Governor Palin supports special needs contrary to left wing smears

As the Weekly Standard pointed out, there is an evil smear going about, which I was able to get retracted at Washington Monthly.

The Weekly Standard pointed to this article over at edweek by Sean Cavanagh which also disproved the notion.

Gov. Sarah Palin and state lawmakers have gone ahead with an overhaul of Alaska’s school funding system that supporters predict will provide much-needed financial help to rural schools and those serving students with disabilities.

The plan, enacted in the recently concluded session of the legislature, is based on recommendations issued by a legislative task force last year. It will phase in a greater flow of money to districts outside of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, over the next five years.

Advocates for rural and remote schools have lobbied for years for more funding, in particular noting the higher fuel, transportation, and other costs associated with providing education in communities scattered across the vast state.

A second part of the measure raises spending for students with special needs to $73,840 in fiscal 2011, from the current $26,900 per student in fiscal 2008, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

But I have even more information. The original smear is based on funding documents for "Special Schools". What they failed to note, besides for the movement of the Alaska Challenge Academy funding to a separate category, is that Alaska special education funding is also covered under the Department of Education and Early Development Student and School Achievement.

The Department of Early Development Student and School Achievement is responsible for special education for Alaska schools, gifted education, and the Special Education State Personnel Development Grant which provides money to train and recruit special education teachers. These are all state funded mandates per the budget document.

In 2007, the State contributed $5,429,000 in General Funds Receipts to the department.

In the 2009 Governors budget, this was increased to $6,253,800

This was an increase of $824,000 which is a 15% increase in state funding.

How much do you want to bet this was increased before the Governor even found out about her son Trig?

Update:  Soledad O'Brien makes a complete fool of herself, only she doesn't realize it.

We already know that I debunked this like in a few minutes, so we can only conclude that Soledad is either incompetent or a complete liar.  We also know what sort of blogs she reads as well.

The Washington Monthly Fact Checked

CREDIT:  The original fact checker was Stuart Buck.  Let's give him credit for being way on top of things.

He has a blog called The Buck Stops Here 

[UPDATE #2] Also see my latest post which shows that Governor Palin increased special needs funding by another 15%.

Washington Monthly makes false accusations against Governor Palin.

The Washington Monthly: Fact Checking Palin

Palin: "To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters. I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House."

Sarah Palin might have changed her mind on this one recently. However, a comment here notes that Palin actually slashed funding for schools for special needs kids by 62%. Budgets: FY 2007 (pre-Palin), 2008, 2009 (all pdfs).

Now 45 seconds of googling led me to his comment over at the Washington Post blog, "The Trail"

A commenter (Jim Syar) accused Sarah Palin of reducing the special education budget by 62%. That is false. The special education budget actually increased by nearly 12%, as explained below.
As Syar correctly notes, the Alaska 2007 budget for special education was $8,265,300. But that included $5,352,000 for the Alaska Challenge Youth Academy.
In the 2009 budgetary document to which Syar links, astute observers will note that there is no mention of the Alaska Challenge Youth Academy. Instead, you have to look elsewhere. And guess what: There is now a specific document providing $6,082,100 for the Alaska Challenge Youth Academy.http://www.gov.state.ak.us/omb/09_omb/budget/EED/comp2837.pdf So combined with the $3,156,000 that Syar notes, the total is $9,238,100. A nearly 12% INCREASE, not a 62% decrease.
Posted by: SB September 3, 2008 3:38 PM

Burn. I posted in the comments. Check back to find out if a retraction is printed.

UPDATE - Washington Monthly printed a correction. Yglesias picked up the story though, and hasn't.

Also stay tuned for a post where I prove that Governor Palin significantly increased the support for special needs children even more than I have shown here.

Michelle Malkin gives me props.

Screw politics, pee-chee folders are back!

Screw politics...

They are making pee-chee folders again!

My wife found them at Fred Myers.

I can't wait to start doodling on it.  All I need now is some brown paper to wrap around my text books to have a total 80's high school flashback.

p.s. I know I have no tan.  I live in Alaska!

More predictions...

The Obama campaign will try and divert focus away from Palin, and try and redirect it back to McCain.  He has a better chance against him.

On vetting...

Much is being made of McCain's vetting process.  Let's be real folks.  He went with his gut instinct, which is what the President must do in a crisis.  Weigh the options and make a decision.  Well I am here to tell you that the decision that the media has been decrying all weekend is starting too look like a brilliant choice.

Instead of asking, why did he pick her, we should be asking ourselves, what would of happened if he didn't pick her.  Hindsight is 20/20, but brilliance is often nothing but strategic luck.

In their own words...

Quotes from the comments over at Washington Monthly.

After tonight, I was so worried that I coughed up another $100 to the Obama campaign. And $10 to ActBlue.

This will test the Obama campaign.

Posted by: John O on September 4, 2008 at 12:02 AM | PERMALINK

I agree with the poster who said this will launch a comeback for McCain. This speech is going to be very well reviewed, and not just on wingnut sites. The MSM is going to cream big time, and tomorrow we'll see many, many Sarah puff pieces. At minimum, tonight will end all the distracting silliness about Palin leaving the ticket. She was everything they needed her to be.

On the positive side, Barack in his speech laid down a kind of gauntlet for the Republicans when he challenged them to run a positive campaign on the issues. Now that they've done exactly the opposite, no one can blame him for responding in kind. I only hope he's capable of actually doing so.

Posted by: mib8 on September 3, 2008 at 11:54 PM | PERMALINK

The chances of her leaving the ticket just dropped to approximately zero.

Yes that's true. I was wrong. She is in.
But thats the best news imaginable.

She is all about base.
But base isn't enough to win this time around.
She is an alienator and a divider.
That's the wrong tack to take in 2008.

Posted by: koreyel on September 3, 2008 at 11:00 PM | PERMALINK

This chick is good. But not good enough. Obama, just like in the Primary, will find another gear. Voter turn out. Voter turn out. Please don't let them steal yet another one. Please.

Posted by: getready on September 3, 2008 at 11:36 PM | PERMALINK

She is all about base. But base isn't enough to win this time around. She is an alienator and a divider. That's the wrong tack to take in 2008.

It worked before, it can work again.

Sorry, kids, Governor Palin is delivering. The RNC and the fascist machine are going to go "all in on Palin". How many low-information voters can the DNC reach before November?

What will be interesting to observe is how the trad media reacts. Brooks, Coulter, Limbaugh, Boortz, Hannity, O'Reilly, Krauthammer, Broder, Will, et al, aren't going on vacation for the next 9 weeks. How tightly they embrace this ticket, and how the rest of the crew (National Enquirer included) goes about the business of journalism is going play as big a role as in 2000, 2004.

Complacency for the Democrats puts McCain and Palin in the West Wing.

Posted by: GuyFromOhio on September 3, 2008 at 11:12 PM | PERMALINK

You're all wrong. This speech, despite its bullshit, is going to launch a huge McCain comeback.

Red meat for the droolers. Pitch perfect, and Biden will get hassled if he's too mean to her.

Did I mention that McCain was a POW?

I, for one, am worried. Most of the electorate doesn't give a flying shit about reality, nor do they view politics as having any impact on their lives. Think, "sporting event," or, if I may, "beauty contest."

You'll see. McCain will keep her away from the press (that groundwork is already laid) and it will be another nail-biter, despite any objective evidence for what it should be.

Posted by: john O on September 3, 2008 at 11:09 PM | PERMALINK

God help me, I can't stop watching (train wreck, maybe).

She's likable. Cute. Perky. Might play well with some mom's in the midwest. She has that upper midwest twang (which I have to say is getting to me. I didn't realize Francis McDermond from Fargo was on the ticket). Too bad she's as full of shit. But this is their convention so it's to be expected.

Posted by: MsJoanne on September 3, 2008 at 10:56 PM | PERMALINK

You get the point.

I tried to warn them.

Prediction.  Democrats will start saying "Nice speech, but wait until the press conferences."  She will rock at press conferences too.  Then Democrats will say "Wait until the debate.".  After Biden's defeat at the debate, it will resort to stuff like "She's lying, she has no experience, wahhhhhhh."

Folks, you watched the launch of a super start tonight.  She will be President some day.

No gloating...

America sees what the Alaska already knew.  Whether you support her politics or not, she is good.

I believe we have a race.

Oh, ok, I can't resist... I told you so part 1.

Suggestion for McCain and Obama

Obama and McCain should refuse to talk to any reporter representing a news organization that has anything currently published about Governor Palin's daughter.

The media would be free to report, but no questions would be answered.  I bet the media would get their act together pretty quickly.

Politics

I would never, ever, ever survive a media vetting even 1/10th as intense as Governor Palin.

Seriously, I have skeletons people.

Remind me to never run for political office.

Is There a Particular *Reason* that Former Elementary Student Barack Obama and his Surrogates Refuse to Acknowledge that Sarah Palin is a Governor

Is There a Particular *Reason* that Community Organizer Barack Obama and his Surrogates Refuse to Acknowledge that Sarah Palin is the Governor of Alaska?

LINK DELETED

NOTE: Original post deleted because Independent George pointed out I was out of line, which I was. I apologize.

I told you so

This post is a preemptive "I told you" so for me to link to in the future, after the following events take place.

1. Sarah Palin's speech at the RNC kicks ass.

2. Sarah Palin performs awesome at her first interview/press conference.

Oh, and to really enjoy it, I am including this video for all my doubting thomas readers.



Oh, it's going to be so enjoyable. Feel free to use it as well.

Big yawn over Sarah Palin smear campaign

Folks, it looks like the smear machine is running out of oil. Fortunately the left wing outsmarted themselves. They piled up so much shit in such a short period of time, they forgot to realize that it all gets ignored for the big scandal of the daughters pregnancy. In the long term, the only thing that the public is going to remember is that a poor 17 year old was put through the ringers because of the left wings invasion of privacy.

Prediction: The heat will intensify out of desperation on Thursday after Governor Palin's highly successful speech.

Obama has nightmares about Palin

You know it's true. Obama lies in bed at night thinking about Palin. In the last few days, the only argument that the Obama campaign can make against McCain is that he picked Sarah Palin.

I say, yes, yes he did choose her. She isn't going away. He should be scared.

It's pretty sad when a Presidential candidate finds himself running against a VP candidate, and still loosing.

Irony of left wing attacks of Sarah Palin...

Let's be absolutely honest here. McCain gambled. I am not denying it. I understand the left wing attacks on her. They recognize that she is charming, and has the potential to destroy Obama/Biden in the election, but here is the irony in their concentrated attacks.

McCain can not cut her loose period. If McCain cut her loose, nothing short of capturing Obama on video having crumpets with Osama Bin Laden would be enough to win the election. That is a fact.

All the attacks and dirt dug up in the next week (I doubt it will take longer than that, and I suspect most of the major dirt has already been found), and unless they come up with a true smoking gun, it will all fade into memory within two to three weeks.

At that point, the McCain/Palin ticket will simply rest on how well she handles the media.

Now I am going to wait right here, but go over to youtube and watch every Palin video you can find. Go... now... I'll be here when you get back.

Ok, your finished finally.

Now honestly, what were your opinions.

Exactly. "Wow" is exactly what I thought. She is frickin good.

The media will start every interview with the full intention of ripping her to shreds, but once she flashes that smile and lets out that self depreciating laugh a few times, the reporters or more importantly the audience will be putty in her hands.

The haters will always be haters, but we don't need their votes. We need the votes of those middle class working Americans who will realize that Palin is just like them.

Sorry, got off track there. Bottom Line: concentrated attacks help us since they will blow over sooner. McCain won't get rid of her, so no use trying.

Where is Sarah?

Kevin Drum - Mother Jones Blog: Where is Sarah?

WHERE IS SARAH?....Has Sarah Palin granted an interview yet to the national press? Just curious. I haven't seen one yet. They're going to have to let her face the media mob eventually, aren't they?
UPDATE: Here she is in People magazine. It's the obvious choice, and I imagine that Fox News and GMA and Parade are on deck too. The national political press corps that might actually press her on serious issues, though? Wait and see.

I have been wondering the same thing.

So here is my prediction. She will give a knockout speech Wednesday, which will overshadow the fading dirt dug up on her over the weekend. Then she will warm up with the Fox News channel, moving on to charm the pants (figuratively) off of the rest of the national media.

She will be the hottest ticket in town to get an interview with, since every producer in TV news land is dreaming of being the one to trip her up, but I am guessing that within two weeks, all the hatred will turn into Obama squared type love. The key difference being, she actually has substance and executive experience.

Keep the Sarah Palin hits coming...

The hits and dirt coming flying faster than the right can reply, dilute, rebutt, or explain; but it occurred to me, what's the point. I don't think it matters, because the majority of voters aren't blog reading political junkies, and are going to end up loving Governor Palin, and here is why:

1. Pregnancy - The only thing voters are going to take home from this pass weekend is that her daughter is pregnant and she was forced to talk about it because of horrible Internet rumors. Palin 1 - Left 0.

2. Flip flops on the bridge to nowhere. The general public doesn't care. Every single politician they have ever heard about has been accused of flip flopping. Once the words bridge and Alaska are mentioned, the rest is going to sound like "blah, blah, blah..."

3. Troopergate: any 60 minutes investigation is going to end up with this simple conclusion. The trooper in question did for a fact at least do the following: taser an 11 year old, threaten to kill Governor Palins parents, drink on duty in his patrol car, and all he got was 5 days suspension.

4. Charm. The simple fact is that she is very very charming and articulate. As soon as the first interviews are shown on network TV, the public will come away with the impression that she has her shit together.

5. America will identify with her. She has more in common with the average American than any national politician in decades.

So bring on the dirt, the rumors, the accusations; All publicity is good publicity, at least in Governor Palin's case.

I hate myself for this...

Sarah Palin Facts · Little Known Facts About the Alaska Governor:

- Sarah Palin isn’t allowed to wield the gavel at the convention because they’re afraid she’ll use it to kill liberals.

- Sarah Palin can divide by zero

Sorry, but it's funny, and I don't think it will do major harm to her reputation. Palin certainly has replaced Obama as the most interesting politician. She makes Obama look like Joe Biden.

Lisa Bloom OK's personal attacks on Obama's Children.

Howard Kurtz - A Blogger, a Baby, a Cry of Concern - washingtonpost.com:

"It is hardly unusual for a teenage girl to become pregnant, and unless she is Jamie Lynn Spears, who sold her baby pictures to OK! magazine, the news value is minimal. But some media commentators say Palin is fair game, not just because she is running for national office but because she is a self-described 'hockey mom' who told the nation that her eldest son is headed to Iraq.

'Once she's brought her children in as selling points, unfortunately the bad comes in with the good,' says Lisa Bloom, a Court TV anchor. 'She's integrating her mom quality as a key part of her résumé. We didn't do that in the press; she did that.'"

According to that logic, the fact that Obama let an interview of his family be released, it's A-OK to gossip about his family.

Disgusting.

Democratic Underground surfs teenagers myspace account for dirt on Governor Palin.

Quick, before it's scrubbed - Democratic Underground

Screen shot before its taken down...

I sent a myspace message to the girl warning her... hopefully she makes her myspace profile private.

Going to try and take the day off from blogging...

Every time I go online, I come across another drive by on Governor Palin, in what is turning out to be the largest organized smear job in political history.

Going to go watch TV.

Barack Obamas campaign issues press release demanding to see DNA proof that Sarah Palin's kids are hers...

Today the Obama campaign demanded that Sarah Palin offer concrete proof that her children are really hers.

Not content with photo's showing Sarah Palin pregnant 5 days before giving birth to her youngest son Trig Palin, they are demanding that she produce birthing videos, and DNA analysis for each and every child.

An Obama spokesman was quoted as saying "She is much too hot to have given birth five times, besides everyone knows it is way to cold in Alaska to conceive children. We have reason to believe that her kids are the prodigy of Hitler and Stalin."

Meanwhile, Obama tauts his executive experience as a community organizer in Chicago.

"I remember the struggles with getting the residents to march in a straight line during a protest march, but by chanting "Yes, we can" over and over, they overcame, and by god, they marched in a straight line."

Sarah Palins Baby

I feel dirty even having to post this, because the disgusting rumors about Governor Palin and her son Trig are the lowest of slimeball politics I have seen, at least since the evil rumors about Senator McCains daughter brought by the Bush campaign 8 years ago.

All I have to say is that the liberal blogosphere is going to come out of this with a lot of mud on their face. It's to bad, because I use to respect bloggers like Kevin Drum, Mathew Yglesias, and Andrew Sullivan.

Media sexism towards Sarah Palin

Wow, who would of thought that a vice presidential pick could bring out so much blatant sexism in the media. Only a few weeks ago, they had nothing but love for Governor Bobby Jindal despite him being even younger and having way way less experience than Governor Palin.

It seems like the whole main stream media is on the edge of their collective seat waiting for Governor Palin to fail. They obviously haven't watched any of the multitude of interviews she has done in the last year. I can not wait until the first public televised interview when Governor Palin makes the media look foolish.

I am not afraid. McCain let her loose.

More Palin Photos

Megan McCain has a bunch more "insider" pictures on her website McCainBlogette, but here are a few teasers.

Set Todd Palin free

Hopefully, the McCain/Palin campaign releases Todd Palin from campaign stumping duties soon. He just isn't built for it. The guy is obviously charming, but it's equally obvious the guy belongs back in Alaska in a pair of jeans. Personally, I think it looks a little ackward for Governor Palin to have him hanging around in the background of all these media stops.

Sarah Palins Alaskan Style Feminism

As the father of four daughters, the sexism against Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin disgusts me. A majority of it comes from the main stream media, but there is a good chunk of it coming from the Obama campaign and disappointingly, the good old boy network of the Republican party.

To understand how Sarah Palin looks at things, please go read this Times interview with her.

Here is what she had to say on being a woman in politics.

I've totally ignored the issues that have potentially been affecting me when it comes to gender because I was raised in a family where, you know, gender wasn't going to be an issue. The girls did what the boys did. Apparently in Alaska that's quite commonplace. You're out there hunting and fishing. My parents were coaches, so I was involved in sports all my life. So I knew that as woman I could do whatever the men were doing. Also that's just part of Alaskan life.

I sincerely hope that I can instill the same sort of attitude in my Alaskan raised daughters.

Sarah Palin's Alaska

I have only lived in Alaska for one year, but I wanted to share with you my impression of Alaskans so that you might have a better idea of what sort of environment Sarah Palin comes from, and what sort of person she is.

Alaskans are incredibly independent. This is the sort of place that attracts people looking to earn their fortune the old fashioned way, with their hands and their wits. It is the sort of place where success isn't automatically assumed to happen to only those with a college degree, but that success happens due to a good old fashioned work ethic and a little bit of miners luck. While they definitely lean towards the conservative side, there is a strong libertarian way of looking at things. Alaska is full of mavericks and people here have a live and let live sort of attitude.

Alaskans are conservative, but in a different sort of way than southerners. While there are plenty of Churches, religion here is not worn on a persons sleeve, but is demonstrated in the way people live their lives and treat other people. People here are just as likely to spend Sundays worshiping in nature as they are in a building, especially during fishing season in June - August.

One of the things that shocked me and my wife when we first moved here from South Carolina, is how friendly people were, even at typically bureaucratic places like the passport office or the DMV. And when I say friendly, I don't mean the sort of "good manners" type of friendly, I mean in a sincerely, eager to welcome you to Alaska, friendly.

Outdoorsy; Alaskans are very outdoorsy. When you live in a state as beautiful as Alaska, it is a given that people would enjoy the outdoors, but what really surprised me was how much even the winter doesn't slow them down. Their hardiness is bred in elementary school. In my kids elementary school, they have outdoor recess unless it gets down to something like -10 to -20 degrees F. In most places in the lower 48, any temperature 5 or more degrees below zero is enough to shut down the school. My kids spend more time playing outside in the middle of winter that they did during the spring, fall, and summer of South Carolina put together.

Now what does this mean for Alaska. Well I think the first thing to note is that many politicians are going to look at Sarah with an initial condescending attitude. Her looks, camouflage a no nonsense, take no prisoners, lets get down to business sort of attitude. What many Republicans have yet to realize is John McCain has probably single handily started the reform and modernization of the Republican party by choosing her as his running mate. Make no mistake, that she is loyal to a tee, and will stick with and by John McCain unwaveringly, but she will have very short thrift for the "good old boy" network that exists in today's Republican party.

She will be the antithesis of Barack Obama's elitism and arrogance. As you have may already noted, she is a social conservative based on her deeply held religious convictions, but unlike many Christians out there, her beliefs are tempered by a sense of doing right and respecting others point of view. This is a woman that resigned from a pretty cushy job as Palin Ethics Commissioner of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, because a member of her own party of legal and ethics violations. Then after defeating a corrupt governor, she swept into the old boy system of Alaska politics and completely turned it on its ear.

Finally, I want to say something about her experience. Let's be real here, no one has the entire breadth of hands on experience to deal with the complexity of the job of the American Presidency. What we need in the office is someone who has executive experience to take in information and to quickly make an executive decision based on sound advice and the information available at hand.

I ask you this. In the next couple of days, carefully watch her, watch the way she handles herself. Metaphorically look her in the eyes, and then... then do the same with Joe Biden and Barack Obama. I also want you to listen to her on the issues. If you truly don't think she has what it takes to be President or don't agree with her, then don't vote for her, but I think that you are going to realize that she is one of the few politicians out there that is truly sincere and is someone you will trust to lead this country.

Bears are behind Sarah Palins stance on guns

Election: Palin's Stance on Guns Newsweek Politics: Conventions Newsweek.com

Like many Alaskans, Gov. Sarah Palin is a lifelong hunter and strong proponent of Second Amendment rights. A longtime member of the National Rifle Association, she told USA Today when she was running for governor as a Republican in 2006 that "We hunt as much as we can, and I'm proud to say our freezer is full of wild game we harvested here in Alaska." Her own parents had just returned from hunting caribou when they learned that she had been tapped as Sen. John McCain's running mate.

Note to all you liberals out there without a sense of humor or the common sense to recognize satire when you read it, the following statements are not to be taken seriously. We now continue our regularly scheduled blogging.

Sarah Palin's stance of guns is entirely reasonable considering the rash of Bear Attacks we have had in Alaska recently.

Alaska Govenor Sarah Palin gallery: Alaska Photo Galleries | adn.com

Alaska Govenor Sarah Palin gallery: Alaska Photo Galleries adn.com

Just in case you haven't been able to find a decent collection of photos anywhere else on the web, check out the Anchorage Daily News photo gallery.

Here is a teaser photo for you: (She is #22)

After she trashes Joe Biden in the debates, she is going to school Barack Obama on the court.

If you wanted that Sarah Palin biography, you are going to have to wait...

Epicenter Scores with Palin Bio - 8/29/2008 9:41:00 AM - Publishers Weekly

Epicenter went through its 7,000-copy first printing in less than a month, and then reprinted 3,000 more copies. "Those will be gone today," Sturgis said. The press is working with print-on-demand printer Lightning Source to meet the initial demand and hopes to start shipping copies next week; it is also going to print offset copies in September. "Right now I can’t get to all my phone messages," said Sturgis. "I walked in the door this morning and the first call was from Barnes & Noble; they wanted 15,000 copies. I’ve got an e-mail queue here that’s longer than I can see."

Don't worry, I can sum up her story for you.

She entered politics. People underestimated her. She kicked their ass.

Now, head over to Amazon or Barnes and Noble and order a copy to get the rest of the details.

Sarah Palin Biography - Sarah was a bookworm

There is a biography out on Sarah Palin by Kaylene Johnson called Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down available from Epicenter Press Inc.

You can read the first chapter for free [pdf] at least for now.

Here is something that might surprise you:

Sarah had two childhood traits that her family says played trajectory roles in her life. From the time she was in elementary school, she consumed newspapers with a passion. “She read the paper from the very top left hand corner to the bottom right corner to the very last page,” said Molly. “She didn’t want to miss a word. She didn’t just read it—she knew every word she
had read and analyzed it.”

Sarah preferred nonfiction to the Nancy Drew books that her classmates were reading. In junior high school, Heather—a year older in school—often enlisted Sarah’s help with book reports. “She was such a bookworm. Whenever I was assigned to read a book, she’d already read it,” Heather said. Sarah’s thirst for knowledge was nurtured in a household that emphasized the importance of education. There was never any question that all the Heath kids would go to college. With her love for newspapers and current events, Sarah majored in journalism and minored in political science. Her brother, like their father, became a teacher. Heather works for an advertising firm. Molly is a dental hygienist.

Sarah’s other trait is what her father calls an unbending, unapologetic streak of stubbornness.

Campaign U.: Sarah Palin on Higher Education - Chronicle.com

Campaign U.: Sarah Palin on Higher Education - Chronicle.com:

Ms. Palin, who is the first woman and youngest person to have been elected governor of Alaska, has not made higher education an especially prominent priority of her administration. But the state’s government—which is enjoying an economic boom, thanks to rising oil and natural-gas prices—has recently been treating the University of Alaska system well, at least in terms of its budget.

This bear underestimated Sarah Palin too

Photo by STEPHEN NOWERS / Anchorage Daily News

A day after Obama's big speech...

The New York Times is...

All about Sarah Palin.

I sort of thought Obama's Denver speech sucked anyway.

Sarah Palin on Education

Supposedly, this is an education oriented blog so...

Sarah Palin from a Time magazine interview

Yeah, just a myriad of examples I can give and how being a mom changes my perspective. And education is very, very important to me because I have got kids today in the system, in the public school system. I want to make sure that we are adequately funded, but that we have high standards and accountability in our schools so that every public dollar is spent wisely. Because I walk into those schools on a regular basis and I want to make sure that our public schools are as good as they can be because my kids are a part of them.

Hot Governor

Wow, I am the number one link when you google the term "hot governor".

No wonder my traffic went up.

Still, she is the hottest governor, and soon to be hottest VP in our nations history.

But, let me be absolutely clear. I support Palin (and McCain), not because she is hot, but because she kicks ass. Besides, Barack Obama scares me.

Mayor of a Small Town vs Community Organizer

Palin as Mayor of a Small Town

- elected by people who looked her in the eye

- executive experience equivalent to that of a CEO of a medium size company

- responsible for day to day operations in a city that was going through astounding growth and that is located in Alaska

- made critical budget decisions

Obama as Community Organizer

- elected by nobody

- no executive experience

- responsible for organizing street marches in a windy city

- made office supply purchase decisions

Now would someone please hit the "shut-up" at the Obama campaign, please.

UPDATE: Corrected spelling error (spell check didn't work so well)

Parentalcation Endorses McCain/Palin

Ok, it was a no duh endorsement, especially considering my previous posts on how Obama scares me.

The cool thing about McCain picking Palin is how it has the democrats completely worked up.

Guess who posted this:

But a heartbeat away from the presidency? Someone with virtually no serious political experience, and no serious experience of any other kind to make up for it?

Rush Limbaugh? Nope, it was liberal blogger Kevin Drum.

He then goes on to say:

I don't know how she'll do on the stump or in the debates. Maybe she'll be great. Who knows? But a potential leader of the free world? You gotta be kidding.

I wonder if he forgot that he supported Obama?

Preschool gains aren’t universal at Joanne Jacobs

Preschool gains aren’t universal at Joanne Jacobs

Preschools don't make lasting gains because they are poorly run. Their curriculum often boils down to nothing but a glorified Sesame Street episode.

To top it off, when the students reach elementary school, they are introduced to the world of fuzzy math, whole language, sight words, constructivism, all run by educators that despite four to eight years of "higher education", haven't even heard of Project Follow Through, or accurately define direct instruction.

Meanwhile, publishers make millions and millions of dollars off of text books that are nothing more than more colorful versions of the same antiquated way of teaching that was used twenty years ago.

Simultaneously, well meaning charter schools spend tens of thousands of man-hours developing programs to try and bring middle schoolers up grade level, all while remaining silent on the atrocious process our country calls "education".

Badass link of the day

Math Facts

I have been using this website to quiz my kids. It does multiplication, addition, subtraction, and division. It allows you to review missed questions, set time limits, etc, etc...

My kids love it. I have my 3rd grader reviewing her addition facts, and my fifth graders doing multiplication tables to review (get them in the groove after the summer). After they get through the sequence, I will start them on subtraction and division.

They normally run 3 minutes tests and see how many they can answer correctly. They love it. I normally have to kick them off to let another kid have a go.

"Everyday Math" teaches students about sequencing | islandpacket.com

"Everyday Math" teaches students about sequencing islandpacket.com



Via Math Without Tears

I am embarrassed for them.

Teaching Needy Kids in our Backward System by Zig Engelmann

I just received the book Teaching Needy Kids in our Backward System by Zig Engelmann. I will let you know how it is.

Prescriptive Schools

Eduwonk » Blog Archive » Eduwonk Charter Naming Contest Draws in More Celebrities, Fails to Find Clear Winner.

Richard Whitmire is looking for a catch phrase to refer to the KIPP, Achievement First, Match style of schools.

I nominate the phrase "prescriptive schools".

If your mortgage is through Indymac, you might want to stop paying your mortgage

FDIC: Loan Modification Program for Distressed Indymac Mortgage Loans

The streamlined loan modifications will be available for most borrowers who have a first mortgage owned or securitized and serviced by IndyMac Federal where the borrower is seriously delinquent or in default. IndyMac Federal also will seek to work with others who are unable to pay their mortgages due to payment resets or changes in the borrowers’ repayment capacities.

If you pay your mortgage on time, you're a fool. The government only helps out those who are irresponsible.

More "No duh"

Boys will be boys, girls will be girls from birth - CNN.com:

As a good postfeminist-era mom, I certainly didn't push my son toward trucks and my daughter toward tutus.

In one study, when 18-month-old boys and girls saw pictures of a doll and a vehicle, most girls chose the doll
If anything, I went out of my way to avoid giving them gender-stereotyped toys, offering glittery finger paint to my son and trains to my daughter. But it didn't matter: My son turned his doll's crib into a race car and my daughter was obsessed with shoes.

Calculators Okay In Math Class, If Students Know The Facts First, Study Finds

The researchers found that the calculator’s effect on subsequent performance depended on how much the students knew to begin with. For those students who already had some multiplication skills, using the calculator before taking the test had no impact. But for those who were not good at multiplying, use of the calculator had a negative impact on their performance.

New school year starts

Tomorrow is the first day of school, and I am very optimistic.

My 8th grader was a straight A student last year, and I fully expect her to continue her streak. She isn't in Algebra, but will be next year.

My 3rd grader has the same awesome teacher she had last year, the one who helped raise her reading 2.5 grade levels.

As an experiment, we are putting both of our 5th graders in the same class. Basically, we were sick of having two kids in the same grade with different amounts of homework, different assignments, different field trips, etc... This way we figure if one forgets something, the other one can help out. Besides, they are a boy and a girl and both pretty well adjusted and independent.

Forbes editors needs to go back to school

America's Best Colleges sorted by State - Forbes.com

Went to Forbes list of "best colleges", sorted by state and only two entries came up for Alaska; Hendrix College and John Brown University.

One problem, they are both in Arkansas, not Alaska.

UPDATE

Should of taken a screen shot. They changed it already. I did get this from my site meter.

15 Aug 18:55:23
http://webmail.forbes.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://parentalcation.blogsp ...

This Week In Education: "We Are Not Government Issued"

This Week In Education: "We Are Not Government Issued":

Russo linked to this article.

“If you go to some Manhattan schools or places where the families have a higher income, you don’t see the recruiters there,” said Ebony Thurman, 18, who was once approached by recruiters at the Atlantic Avenue subway station. “But if you’re in Brooklyn or in lower income neighborhoods, that’s where you really find them trying to recruit people. They tell you that you’ll get job skills or college money. And if you’re a girl they’ll flirt with you and say there a lot of cute guys you could meet if you enlist.”

Here is my response on This Week In Education.

"The military is proud of its diverse makeup and makes a conscious effort to have it's force mirror that of the civilian population, The military firmly believes that it is healthy to have all factions of the population represented in it's rank... for obvious reasons it would be unhealthy to have the military consist entirely of white men from Idaho (or any other group). The military also firmly believes that diversity improves performance and that a diverse group of members adds knowledge and flexibility and makes it stronger.

What many people don't realize is that the military is very selective. The military doesn't have problems finding people wanting to join... it has problems finding people wanting to join AND WHO ARE QUALIFIED. The medical requirements, educational requirements, moral/legal requirements, and ASVAB all disqualify a large (very large) part of the population.

Unfortunately given the poor HS graduation rate and low test performance by minorities, it is a challenge for it to find a proportionate number of minority candidates. It's the exact same problem that Universities and Colleges have.

To counter this struggle, the military uses affirmative action like it was originally meant to. It casts a wider net... it goes to schools to ensure that it can offer opportunities to populations that might not be aware of the benefits and privileges that the military has to offer.

Does this Art teacher protest against universities that recruit in minority schools?

I would wager that the teacher would probably protest if the military was disproportionately white, arguing that it was discriminatory.

I am a bit disappointed that you linked to this story, giving its false insinuation credence."

Edwards is a son of a ....

Edwards admits to extramarital affair - CNN.com

Edwards is a son of a something... besides for being a son of a mill worker.

Ironically, now I sort of wished I had voted for him. He could of totally been the second coming of JFK.

By the way...

By the way, Right Wing Professor totally looks like a biker, tattoos and all. He is just as interesting in real life as he is on his blog.

He didn't even make fun of me and my friend for being slightly left leaning.

Yuengling rocks

Official Yuengling Web Site: America's Oldest Brewery

Yuengling is the best beer in the United States. Several days of hardcore drinking, and not a single hangover.

Eduwonk has fish porn, I am officially starting beer porn.

Me and some friends enjoying a pint of Yuengling at a pub in Harrisburg, Pa. I'm the blurry guy on the right.

Gender and Math: Quiz

Jim scored a 97, Bob scored a 76, Dan scored a 45.

Jane scored a 81, Barb scoed a 78, Dana scored a 66.

Who is better at math, the boys or the girls?

Which gender has the worse performer?

Which gender has the top performer?

Originally posted in comments over at the Core Knowledge Blog.

Aim low, avoid disappointment

Alaska thinks(pdf) that 81.7% of its 4th grade students in 2007 were advanced/proficient in reading.

The NAEP says that only 29% of Alaskan public school 4th graders were at or above proficient. In fact the NAEP shows that only 62% of it's public school 4th graders were above basic, which is still a pretty big difference.

The NAEP expects 4th graders to read three syllable words; Alaska only expects 4th grades to read two syllables.

I didn't look at math scores, but I am guessing its the difference between counting to 10 and counting to 5.

Coming to the East Coast

I am going to be in Washington D.C. next week for a conference, and then spend the weekend of 1-4 August in Harrisburg, Pa hanging out.

I will be the short bald guy nursing a hangover.

Right Wing Nation

Right Wing Professors blog rightwingnation.com has gone missing. I suspect it's a domain registration issue.

Sort of bummed me out.

The American Scholar - The Disadvantages of an Elite Education - By William Deresiewicz

The American Scholar - The Disadvantages of an Elite Education - By William Deresiewicz:

"Elite schools pride themselves on their diversity, but that diversity is almost entirely a matter of ethnicity and race. With respect to class, these schools are largely—indeed increasingly—homogeneous. Visit any elite campus in our great nation and you can thrill to the heartwarming spectacle of the children of white businesspeople and professionals studying and playing alongside the children of black, Asian, and Latino businesspeople and professionals. At the same time, because these schools tend to cultivate liberal attitudes, they leave their students in the paradoxical position of wanting to advocate on behalf of the working class while being unable to hold a simple conversation with anyone in it.Elite schools pride themselves on their diversity, but that diversity is almost entirely a matter of ethnicity and race. With respect to class, these schools are largely—indeed increasingly—homogeneous. Visit any elite campus in our great nation and you can thrill to the heartwarming spectacle of the children of white businesspeople and professionals studying and playing alongside the children of black, Asian, and Latino businesspeople and professionals. At the same time, because these schools tend to cultivate liberal attitudes, they leave their students in the paradoxical position of wanting to advocate on behalf of the working class while being unable to hold a simple conversation with anyone in it."

Via Liam Julian at the Flypaper and John Derbyshire at the National Review, I came across this great article. Definately go read the whole thing.

#98 The Ivy League « Stuff White People Like

#98 The Ivy League « Stuff White People Like:

"Once you have determined that a white person did not attend an Ivy League School, you should try to give them the opportunity to explain why their school was actually a superior educational experience. Some easy ways to do this are to mention grade inflation, professors who value research over teaching, or high tuition costs. Any one of these will set a white person off on a multi-minute rant."

I am officially a white person.

You're kidding me, right?

Camp Education « Jay P. Greene’s Blog

"I think it’s worth thinking about what we can learn from camps to make schools more effective"

As a parent of 5 kids, let me give this some thought...

Is he crazy... my kids waste enough time at school on silly projects with no educational value.

My son's gifted class last year was a lot like camp. The teachers idea of math enrichment was having them do some crazy number wheel.

Creativity is a mantra, not an teaching tool.

More like camp... he seriously didn't say that did he?

Anchorage Housing Market in Pictures

Enough said.

Graph from zillow.com

A conversation with Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools - Charlie Rose

A conversation with Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools - Charlie Rose

Where Michelle Rhee explains that teaching is a popularity contest, and that if more teachers brought their students McDonald's, everything would be honky-dory.

Disclaimer: I am having a hard time lately seeing the difference between education reformers and the education establishment.

Update: She wasn't all bad. At least she didn't pull a Wendy Kopp and avoid substantive answers.

Even more: She is frickin impressive as hell actually. I want to work for her.

A picture is worth a thousand words (and looking at pictures is a reading strategy anyway)

click to enlarge

One of my commentors mentioned teacher creativity. My daughters teacher expressed her creativity by the use of blue paper and fancy fonts. Note the same old "looking at pictures" as a reading strategy, it even gets higher billing than sounding out words.

No Fucking Duh

I just took dropped my daughter off for her last day of school, and went in to talk to her summer school teacher.

I asked the teacher, how much progress my daughter had made and if she had any test scores, assuming that school used some sort of formal diagnostic assessment. I know, I am an idiot.

Her teacher told me that she had "done some stuff at the computer lab", had a few spelling tests, and done a lot of writing.

I asked if their was anything formal.

"It's all formal" she replied.

"So you have no way of measuring progress" I asked.

The teacher then went on to explain to me that six weeks just wasn't a lot of time, so they worked on some "reading strategies".

The teacher was obviously sensing my frustration and tried to placate me.

"You daughter is a good reader, she just has problems with her decoding"."

"No FUCKING duh", I thought to myself, "you're a fucking idiot."

"You do know what decoding is, don't you?" she asked, assuming my shock was lack of understanding.

I walked out.

Math or Elementary

I have been planning on becoming an elementary school teacher after I retire because I think that it's elementary education that needs the most reform, but lately I have been tempted to become a math teacher.

I have two Airman in my shop who are currently taking college algebra online. I have been helping them with their class, and have sort of enjoyed it. Maybe it runs in the family. My father was a math teacher in New Zealand for a number of years, at least until we moved back to Los Angeles and he became a programmer.

The big minus with becoming a math teacher is I would have to take a bunch more courses and get a second degree. This would seriously delay my future time line.

Any input?

TFA love... what it would take!

What it would take for me to start having some TFA love?

1. A tilt towards elementary education, or at least an acknowledgement that TFA math and science teachers are just a stop-gap until elementary school education is fixed.

2. An expansion of recruiting into working professionals and retiree's. If TFA's recruiting and training system is so great, wouldn't it work to identify smart motivated middle aged or older professionals looking to make a difference.

3. Drop the whole "pipeline of leaders" meme. We need more soldiers and less generals, more teachers, less administrators.

4. Start your own Education School. One that conducts real research and then uses it to produce superior teachers. Certify your own teachers.

5. Wendy Kopp's phone number. Just kidding Mr. Barth, I am married (and might need a job someday).

The TFA responds to accounting fraud failures

The Quick and the Ed

But the Office of Inspector General at the US Department of Education has charged TFA with failing to account for half of the $6 million the organization received in federal discretionary grants between 2003 and 2005. The IG's office scrutinized a sample of the federal funds and concluded in a reported released last month that "TFA did not fully comply with applicable laws and regulations..." The organization "could not provide adequate supporting documentation [for half of its expenditures] because it lacked sound fiscal accountability controls," the IG's office wrote, adding that, "On several occassions, we requested additional documentation from TFA's Vice President of Accounting and Controls, but she never provided us with adequate supporting documentation or an explanation of the expenditures."

A newly hired TFA alumni responds:

"Like oh my God, you know...

Accounting rules are like, so contributing to the achievement gap. Totally.

If more teachers were, like, totally more like us, then everything would be like sooooo cool.

I mean its not like we are sending alumni to Wall Street or anything... well even so, that is just like, so unfair.

Gag me with a spoon. you know?"

I might vote for Obama after all...

Jackson's Obama comments almost went unnoticed - Los Angeles Times

Anyone who can piss off Jesse Jackson deserves at least a second look after all, besides McCain is mutating into Bush Lite.

What my kids and the military taught me about teaching...

Last year, one of my daughters asked me to help her study for a social studies test she had at school the next day.

We got out her text book and I asked her what we were studying. "Unit 3" she said. I flipped to Unit 3, and realized that Unit 3 consisted of three chapters, each at least 10 pages long. It seemed to cover the entire history of the United States up until and including the Revolutionary War.

The tears started almost immediately. She correctly deduced that there was no way she could cover the whole unit in one night.

I asked her if her teacher had highlighted any areas to key in on, but my daughter couldn't remember.

I told her to just skim read the Unit and concentrate on the main points. I was met with black stares. She had no idea which were the key points and which was just fluff.

Flash forward a week later...

My daughter brings home the test, and she has gotten a C-. I decided to look over the test and see what was covered, but as far as I could tell it was nothing but a quiz of random facts from the Unit. There was no rhyme or reason to it. Trivial matters were covered, but questions about key events were missing. As far as I could tell, she would of had to have memorized the entire Unit to get an A.

...

The Air Force is very big on professional development of the enlisted force.

As soon as an Airman gets selected to be an NCO, he/she is immediately sent to Airman Leadership School, and enrolled in a "Train the Trainer" course. The professional development, both residence and computer based is reinforced through each state of an NCO's career.

This continuous professional development is one the key reasons our enlisted force is the backbone of the most competent and powerful military forces ever assembled.

In ever single professional development course I have taken, one of the key themes that we are taught in training and mentoring is the establishment of training objectives and measurable goals.

When I am assigned a new Airman, I am required to sit them down and specifically state my expectations. I have been trained to make the expectations easily measurable, and not subjective.

When I develop training plans, I have to write a specific goal, and then define a measurable evaluation. Before conducting any training, I tell my trainee's exactly what I expect them to be able to accomplish upon completion of the training.

It's my responsibility to break down the task, and to go over each step. I am to assume nothing, and develop the tasks so that someone with zero experience will be able to accomplish the task upon completion of the training.

If upon evaluation, my trainee can not perform the task to the measurable objective then I immediately schedule remedial training.

I do not give up or make excuses.

I am continually trying to improve. If someone doesn't get something, I assume that it's because I haven't explained it clearly.

If my Airman were not to get trained properly, my bosses and my commander would hold me responsible.

...

If I were to conduct my training or mentoring like most teachers teach, I would be fired.

If I were my daughters teacher, I would clearly communicated as to what information they needed to know out of the Unit.

I would of conducted evaluations of my students through out the Unit, and if I had detected an area of weakness, I would of immediately gone back to reteach the material before I moved on to the next section.

By the time my students had taken the final exam, they would of been quizzed and reviewed on the key themes and facts.

My test material would not of been a surprise to the students or the parents.

...

My example is not uncommon, with the only exception of spelling and math tests.

I coin this method of teaching and testing, "Gotcha education".

Plagiarizing myself...

Backed Halibut... hmmmm

To save time and effort, I am just going to post the comments I made at other websites.

On eduwonkette: The Rhetoric of Reform: Does Research Count?

It's not like private school or charter school teachers get any different training that public school teachers.

To me this is a no duh study.

It's basically the same result when you randomly place low SES students in middle class schools.
Vouchers or school choice are only useful if parents choose a school that uses effective teaching practices. Then again, it would be so much simpler if public schools improved their teaching techniques.

If our government is going to spend money on studies, someone needs to do a long term study on which education schools produce teachers who have the greatest effects on student achievement.

Who wants to bet that the results show that education schools that concentrate on the mechanics of teaching do much better than the schools that concentrate of edujargon?

Actually, hold of on doing the study, I smell a great thesis paper for my graduate studies in a few years.

More from eduwonkette: Guest Blogger Mica Pollock on: Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School#comments

Arguments that race isn't biological are naive see... Lewontin's Fallacy. The critical debate is whether IQ/intelligence/academic ability is genetic, but to focus on that question misses the boat when it comes to education.

Education standards should be set based on the premise that they are achievable by all students regardless of their ability (speed of learning) or starting point. Once we have accepted this, the key then is to figure out how to get all students across this line.

I am probably spoiled and naive when it comes to addressing race due to my upbringing (adopted multiracial family) and to the Air Force (most successfully integrated organization in the world), but I realize that there are probably some system/organizational changes to made to provide every student with the proper opportunities and outlook.

However, I am convinced that the key to improving education outcomes for disadvantaged groups just aren't going to be solved by addressing race. Simply put, it all boils down to the curriculum and pedagogy. There are right ways and wrong ways to teach. It’s just that middle/upper class students have the advantage of parents and an environment that can compensate for the shortcomings.

As to ability grouping, it really comes down to a simple premise.

Ability grouping is better for low, middle, and high performing kids in absolute terms. The problem is that in comparative terms, the differences between the groups get relatively larger and larger.

Our system has subtly decided that it's better to keep the relative differences smaller instead of making greater performance gains for all groups. Ironically, given NCLB's measuring stick of all kids getting above a certain line, the system works against itself. Talk about cognitive dissonance.

No comments allowed... if you must call me an idiot, do it at the original website.

Something fishy...

Ever wonder what an opinionated education blogger does on holidays. Well this 4th of July I was in Homer, Ak on a halibut charter.

They might not be the biggest halibut every pulled out of the Kachemak Bay, but they will still taste delicious.

Between me and my wife, we have 39 pounds of halibut filet's in the freezer. Anyone know any good recipes?

p.s. I suppose I should mention my wife caught the biggest fish on the boat... beginners luck I say.

Love Fest in Anchorage

Que rant...

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards. Mark Twain

Lately, I have taken to watching Anchorage School Board meetings on my local cable community channel. I have come to the conclusion that the Anchorage School Board is nothing but a rubber stamp for the school district administration.

During the decision to adopt "Everyday Math", there was almost zero debate or inquiry into the rational behind the decision. In fact, the commentary by the school board was more like a love fest than a decision making process.

I do not doubt for one second that the school board members are caring, intelligent, members of the community, but my suspicion is that unless it comes to money issues, the members are intimidated by any discussion of curriculum.

Then again, I am guessing that the majority of voters in school board elections are teachers, perhaps the board members are all ringers but in by the teachers unions and Ed School mafia.

To Too much pressure...

Schoolgate - Times Online - WBLG: The Ten Best Blogs about Education

Sarah Ebner was kind enough to mention my blog as a decent read. She must of caught my blog on a good day, because rumors of my competence are greatly exaggerated. Perhaps she found out I used to live in Cambridge... who knows?

In order to deflect attention away from myself, and relieve the guilt associated with not posting (or proofreading) nearly as often as I should), here are five blogs that are much better than mine, and truly must reads...

D-EdReckoning: Ken writes the most comprehensive, coherent, and educational blog around. If you disagree with him, there is a good chance that he will make you look silly. If you don't have facts or evidence to back your position, hang it up.

Teaching in the 408: TMAO is probably the best pure writer around. His blogs posts are as close to literature as you can get in the blogging world. Hopefully, he can keep his mad skills while writing for the Education Trust - West.

From the Trenches of Public Ed.: The more I learn about education, the more I find that I agree with most of what Dennis has to say. Don't tell him that, because he is officially my nemesis.

kitchen table math: What do you get when you combine the talents of 10 to 20 of intelligent parents and teachers, all focusing on math and math instruction,... only the best damn group blog around. Catherine Johnson anchors it all together, but the rest of the semi-regular posters kick ass as well.

NYC Educator: I am pretty sure that I am opposed to most of what NYC Educator posts, but I love that he doesn't mince words and he tells it like it is. I suspect that Major Bloomberg and Joel Klein have a secret department solely dedicated to keeping track of him.

Right Wing Nation: He isn't a pure education blogger, but when it comes to common sense and higher education, he is spot on. Lately he has been focused on the elections, but even if you don't agree with him, you can always steal some great recipes from his website.

NBA Hires Army Maj. General to Oversee Referees - washingtonpost.com

NBA Hires Army Maj. General to Oversee Referees - washingtonpost.com

NEW YORK -- The NBA hired Army Maj. Gen. Ronald L. Johnson on Tuesday as senior vice president of referee operations, a newly created position to help strengthen the league's officiating programs following the Tim Donaghy scandal.
...
Johnson recently retired after 32 years of service as a combat engineer. He was commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region division, from 2003-04, responsible for overseeing $18 billion of reconstruction in Iraq.

"Ron's wealth of leadership and management experience, together with his engineering expertise in areas such as systems analysis, processes, and operations, make him an ideal candidate to lead our officiating program," Stern said in a statement. "Our referees are the best in the world but they never stop striving to improve and Ron has made a career out of getting the very best out of people."

I don't know crap about basketball, refereeing, or civil engineering, but I do know that officers almost never have any practical hands on experience. They don't pay Generals to engineer, they pay them to lead and manage.

I predict he will be just as successful as Vice Admiral David L. Brewer, III.

Told you so and four letter words

Teaching in the 408: Rumors Of My Demise...:

In a few weeks I start work with the stellar folks at The Education Trust – West, an organization doing heavy lifting on ed reform, and one I’ve admired for some time.

...

This blog, or a similar version located elsewhere, will continue to exist.

Told you so.

The Education Trust - West does great work. If someone is going to be their front man, it might as well be someone as experienced and talented as Kilian.

Do you think they will still let him use four letter words in his posts?

p.s. I am still taking bets on his book

eduwonkette: Guest Blogger Sarah Reckhow: Easy to Blame

eduwonkette: Guest Blogger Sarah Reckhow: Easy to Blame

Eduwonkette lets ex-Douglass High School Teacher (and TFA alumni) Sarah Reckhow try and defend Douglass High School from the review that Liam Julian wrote for the National Review.

Like the documentary, her review does nothing to help Douglass High School. She rambles on for about 5 or 6 paragraphs before finally offering the only good thing that she can muster about Douglass High School.

Yet grumbling about the teachers who work in this difficult environment is not the answer. In fact, the film offers some illuminating scenes of teaching and learning at its best, only they don’t take place in a “typical” classroom setting. These include the school’s debate team, choir, band, and music production class. The students involved in these activities display precisely the attitudes we want schools to instill—pride, enthusiasm, and curiosity. Furthermore, the students are expected to perform well and rise to the occasion. Much of the commentary on this film has focused on Douglass at its worst, but much can be learned from Douglass at its best. [emphasis mine]

That's it. The best she can do is say that the students like extra-curricular activities. Her school has hit on a secret... that just about every other school in the world has already figured out.

At least she didn't blame the failures on money.

Sam Singer: Where Teach for America goes wrong (And Troops to Teachers gets right)

Sam Singer: Where Teach for America goes wrong - Opinion

Well crap, this 21 year old kid hits the nail right on the head.

Proponents claim that little by little, Teach for America can change this. That by enlisting only the academic elite - corps members carry top-tier credentials, and studies show them to be more effective than permanent faculty at participating schools - Teach for America is cultivating a commitment to public service and education among some of the brightest minds of our generation.

But hold your applause: According to The New York Times, of the trifle more than half of participants that actually remain in education, most do so in an administrative capacity. Turns out Teach for America hatches superintendents and curriculum planners far more frequently than it does teachers. If these numbers are on target, this isn't a teacher training corps - it's an incubator for would-be deans and well-rounded law students. [emphasis mine]

He forgot to mention that TFA is also good for producing bloggers, books, and charter school systems, but he still nails it though. His best line, though, is this:

Any grandeur that primary education had left was lost the moment we forced trained professionals to share faculty lounges with unseasoned college grads, many of who finished their final semesters with blood-alcohol contents that rivaled their grade point averages.

I might take issue with the term "trained professionals", but you get his point.

And just to add a comparison to Sam's first point:

According to the latest performance report from the Department of Education, the percentage of Troops to Teachers participants who remain in teaching for three or more years after placement in a teaching position in a high-need school is 88% for 2005, and 84% for 2006.

Once again, I think it's safe to say that TTT beats TFA.

Of course you don't see the NY Times or any other major newspapers writing semiannual puff pieces on Troops-to-Teachers.

When a link aint good...

Ordinarily, I would be estatic to get a link from an esteemed blogger like TMAO, but not when the post he links to sort of makes me look like an ass.

While I love the freedom blogging gives me to express my opinions, it is always a bit frustrating in that it is difficult to convey the totality of the person behind the blog. I think it might have to do with the fact that blogging takes effort, effort which is more easily mustered during bouts of indignation, emotion, or frustration. This leads to posts that are don't always reflect the entirety of my offline mellower personality.

To sum up: I am not as big a d**k that that blog post makes me seem like... really.

Hard Times at Douglass High: First Impressions

If the goal of the HBO documentary HARD TIMES AT DOUGLASS HIGH: A NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND REPORT CARD was to make me feel sorry for the kids. schools, or to turn against NCLB, then it's a failure.

After watching it, I am convinced of one thing. Once the kids get to 9th grade it's to late to save them. Education reform will have to start at the elementary school level.

Fish hate me

I have been fishing a lot lately. What do you expect, I live in Alaska now.

Fish don't like me. I guess that's why they call it fishing and not catching.

On the education front, the new GI Bill rocks! This means that my teacher certification is paid for and my family still gets to eat.

The Quick and the Ed

The Quick and the Ed

Kevin Carey comments on TFA haters:

And while it may be frustrating to advocates for the professionalization agenda that TFA complicates their narrative, that's no excuse for wasting valuable time and energy trying to tear down a program that unambiguously makes the world a better place.

"unambiguously" is a might strong word isn't it. There are many arguments about how TFA might not make the world a better place. I previously laid one out here, which boils down to the suspicion that the media's obsession with TFA deflects from other reforms that could make a much more significant dent in educational outcomes.

Success for All

My 2nd/3rd graders summer school program uses Success for All to re-mediate struggling readers.

My question is if SFA works so well for remediation, why not just use it during the school year?

On another note...

A teacher at the summer school was handing out brochures for parent math worksheets, so I asked her if it was for "Everyday Math".

She said no, but asked me if I wanted to know anything about EM. I said, "Only when is the school district going to get rid of it?"

She replied back, "Oh never, we love it."

I responded, "Of course you do, keeping kids in Summer School is job security."

Kevin Carey Has Mad Mojo

Read what Kevin Carey, from The Quick and the Ed, said a few days ago in this OpEd at Inside Higher Ed.

The world is extremely large and, comparatively speaking, Yale is very small. It could easily credential ten times, a hundred times more students over the Internet than it currently does in New Haven. Students would have more incentives to take great Yale courses, and the number of valuable Yale-certified learners would increase. This would rankle those who value Yale’s exclusivity over the bounty of knowledge, culture, and insight the university could potentially provide. But that’s a morally suspect position. Who cares what such people think?

He must have some pull at Yale, because look at todays news in the NY Times.

The president of Yale University announced on Saturday that Yale will increase its undergraduate enrollment by 15 percent, to about 6,000, by building two new residential colleges that are expected to open in 2013.

Kevin, if you happen to read this, could you put in a word to the admissions department about my kids? Would totally love to get them into Yale.

EF is the new IQ

What do you get when you cross this

"executive function," may be more important to academic success than traditional measures of intelligence

with this

a set of capacities known as "executive functions" - is almost entirely genetic in origin

Worse week...

This has been the worst week of my career, and today was the worst day. I really, really dislike my job right at this moment.

Want to feel old...

Want to feel old?

Ask your kids what a record is.

Anchorage School District Adopted Everyday Math

I was poking around the Anchorage School District website, and discovered that the ASD just adopted Everyday Math 2007, Third Edition. It will be mandatory for all ASD schools within two years. It was done with little controversy and no protests.

Saxson math lost out because it scored poorly on the rubric they used to evaluate the different programs.

Here is the "Student Lens" part of the rubric:

I. Student Lens

The materials provides the following for the needs/rights of students:

a. The purpose of learning, including objectives, standards, goals, criteria and evaluation rubrics are clear for students

b. Students can choose from a variety of strategies to explore, solve, and communicate math concepts

c. Students are engaged through a variety of activities which may include independent projects, cooperativelearning, manipulatives, technology, collaborative work, etc.

d. Students have opportunities for self-monitoring and self-reflection

e. Materials make connections to real life applications

f. There is support for individual learning levels

Is it just me, or does anyone else get the feeling the evaluation was rigged?

I am so glad my kids are going to get "opportunities for ... self-reflection" in their math class. I was afraid I was going to have to sign them up for yoga class.

Should I be worried?

p.s. Anchorage and Alaska are awesome. I am taking the summer off of school so I will be blogging again.

How TFA harms education...

I originally posted a version of this post over in the comments at The Socratic Method:

While I admire the mission of TFA, I am starting to have an issue with what I perceive as TFA elitism. For such a tiny percentage of classroom teachers, they have a large percentage of the education media coverage. They fill a niche, but TFA is never going to fix the system. Furthermore, the focus on overachieving young do-gooders minimizes the endemic issues present in the education system; poor education schools, poor pedagogy, and poor working conditions.

Imagine if instead of focusing on the glory boys of TFA, the media started focusing on school districts like Gering, which D-Edreckoning has profiled. By doing nothing more than adopting a curriculum and pedagogy that has been around for 20 years, the school has made amazing progress. They haven't started recruiting Ivy League graduates, they haven't thrown dollar after dollar at the program, they haven't relied on the public social welfare programs; all they have done is improve the way they teach.

Will the media pay attention... of course not, not while they have the glamour boys of TFA to profile... because it’s a much more interesting story to read about a Yale graduate working in the inner city using sheer strength of will to teach low income students, than it is to read about some small midwestern school district using methods like direct instruction. After all, if only those teachers would try a little harder... the system would be fixed. Please...

Update: Obviously TFA hating is starting to get trendy. Check out Teach For America-Debunking the propaganda. I also found a great summary of studies done of TFA effectiveness over at the NCATE website, of course I think the NCATE is as big a problem as TFA.

For the record...(what really scares me)

For the record, TMAO at Teaching in the 408 has been one of my favorite bloggers, and a prime motivating factor in my drive to become a teacher after I retire, but ever since I have found out he is resigning, I have been a bit annoyed.

In his latest post, TMAO goes through all the reasons why he didn't resign, including this last one.

I’m burnt-out. This is another one of those things I hear teachers say frequently, and more often than not it prompts an immediate, and probably unfair, response: Burnt-out? Fool, you gotta be on. fire. first. then maybe we can talk about burnt-out.
...
I'm not happy unless I'm putting the best product in front of kids, but I'm not necessarily happy in the constant construction and revision of that product. I'm not happy unless I use work hours 80-82 to take kids to the District All-Star Basketball Game, but I'm not necessarily happy working hours 80-82. I'm not happy unless I'm being the teacher I see in my head, but the process of finding that guy and living as him no longer makes me happy.

I'm sorry, but what he describes sounds exactly like burnout. I just completed 18 credit hours in one semester with a 3.8 GPA, but I had to take the semester off. While I enjoyed learning, I enjoyed my classes, and I enjoyed the sense of satisfaction I got making progress towards my degree; I just didn't enjoy studying anymore. I didn't enjoy the long weekend's writing papers. I quite simply was burntout.

Perhaps it's the military NCO in me, but I call it like I see it. Instead of trying to make play word games about the reason he resigned, I am much more interested in what he thinks the system could have done to prevent his burnout. What could of he done differently to prevent his leaving the profession?

Supposedly it's not because he wasn't supported, or prepared, or successful, but it must be something... because if there is nothing the system could of done better, and there is nothing he could of done better, then it seems to me the whole concept of education reform is f*cked.

Perhaps what really annoys me is that in his resignation, I have to face my own insecurities. If the system can't keep a bright, articulate, dedicated teacher like TMAO, then what chance does someone like me have?

I'm scared because if I were his situation, then I would probably be resigning as well.

Disclaimer: Despite rumors to the contrary, I am not reconsidering my future career choice. Us military types can't let TFA'ers get all the glory. :)