Geometry homework: Is this cheating? | Dangerously Irrelevant | Big Think

Geometry homework: Is this cheating? | Dangerously Irrelevant | Big Think

Geometry homework: Is this cheating?

Scott McLeod on May 6, 2011, 10:42 AM

Here’s a question for you…

Let’s say that my daughter’s taking Geometry and the homework assignment from her textbook asks her to prove that the three perpendicular bisectors of the sides of a triangle are concurrent (i.e., they intersect in a single point).

She tries. She’s successfully worked other Geometry proofs in the past. She’s even successfully done other proofs tonight. But she’s stuck on this one. Even after she tries again. Even after she takes a break and comes back to it. Even after her dad, whose high school Geometry-related memory faded long ago, takes a peek to see if he can give her a few tips. For whatever reason – she’s tired, she’s confused, she’s had it up to here with Geometry this evening, whatever – it’s just not clicking.

Now let’s also say that there’s a step-by-step proof available to her on the Web. The proof literally walks her through the steps needed to prove this theorem, with diagrams

Robert Reich (Why Washington Should Pay Attention to the Economy Here and Now)

Robert Reich (Why Washington Should Pay Attention to the Economy Here and Now)

Why Washington Should Pay Attention to the Economy Here and Now

After a week of non-stop Osama Bin Laden, Washington is now returning to the battle over the budget deficit and the debt ceiling.

All over Capitol Hill Republicans and Democrats are debating spending caps and automatic triggers, and whether to begin them before or after Election Day.

But if you don’t mind my asking, what about the economy? I’m not talking about the economy five or ten years from now, when projections show the federal budget wildly out of control or when foreigners might start dumping dollars.

I’m talking about the here and now economy – the one Americans are living in day to day.

The Labor Department reported today that unemployment for April was 9 percent, up from 8.8 percent in March. And of course that official figure doesn’t count the percent of Americans working part-time who’d rather have full-

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Friday morning FUs

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Friday morning FUs

Friday morning FUs

A big Friday F**K YOU goes out to CUNY's trustees for their decision to block an honorary degree for America's greatest playwright Tony Kushner.Another FFU goes to racist Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern.

Ah, what a great way to start my day.

Online learning begins to explode into the mainstream in blended schools - Michael Horn - Disrupting Class - Forbes

Online learning begins to explode into the mainstream in blended schools - Michael Horn - Disrupting Class - Forbes

Online learning begins to explode into the mainstream in blended schools

May. 5 2011 - 3:41 pm | 269 views | 2 recommendations | 0 comments

This week, Innosight Institute, where I am the executive director of the education practice, released a landmark report, titled The rise of K-12 blended learning: Profiles of Emerging Models, which profiles 40 different operators leading the rise of K-12 blended learning.

Across America a skyrocketing number of K-12 students are getting their education in blended-learning environments. Over 4 million K-12 students took at least one online course in 2010, according to Ambient Insight, and this space is growing now by a five-year compound annual growth rate of 43 percent—much faster than the growth of charter schooling or other K-12 education reforms, for example. And the majority of this growth is occurring in different types of “blended learning.”

The report, by our senior research fellow, Heather Staker, provides clarity as to what this term means, defining it based on the research as “any time a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location

The College Puzzle » Blog Archive » New Report Examines Linkage Between K-12 Reforms And Colleges

New Report Examines Linkage Between K-12 Reforms And Colleges

Home » Uncategorized » New Report Examines Linkage Between K-12 Reforms And Colleges

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Columbia Study Raises Serious Issues About Community College Placement Tests »

The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) is pleased to present the latest installment from its Policy Mattersseries.

K-12 Education Reform: Implications and Opportunities for
Public Colleges and Universities

A confluence of major K-12 education reform efforts has significant implications and offers tremendous opportunities for the nation’s public colleges and universities to boost high school graduates’ success in higher education and beyond. Potential congressional reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), states’ implementation of the Common Core State Standards and the federally incentivized Race

Do Doctors Resist Reform? The Case of Evidence-Based Medical Practice | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Do Doctors Resist Reform? The Case of Evidence-Based Medical Practice | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Do Doctors Resist Reform? The Case of Evidence-Based Medical Practice

by larrycuban

Many school reformers blame teachers for supporting the status quo and resisting change. In a previous post (April 30, 2011), I argued that, sure, many teachers question classroom-directed policies coming from top officials who last set foot in a classroom when they were high school seniors. And, yes, many teachers point out defects in the innovative program, curriculum, or software that designers missed. Being a skeptic of a new policy or program, however, is not rejecting change per se since teachers have altered their lessons and activities over the years while introducing new ways of teaching familiar topics. If this is the case for teachers, what about physicians who also have been accused of resisting a major reform introduced two decades ago called evidence-based medical practice.

EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE (EBM)

When a doctor sees a patient, takes a history, does a physical examination, and listens to what the patient

Institutional Racism in America is Alive and Thriving…‏‏ | Dailycensored.com

Institutional Racism in America is Alive and Thriving…‏‏ | Dailycensored.com

Institutional Racism in America is Alive and Thriving…‏‏

Written by Solomon ComissiongDaily Journal (Opinion), MediaMay 6, 2011

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http://www.blogtalkradio.com/your-world-news/2011/05/02/the-existence-of-institutional-racism-in-american-society

Please join us as we deconstruct American Institutional Racism in a way that is methodically ignored by the US corporate media.

Institutional Racism is a disease that has long infested the stolen body of America. Institutional Racism is the real culprit that allows police brutality in the black community to go on unchecked. Those police who murder unarmed black people routinely go on within receiving any jail time. Institutional Racism is why in 2011 for every dollar that a white person “earns” a black person earns 60 cents. And it is none other than Institutional Racism that is at the core of why the Prison Industrial Complex warehouses more Black people than any other demographic in America. However in 2011 the nasty myth of America being a post racist society persists and is largely promoted by the white media, white liberals, conservatives, and

Wisconsin-Style Occupation Planned in California | The Nation

Wisconsin-Style Occupation Planned in California | The Nation

Wisconsin-Style Occupation Planned in California

Allison Kilkenny

May 6, 2011

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The Wisconsin backlash against Gov. Walker’s union-busting crusade is widely seen as some of the most effective protests against austerity partly because activists occupied the state Capitol and refused to leave. These acts of physical resistance are truly the last refuge of the liberal class, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges. In fact, he says liberals have a “moral imperative” to perform them.

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Wisconsin's Walker in Washington to Discuss How Republicans Can Best Serve Koch Brothers Agenda

Wisconsin's Walker Arrives in Washington to Discuss How Republicans Can Best Serve the Koch Brothers Agenda

The Betrayal of Public Workers

“[I]f we don’t begin to physically defend the civil society, all resistance will be ceded to very proto-fascist movements such as the Tea Party that celebrate the gun culture, the language of violence, seek scapegoats for their misery.”

In other words, it’s not enough to sign on-line petitions. The only acts that still strike fear in the hearts of the wealthy and powerful are mass acts in which bodies fill rotundas and the halls of power.

Following the Wisconsin tradition of meaningful protest, the California Teachers Association is planning a weeklong “State of Emergency” campaign designed to focus on budget cuts in

Teacher Pensions Not Excessive, New Study Shows - NYTimes.com

Teacher Pensions Not Excessive, New Study Shows - NYTimes.com

In California, Study Says, Teachers’ Pensions Fall Short of Other Public Workers’

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

A teacher in Los Angeles. California might reduce public pensions to trim its huge budget deficit.

By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

Published: May 5, 2011

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As states and cities debate whether benefits can or should be cut back for public workers, a new study suggests some of those workers have a lot more to fight for than others.

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The study found that public school teachers’ retirement benefits — at least the part taxpayers pay for — are smaller than those of virtually any other type of public employee, despite frequent claims that teachers’ pensions are excessive and diverting precious dollars from education and other essential government services.

It appears, in fact, that the teachers in the study would be better off if their current pension plan were scrapped entirely, and replaced by one cutting the defined benefit portion and adding a defined contribution feature. Public employees, and the unions that

Our cutthroat curriculum - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Our cutthroat curriculum - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Our cutthroat curriculum

by Valerie Strauss

--

This was written by Adam Bessie, assistant professor of English at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, Ca. A version of this appeared on dailycensored.com.

Read full article >>

What 2011 Teachers of the Year told the Ed Dept.

by Valerie Strauss

Education Secretary Arne Duncan wasn’t able to make it as scheduled, but a handful of his top staff members spent some time on Thursday talking about school reform to the visiting 2011 Teachers of the Year, and what wasn’t said was as striking as what was.

The single time spontaneous applause erupted from the teachers was when Angie Miller, the 2011 New Hampshire Teacher of the Year, spoke candidly about teachers and mentioned that she was “annoyed” by an open letter to teachers Duncan had written for Teacher Appreciation Week.

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"Many" Teaching Who Shouldn't Be? :: Frederick M. Hess

"Many" Teaching Who Shouldn't Be? :: Frederick M. Hess

"Many" Teaching Who Shouldn't Be?

by Frederick M. Hess • May 6, 2011 at 8:48 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

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On Wednesday, I stirred a bit of a hornet's nest when I wrote, "I think that...many people teaching today probably shouldn't be." Given the charged response from readers demanding that I justify this assertion, I'll say a few more words.

First, it strikes me as a banal, unremarkable statement, one that I've uttered regarding attorneys, professors, journalists, salesmen, federal bureaucrats, think tankers, and district administrators. In this context it wasn't intended as an attack on educators, which is what made the heated response so noteworthy. People vary in talent, energy, and performance, and this means there are poor performers everywhere--even in fields with relatively stringent selection or hiring requirements.

Second, education hires a lot of educators. We've 3.4 million teachers in the U.S., which represents more than ten percent of the college educated workforce. That's twice the number of lawyers and doctors, combined. Th