I have lots more time to read, tweet and surf than you do!
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.
The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD and James H. Fowler, PhD is another must read for anyone who wants to understand how our social networks impact our lives. All educators should consider the implications of this work.
As the authors studied social networks, they began to think of them as human super organisms. They grow and evolve. All sorts of things flow and move within them. This super organism has its own structure and a function, and they became obsessed with understanding both. Once we see ourselves as part of a larger network, we can better understand our actions, choices, and experiences. These connections are natural and necessary and a force for good. Just as brains can do more than single neurons, so can social networks do things that no single person can do. To know who we are, we must understand how we are connected.
Click here to see the summary of this book.
In the follow up to their best selling book, Levitt and Dubner provide us with more surprising data that defies common sense and shows us that we really need to think more about unintended consequences as we make decisions that can impact our lives and the lives of others.
Click here to see the excerpted summary of this book.
These two heavyweights are both trying to improve education by throwing money at the problem. The Obama administration’s $4 billion “Race to the Top” fund will go to the states that can convince government raters that they have the best reform agendas. The feds are also spending $350 million to help create common assessments for the nation that will replace the individual tests that states currently create and use to rate schools as required by federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation.
Meanwhile, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is donating $350 million in the next ten years to answer the question: “What, exactly, makes a good teacher effective.
With the federal government spending over twelve times as much as the Gates foundation, you would think that they would show more dramatic and significant results. Since it is too soon to tell, all we can do is place our bets. What do you think. Email your pick to me (dgreen@stny.rr.com) and I will post the results. After I get your votes I will post a detailed rational for who I think will win and why.
In their groundbreaking book, Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner take an out-of-the-box look at data interpretation. In a time where educators look to data analysis to help improve instruction, this book and its sequel, SuperFreakonomics, give examples of how to take a unique look at available data. Here I have included an excerpt of a summary of their first book with a focus on how teachers can get caught cheating and the economics of crack dealing. I also include slides that show which characteristics correlate with success on tests and which do not. The big point for me is that blacks are not less intelligent than whites; they are just more likely to be poor. Watch this blog for insights from SuperFreakonomics.
Click here to see the excerpted summary of this book.
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