Microsoft Paperclip Goes to College
A reader sent me the following press release. It describes how college freshmen who get a scholarship will have an electronic monitoring system, where they are expected to check in and report. It appears that the system relies on the student to check in regularly and interact with his or her electronic tracking system. Maybe this will be helpful. Or maybe it will be like that accursed Microsoft Paperclip that used to pop up uninvited and offer to help you whether you wanted help or not. What happens when the students don’t respond? What is the follow through if they respond and say they don’t understand what is happening in their Algebra class? Will someone send help? Will it be like the thingies that senior citizens wear around their necks to call for help when they fall
Do Counselors Matter?
Good Advice for Mayor Bloomberg
Florida’s Grading System Has a Purpose
Kids Are Not Disposable
Do Counselors Matter?
A reader responds to this post about the middle school in the Bronx:
In Vallejo, we did away with our counselors in 2005. Since then we have seen our graduate rate rapidly decline, increase in violence on our secondary campuses, and other issues as well. The teachers’ union have been advocating for a return of our counselors ever since because we have seen the profound negative impact it has had on our kids. It has yet to happen.
In Vallejo, we did away with our counselors in 2005. Since then we have seen our graduate rate rapidly decline, increase in violence on our secondary campuses, and other issues as well. The teachers’ union have been advocating for a return of our counselors ever since because we have seen the profound negative impact it has had on our kids. It has yet to happen.
Good Advice for Mayor Bloomberg
Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, and Michael Mulgrew, president of the UFT (New York City local of AFT), have some good advice for Mayor Bloomberg: Help schools that struggle, don’t close them.
Interesting that this opinion piece appears, no doubt by coincidence, in the New York Daily News on the same day that a news story reports the failure of Bloomberg’s closing schools strategy. According to the news story, Bloomberg’s new schools did worse on the state reading tests than the “old” schools that he hasn’t closed yet.
Weingarten and Mulgrrew call the Mayor’s attention to the Chancellor’s District created by Rudy Crew when he ran the school system. He created a non-contiguous district of the city’s lowest performing schools and then
Interesting that this opinion piece appears, no doubt by coincidence, in the New York Daily News on the same day that a news story reports the failure of Bloomberg’s closing schools strategy. According to the news story, Bloomberg’s new schools did worse on the state reading tests than the “old” schools that he hasn’t closed yet.
Weingarten and Mulgrrew call the Mayor’s attention to the Chancellor’s District created by Rudy Crew when he ran the school system. He created a non-contiguous district of the city’s lowest performing schools and then
Florida’s Grading System Has a Purpose
Florida has perfected a useless system of grading schools.Matthew DiCarlo of the Shanker Institute analyzed the school grades from Florida and found that they reflect poverty and income levels, not school quality. If the school enrolls large numbers of poor kids, it stands a high chance of getting a D or an F from the state. If it enrolls middle-class or affluent kids, they get good grades. Nice way to grade schools!
Coach Bob Sikes points out that the charter corporations now colonizing the state of Florida need the school grades so that they can pick up more business. Given the nature of the grading system, there will always be ripe
Coach Bob Sikes points out that the charter corporations now colonizing the state of Florida need the school grades so that they can pick up more business. Given the nature of the grading system, there will always be ripe
Kids Are Not Disposable
A reader responds to an earlier post about a school in the Bronx that uses data to help students, not to punish teachers and students, and notes in passing the spurious claim of “reformers” that poverty is “just an excuse” or that great teachers alone can overcome poverty:
This is a great story. We try to do similar things at our school. I know we are not alone, but it is probably not the norm. Sometimes we are successful and sometimes not so much. When you work with students in poverty it becomes a necessity. Its the part that happens behind the scenes, outside of the classroom walls. That’s the part that the Ed deformers don’t discuss. Incarcerated parents, high transiency rates, truancy, students with mental health issues, just to name a few. We collaborate with health care, law enforcement, truancy officers
Did We Learn Nothing from Penn State?
This is a great story. We try to do similar things at our school. I know we are not alone, but it is probably not the norm. Sometimes we are successful and sometimes not so much. When you work with students in poverty it becomes a necessity. Its the part that happens behind the scenes, outside of the classroom walls. That’s the part that the Ed deformers don’t discuss. Incarcerated parents, high transiency rates, truancy, students with mental health issues, just to name a few. We collaborate with health care, law enforcement, truancy officers
Did We Learn Nothing from Penn State?
A reader writes in response to the latest wacky idea from economists who offer the reward to teachers upfront, then threaten to take it away (“loss aversion”):
Coincidentally, they are tearing down the statue of Joe Paterno right now. It occurred to me that the scandal at Penn State is largely because of the very things that we are saying are good levers to motivate children. Penn State officials were consistently rewarded with money and trophies. In order to keep their money and trophies,
This School Used Data to Help, not to Punish
Coincidentally, they are tearing down the statue of Joe Paterno right now. It occurred to me that the scandal at Penn State is largely because of the very things that we are saying are good levers to motivate children. Penn State officials were consistently rewarded with money and trophies. In order to keep their money and trophies,
This School Used Data to Help, not to Punish
A reader sent in a link to a PBS documentary about a middle school in the Bronx that faced the problems of its students and addressed them. Note that the school had guidance counselors:
| Check out this 13 minute PBS documentary! This is what it is all about. Not markets. Not |