Speaking of teacher evaluation schemes, as we were, Doug Natelson draws my attention to a new proposal from Texas A&M: [Frank] Ashley, the vice chancellor for academic affairs for the A&M System, has been put in charge of creating such a measure that he says would help administrators and the public better understand who, from… Continue reading Worst. Evaluation Scheme. EVER.
Category: Politics
We Must Become Litigious Assholes or the Litigious Assholes Win
Via Thoreau, a story at Free Range Kids about “zero tolerance” policy run amok, this time from someone who moved to the US as a kid and ran up against the modern school culture in a bad way: Once again, I came from a culture where you were made fun of if you forgot your… Continue reading We Must Become Litigious Assholes or the Litigious Assholes Win
Teacher Evaluation and Test Scores, aleph-nought in a series
There’s been a lot of energy expended blogging and writing about the LA Times’s investigation of teacher performance in Los Angeles, using “Value Added Modeling,” which basically looks at how much a student’s scores improved during a year with a given teacher. Slate rounds up a lot of reactions, in a slightly snarky form, and… Continue reading Teacher Evaluation and Test Scores, aleph-nought in a series
More Adult Politicians, Please
I’ve never thought of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. I haven’t had to, since I don’t live in The City, so about all I remember about him is that his choice of party back when he was first running seemed awfully opportunistic. I was really impressed with his appearance on the Daily Show this… Continue reading More Adult Politicians, Please
Two Responses to Hate
I’ve said before that I think Fred Clark of Slacktivist is the very best blogger writing about religion and politics in America today. It’s not even close. His recent series on things the government ought to be doing to help the economy is also outstanding– that link goes to the most recent, and you can… Continue reading Two Responses to Hate
Don’t Be a Dick
I’m probably about the last person with an interest in such things to get around to watching Phil Plait’s (in)famous “Don’t Be a Dick” speech, but I finally got around to it, and it’s really excellent: Phil Plait – Don’t Be A Dick from JREF on Vimeo. Phil has posted about the speech itself, online… Continue reading Don’t Be a Dick
Media Skills for Scientists
Everybody’s favorite science-and-politics blogger has posted a video clip showing part of what’s wrong in science communication. It’s a clip from the BBC from last December, featuring one of those head-to-head quasi-debates about “Climategate” between Prof. Andrew Watson of the University of East Anglia and political consultant Marc Morano, who has made himself a nice… Continue reading Media Skills for Scientists
The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the ______
Kevin Drum posts about the latest outrage from the airline industry: To summarize, then: (1) Airlines spent years hassling customers about their carry-on bags and persuading them to check their luggage instead. (2) After that finally started to work, they suddenly began charging for checked luggage. (3) As customers scurried to adapt once again, overhead… Continue reading The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the ______
Synchronicity and “Administrative Bloat”
At Inside Higher Ed this morning, they have a news squib about a new report blaming the high cost of college on “administrative bloat.” Coincidentally, the Dean Dad has a post pre-emptively responding to this in the course of arguing with a different group: In terms of administration, what would you cut? Should we stop… Continue reading Synchronicity and “Administrative Bloat”
Two Americas in Recovery
First Matt Yglesias and then Kevin Drum nail the current source of my occasional spasms of liberal guilt, namely the unequal distribution of the current economic troubles. They both note that the unemployment rate for college graduates is less than half that for folks without college degrees (Matt looks at total unemployment, Kevin at long-term… Continue reading Two Americas in Recovery