Methinks he doth contrary too much
Andrew Hacker is back, now flacking the idea that algebra should not be required of high school graduates. ((He is better known as the coauthor of a book critical of the value of college. On to algebra.)) I wrote about general algebra-requirement criticisms in 2006. But to Hacker’s argument: he proposes “citizen statistics,” to which […]
Saving Private @rupertmurdoch
In light of recent scandals, it’s hard not to see this [Amplify announcement] as a bit of image rehabilitation, but we’ll do our best to take it at face value. — Engadget Engadget has the announcement about Amplify all wrong, I think. The press releases about the new News Corp division Amplify (and Wireless Generation) […]
Florida Department of Education fails math test
What is there to say about the ongoing story of mistakes in applying the Florida state algorithm for assigning a single letter grade to public schools? Somewhere in the country, at least one overwrought accountability system is going to break down every year for a variety of reasons. This year (again), it’s Florida’s turn. Those […]
“Portfolio district” concept as YASBA (yet another silver bullet approach)?
In the last week I had a brief exchange on Twitter with CPRE’s Robin Lake and Fordham’s Mike Petrilli about so-called portfolio districts. A short description of the components of a portfolio district is accessible on the CPRE website, and aside from the jargon that irritated me in the Twitter exchange, the gist is the proposal […]
The revolution in university… extension programs
Last summer and this, my daughter and I have been slowly working our way through the online lectures in Leonard Susskind’s second trimester of PHY 25 (The Theoretical Minimum: Classical Mechanics). ((At least according to Amazon, Basic Books is publishing a book written from all six extension courses in early 2013.)) We just finished the […]