I do like the work of business and management gurus who tend to look at things oddly, and ask the odd, just-right questions.
Jason Fried’s work found that most people, when they “need to get work done,” don’t go to an office.
Listen to his TEDS Talk, and consider, dear teacher or education administrator: What if schools are not the places to teach, or worse, not places to learn?
Now: Who the heck is Jason Fried?
1 Comment | 
Business, Education, Learning, Teaching | Tagged: Business, Education, Jason Fried, Office, School, TEDS Talk | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Our textbooks and curriculum guides too often fail to make clear the links between the bloody conflicts in the Kansas Territory and the Civil War, between the conflicts engaged in by men like John Brown in Kansas, and later at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, and the conflicts of the Civil War.
We might make the history more vivid and clear with the use of Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” an epic war song based closely on a folk tune favored by Union troops of the time, conscripted specifically because of that affinity by Howe to serve the greater action of repurposing the war from merely saving the Union to freeing people from bondage. It’s a study in propaganda earlier than we usually think of it.
Prof. R. Blakeslee Gilpin’s essay explaining those links, and exposing the substantial and usually hidden role Julia Ward Howe’s husband played in Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, appears in the New York Times’s coverage of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. As identified at the NYT website, Gilpin is a visiting assistant professor of history at the University of South Carolina, and the author of a book on the issue, John Brown Still Lives!: America’s Long Reckoning With Violence, Equality, and Change.
An early lyric sheet for "Battle Hymn of the Republic," by Julia Ward Howe, Library of Congress via New York Times
Most of my students claim not to know the song, “John Brown’s Body,” and an astonishing number of the students say they don’t know “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” It’s a chance to bore them — or instruct them, if the planets and stars align — using a bit of music (a teacher should be able to find a copy of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s version of the “The Battle Hymn” with little difficulty; it appears in the hymnals of most Protestant sects, so you can get a copy of the lyrics; you’ll have to do a search to find a good copy of “John Brown’s Body,” though; I’ve not found one I like to use in class).
It might be a short lesson, an adjunct to a lesson, or a project for a student with some choir training.
Gilpin wrote:
Even if Howe’s song spoke to a different understanding of the war, her efforts to transform “John Brown’s Body” into a national patriotic text meant that, much like Brown’s afterlife, people would end up using and abusing “Battle Hymn” as they saw fit. What Howe observed in that Union camp outside of Washington in 1861 was just the beginning of a war of clashing agendas and endlessly obscured meanings. To be sure, those north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line knew that the developing war was being fought over slavery – its brutal realities, its political volatility and especially its uncertain future – but even in its opening months, commentary about the war was already cloaked in the bland language of preserving the Union or defending states’ rights. Assessing the war itself, Howe later wrote that “its cruel fangs fastened upon the very heart of Boston and took from us our best and bravest.”
For Howe and generations of Americans, the cruelty of war demanded a providential overseer. Despite her urge to celebrate noble-hearted men like Brown, “Battle Hymn” helped to take responsibility for the Civil War out of the brutal and clumsy hands of ordinary mortals. To be sure, Brown his death would help to make his nation holy and especially to make all men free, but his radical extremism was frightening to most Americans. Soon enough, the Civil War would be transformed by songs like Howe’s into a conflict of necessity and destiny – a providential trial by fire. That narrative, of a harrowing but essential national adolescence, would eventually be at the expense of those Brown had died for, and whose fate the war was being fought to settle.
More links and a couple of original documents can be found at the NYT site — I would encourage all U.S. history teachers to subscribe to the paper’s coverage of the sesquicentennial of the war.
Leave a Comment » | 1861-1865, Abolition, Civil War, Education, Music, Slavery, Teaching | Tagged: 1861-1865, Abolition, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Civil War, Education, Harper's Ferry, John Brown, Julia Ward Howe, Music, Slavery, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
On November 19, 2011, the Rhodes Trust announced the 32 winners of Rhodes Scholarships for the United States for 2012.
These young people are among the smartest and most accomplished people of their generation. Under the will of Cecil Rhodes, the developer of African railroads and colonist, Rhodes Scholars must demonstrate leadership and service, and they must be well-rounded, which usually means they are accomplished athletes in one area in addition to their academic acumen.
One of this year’s winners will have to bail out on the second year of his Teach for America commitment — one hopes TFA will understand. Joshua Carpenter, a 2010 graduate of the University of Alabama-Birmingham, taught writing, math and economics in Marion, Alabama.
Past American Rhodes Scholarship winners include former Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, the late Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, musician and actor Kris Kristofferson, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, former President Bill Clinton, late Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, physician and Pulitzer-winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, and author Naomi Wolf. Here’s the press release from the Trust:
WASHINGTON, DC/November 19, 2011 – Elliot F. Gerson, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, today announced the names of the thirty-two American men and women chosen as Rhodes Scholars representing the United States. Rhodes Scholarships provide all expenses for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England, and may allow funding in some instances for four years. Mr. Gerson called the Rhodes Scholarships,” the oldest and best known award for international study, and arguably the most famous academic award available to American college graduates.” They were created in 1902 by the Will of Cecil Rhodes, British philanthropist and African colonial pioneer. The first class of American Rhodes Scholars entered Oxford in 1904; those elected today will enter Oxford in October 2012.
Rhodes Scholars are chosen in a two-stage process. First, candidates must be endorsed by their college or university. This year over 2000 students sought their institution’s endorsement; 830 were endorsed by 299 different colleges and universities.
Committees of Selection in each of 16 U.S. districts then invite the strongest applicants to appear before them for interview. Gerson said, “applicants are chosen on the basis of the criteria set down in the Will of Cecil Rhodes. These criteria are high academic achievement, integrity of character, a spirit of unselfishness, respect for others, potential for leadership, and physical vigor. These basic characteristics are directed at fulfilling Mr. Rhodes’s hopes that the Rhodes Scholars would make an effective and positive contribution throughout the world. In Rhodes’ words, his Scholars should ‘esteem the performance of public duties as their highest aim.'”
Applicants in the United States may apply either through the state where they are legally resident or where they have attended college for at least two years. The district committees met separately, on Friday and Saturday, November 18 and 19, in cities across the country. Each district committee made a final selection of two Rhodes Scholars from the candidates of the state or states within the district. Two-hundred ten applicants from 99 different colleges and universities reached the final stage of the competition, including 15 that had never before had a student win a Rhodes Scholarship. Gerson also reported, “in most years, we elect a winner from a college that had never before had a Rhodes Scholar, even after more than a century. This year we are pleased to announce first-time winners from Bard College and from California State University, Long Beach.”
The thirty-two Rhodes Scholars chosen from the United States will join an international group of Scholars chosen from fourteen other jurisdictions around the world. In addition to the thirty-two Americans, Scholars are also selected from Australia, Bermuda, Canada, the nations of the Commonwealth Caribbean, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Kenya, New Zealand, Pakistan, Southern Africa (South Africa, plus Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia and Swaziland), Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Approximately 80 Scholars are selected worldwide each year, usually including several who have attended American colleges and universities but who ae not U.S. citizens and who have applied through their home country.
With the elections announced today, 3,260 Americans have won Rhodes Scholarships, representing 314 colleges and universities. Since 1976, women have been eligible to apply and 458 American women have now won the coveted scholarship. And for the fourth time since 1976, more women (17) than men (15) were elected. Men constituted 58% of the applicant pool and 60% of those who reached the final stage of the competition. More than 1,800 American Rhodes Scholars are living in all parts of the U.S. and abroad.
The value of the Rhodes Scholarship varies depending on the academic field and the degree (B.A., master’s, doctoral) chosen. The Rhodes Trust pays all college and university fees, provides a stipend to cover necessary expenses while in residence in Oxford as well as during vacations, and transportation to and from England. Mr. Gerson estimates that the total value of the Scholarship averages approximately US$50,000 per year, and up to as much as US$200,000 for Scholars who remain at Oxford for four years in certain departments.
The full list of the newly elected United States Rhodes Scholars, with the states from which they were chosen,
their home addresses, and their American colleges or universities, follows. Brief profiles follow the list.
Selectees are listed here first by the state from which they competed, and then by the college they attended — note that the college may not be in the state from which the candidate competed.
American Rhodes Scholars-elect for 2012
(Subject to ratification by the Rhodes Trustees after acceptance by one of the colleges of Oxford University)District 1
New Hampshire, Yale University
Ms. Helen E. Jack
Hanover, New HampshireRhode Island Brown University
Ms. Emma F. LeBlanc
Manchester, New HampshireDistrict 2
Massachusetts, Princeton University
Ms. Elizabeth W. Butterworth
Auburn, MassachusettsMassachusetts, Brown University
Mr. David S. Poritz
Amherst, MassachusettsDistrict 3
New York, Princeton University
Ms. Miriam Rosenbaum
Bronx, New YorkNew York, Harvard College
Ms. Brett A. Rosenberg
Chappaqua, New YorkDistrict 4
Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College
Ms. Nina R.W. Cohen
Newton, MassachusettsPennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh
Mr. Cory J. Rodgers
Somerset, PennsylvaniaDistrict 5
Rhodes Scholar Brandon Turner, of Fontana, California, Wake Forest University
Maryland/DC, Yale Law School and Bard College
Mr. Ronan S. Farrow
Washington, D.C.North Carolina, Wake Forest University
Mr. Brandon E. Turner
Winston-Salem, North CarolinaDistrict 6
Georgia, Stanford University
Mr. Ishan Nath
Atlanta, GeorgiaVirginia, Brown University
Mr. Nabeel N. Gillani
Glen Allen, VirginiaDistrict 7
Alabama, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Mr. Joshua D. Carpenter
Florence, AlabamaTennessee, Sewanee: The University of the South
Ms. Carrie H. Ryan
Sewanee, TennesseeDistrict 8
Texas, Stanford University
Ms. Aysha N. Bagchi
Austin, TexasTexas, Stanford University
Mr. Anand R. Habib
Houston, TexasDistrict 9
Indiana, Princeton University
Mr. Mohit Agrawal
West Lafayette, IndianaVictor Yang, from Lexington, Kentucky (Harvard University)
Kentucky, Harvard College
Mr. Victor Yang
Lexington, KentuckyDistrict 10
Chicago Tribune photo - Northwestern University student and new Rhodes Scholar Sarah Smierciak speaks with the media on the Northwestern University campus in Evanston today. (StaceyWescott / Chicago Tribune / November 20, 2011)
Illinois, Northwestern University
Ms. Sarah N. Smierciak
Lemont, IllinoisMichigan, Harvard College
Mr. Spencer B.L. Lenfield
Paw Paw, MichiganDistrict 11
New Rhodes Scholar Alexis Brown, University of Wisconsin
Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Ms. Alexis K. Brown
Madison, WisconsinWisconsin, Princeton University
Ms. Astrid E. M. L. Stuth
Hubertus, WisconsinDistrict 12
Kansas, University of Kansas
Ms. Kelsey R. Murrell
Kearney, MissouriSouth Carolina, Stanford University
Ms. Katherine Niehaus
Columbia, South CarolinaDistrict 13
Colorado, United States Air Force Academy
Mr. Zachary A. Crippen
Bala Cynwyd, PennsylvaniaAspen Institute Left to right; Cadet 1st Class Zachary Crippen (Rhodes Scholar), Cadet Squadron 12; retired Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, co-chairman of the Aspen Strategy Group; Dr. Schuyler Foerster, the Academy’s Brent Scowcroft professor for national security studies; Cadet 1st Class Peter Lind, CS15; and Cadet 1st Class Nathan Betcher, CS25, pose for a photo at the Aspen Institute Saturday (date not designated) (U.S. Air Force Photo)
Colorado, Harvard College
Mr. Samuel M. Galler
Boulder, ColoradoDistrict 14
Washington, University of Washington
Mr. Byron D. Gray
Post Falls, IdahoWashington, University of Washington
Mr. Cameron W. Turtle
Pullman, WashingtonDistrict 15
California, Brown University
Ms. Brianna R. Doherty
Carmichael, CaliforniaCalifornia, Stanford University
Ms. Tenzin Seldon
Albany, CaliforniaDistrict 16
California, California State University, Long Beach
Ms. Stephanie Bryson
San Diego, CaliforniaCalifornia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ms. Stephanie Lin
Irvine, California
More details may be available at the Rhodes Trust website for the American group.
Profiles of Rhodes 2012 winners below the fold.
News coverage:
Why isn’t this a bigger deal in American news outlets?
7 Comments | College, Education, Leadership | Tagged: College, Education, Leadership, Rhodes Scholarships | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Sign on the door of the mishipmen’s mess: “The daily floggings will continue until morale improves.”
In an effort to raise teacher morale to a level at least as high as that of the British Navy back in the day when everyday brought “flog and grog” — though, admittedly, we work in education today without the grog — policy makers continue in their efforts to blame teachers for every problem of education, and they pledge to “hold teachers accountable” regardless the issue.
In November 16th’s Deseret News from Salt Lake City:
Utah senator says teacher morale is low and lawmakers need to address teacher perceptions
SALT LAKE CITY — A freshman state senator, who held a series of tell-all meetings with Utah school teachers, relayed to his colleagues Wednesday a common theme among public educators: Teacher morale is low.
“They are discouraging new teachers from entering the profession. … They feel classroom size is an issue. … They feel that they don’t have the professional development support they need,” said Sen. Aaron Osmond, R-South Jordan, at an Education Interim Committee meeting. “That’s what they feel. I’m not validating it or invalidating it. I’m communicating it to this group.
Osmond went to teachers to get feedback on his controversial proposal that would make it easier to fire teachers. His legislation would dismantle current state orderly termination laws that require districts to have a specific, documented cause when firing teachers and allow teachers a chance for recourse. The proposal would also give more control to local districts so they can develop termination policies based on what works for them and institute one- to five-year contracts at the end of which schools could let teachers go without cause.
Osmond held four meetings where public school educators could give him a piece of their mind. Hundreds of teachers attended.
“Our public employees feel that there is a major morale problem in education,” he said.
No kidding?
4 Comments | Education, Education reform, Teachers, Teaching | Tagged: Daily Flogging, Education, Education reform, Teachers, Teaching, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Lead editorial in today’s Dallas Morning News (page 14A):
Retaining Teachers
DISD should redouble efforts to support Teach for America recruits
In 2009, the Dallas Independent School District welcomed 80 Teach for America teachers to its campuses. These newly minted teachers were part of a competitive program that sends top college graduates to work in urban and rural public schools.
Two years later, only 45 teachers from that inaugural class remain in the district.
Where did the others go? DISD can’t say for sure.
Teach for America teachers make a two-year commitment. So, after fulfilling that obligation, they’re free to pursue other teaching opportunities, graduate school or entirely different careers.
Losing 43 percent of the first TFA class is somewhat troubling — particularly because that’s higher than the program’s national attrition rate in high-poverty schools. But that fact alone doesn’t mean that DISD and Teach for America aren’t a good fit.
One number doesn’t tell the whole story, and DISD would benefit from additional data as subsequent TFA classes complete their two-year stints. It would be useful for the district and Teach for America to know more about why these teachers are leaving and whether they are seeking out teaching jobs in other districts.
Still, the attrition rate raises important questions about what more DISD can do to support these young teachers — and encourage them to stay.
TFA is supplying the Dallas school district with teachers who were high achievers and leaders on their college campuses. And while they’re new to teaching, many are distinguishing themselves quickly. In 2010, DISD reported that the district’s TFA teachers were outperforming their peers in educating students in reading and math.
Even Teach for America’s critics, who often complain that TFA corps members don’t stay long enough to make a difference, would agree that these teachers will become even more effective with additional years of experience.
With all this in mind, DISD should refocus its efforts to ensure that TFA teachers who spend two years at a Dallas public school consider extending their stay. While this is still a relatively new program in DISD, the early numbers suggest that the district has not been a particularly welcoming place.
DISD should bolster its mentoring efforts and consider what other strategies could be employed to help TFA teachers succeed — and feel motivated to continue teaching.
There’s no doubt that some TFA corps members enter the program planning to teach only two years before embarking on another career. But Teach for America’s hope is that some will be inspired to continue in education.
Other districts with similar challenges have had more success retaining TFA corps members.
DISD should seize this opportunity to mentor and develop a unique group of teachers — instead of simply watching them walk out the door.
I work alongside several Teach for America people — to a person, great colleagues. Some of them faced the same barriers to entry I did — Dallas was unhappy with my recommendations, for example, and held out my hiring for a few weeks because they didn’t want to take the recommendation of the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee which deals with education policy, for whom I worked for a decade, but instead insisted I get a teacher or someone from a local education establishment to write the letter (I got a person who assigned substitutes in a local district to comment — we knew each other on the phone). Why they wouldn’t take the word of someone who knows me over someone in education, I don’t know — but there is a moral in that morass, somewhere.
Dallas ISD is generally not a teacher-friendly place these days. After two rounds of layoffs, we have all been informed clearly that we are all on the maybe-needs-firing line. TFA teachers can stay above that only partly — the poisonous atmosphere infects all faculty meetings and department tete-a-tetes.
There is a big difference between TFA teachers and others: TFA is tough (sometimes stupidly too tough), but they let every one of their people know that each one is valuable, and expected to do great things.
Dallas ISD tried to do that once. We had a kid give a great motivational speech at the fall welcome-back-teachers ball.
Then the district announced it had goofed, and a few hundred teachers would have to go. Then word got out that the mother of the kid who gave the speech — a teacher — was on the chopping block. Then word got out that the whole program the kid was in, was on the chopping block. Yeah, we believe in you, kid — we just don’t believe in education any more.
Is TFA the answer to Dallas’s woes? What’s your view? I’m still thinking about an appropriate, and informative response.
Also see this at the Dallas Morning News site:
Sidebar:
What is Teach for America?
Teach for America is an organization that works to recruit high-achieving college graduates for two-year teaching stints in urban and rural public schools. The hope is that many will continue to work in the field of education or an area that impacts student achievement.
The selection process is competitive — only 11 percent of this year’s 48,000 applicants were accepted.
The chart shows the number of Teach for America teachers in DISD, broken down by the school year they arrived. Many of those who started in 2009-10, the inaugural year in DISD, left after serving their two-year commitment.
School year TFA members received In DISD as of Sept. 26 2009-10 80 45 2010-11 107 102 2011-12 45 45 Total 232 192 SOURCES: Dallas ISD; Dallas Morning News research
6 Comments | Dallas, Education, Teachers, Teaching | Tagged: Dallas, Dallas ISD, Education, Teach For America, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
"A woman prepares a sign promoting American Education Week by attaching it to the wall of the Education Department office." Photo by Ansel Adams, 1943, at Manzanar War Relocation Center - Library of Congress collections
Just an ironic blast from the past, an Ansel Adams photograph of an interned American citizen of Japanese descent, putting up a poster celebrating “American Education Week,” at the Manzanar War Relocation Center, California. Photo details:
- Title: Education week sign / photograph by Ansel Adams.
- Creator(s): Adams, Ansel, 1902-1984, photographer
- Date Created/Published: [1943]
- Medium: 1 photographic print : gelatin silver.
1 negative : nitrate.- Summary: A woman prepares a sign promoting American Education Week by attaching it to the wall of the Education Department office.
- Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppprs-00417 (b&w digital file from original print) LC-DIG-ppprs-00158 (b&w digital file from original neg.) LC-A35-T01-6-M-6 (b&w film dup. neg.)
- Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
- Call Number: LOT 10479-7, no. 20 [P&P]
- Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
- Notes:
- Title transcribed from Ansel Adams’ caption on verso of print.
- Original neg. no.: LC-A35-6-M-6.
- Gift; Ansel Adams; 1965-1968.
- Forms part of: Manzanar War Relocation Center photographs.
Leave a Comment » | Education, History, History images, Japanese American internment, World War II | Tagged: Education, Executive Order 9066, History, Japanese Internment, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I get press releases in e-mail:
FIXING EDUCATION is Focus of New “Restoring the American Dream” FAREED ZAKARIA GPS Primetime Special
Restoring the American Dream – FIXING EDUCATION Debuts Sunday at 8:00pm ET and PT
TIME Magazine Companion Story “When Will We Learn?” Hits Newsstands Friday
American primary and secondary education were once envied by much of the world, but over the last few decades U.S. students have fallen behind – while students in other countries have benefitted from improvements to their educational systems. CNN and TIME magazine’s Fareed Zakaria interviews innovative and creative leaders working on solutions to fix what ails American education in his November primetime special, Restoring the American Dream – FIXING EDUCATION, on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 8:00pm & 11:00pm ET & PT, and for a companion TIME magazine cover article, “When Will We Learn?” that hits newsstands Friday.
Time Magazine cover for November 4, 2011, featuring Fareed Zakaria's story on education reform
PISA, the Program for International Student Assessment, ranks 15-year-olds for basic skills achievement in 65 industrialized nations. In the latest PISA rankings, the U.S. ranks 15th in reading, 23rd in math, and 31st in science. Zakaria guides viewers through tours of what is working in education in countries with high rankings – to South Korea where students have more classroom time; and Finland , where professionalization of the teacher workforce has improved educators – in order to mine ideas for what could put U.S. education back on the right track.
Featured in the special are:
- ·Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, whose foundation has donated $5 billion dollars to schools, libraries, and scholarships tells Zakaria that the single most important determinant in the quality of a student’s education is the teacher. The Gates Foundation is the leading source of private money for education in the U.S. .
- ·Salman Khan,< founder of the Khan Academy , an educational organization that provides free, self-paced tutorials and student assessments online. Khan’s famous podcasts have delivered more than 83 million free lessons in math, science and other topics, and he tells Zakaria that customizing education can improve learning through leveraging how students learn differently. He thinks it would not be that difficult to teach all American students this way.
- NYU Professor, former Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education, and author (The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, 2010) Diane Ravitch has spent a lifetime in education policy analysis and has seen education reforms come and go – and harm students. Ravitch supports a rigorous national curriculum and tells Zakaria that standardized testing, charter schools, and modeling public education after business models have politicized American education and degraded schools for a generation.
- ·Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, in Washington, now leads StudentsFirst, a nonprofit aimed at education reform through, among other measures, ending teacher tenure and supporting charter school alternatives to traditional public schools.
A FAREED ZAKARIA GPS Special:Restoring the American Dream – FIXING EDUCATION – debuts Sunday, Nov. 6 at 8:00p.m. and 11:00p.m. ET/PT on CNN/U.S. It will replay on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 8:00p.m. and 11:00p.m. ET/PT on CNN/U.S. Preview available here: Fareed Zakaria and Brooke Baldwin discuss what makes a great teacher.
Fareed Zakaria’s TIME magazine cover story, When Will We Learn? hits newsstands Friday, Nov. 4.
So the Time story is already out (home delivery has already occurred in many cases).
If you’re interested in this special, you may want to record it yourself — CNN tells me no DVD will be available.
I have AT&T cable, so we don’t get CNN, which is reserved for the high-cost, not-teachers-salary package. Somebody tell me how it goes.
Zakaria thinks solidly and well on a number of topics, especially where comparison with foreign nations is made. Ravitch was struck with an epiphany on testing and the No Child Left Behind Act over a year ago, as described in the press release. She came to see that testing sucks rigor out of classrooms, instead of instilling rigor as we discussed 30 years ago in the education reform movement.
What in the world can Michelle Rhee add to this discussion? From the press release it looks a lot like the “balance” fallacy makes the show suffer: Journalists think they need a contrasting view, so when Euclid tells a writer that 2+2=4, the journalist seeks out others who have different opinions, and prints those opinions no matter how stupid, insipid, or dangerous they may be.
Let us keep hope alive.
See also at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub:
33 Comments | Education, Education reform, Teachers, Teaching, Vouchers | Tagged: CNN, Diane Ravitch, Education, Education reform, Fareed Zakaria, Michelle Rhee, Teaching, vouchers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Mary McGlasson at Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Phoenix, Arizona, has created a series of more than 30 YouTube videos explaining basic economics. Like this one:
Econ teachers, can you use these on your class websites? What do you think?
1 Comment | Economics, Education, Technology, Technology in the classroom, Video and film | Tagged: Economics, Education, Instructional Video, Mary McGlasson, Scarcity, Technology, video | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
For a couple of years, about this time of year, the Bathtub gets a lot of hits from people looking to play a great little environmental simulation game called “Build-a-Prairie.” It used to be housed at the site of the Bell Museum at the University of Minnesota.
Alas, money ran out, or the proprietors simply decided not to support it anymore (it was originally sponsored by AT&T), or something, but for whatever reason the game is no longer found at the Bell Museum.
Is it available somewhere else?
Someone at SmartBoard shrewdly captured the game for use with SmartBoards. At least, I hope they captured it.
Any other places the game can be found?
Nice Update: Mr. Higginbotham found the Build-a-Prairie game, at the Bell Museum site: http://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/games/prairie/build/
1 Comment | Biology, Education, Environmental protection, Museums, Science | Tagged: Bell Museum, Biology, Build a Prairie, Ecology, Education, Environmental protection, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Nearly foolish question, but The Economist blogs ask it.
Go give them a piece of your mind. Of course we should — tell ’em. Boost that “yes” total much more — Fillmorize the entire poll.
The Economist Asks
Should the United States be financing expensive projects in fundamental science?
On September 30th America’s biggest particle accelerator, the Tevatron at Fermilab near Chicago, will be switched off for good. Until the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) started smashing protons in earnest, the Tevatron was the fanciest bit of kit at physicists’ disposal. When it shuts down, America will have conceded the high-energy-physics game to Europe, whose CERN laboratory on the outskirts of Geneva is home to the LHC. Some American (and foreign) scientists are dismayed. Others hope that planned new experiments at Fermilab, which will be probing the strange behaviour of particles called neutrinos, will make up for the loss of the Tevatron. But the cost of these new projects, though less than the LHC’s, will still be counted in the billions of dollars. Is fundamental science worth that much money, especially in the current unfavourable economic climate? Should the United States be funding expensive projects with no obvious practical applications? Cast your vote and join the discussion.
You voted: Yes Current total votes: 2238
Voting opened on Sep 29th 2011
5 Comments | Education, Research, Science | Tagged: Basic Research, Education, Fermilab, Large Hadron Collider, Science, Spending | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Great posters with provocative aphorisms came out of the Northland Poster Collective. Alas, Northland called it quits in 2010.
One of their best artists, Ricardo Levins Morales, continues the fight at his own site. Morales is the guy who made this work, on the importance of standardized student tests:
Testing, by Ricardo Levins Morales
Earlier I questioned whether Einstein actually said that. I don’t think he did — but I love the poster and the sentiment, all the same. I haven’t been able to verify the quote in Alice Calaprice’s The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, for example.
In my classroom the air conditioning often did not work last spring, at testing time. When we’d open the windows, we’d get visitors — usually bees, but birds on at least two occasions. The student in the picture has her priorities right.
The poster is just $10.95. Teachers, if a dozen of these appeared in your school, it might make a difference.
2 Comments | Art, Education, Politics, Posters, Testing | Tagged: Art, Education, Politics, Posters, Ricardo Levins Morales, Testing | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Government, economics and U.S. history teachers:
You may get a free copy of the 2011 U.S. Statistical Abstract, on CD.
Available January 2011
On the CD-ROM version are Excel spreadsheet files for each of the individual tables.
In many cases the files contain more detailed information than is found in the book. Also, in some cases the Excel files contain more recent and revised data that were released by the source after publication of the printed version of the Abstract. You will also find the same Adobe Acrobat files for each section which you find on this web site.
Additional information—
While supplies last, single copy FREE (one per customer) by calling Customer Services at 1-800-923-8282.
2 Comments | Books, Economics, Education, Government, History | Tagged: Books, Economics, Education, Government, History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Mike the Mad Biologist makes the case succinctly and clearly (teachers, observe his methods):
That shudder you felt was the Earth wobbling as an . . .
. . . education story actually covered U.S. students’ academic achievement during the last few decades accurately. I’ve made the point before that the claim of stagnating test scores for U.S. students is demonstrably false–in every demographic group, there has been a rise in achievement (and the minority-white achievement gap is closing to boot). Shockingly, in a Slate report on Steven Brill’s new book Class Warfare, Richard Rothstein sets up Brill with this:
The case they make for their cause by now enjoys the status of conventional wisdom. Student achievement has been stagnant or declining for decades, even as money poured into public schools to improve teacher salaries, pensions, and working conditions (reducing class sizes, or hiring aides to give teachers more free time). Teachers typically have abysmally low standards, especially for minorities and other disadvantaged students, who predictably fall to the level of their teachers’ expectations. Although teachers’ quality can be estimated by the annual growth of their students’ scores on standardized tests of basic math and reading skills, teachers have not been held accountable for performance. Instead, they get lifetime job security even if students don’t learn. Brill observes a union-protected teacher in a Harlem public school bellowing “how many days in a week?,” caring little that students pay him no heed and wrestle on the floor instead.
Protecting this incompetence are teacher unions, whose contracts prevent principals from firing inadequate (and worse) teachers. The contracts also permit senior teachers to choose their schools, which further undermines principals’ authority. Union negotiations have produced perpetually rising salaries, guaranteed even to teachers who sleep through their careers. Breaking unions’ grip on public education is “the civil rights issue of this generation,” and some hard-working, idealistic Ivy Leaguers and their allies have shown how.
And then knocks him down with:
Central to the reformers’ argument is the claim that radical change is essential because student achievement (especially for minority and disadvantaged children) has been flat or declining for decades. This is, however, false. The only consistent data on student achievement come from a federal sample, the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Though you would never know it from the state of public alarm about education, the numbers show that regular public school performance has skyrocketed in the last two decades to the point that, for example, black elementary school students now have better math skills than whites had only 20 years ago. (There has also been progress for middle schoolers, and in reading; and less, but not insubstantial, progress for high schoolers.) The reason test score gaps have barely narrowed is that white students have also improved, at least at the elementary and middle school levels. The causes of these truly spectacular gains are unknown, but they are probably inconsistent with the idea that typical inner-city teachers are content to watch students wrestle on the classroom floor instead of learning.
The question we need to ask is “Is our media learning?” (to steal a phrase from Little Lord Pontchartrain).
Maybe they are . . .
Brill, God bless him, proposed to shake up public schools in America a few weeks ago in a long article in the Weekend Wall Street Journal. His solution? Make AFT local leader Randi Weingarten superintendent of New York’s public schools.
Actually, his story was much better than his advocacy. But I hope to get more commentary on that proposal, and this continuing War on Education and War on Americans, soon.
Leave a Comment » | Education, Education reform, Education success, National Assessment of Educational Progress, Teacher Pay, Testing | Tagged: Education, Education reform, NAEP, National Assessment of Educational Progress, Teacher Pay, tests | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Bunch of opposite-editorial page articles say states ought to get off the testing treadmill, do some real walking instead. Is it a national movement?
One of these pieces explained:
For example, Tim Slekar, a professor of education in Pennsylvania, opted his son Luke out of his state’s tests last school year to “make my community aware and to try and enlighten them of the real issues.” This parent and professor’s plea is simple and forceful: “Stop treating my child as data! He’s a great kid who loves to learn. He is not a politician’s pawn in a chess game designed to prove the inadequacy of his teachers and school.”
If it’s not a national movement, should it be?
List of Op-Eds which support opting out of the state test in order to save the public schools:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-school-testing-20110825,0,7660909.story
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-d-slekar/public-schools-are-not-ne_b_943803.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/28/1011377/-Empty-Test-Chair-by-Empty-Test-Chair
http://www.examiner.com/education-reform-in-baltimore/opt-out-or-give-up-resistance-shades-of-grey
http://pegwithpen.blogspot.com/2011/09/why-opt-out-of-state-test-better.html
http://www.realhartford.org/2011/08/31/back-to-school-guide-reclaiming-your-childs-education-22/
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/20/pennsylvania.school.testing/index.html
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_in_a_strange_land/2011/09/opting_out.html
http://www.marionbrady.com/articles/Orlando_Sentinel_Column/arts.html
http://www.newdemocracyworld.org/old/shove.htm
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/28/1011377/-Empty-Test-Chair-by-Empty-Test-Chair
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-d-slekar/i-am-more-than-a-test-sco_b_921279.html
When parents choose to get their kids out of the test, do the kids know why, and do they develop any greater love for learning? If so, I’m for it.
But, parents, don’t take your kid out, so your kid can sit in my class wasting his time, my time, and other students’ time, saying “I don’t have to learn this stuff.”
_____________
Much more detail on the issue and events at Real Hartford.
1 Comment | Education, Parents, Testing | Tagged: Education, Opt-outs, Parents, Testing | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
From The Condition of Education 2011, Indicator 38, Education Expenditures by Country.
A country’s wealth (defined as GDP per capita) is
positively associated with expenditures per student
on education at the combined elementary/secondary
level and at the postsecondary level. For example, the
education expenditures per student (both elementary/
secondary and postsecondary) for each of the 10 OECD
countries with the highest GDP per capita in 2007 were
higher than the OECD average expenditures per student.
The expenditures per student for the 10 OECD countries
with the lowest GDP per capita were below the OECD
average at both the elementary/secondary level and at the
postsecondary level.
Per pupil spending in the U.S. is inflated in these comparisons because it includes per pupil expenditures for college. One might make a case that this spending could be reduced and efficiency maintained were investment in elementary and secondary education increased and made more effective.
Chiefly, here we should note that spending more on education correlates with a nation’s wealth — the more a nation spend, the wealthier it is, and vice versa. This applies in the developed nations measured by the Organization for Economic Development, anyway.
In short: We cut education spending at our national peril.
More data on this measure here. Other indicators, and the complete text of the Condition of Education 2011, here.
Conflict of interest statement: My office published these reports in my time at the Office of Educational Research and Improvement; I have no affiliation with these data any more.
27 Comments | Education, Education spending | Tagged: Education, Education Improvement, Education spending, Per Pupil Spending | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 