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Thursday, March 11, 2010

An Inconvenient Truth In Math: A Very Viral Video - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

An Inconvenient Truth In Math: A Very Viral Video - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

An Inconvenient Truth In Math: A Very Viral Video

March 11, 2010 5:00 PM
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Math Wars:
The Top Viral Video On This Topic

--And It Ain't a Pretty Picture For "New Math" aka Everyday or Terc Math--


With national standards in Math being introduced this week, I thought it might make sense to show one of the top videos (it's not new-new, but message works) in the Math war saga since the teachers AND knowing which Math program/approach to teach with is more important than the standards themselves.

We thought we would start with this video to get the conversation going . . . what has been your experience with the different Math programs, as a teacher, parent or student? What have you heard?

Since we received more questions about teacher and trainer Kathleen Jalapour's post on The Daily Riff the other day, we would highly recommend to check it out if you missed it and want to learn more about Singapore Math. She makes understanding the concepts very easy to us regular folk. Click here to link :"Singapore Math: How I Learned To Love The Numbers".


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Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Education- Everything you need to know about the world of education.

MoCo warns about larger classes, layoffs

Montgomery Superintendent Jerry Weast (TWP).













Should this man lead a school system?

The president of the Detroit Board of Education is a man named Otis Mathis III. His biography says:
He was raised in Southwest Detroit and still lives there with his wife, with whom he has six children.
He is a “Vietnam-era veteran.”
He earned a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice from Wayne State University.
He served as Wayne County Commissioner.
He was a substitute teacher for Detroit Public Schools.
He was executive director of the Detroit Veterans Center.
He was elected president of the school board by his colleagues in January by a 10-1 vote.

It doesn’t tell you that he was a whiz at math in school, or that he had a reading disability identified in fourth grade that placed him in special education, or that he still has a problem expressing thoughts in writing.
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School budget cuts not such big news

[This is my Local Living section column for March 11, 2010.]
You saw the headline on the front of our Metro section recently: “Deep budget cuts approved for Prince George’s schools.” The news from Northern Virginia was much the same: “Fairfax County schools chief proposes dramatic budget cuts” and “Proposed Arlington schools budget cuts back in many areas.”
I have been reading stories like this in the Post for nearly 40 years. They have become a ritual. We think that readers want to know what is being done with their tax dollars in their local jurisdictions’ most important government service, education, and how much more they might have to pay next year.
All that is fine. I just wish the stories did not convey such a strong impression of telling us how schoolchildren are doing, or will be doing, because the stories give few or no clues to that important matter.
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The Shaw redemption

Last winter, several eighth-graders presented Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee with what was likely an unprecedented request: add a ninth grade so they could stay at their middle school, Shaw@Garnet-Patterson.
The students said they liked the change of culture that new principal Brian Betts had brought to Shaw--a 2008 merger of two struggling middle schools--located in Ward 1's U Street neighborhood. They wanted more of Betts and his program before they moved on to high school.
Rhee said yes, and about 100 students signed on. She also told my colleague Jay Mathews that it was a one-time thing. "It's maybe not the right decision for the system," Rhee said, "but it is the right decision for those kids."
Rhee has now granted the Shaw kids another extension, and will add a 10th grade this fall. Spokeswoman Jennifer Calloway said Rhee made the decision after meeting with the students again.
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Chief Justice responds to GU Law professor

As reported in this paper and others, the news media was briefly distracted last week by a rumor that Chief Justice John Roberts was going to step down for health reasons.
The rumor was spread by Georgetown Law students, who had heard it from a professor, who had made it up. Professor Peter Tague planted the canard in class as part of a lesson on the credibility of sources. By the time he explained that the information was false, students had spread the story into cyberspace.
On Tuesday, speaking to Alabama law students, Roberts replied.
"I do have to announce something," Roberts told the students. "Apparently the professor who said that has been so overwhelmed, he's decided to leave teaching. I feel sorry about it, but what can you do."
Students laughed. It was hard to know, though, if Roberts was joking.
Has Tague, a tenured professor, resigned? Was Roberts planting a false rumor about the man who had planted a false rumor about him?
A Georgetown Law spokeswoman said Tague was not resigning, without further elaboration.
Please follow College Inc. all day, every day atwashingtonpost.com/college-inc.




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EducationNews.org - A Global Leading News Source - EducationNewsToday

EducationNews.org - A Global Leading News Source - EducationNewsToday

EducationNewsToday

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S.D. school board veterans face challengers

The race for two seats on the San Diego school board is poised to shake up established political alliances and perhaps the notion that incumbents are virtually impossible to unseat.
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Special-needs kids get help with independent living

Like most young adults, Emilia Garcia hopes to get a job and an apartment of her own. But Emilia, 21, and the other students at the Edgewood Transition Center have cognitive impairments that make independent living more difficult. ...
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Education funding: Guv, lawmakers salvage most of schools' budget

Legislative leaders and Gov. Gary Herbert have agreed on some of the last lingering budget issues, agreeing Tuesday afternoon to a trim to public education that both sides are willing to accept given the difficult economic times. ...
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School board to change comment policy

EAST PROVIDENCE — The School Committee is changing its public comment policy to allow audience members to speak at its meetings without signing up in advance. ...
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More Sacramento area schools offer online view of attendance and grades

Students, beware – if you skip second period, fail a pop quiz or blow off homework, your folks may get an e-mail letting them know. ...
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Teacher merit-pay plan passes key Florida Senate panel

A sweeping and controversial plan to overhaul how teachers are evaluated and paid got a first favorable vote in a key state Senate committee Wednesday. ...
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Gibbons clears roadblock to education grants

In a signing ceremony at Wynn Elementary School, Gov. Jim Gibbons on Wednesday approved legislation intended to remove a barrier that kept Nevada... ...
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School Board dismisses critics

Clark County School Board members under fire for awarding costly new perks to five executive staff members during an economic crisis are dismissing... ...
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Finalists Cram for Race to Top Presentations

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia prepare for next week’s high-stakes pitch for $4 billion in stimulus grants. ...
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Bing's still willing to take over -- as long as Detroiters approve

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing says he hasn't changed his position regarding Detroit Public Schools -- he's agreeable to accepting mayoral control -- but he will not force such a move...
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Mom wants state education board to void son's drug-related expulsion

The mother of an Oelwein boy who was expelled after he tried to sell marijuana to a classmate at school has appealed the punishment to the State Board of Education...
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Performance bonus upheld for Dallas ISD teachers with lower attendance rates

More than 100 Dallas teachers are expected to get long-awaited performance bonuses in the next few days, after an appeal by teachers who missed too many school days to qualify for the 2007-08 awards. ...
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California meltdown - News - Local Stories - March 11, 2010 - Chico News & Review

California meltdown - News - Local Stories - March 11, 2010 - Chico News & Review

California meltdown

A biweekly flyover of the state budget crisis

By Robert Speer
roberts@newsreview.com
More stories by this author...
Read 1 reader submitted comment



This article was published on 03.11.10.


The longer the state fails to solve its structural budget deficit, the harder the job becomes—as events of the last two weeks suggest.
Weds., Feb. 24: U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong issues a preliminary injunction blocking scheduled eligibility cuts for California’s adult day health-care program, theSan Francisco Chronicle reports. The cuts were set to be implemented on March 1. They would have saved the state about $12.2 million annually.
Fri., Feb 26: The California Budget Project, a Sacramento-based think tank, issues a report stating that more than 1 million children would lose affordable health coverage under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to cut all funding for the Healthy Families Program. The governor has promised to eliminate the program if the state does not receive the $6.9 billion in federal aid it has asked for. The cuts would save the general fund $222 million but also mean the loss of $826.3 million in federal matching funds.
Tues., March 2: Gov. Schwarzenegger asks the California Supreme Court to consolidate and review seven cases related to his furlough authority, saying lower courts have issued conflicting rulings on the matter, according to the Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Alert.
Tues., March 2: The Field Poll issues a report that 61 percent of voters want taxes to be part of a budget-deficit solution, while just 31 percent want cuts only. In January the Public Policy Institute found that two-thirds of Californians would pay higher taxes if the money went to education.
Tues., March 2: Gov. Schwarzenegger’s line-item budget vetoes last July reducing funding for
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For-profit Higher Ed. Moving on Non-profits Could Reap Taxpayer Funds � Going Concern: Accounting News for Accountants & CFOs

For-profit Higher Ed. Moving on Non-profits Could Reap Taxpayer Funds � Going Concern: Accounting News for Accountants & CFOs

For-profit Higher Ed. Moving on Non-profits Could Reap Taxpayer Funds

By ADRIENNE GONZALEZ
Prostitution in the industry is nothing new, you have to take what you can get even if that means devouring struggling non-profits or whoring yourself out for otherwise wholly un-big-business-like busywork (I’m staring directly at you, Big 4).
Daniel Golden of Bloomberg reported yesterday that “ITT Educational Services Inc. paid $20.8 million for debt-ridden Daniel Webster College in June. In return, the company obtained an academic credential that may generate a taxpayer-funded bonanza worth as much as $1 billion.”

With education little more than a vague directive to “teach” at this point (except for the chosen few professors who put their hearts into it, of course), schools are being encouraged to “convert a school to a charter school or a similar education management organization, a for-profit or nonprofit organization that provides ‘whole school operation’ services” (via firedoglake) in California districts where schools have fallen way short of federal education “guidelines”. Hint: that’s when you know it is bad. Firedoglake implies that recent protests and riots by California state university students facing severe class cuts and hikes in tuition are directly related to the push to privatize education.
In the case of small but favored not-for-profit educational institutions, they don’t have much of a choice but to end up recycled into the ITTs and the DeVrys if they can’t make it. For-profit education is the way to go, ask DeVry. They didn’t make $369 million last year for nothing.
Said Karen Pletz in the Kansas City Star, “the not-for-profit mission, whether it be in education, health care, or other human services, is really about values and is intrinsically focused in bettering lives and community.” Not to carelessly go name-calling but what can a for-profit, publicly-traded institution possibly know about that mandate or education for that matter? Its first loyalty is to the shareholders, not the students.
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Just in Time: Obama Targets HBCUs For Increased Spending The Seattle Medium - Seattle, WA

The Seattle Medium - Seattle, WA : Thu Mar 11 2010 05:16:32 GMT-0800 (Pacific Standard Time)
Just in Time: Obama Targets HBCUs For Increased Spending
by Dr. Ronald Walters
NNPA Columnist
Originally posted 3/10/2010

(NNPA) - As the proud graduate of an Historically Black University and having worked in one for most of my academic career, I approve of President Barack Obama having broken his pledge not to govern by race or ethnicity just in time to increase spending for HBCUs. These institutions are still vitally relevant to the production of a Black middle class because, while they only constitute 3 percent of all institutions of higher education, they graduate 20 percent of all Black undergrads.

Announcing current increases in the FY 2012 Federal Budget was Dr. John S. Wilson, the new executive director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs, who said that the President’s budget includes a $17 billion increase in Pell Grants, $400 million of which was earmarked for HBCUs. Last year, there was an uproar when it was discovered that the President took $85 million from the HBCU budget, but this year, rather than mandating it for two years as the Bush administration had done, this sum is included in the President Obama’s budget for 10 years.

There is also $98 million in new money proposed for HBCUs that would fund such things as financing for capital costs such as the repair and replacement of educational facilities and equipment, and the building of physical infrastructure. There is also proposed $65.4 million for the enhancement of graduate programs.

Wilson indicated that there is also $400 million of additional funds in the Education budget for institutions whose description was close that of HBCUs some of which he intends to attempt to acquire. One of the greatest areas of lack of growth in the federal budget however has been in the funds generated by the government which goes to research at institutions of higher education. Some of it, in such areas as energy, defense, or agriculture, requires sophisticated engineering or scientific research facilities that most of these institutions do not have, but other grants in the social, administrative, and economic areas should be achievable.

This funding increase is also welcome news in light of the current economic crisis that threatens to continue the laggard growth of the black middle class. The
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Challenging the Day of Action Protests | The Cornell Daily Sun

Challenging the Day of Action Protests | The Cornell Daily Sun

Prompted by the 32 percent tuition increases in the University of California system, on March 4 students around the country protested in what organizers called a “Day of Action.” While we certainly support the cause of making public education affordable — Cornell receives, of course, significant state funding — we question certain elements of their campaign.
We must first remember why these cuts are occurring. Last year, amidst a serious budget crisis, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut $600 million from the University of California budget, prompting the deans of the various UC schools to raise tuition. As UC President Mark Yudof stated, there was no other reasonable way to close the budget gap. We must therefore question the protesters’ assertion that “a nationwide resistance movement is needed.” The decisions to cut budgets and raise tuitions — though undeniably causing much pain — are, given certain circumstances, justifiable.
In these difficult economic times, states such as California that face dire budget straits are forced to make difficult cuts to vital programs. But considering the other areas budget cuts could have affected, raising the price of higher education is reasonable. It is important to keep in mind that while these increases place a greater burden on students, they may be a necessary compromise to maintain the strength of the UC system. Making college more expensive hurts — we sympathize with the frustration of those students who are hit the hardest, and understand the protesters’ argument that “education cuts are attacks against all of us, particularly in
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Our Future, Our Nation; We Need Our Education | City on a Hill Press

Our Future, Our Nation; We Need Our Education | City on a Hill Press

Our Future, Our Nation; We Need Our Education
By City on a Hill Press
City on a Hill Press
Illustration by Kenny Srivijittakar.
Illustration by Kenny Srivijittakar.
Dear UCSC students, staff, faculty, administrators and the wider UC community:
It has come to our attention that serious misconceptions regarding the conduct and intentions of protesters across the state have manifested (in many cases) into ill-will or callousness toward this noble and ambitious cause. It is not appropriate to pass judgement on the efforts of an entire enterprise based on rumors of misdeeds of a select few. Administrators’ allegations — that UCSC protesters wielded clubs and knives, denied people the right to exit campus or acted in any way that was disruptive, intimidating or destructive — were untrue, and caused unnecessary panic and concern.
It would be ignorant as well as erroneous to say that the administration was caught unawares by the March 4 actions. Organizers of the campus shut-down informed Student Services and other campus departments well in advance of the event. There is no denying that every faculty member on campus was aware of the imminent shut-down, and most planned the week’s courses accordingly.
Administrative responses that disrespect student actions, to the point of circulating misinformation and evoking irrational concerns, are reprehensible and do nothing for the already precarious student-administration relationship.
That being said, responsibility does not lie solely with the administration, legislators, etc. Organizers must conduct themselves appropriately and in accordance with First Amendment limitations if they want to gain the respect of authorities.
An example of protesters legitimately crossing the line happened last week at UC Davis, where students attempted to block traffic on Interstate 80. This action not only put students and commuters in danger, but was executed in conjunction with several other disruptive activities on campus as well. Fire alarms were falsely
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Poll: Americans say textbooks are too PC

Poll: Americans say textbooks are too PC
BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS

Poll: Americans say textbooks are too PC

Nearly half of parents believe U.S. history books aren't accurate enough

Posted: March 10, 2010
9:46 pm Eastern

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

A new poll shows 60 percent of Americans with children in elementary or secondary school say most school textbooks are more focused on being politically correct than ensuring accuracy.

Rasmussen Reports reveals a full 49 percent of the parents say most U.S. history textbooks are not accurate while 28 percent say most school history textbooks portray it accurately. Another 23 percent said they are not sure.

The survey comes on the heels of reports that the Texas Board of Education began a three-day meeting today and is taking public comment on proposed changes to textbook and curriculum standards. The 15-member board plans to finish debate on its social studies, history and economics curricula before it takes a preliminary vote.

As WND reported, Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, warned Americans to speak up before only eight people, with a majority vote, have a chance to literally rewrite American history.

Staver said the state board will vote on whether to revise U.S. textbooks to omit references to Daniel Boone, Gen. George Patton, Nathan Hale and Columbus Day. He said the Texas board will also vote on a proposal to substitute the term "American" with "global

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