Archive for the ‘Lighter Fare’ Category

Hard times at Harvard

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

If you have tightened your belt due to the economy lately, you are not alone. According to the October 9, 2009 New York Times, a decrease in its endowment has caused Harvard to make the following cuts. No more hot breakfasts in most dorms. No more pastries at the Widener Library. Varsity athletes no longer can count on free sweat suits and professors will have to go without cookies at faculty meetings. It has always been difficult for the rest of us to feel sorry for those at the richest university in the world, but now we have some rational for such feelings. I haven’t posted the article, as I am certain all of my readers have better things to do. I hope you find some humor in this as I did.

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It would be funny if it weren’t true.

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

An article in the NY TImes (12/27/2009) sites a department of Education estimate that in order to apply for part of the $4 billion in federal Race to the Top grant money, a state will need to spend 681 hours to fill out the application. If you haven’t seen the application it is available below. I can’t imagine anyone reading it all without being compensated, but a quick scan is likely to be amusing or depressing depending on your personality.

Click here to see the article..

Click here to see the Race to the top application..

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March Madness – UPDATED 4/1/2010!

Friday, March 19th, 2010

Updated 4/1/2010 after announcement of round one winners (Start with slide 15 for update.) I couldn’t help but notice how the current madness associated with the Race to the Top finalists and the Obama Administration’s blueprint for reauthorization of NCLB are analogous to the other madness associated with March. Don’t forget that the secretary of education was a basketball player. Thanks to information from the New York Times, Education Week, and my own thinking, I have a humorous (I hope) and factual take on the current status. Let me know what you think (dgreen@stny.rr.com).

Click here to see Dr. Doug’s March Madness..

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NCLB Ethnic Groups are Stupid

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

Current NCLB rules require schools to show progress for each of five approved ethnic groups in addition to kids who are poor regardless of ethnic group. I see these groups as somewhat arbitrary and I believe that keeping track of groups serves no real purpose and complicates our efforts. I believe that poverty is the one thing we should focus on. I hope you agree that the slideshow linked below helps make this case. It may take a minute or two to download as it is mostly pictures.

Click here to see my Diversity Slideshow .

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Race to the Top Spoof

Friday, December 18th, 2009

Yong Zhao immigrated from China in the 1990’s. He presents an alternate view on testing and national standards. Here is a link to a funny article in EdWeek where he spoofs the application for state Race to the Top money. I also am working on a summary of his book “Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization.”

Here is the link for this article.

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You are at more risk from people you know, than people you don’t know.

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Today, school safety is a much bigger deal than ever. Schools desperately want to avoid the kind of reputation that comes with violent activity. Several years ago, New York State started gathering data on violent and disruptive incidents from all schools. The problem that I noticed when looking at the first set of data was that schools did not all report incidents the same way. Incidents of assault were particularly misreported. Some schools reported pushing and shoving as assault, while others listed violent attacks that resulted in serious injuries as something else or not at all. In order to help the schools I was working with improve their reporting, I put together the slideshow linked below. It includes summaries of actual assaults form the Brooklyn, New York police blotter along with some generalizations. In addition to the fact that the large majority of assaults occur among family members and friends, it also points out that just about anything can be considered a weapon if used as part of an attack. While I tried to add some humor to this post, I am certain that these events weren’t funny for those involved.

Click here to see the slide show on assault..

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