The liberal arts and narratives of declension
There is a teacher’s voice in my head, asking the logical question of New York Times reporter Patricia Cohen who speculated whether the humanities are in decline (perhaps because of the Great Recession) and whether older history subdisciplines are also in decline: “where did she go to school, and who were her teachers?” Evidently, the […]
Beer summits for all!
I’m stuck (or indulging) in a weeks-long catchup mode for giant amoeba-like tasks, and I’m doing my best to avoid looking at e-mail more than once every day or so. It’s mid-summer on campus, and I will admit that part of my e-mail slowdown is fear of what will pop up as much as a […]
Talking turkey on “Race to the Top”
The hoopla surrounding the draft “Race to the Top” guidelines have obscured the long-game strategy involved here. If you think about the structure of the funds–more discretionary money than the U.S. Department of Education has ever had before, competitive grant system, and a set of priorities that the Duncan department has been signaling for six […]
Temporizing and teasing on tests and teacher evaluation
I still don’t have time to expand at length on combining qualitative and quantitative sources of data for teaching evaluation, but given the hoopla surrounding the draft Race to the Top regulations, I should at least provide an update, or rather a bit of a tease for what’s developing into a short paper-to-be. In addition […]
On the proper state of being bothered
Are you bothered? Seasonal bother: It’s summer in Florida, and if you park a car anywhere outside a meat locker, touching a steering wheel earns you a second-degree burn. Caffeinated bother: I started the day a little after 7 am at a local coffee shop, grading student papers. My brain fried about 210 minutes later, […]