This video of a family dancing at Auschwitz with their survivor grandpa is stirring up some controversy. As an atheist Jew (oxymoron?) I have to side with the folks who think it's very cool he lived long enough to celebrate his survival, life, children and grandchildren.
What do you think?
7/12/10
The Achievement Gap: It's About Poverty. Still
Hopefully one day, probably long after I am dead and gone, folks will realize what we have (or have not) done to make a better world for our children. We could start by acknowledging simple truths, but this too is a problem.
Left Ed: Race, Income and School Reformh/t Open Left
...In 1966, the Coleman Report revealed the Inconvenient Truth that the correlation of low student achievement to race and poverty is so strong that "schools generally can not overcome" the inequalities imposed on them by the society at large. [emphasis mine] Children born to families with socio-economic advantages in our society will continue to have their advantages reinforced in the schools they attend, while children born to families with more challenging circumstances will chronically lag behind.
Today, merely pointing this fact out often gets you labeled by the reformist crowd as "making excuses" for bad schools. But when one wants to understand the weather outside, it makes sense to start by recognizing how clouds make rain. Complex systems such as schools have multiple inputs, which should all be considered in policy making....
7/9/10
We're Getting Closer
Discovery Helps Researchers Close In on HIV Vaccine
(July 8) -- American scientists are touting a major stride toward a vaccine that can ward off HIV, after finding two key proteins that neutralize 91 percent of the virus' 190 strains.
The team of researchers with the National Institutes of Health's Vaccine Research Center hopes the antibody discovery can spur successful work toward a method of preventing HIV, which already afflicts an estimated 33 million people worldwide.
7/8/10
The Grateful Dead Sing National Anthem At 1993 Giants Game
Vince Welnick (the newest member), Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia sing the National Anthem at Candlestick in 1993. Did you know they could sing? CSN&Y taught them how! (h/t BB)
7/5/10
Poverty And The Achievement Gap: Married
(Reuters) - A murder in the neighborhood can significantly knock down a child's score on an IQ test, even if the child did not directly witness the killing or know the victim, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.h/t AC
The findings have implications both for crime control efforts and for the heavy reliance on standardized tests, said New York University sociology professor Patrick Sharkey, who conducted the study.
They can also explain about half the achievement gap between blacks and whites on such tests, he reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [emphasis mine]
"It means being more aware of the potential for violence to have a reach that extends beyond just those victimized and those who witness a violent event, to reach across a community and affect all children in a community," Sharkey said in a telephone interview.
Sharkey compared data on crimes broken down to within a few blocks in a neighborhood with school test scores.
7/4/10
7/3/10
Public Education: NOT Too Big To Fail
Saving Oregon schools: Targeting the wrong areas for budget cutsh/t JH
The job of destroying America's public schools, left unfinished by No Child Left Behind, has now been taken over by our economic recession.
In nearly every state, teacher layoffs, a shortened school year, class-size increases and elimination of vital parts of the school curriculum are in progress, So far, Congress has failed to respond. Apparently our public schools, unlike Wall Street banks, are not "too big to fail." Ironically, the business community, the leading advocate of school reform in recent years, remains silent.
To make matters worse, the only assistance the Obama administration has offered to states is a Faustian bargain: Allow the unlimited proliferation of charter schools that drain the most dedicated students, their families and funds from public schools; evaluate teachers' competence by their students' scores on flawed, once-a-year state tests; and accept national standards designed by people who haven't been inside a classroom or near any kids but their own since they graduated. Then -- maybe -- we'll give you enough money to keep school buildings open.
In the face of this national disaster, the public appears to be accepting the inevitable, perhaps thinking that it's all just temporary and soon, as the recession ends, all school losses will be restored. But will they?
Most of the teachers being laid off today are the young ones, who are also the ones most likely to change course and pursue other careers. Few will come back to teaching by the time the economy recovers. We can't count on public support for school rebuilding either because the people who vote and speak up most often -- the wealthy, the retired and parents with children in private or charter schools -- won't be affected by public school cuts.
Moreover, the public memory is short. A couple of years from now, hardly anyone will remember that schools once taught history, science, music and physical education, just as they've already forgotten that schools used to have nurses, art teachers and librarians.
Although I can't argue that states are not suffering a severe financial crisis or that big reductions in this major state budget item don't need to be made, Oregon is targeting the wrong areas. By looking for a few places where the most money can be saved with the least trouble, school leaders are about to sever vital arteries that nourish educational excellence and to miss opportunities to eliminate the real expendables in our schools.
Instead of laying off teachers, eliminating physical education and jamming more students into already crowded classrooms, the state and school districts should be targeting non-classroom personnel, delaying purchases of all textbooks and commercial materials, reducing sports and other extracurricular activities, eliminating teacher professional development programs, denying approval of additional charter schools and, above all, putting a moratorium on state tests.
Whether we like these things or not, we have to agree that they are nonessential and far more likely to be restored in the future than the people and programs that stand by all our kids every day.
Joanne Yatvin is an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Education at Portland State University.
7/2/10
It Was Coercion, Not A Pledge
Arne Duncan didn't make states pledge to open more charter schools in order to get RTTT funds, he just coerced them, as pointed out by Valerie Strauss:
Correction on Ed Dept and charters
The Education Department’s press secretary e-mailed me to say that I was wrong when I wrote in a recent post that states wishing to win federal money in Duncan’s Race to the Top contest “had to pledge” to open more charter schools.
The spokesman, Justin Hamilton, said that the department did not require states to make such a pledge.
Hamilton is right. My mistake.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan did not ask states to “pledge” -- which is literally “a solemn promise or agreement to do” -- to open more charter schools.
Duncan has, of course, said that states that did not agree to open more charters would be at a disadvantage in the $4 billion competition. He wrote the following last year in an article published by The Washington Post, entited "Education Reform's Moon Shot:"
“The Race to the Top program marks a new federal partnership in education reform with states, districts and unions to accelerate change and boost achievement. Yet the program is also a competition through which states can increase or decrease their odds of winning federal support. For example, states that limit alternative routes to certification for teachers and principals, or cap the number of charter schools, will be at a competitive disadvantage.”
7/1/10
I Am Back
It was a nice break to be in the woods with my son for a couple weeks. We are home, dirty, tired and hungry. I will resume blogging in the morning.
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