Wholly Anecdotal Sign of the Education Apocalypse- July 31, 2008 In a taxi on the way to the Miami airport yesterday, talking to the driver, a part-time student at Florida International University, 25 years old, working on an accounting degree, family came to the U.S. from Dubai, born and raised in Miami. Seems perfectly nice, reasonably smart, etc. Asks me where I'm from: Washington, DC, I answer. The capital, right he asks. How's George Bush Then he remarks: My sister lives there, her boyfriend was transferred to Seattle. There are two Washingtons, I...http://www.quickanded.com/2008/07/wholly-anecdotal-sign-of-education.html Carey Pipp Rivers- July 31, 2008 In my continuing effort to be Joan Rivers to Rick Hess' Johnny Carson -- or perhaps Wally Pipp to his Lou Gehrig -- I again did the Fordham Institute's Gadfly podcast today along with host Mike Petrilli (who, incidentally, does a good job of unpacking the tensions between achievement gaps as measured by relative- vs. criterion-referenced measures here).http://www.quickanded.com/2008/07/carey-pipp-rivers.html Who Watches the Watchmen Hopefully, Me- July 31, 2008 Lost in the generally well-deserved praise for The Dark Knight and the subsequent chatter over the million kabillion dollars it's raking in at the box office is the fact that it featured a trailer for Zach Snyder's Watchmen. Interestingly, it looks like the long-awaitedfeared adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's seminal 80's graphic novel (which is generally--all though by no means universally--regarded as the greatest comic book ever made) may not suck. If that turns out to to be the...http://www.quickanded.com/2008/07/who-watches-watchmen-hopefully-me.html Boundary Changes- July 31, 2008 This situation in Fairfax County, VA has some relevance to recent discussions about socioeconomic desegregation plans (see also here and here).In Fairfax, kids aren't being transported away from their neighborhood school for integration, but the school board did decide to change attendance boundaries to balance enrollments among schools, and took socioeconomic integration into account in its decision. Many of the parents whose children were assigned to South Lakes High School were not happy....http://www.quickanded.com/2008/07/boundary-changes.html Economic Theory in Teacher Salaries: Why the ProComp Negotiations Matter- July 29, 2008 Imagine you have complete control over a new school district. You need to design a salary structure that fits what we know about education. Empirical evidence suggests that:Teachers have steep learning curves, making dramatic improvements in the first few years, but showing few gains, or possibly even slowing, as they near retirement. Teachers, as public employees, often have enormous retirement incentives to stay in their job near the end of their career to max out their defined benefit...http://www.quickanded.com/2008/07/economic-thoery-in-teacher-salaries-why.html The Libertarian Conspiracy to Destroy Public Education- July 29, 2008 Occasionally I'll use phrases like "conspiracy to destroy public education" in these pages, and you, faithful reader, may reasonably wonder whether I'm exaggerating for dramatic effect. I wish I were. But no, there really are people out there who simply want to dismantle the entire enterprise, despite evidence of public education's benefits so obvious that David Brooks wrote a whole column about them this morning. People like Neil McCluskey, associate director of the Cato Institute's "Center...http://www.quickanded.com/2008/07/libertarian-conspiracy-to-destroy.html Republican Vice Presidential Picks and Education- July 28, 2008 While the edublogosphere has analyzed the candidates positions on education, speculated on various Secretary of Education possibilities, and commented on education spokespersons, it has yet to produce anything substantive on the policies of likely vice presidential picks. In order to keep the list manageable and relevant to TQATE, this discussion is limited only to widely speculated picks who also have an interest in education, our chosen issue. Let's start with the Republicans:- Bobby...http://www.quickanded.com/2008/07/republican-vice-presidential-picks-and.html |