for state school boards doing what Texas did — but the Texas SBOE dropped out of that organization over an anti-bullying campaign also promulgated by NASBE. The problem was that NASBE’s program said homosexual kids should not be bullied, and the Texas board members disagreed. Yes, I know, there is no rational way to defend that decision, but there you go. Read the rest of this entry »

5 Comments | Business Ethics, Economics, Education, State school boards, TEKS | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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