From Inside Higher Ed: Data drawn from the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s annual survey of graduation rates, analyzed by Inside Higher Ed, show that scholarship athletes make up at least 20 percent of the full-time black male undergraduates at 96 of the nearly 330 colleges that play sports in Division I, the NCAA’s top competitive… Continue reading Your Cheery Race-in-America Thought for the Day
Category: Politics
Unions and Sour Grapes
One final note on the teachers-unions argument: The comments to the original post on the low regard for teachers relative to lawyers immediately jumped on the union thing. Commenter Doug Hering provided what’s probably the best statement of the causal link: I do agree that teachers must be treated as professionals. However, part of that… Continue reading Unions and Sour Grapes
Teaching Catch-22
Commenter “Matt” wrote a comment that pissed me off, and while it’s probably futile to take on union-bashing again, it does highlight a couple of the things that make this so frustrating. In response to several people observing that teaching is not the cushy 8-to-3, summers-off job that lots of people claim, he writes: Here… Continue reading Teaching Catch-22
Iowa and Kenya
One of the many annoying things about the Iowa caucus coverage is that what’s really a faintly absurd and kind of trivial process gets magnified into this huge and all-consuming Event that bumps other, much more important, stories down the queue. Kevin Drum highlights what might be the perfect illustration: On CNN, Bill Bennett just… Continue reading Iowa and Kenya
Congratulations to _________
The Iowa caucuses are finally over, and Daily Kos has the scoop: Finally, primary season is over, and it couldn’t come soon enough. After a week of conflicting polls and a flurry of last minute campaigning by all parties, ______ has (narrowly / decisively) won the Iowa caucuses. Numerous factors contributed to this very predictable… Continue reading Congratulations to _________
Fred Clark, Jim Henley, and Daniel Davies
Timothy Burke is disgusted with the New York Times, and soliciting nominations of people who would be more interesting on the Op-Ed page than the Times‘s current stable of established writers: As an extension of my last post, let me start the nominations for online writers that you feel like could serve as better columnists… Continue reading Fred Clark, Jim Henley, and Daniel Davies
I’m Chad Orzel, and I Disapprove of These Messages
Kate’s parents live on the New Hampshire side of Boston, and we’re down visiting for the weekend. This morning, I went downstairs with the tablet to do my morning blogroll in front of the tv while Kate slept in. I didn’t really appreciate what being this close to New Hampshire meant for television. Oh. My.… Continue reading I’m Chad Orzel, and I Disapprove of These Messages
Open Letter to Mike Huckabee
Hey, Mike. Rough month, eh? You’re doing all right in the polls at the moment, but just getting hammered from all sides in the blogosphere. You’re getting blasted for denying evolution, but also for not denying it fiercely enough for Ann Coulter. People are none too happy about your ill-informed ideas about public health, or… Continue reading Open Letter to Mike Huckabee
Scientists and Indie Rockers
Chris Mooney posted a couple of things last week– one article at ScienceProgress and one blog post— talking about the supposed shortage of scientists in the “pipeline.” Following an Urban Insitute study, he says that there’s really no shortage of scientists being trained, but rather a shortage of jobs for those scientists. Coming as he… Continue reading Scientists and Indie Rockers
Problems with Middle School Math
EurekAlert had a press release yesterday regarding a new study on the training of middle-school math teachers. It’s not pretty: Middle school math teachers in the United States are not as well prepared to teach this subject compared to teachers in five other countries, something that could negatively affect the U.S. as it continues to… Continue reading Problems with Middle School Math