September 3, 2010
21:18
Posted by Gary Storck
Thursday, September 3, 2010
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently published an article about Wisconsin's "brain drain": Poll finds ‘brain drain’ a statewide concern Majority in Wisconsin sees talent exiting, WPRI-sponsored research indicates
Below is my response, published September 3, 2010 in the Journal-Sentinel.
Source: Madison NORML
Categories: Madison Political Blogs
09:00
Today's image titled âOlin Shadowsâ was photographed by Loren Zemlicka.
Source: Isthmus: The Daily Page
Categories: Madison Media Feeds
08:52
Wisco: A Tribute To Wilco’s Summerteeth — a music compilation featuring our favorite Wisconsin artists each covering a track off of Wilco’s 1999 LP, Summerteeth. I am honored to provide you with our labor of love. The state of Wisconsin is overflowing with musical talent. So much more than could ever be captured in just [...]
Source: Muzzle of Bees
Categories: Mad Music Blogs
08:52
Wisco: A Trubute To Wilco’s Summerteeth — a music compilation featuring our favorite Wisconsin artists each covering a track off of Wilco’s 1999 LP, Summerteeth. I am honored to provide you our labor of love. The state of Wisconsin is overflowing with musical talent. So much more than could ever be captured in just one [...]
Source: Muzzle of Bees
Categories: Mad Music Blogs
08:23
A delicious daily round-up of local and state political news.
Source: Isthmus: The Daily Page
Categories: Madison Media Feeds
07:32
07:16
Today is September 3. On this date in 1783 the Paris Peace Treaty was signed. The treaty demanded land, including Wisconsin, be ceded from Britain to the United States.
* MJS: Stimulus gives Wisconsin a shot of federal money
* MJS: Gubernatorial hopefuls clash on health reform
* WSJ: Decorated Madison pharmacist, cohort sold millions of fake Viagra doses
* C3k: Madison Police Seek Bicycle-Riding Robbers
* Orton: Handicapping the 77th AD Primary Horserace With Two Weeks To Go
* WKOW: UW hopes new message helps curb binge drinking
* TDP: Will Progressive Dane ever make a comeback?
* BH: UW’s radical liberal movement and the August morning it died
* Mills: McDonald's settlement, Ron Johnson outspends Russ Feingold
* Jackie's Kitchen: A sneak peak at Taste of Madison
* State and Uni.: UW-Madison joins the 21st Century on TV. Neat new commercial.
* Madison Daily Photo: Cate, Last Day In Madison
Breakfast Bonus under the fold: Pandas eating. Nuff said.
Categories: MadBlogs
07:00
Summer in Madison ends strong with Geek.Kon, Snake on the Lake Fest, the conclusion of the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, the Taste of Madison, Recreational Rhythms, and Venetian Night. The calendar also includes: productions of As You Like It and The Circle by APT and Last Summer at Bluefish Cove by StageQ; performances by Dave Stoler ' Rich Perry, the Marlin McKay Quartet; and, more live music by Asumaya, Hometown Sweethearts, and National Beekeepers Society. The long holiday weekend closes with LaborFest, Jolly Bob's Anniversary Party, The Dan Potacke Show, and the Karp Family Opening Concert.
Source: Isthmus: The Daily Page
Categories: Madison Media Feeds
06:53
Source: Fearful Symmetries
Categories: MadBlogs
06:50
Marshall BrainI went to McDonald's this weekend with the kids. We go to McDonald's to eat about once a week because it is a mile from the house and has an indoor play area. Our normal routine is to walk in to McDonald's, stand in line, order, stand around waiting for the order, sit down, eat and play.
On Sunday, this decades-old routine changed forever. When we walked in to McDonald's, an attractive woman in a suit greeted us and said, "Are you planning to visit the play area tonight?" The kids screamed, "Yeah!" "McDonald's has a new system that you can use to order your food right in the play area. Would you like to try it?" The kids screamed, "Yeah!"
The woman walks us over to a pair of kiosks in the play area. She starts to show me how the kiosks work and the kids scream, "We want to do it!" So I pull up a chair and the kids stand on it while the (extremely patient) woman in a suit walks the kids through the screens. David ordered his food, Irena ordered her food, I ordered my food. It's a simple system. Then it was time to pay. Interestingly, the kiosk only took cash in the form of bills. So I fed my bills into the machine. Then you take a little plastic number to set on your table and type the number in. The transaction is complete.
Source: School Information Systems
Categories: Madison Education Blogs
06:32
Bryan CaplanI take it that you think that nearly all of the value of schooling is signaling? I used to take that view too, but the accumulation of evidence that I've seen leads me to believe that isn't the case.
For one thing I find it very hard to believe that we would waste so many resources on a nearly unproductive enterprise. There are plenty of entrepreneurs out there trying to make money by selling cheaper, in time and money, versions of education and they aren't very successful. Mainstream schools have experimented with programmed learning, lectures on video, self-paced learning, etc. and none of the methods have caught on. Why wouldn't they if they worked?
Of course its hard to believe that reading novels and poems contributes much to ones productivity on the job. So how do I square curriculum content with my view that education is productive? Here goes:
1. Education isn't mainly about learning specific subject matter. Rather education is mainly about practicing the sort of self-discipline that is necessary to be productive in a modern work environment. High school allows you to practice showing up on time and doing what you are told. College allows you to practice and work out techniques that work for you that allow you to take on and complete on time complicated multi-part tasks in an environment where you have considerable freedom about how you spend your time. Some people may be more talented than others at this sort of thing (you come to mind as someone who is particularly talented at self-discipline), but this is also an acquired skill that one can develop with practice, and everyone needs to develop certain work habits that make one more productive at both types of tasks.
Source: School Information Systems
Categories: Madison Education Blogs
06:30
Links to some interesting beer stuff:
Ancient brewers tapped antibiotic secrets: Apparently some ancient populations used beer to make antibiotics.
Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers: Moderate drinking is best, but apparently even people who drink in excess live longer than those who abstain.
Octoberfests Out Early: This is a few days old now, but I agree with the author of this piece; doesn't it seem like all the Octoberfest beers are out a little too early this year? (Though I'm not sure why he posted the beginning of Tristram Shandy at the end of his post.)
Have a good holiday weekend everybody!
Ancient brewers tapped antibiotic secrets: Apparently some ancient populations used beer to make antibiotics.
Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers: Moderate drinking is best, but apparently even people who drink in excess live longer than those who abstain.
Octoberfests Out Early: This is a few days old now, but I agree with the author of this piece; doesn't it seem like all the Octoberfest beers are out a little too early this year? (Though I'm not sure why he posted the beginning of Tristram Shandy at the end of his post.)
Have a good holiday weekend everybody!
Source: Madison Beer Review
Categories: Mad Food and Drink Blogs
05:01
Jon Miltimore: Alabama made national headlines this week when 25 more schools reported they will likely have to extend lines of credit to remain open, in addition to the five schools that borrowed from banks last year.
According to a CNN report, Alabama schools suffer from a "combination of having the lowest per capita property tax collections in the nation ... a constitution that prohibits local governments from independently increasing taxes, and a state-funded education system with funds that stem almost exclusively from income and sales tax revenues."
Namely, Alabama schools are ailing due to inadequate funding. The reporter buttressed the thesis by pointing to the 20 percent cut in the state's education budget over the last three years.
"We're suffering. We are on a decline," Joe Morton, Alabama's state superintendent of education, told CNN.
But what Morton failed to note is that state education spending tripled in the decade-and-a-half preceding the economic downturn.
According to U.S. Census records, state education spending increased from $3.57 billion in 1992 to $10.65 billion in 2008.Related: Wisconsin State Tax Based K-12 Spending Growth Far Exceeds University Funding
Source: School Information Systems
Categories: Madison Education Blogs
04:04
Nicholas NegroponteKindle owners buy twice as many books as non-Kindle owners. Just one of the many signs that while the paper book is dead, the narrative will live on.
If you are saying to yourself, "That sounds horrible. I hope books do not go away," I ask you to consider the world's poorest and most remote kids.
The manufactured book stunts learning, especially for those children. The last thing these children should have are physical books. They are too costly, too heavy, fall out-of-date and are sharable only in some common and limited physical space.
Source: School Information Systems
Categories: Madison Education Blogs
04:04
Laura WatersA whole week of catharsis, yet the Garden State still agonizes over the loss of $400 million in Race To The Top money. Ex-Commissioner Bret Schundler is out on his keister -- amid calls for legislative hearings because of a botched question that pushed us into the losers' column by three points. (NJ came in 11th with 437.8 points; Ohio, the 10th of 10 winners, got 440.8.)
NJ Facebook Group: New Jersey Teachers United Against Governor Chris Christie's Pay Freeze
More pertinent is the NJ Department of Education's perceived ineptitude. During the presentation of our application to federal reviewers, five high-level DOE staffers were unable to conjure up basic fiscal information for 2008 and 2009, instead of the mistakenly/cravenly entered information on 2011. And that's after spending $500K on a consultant.
Was the incorrect answer a clerical error? Was it a ham-handed effort to elude accountability on state school aid cuts?
Final answer: it's irrelevant.
We didn't lose the Race To The Top by a grimace-inducing three points because of a whiffed answer valued at less than one-half percent of the total 500 points. We lost because our ambitious reform plans elicited lukewarm support from local school boards and superintendents (about half signed on) and ice-cold censure from NJEA affiliates.
For comparison's sake, New York State won and had buy-in from every local union president.
Source: School Information Systems
Categories: Madison Education Blogs
04:04
Carlin RomanoOver the next 10 years, scientific experts will be dealing with "extreme weather." No one knows how weird and dangerous it will get.
Moscow already faces Bahrain-like temperatures. Downpours swamp a fifth of Pakistan. President Mohamed Nasheed, of the Maldives, worries enough about future sea levels to hold a cabinet meeting underwater in scuba gear. (Don't miss this on YouTube!)
Parallel thinking should apply to a phenomenon of greater concern to readers here: "extreme academe." Think of it as the hysterical upgrading of ugly visions of the future already found in polite critiques of higher ed.
Back in 2003, for instance, former Harvard President Derek Bok, in Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education (Princeton University Press), drilled home the problem capsulized in his subtitle by noting that throughout the 1980s, deans and professors brought him "one proposition after another to exchange some piece or product of Harvard for money--often, quite substantial sums of money."
Source: School Information Systems
Categories: Madison Education Blogs
04:04
Caryl DavisI had the pleasure of teaching a group of Milwaukee Public Schools students this summer. And, yes, it was a pleasure. Classes were small - 15 students maximum - there was team-teaching and students and faculty had access to technology.
Many of the students were those who had not met math and literacy requirements during the 2009-'10 academic year. Some had let their behavior get in the way of their learning, so we were eager to provide some structure that would help them move forward.
By the end of the summer session, our data revealed that our students made gains in math and vocabulary acquisition. According to MPS standards, a 7% to 9% gain in math or literacy is acceptable. Many of our students had 10% to 60% gains.
I don't believe this progress would be possible with 40 students in a classroom, without access to technology or without extra adults in the classroom. We were able to give our students the individualized attention that they would not get in an overcrowded and understaffed classroom.
It is crucial that our educational leaders go back to the basics during the 2010-'11 school year. Education is a contact activity, and more contact is better.
Source: School Information Systems
Categories: Madison Education Blogs
03:42
The EconomistFOR decades, college fees have risen faster than Americans' ability to pay them. Median household income has grown by a factor of 6.5 in the past 40 years, but the cost of attending a state college has increased by a factor of 15 for in-state students and 24 for out-of-state students. The cost of attending a private college has increased by a factor of more than 13 (a year in the Ivy League will set you back $38,000, excluding bed and board). Academic inflation makes most other kinds look modest by comparison. Students may not be getting a good deal in return Related: The Higher Education Bubble Dwarfs the Housing Bubble and Student Loan Debt > Credit Card Debt?
Source: School Information Systems
Categories: Madison Education Blogs
03:04
Dave Murray: With U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan this week advocating for transparency for teacher evaluations that include, in part, standardized test scores, the National Education Association weighed in today, asking members how they'd like to be measured.
NEA staffer Kevin Hart asked teachers to reply on the union's Facebook page, and reported some interesting answers.
"They believe a well-designed process can help them improve at their jobs and will ultimately benefit students," Hart wrote on the union's NEA Today website. "But teachers believe any evaluation process should be fair, consistently applied, and take into account the realities of their profession."
Source: School Information Systems
Categories: Madison Education Blogs
03:02
Neal McCluskey: o U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan invited every Education Department employee to attend Rev. Al Sharpton's Glenn Beck counter-rally. As David Boaz explained in the Examiner, it was a "highly inappropriate" thing to do, pushing people who are supposed to serve all Americans to support one side of a "political debate." But that's just the most obvious problem with Duncan's weekend doings.
Perhaps just as troubling as his rally-prodding is that Duncan declared education "the civil rights issue of our generation" at Sharpton's event. This only about a year after helping to kill an education program widely supported by many of the people he and Sharpton insist they want to empower. I'm talking, of course, about Washington, DC's, Opportunity Scholarship Program, a voucher program that was proven effective. But the heck with success -- Duncan and President Obama let the union-hated program die.
Source: School Information Systems
Categories: Madison Education Blogs