Around The Blogs

Student Admits To Changing Grades For Years Detention Slip
Solution? Robots for teachers.

5 Reasons Obama's "Embarrassing" Foreign Language Remark Will Haunt Him  HillBuzz
(1) Obama speaks no foreign languages himself. [Via NCLB?]

Reading First death match Petrilli
Check out the war of words happening at USAToday.com in response to its editorial (and a ridiculous rebuttal by Stephen Krashen) on Reading First.

Algebra Overhaul in California Curriculum Matters
In an attempt to help students across the state, California officials last year approved 11 separate "algebra readiness" programs for use in the state's schools, which were aimed at helping students catch up to grade level in that math subject.

The elephant in the room STB
Those of you who have been following this or other ed blogs, or whose lives are sufficiently empty that they read Ed Week, have probably noticed a certain pattern: the arguments about what to do to fix the system are frustratingly circular.

 Worst idea of the century? Colby Loup
From the New York Sun: “To counter the power of the city teachers union and business leaders in shaping school policy, New York City should use taxpayer dollars to create two new unions complete with their own budgets and lobbyists, one for public school parents and one for public school students, a group is proposing.”

Comments

[john thompson]

The elephant in the room was illustrated by The Elephant in the Room.

It asks,

"But here’s something none of the advocates have said: "If you spend the money my way, I can prove that it will result in 24 more Hispanic kids graduating fully prepared for college. That’s 15 more students than my opponent’s strategy."

... I can’t answer that question, and neither can you. In fact, no one can.

Why?"

The grown-up answer is that that question is unanswerable.

But the elephant hunter's answer is,

"Because no one measures the cost of outcomes."

We humans have been chasing our tails for millenium and we've yet to create utopia. But I still love the chase. I still love blogs. And I love the people side of education. I understand why people love measuring things. But measurement is a tool, nothing more and nothing less.