Saturday, February 4, 2012

Daily Kos: of grades, test scores, students, and learning - what it means for me as a teacher

Daily Kos: of grades, test scores, students, and learning - what it means for me as a teacher:

of grades, test scores, students, and learning - what it means for me as a teacher

Report cards went out yesterday. For some students whose average for last quarter is below 2.0, they are now ineligible for extra-curricular activities. A few who were ineligible perhaps just became eligible. Some basketball teams may have lost key players.

For the last few years we had been trying a different standard - if you failed even a sinle course you were ineligible, even if your average was above 2.0 and you were on track for enough credits to be able to graduate. Too many "key players" were becoming ineligible, especially in football just before the playoffs and in basketball


A single fact to consider

that tells us all too much about what is wrong in our nation/society

just heard as part of the intro to a fascinating discussion on Up With Chris Hayes

Were California to close all of its prisons and send all of the inmates to the the University of California paying their costs it would save $7 billion a year.


"No one should be surprised that the Tin Man has a tin ear."

That is the first line of tomorrow's New York Times column by Charles Blow, titled Romney, the Rich and the Rest, about which Blow has already tweeted this evening, seeking feedback (which you can give him via @CharlesMBlow).

He reminds us of a number of the Mittster's 'greatest hits' such as this:

This is the same man who in November claimed that federal employees are making “a lot more money than we are.” What?! We? What we? Please direct me to the federal employees with the $20 million paychecks. In fact, The Washington Post pointed out in November that federal employees on average “are underpaid by 26.3 percent when compared with similar nonfederal jobs,