The Week in Ed Science Links, Et. Al.

US Inequality Growing: Not a Blip

The Targets of Aggression

For as long as there have been human beings on earth � stretching back to our animal inheritance � we have been bedeviled by a peculiar need, as insistent as it has been tragic: Making others suffer for the pain we feel, often choosing as our victim someone who wasn't even the original perpetrator. Biologists call it "displaced" or "redirected" aggression. It operates through the transfer of pain, sometimes physical, sometimes psychological. And it has been going on for a very long time.

The Truth-Free Zone, Part 1: Truth And Lies Switch Places (and Part II and Part III)

1. . . . truths that go unuttered function as if they were lies. A prime example of this in the 2000 election was the conventional wisdom that Gore was a serial liar, while Bush was a man of great integrity-a straight-talker.

2. Taken to the extreme, things that cannot possibly be so have taken the place of fundamental truths. A prime example of this is the so-called "war on terror"-something that makes absolutely no sense, if you stop and think about it.

3. Verbal formulations are used that are inherently nonsensical and cannot be used rationally-at least in the existing total environment. "Supporting the troops" is a prime example of this.

Scruffy Philosophy Professors

If you think law professors are scruffy, try analytic philosophers. Luckily, there is a solution for everyone--to wit, the following from Philosophers' Playground

The Essence of Group Conflict

Separation with poorly defined boundaries leads to ethnic violence

Why don't parents like to play with their kids?

But what about that daydreaming mother�shouldn't she be turning over pine cones and acorns with her daughter, or at least talking to her once in a while? Is that mom really giving her daughter the latitude to discover nature, explore the world, think her own thoughts�or is she just lazy?

Block-play May Improve Language Development In Toddlers

Playing with toy blocks may lead to improved language development in middle- and low-income children, according to a new article.

Humans Perceive Others' Fear Faster Than Other Emotions

You may not be fully dressed without a smile, but a look of horror will make a faster first impression. Researchers have discovered that the brain becomes aware of fearful faces more quickly than those showing other emotions.

Brain Imaging Shows Similarities & Differences In Thoughts Of Chimps And Humans

Scientists used functional brain imaging to assess resting-state brain activity in chimpanzees as a potential window into their mental world and to compare chimpanzee brain activity to that of humans. Results suggest chimpanzees may engage in thought processes similar to those of humans at rest as well as thought processes that are quite different. The findings are significant because they show the uniqueness of humans as well as our similarity to our closest living primate relative.

Computerized Training Of Working Memory Is A Promising Therapeutic Strategy In ADHD

ADHD is an increasingly frequent complex mental disorder in children with partly devastating consequences for the child's further development and the families. There are promising new strategies of research to develop more appropriate treatments that specifically refer to the patient's basic neuropsychological dysfunctions and mechanisms. Working memory can be improved by training in children with ADHD and could be of clinical use for ameliorating the symptoms in ADHD.

Turn Off The TV During Family Meals

September and October mark the start of television's new fall season as the premieres of new shows and old favorites hit the airwaves. But, University of Minnesota researchers found that watching television while eating family meals may have a negative impact on children's diets. School of Public Health Project EAT researchers found that children in families who watched TV while eating meals together had a lower-quality diet than the children of families who ate together, but turned the TV off. Boys watching TV while eating family meals consumed fewer vegetables and grains, and more soft drinks, than those who did not watch TV; girls watching TV ate significantly fewer dark vegetables and more fried food.

Body-mind Meditation Boosts Performance, Reduces Stress

A team of researchers have developed an approach for neuroscientists to study how meditation might provide improvements in a person's attention and response to stress. The experimental group showed greater improvement than the control in an attention test designed to measure the subjects' abilities to resolve conflict among stimuli. Stress was induced by mental arithmetic.

Virtual Game Helps Children Escape Realities Of Burn Unit

Nurses and physicians are using the latest technology to help young burn victims endure the extreme pain of dressing changes and wound care. Instead of traditional distraction devices, such as books and music, Nationwide Children's Hospital Burn Center is now using virtual reality games to distract patients while nurses attend to the patients' burn wounds.

Obama on education - decent, not spectacular

yesterday I crossposted from dailykos a diary on did on the education plan of Bill Richardson, among other things. I had previously crossposted here the diary I did on the plan of John Edwards. To keep balance, I plan over the next few days to cross post the diaries I have done on three other candidates, beginning with this one on the plan of Barack Obama. The text is identical to what was previously posted on dailykos on September 24, the thread of which can be read here, thus some references will be a bit out of date. I will follow this with diaries on the plans of Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd as they appeared on their websites at the time I wrote them. I will also provide links to the original posting, so you can read the comments on the thread. And now for Obama

Yesterday I did a diary entitled A very good Education Plan from John Edwards. Plutonium Page challenged me to write not only about Edwards. Others posted links to the education plans of Obama and Richardson. This diary is a followup to Page and to Adam Bonin who provided a link to Obama�s plan. While I will go through Obama�s plan in detail, let me begin by summarizing. It is good, not as detailed as Edwards, lacks the kind of detail and thematic integration I found from Edwards, but is definitely superior to what we have seen from this administration. And there is one feature in his plan which is important, and which was not addressed by Edwards.

The opening paragraph of Obama�s education policy statement is strong:

Throughout America's history, education has been the vehicle for social and economic mobility, giving hope and opportunity to millions of young people. Our public schools have produced a competitive, productive workforce that has transformed the world economy. Today, our schools must prepare students not only to meet the demands of the global economy, but also help students take their place as committed and engaged citizens. It must ensure that all students have a quality education regardless of race, class, or background

The introduction goes on to make a strong commitment to public education, but then focuses on negative elements
- 6 million secondary students reading below grade level
- 1/3 of graduating students not going on immediately to post secondary education
- exceedingly high drop-out rate

Obama then commits to giving assistance to struggling districts and schools to help disadvantaged students.

But then comes a paragraph which troubles me:

Too often, our leaders present this issue as an either-or debate, divided between giving our schools more funding, or demanding more accountability. Obama believes that we have to do both, and has offered innovative ideas to break through the political stalemate in Washington.

I have to note that as a professional educator my hackles get raised when I hear politicians sign on to the rhetoric about �accountability.� It is not that as teachers we do not accept responsibility for what happens in our classrooms. But the specific term has been being used to beat up on public schools and teachers for the past several decades, and it may serve as a bit of a red flag.

There is some overlap in what I read in Obama�s plan from what I noted in Edwards, although I do not find the proposals as detailed. Nor do I find the use of key themes around which the other ideas are organized. Perhaps it is a stylistic difference, and perhaps I react as I do because as noted I find some of the rhetoric in the introduction troubling. I put this up front so that you can appropriately take it into account as I go through the specifics of Obama�s plan.

Obama recognizes that students from disadvantaged circumstances enter school as much as two years behind their peers in readiness. His answer is in my opinion not as fully developed as it could be:

Barack Obama supports increasing funding for the Head Start program to provide preschool children with critically important learning skills, and supports the necessary role of parental involvement in the success of Head Start.

I do not see here a commitment to universal pre-school for all disadvantaged children, nor do I even see a commitment to fully funding Head Start for all children eligible by family circumstances. A nominal increase in the current levels would fulfill this commitment, but not accomplish much. I know that a long-time friend who is one of the nation�s great experts on early childhood is a strong supporter of Obama, and from that external knowledge I would expect that Obama�s commitment is much greater than this one sentence would imply. But merely from reading the web page I would be troubled.

Obama does have a commitment to teachers. He proposes funding programs in 20 districts to �to develop innovative plans in consultation with their teacher unions.� These would address things like mentoring and other programs. There are good parts to these ideas - consultation with teachers unions is one example, although I would note that such an approach might not seem to fit in some of the more anti-union parts of our nation: remember, many teachers do not have the right to collective bargaining. There is something to be said for trying a number of approaches before propagating them, and as Obama notes

These innovation districts will implement systemic reforms, and show convincing results that can be replicated in other school districts.

In theory I agree, although given remarks Obama has made elsewhere I worry that the convincing results may be little more than improved test scores. Still, there is verbiage in the section on increasing teacher pay that at least implies that Obama is considering things beyond test scores. Note especially the following:

Obama believes the key is finding new ways to increase pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on them and not based on some arbitrary test score. Obama will start treating teachers like the professionals they are.

Obama deals with NCLB only in one paragraph, which reads as follows:

Reform and Fund No Child Left Behind: The goal of the No Child Left Behind Act is the right one - ensuring that all children can meet high standards - but the law has significant flaws that need to be addressed. Unfulfilled funding promises, inadequate implementation by the Department of Education, and shortcomings in the design of law itself have limited its effectiveness and undercut its support among many people who care deeply about our schools and our students. Barack Obama would reform and fund No Child Left Behind.

Even were the law fully funded it is in the opinion of many in education a fundamentally flawed approach. I am disappointed that I do not see that reflected in this paragraph, nor do I see what specific shortcomings Obama sees in the law. Merely saying it needs to be reformed without saying how is frustrating to those who want a sense of how Obama would want to approach the issue of accountability. In fairness, he sits on the Health, Education, Labor and Pension committee in the Senate that has responsibility for reauthorization, he and his senatorial staff are involved in trying to make meaningful changes to the law, but if I only look at his website I have no sense of what changes he is seeking to obtain.

Obama does return to the issue of accountability, so I suppose one can say that he is addressing perhaps the most critical issue of NCLB. Yet again, I see a lack of specifics:

Improve Testing and Accountability: Barack Obama believes that, before we can hold our teachers and schools accountable, we need to hold our government, parents, and our communities accountable for giving teachers the support that they need. Obama believes that we should work with teachers, states, and school districts to develop more reliable and more useful measures of student learning.

Let�s look at what is positive in the foregoing blockquote. Obama does set as a precondition for holding teacher accountable that they are given the proper support from the rest of the community, including the parents. That is something with which most teachers would find agreement. When coupled with a commitment to support teachers throughout their careers, such as providing a way to bring teachers into the profession through things like teaching residencies, it shows a real commitment to the teaching profession. Obama can rightly point at things he has gotten through the Senate that address some of these issues. And the idea of including teachers in the development of the measure we use to assess teacher learning is a good one, provided teachers are properly trained to the task. Here it might be useful had Obama pointed at successful examples around the country that demonstrate some of his proposal, and in this context the in-school assessment done by teachers in Nebraska could serve as one useful model. I do caution on the use of the term �reliable� as reliability in psychological measurement (of which educational measurement is a subset) means consistency. The real goal should be validity, for which reliability is a precondition. Let me explain: if I have a scale that consistently measures me as weighing 150 pounds, it is reliable, but wrong, as my current weight is about 190. Were I to draw a conclusion from stepping on that scale that I had lost a lot of weight, that conclusion would not be valid even thought the measurement upon which I base it is reliable - reliably wrong, consistently so. Perhaps a small point, but one of great importance when talking about educational measurement, particularly as we increase the stake placed upon the results of those measurements.

Obama, like many people, has accepted the idea that experiencing more rigorous courses in high school like AP courses is a desirable. We have seen an exponential expansion of AP courses, fueled in part by the Challenge Index as a measure of �good� high schools developed by Jay Mathews of the Washington Post. Back when AP was somewhat rarer, the correlation between having taking an AP exam and going on to and performing successfully in college was fairly clear, even though I have to caution people that correlation does not indicate causation. I think the jury is still out on whether the expansion in recent years is having the intended results, and I note the concern by the College Board that the quality of courses being offered as AP might not be up to the necessary quality, a concern that has led to an audit process before one can list on a transcript a course with the AP designation. Still, the approach is somewhat conventional wisdom at this point, and Obama has moved in the Senate (along with Republican Jim Demint of SC)

a bipartisan plan to allow students who do not have access to college-level courses at their high schools, to apply for need-based grants and seek credit at local colleges or community colleges.

If we are going to see an increase of AP, this plan does address the issue of equity for those students, and thus is something that does seem appropriate.

So far I have been somewhat critical of what I have discussed. The ideas seem good, albeit not as fully developed as I would like to see. But there is one part of Obama�s plan which is outstanding, and for which I would like to provide the appropriate context. One of the proposals that many have made as a part of the reauthorization process for NCLB is to move to measuring the growth of individual students, rather than comparing cohorts (this year�s 4th graders to last years) as a more accurate measure of what is occurring in the classroom. I have expressed concern on this approach, because there is a strong research base that says if you measure Spring to Spring it will show disadvantaged students as not learning as successfully - this is an artifact of your measuring non-school effects. Disadvantaged students lose learning during the summer, while often middle class and above students continue learning, through camps, enrichment, etc. To fairly measure growth would require measuring the knowledge of the students at the beginning as well as the end of the school year. But our current testing schemes under NCLB do not even fully fund that once a year testing.

Obama does not directly address this problem. He actually does something better. Rather than looking at the measurement problem, he attempts to address the underlying inequity. Let me quote the entire section that deals with this, including the quote he provides from someone else:

Expand Summer Learning Opportunities: Differences in learning opportunities during the summer contribute to the achievement gaps that separate struggling poor and minority students from their middle-class peers. Barack Obama's "STEP UP" plan addresses this achievement gap by supporting summer learning opportunities for disadvantaged children through partnerships between local schools and community organizations. One portion of this proposal was included in a comprehensive bill to improve U.S. competitiveness that passed the Senate in April 2007, with a provision for summer programs focused on increasing student math and problem-solving skills.

"Summer is an incredible opportunity to help children who are under-performing in school achieve grade-level proficiency, develop as young leaders, and enter school ready to excel in the fall. The support of Senators Obama and Mikulski demonstrates their commitment to children and education. The STEP UP Act is a tremendous opportunity to deepen and expand our impact on children's lives and help them achieve high academic standards."

- Earl Martin Phalen, CEO of BELL (Building Educational Leaders for Life)

So on balance, how would I assess Obama�s education proposal? There are a number of good points, with the one great point which addresses a key issue of equity. I wish that some of the ideas were more fleshed out. I know from his work in the Senate that Obama has a real commitment to public education, and this campaign material makes reference to some of it. Other than his proposal for expanding summer learning opportunities, I have some concern that he may be still too tied to the current paradigm of accountability, but I see a clear recognition that there needs to be significant change. He has a strong commitment to including teachers in perhaps redesigning how we measure student learning. He is willing to have teachers and their unions play an important role in federally funded model projects. He strongly supports the idea of teachers being paid and treated as professionals.

Overall I view it as a good start, needed more specifics, with the one outstanding proposal that recognizes a key reality that is too often ignored in our discussions about schools and education.

Richardson: education plan & conference call, but really not ready

NOTE: this piece was created for dailykos. It is crossposted here because a number of other members of this group blog were also invited to participate in the conference call. I do not have time to do a separate diary for this site, so this gives a sense of that call, and where Richardson is on educational policy.

On Thursday morning, I and a number of other educational bloggers received an email invitation to participate in a 45 minute conference call with Bill Richardson to be held after he gave a major speech on education in New Hampshire. We were not told that this was primarily for the press, which did not become obvious until after the call began. I mention this because it is to me symptomatic of a problem that I believe will become obvious. We were given a PDF of the final education plan, different than what appears on the webpage - I will describe the differences later. Today, two days later the webpage has still not been updated to reflect this version, also distributed to the press. Only after the conference call did I receive a copy of the text of the speech, which is annoying if one is attempting to participate in a discussion about what was said.

There are some good points in the plan. In my opinion it lacks some coherence. And I have to say that the Governor's performance during the press conference convinced me that he is not ready for national office.

If you want to know more, please keep reading.

Let me begin by reminding people that if you go to my user page and scroll down, you will find that I have in recent weeks done diaries on the education plans of Edwards, Obama, Clinton and Dodd. In each case I limited myself to what appeared on their webpages. I originally had little intention of spending time on Richardson. I did the top three, added Dodd because like Obama and Clinton he sits on the relevant Senate committee. In fairness to Richardson, he has been dealing with many of the issues in his role as Governor of New Mexico, even if he seems to have peaked and begun to fade in various polls in early states (of whatever value they may be).

I also need to disclose that of the Presidential candidates still in the race, he is one of two (the other being Biden, but in 1983) with whom I have ever had a direct conversation. In 2006 in Las Vegas, I asked him a question about education during his reception. He went on for about five minutes, and then said, "but I guess I didn't really answer your question, did I?" to which I responded that he hadn't. But then, he made no attempt to answer it and went on to the next question.

Thanks to Tracy Russo (then with the DNC, now with Edwards), I was an accredited blogger at the DNC winter meeting in DC, although I could only come to the Saturday morning session. I arrived early and was stopping by the various candidate tables. When I introduced myself, one of the Richardson's staffers actually stated that I was the one who had asked a question in Las Vegas which the governor had not answered! I also later chatted with Richardson when he did his walk through in blogger's alley, showing him a picture of the two of us in Las Vegas, whereupon his only remark was how much weight he had lost.

I also need to disclose that when this cycle began, I was inclined to be favorable towards Richardson. On paper he had the best overall background of anyone in the race, and his being Hispanic had the possibility of taking a number of mountain states away from the Republicans. I was aware of a number of possible problem areas, and I had talked with acquaintances who had worked under him at Energy who raised some real cautions, even to the point of red flags. I filed those in the back of my mind in case I encountered anything relevant.

Now, let's get to Education. Richardson has a plan up on is website which can be read here . I mentioned that the final" plan sent out with the invitation to the conference call has a few differences. I will include those as I go through the plan, but I have to focus on what is currently available to readers of this diary, which is not true of the PDF of the final plan.

Let me list the title of all points on the webpage:

Provide Universal Access to Quality Pre-K Programs

Scrap No Child Left Behind

Increase the Availability of Quality Teachers

Oppose Private School Tuition Vouchers, Increase Public School Choice

Create 250 Math, Science, and Innovation (MSI) Academies

Put the Arts and Music back into Education

Increase Graduation Rates

Take Action to Improve the Health of Our Children

Promote More Meaningful Parental Involvement

Create a Nation of Service

Eliminate the FAFSA and Expand Access to Student Aid

Increase Aid to Those Who Need It Most: Expand LEAP and GEAR UP

Beyond School: The Richardson Plan for Promoting Life-Long Learning and Adult Education

Transitional Jobs and Career Training (Perkins II)

You can read the details of all of these on the campaign webpage.

The additional points in the "final" plan PDF that do not appear on the webpage are in the blockquote below, and because they are not currently accessible online, I have include the description which accompanies each point. Please note, they are NOT consecutive as they appear in the PDF.

Redesign America's High Schools - Enhance rigor, relevance and relationships within our high schools by overhauling our high schools for the 21st century.

Stay Vigilant on School Safety - Require all P-20 schools to develop and test campus-wide safety protocols and policies to be used in emergencies.

Offer Incentives to keep Tuition Costs Down - Provide financial incentives for schools to keep their tuition costs under control.

Eliminate Subsidies to Private Banks and Lenders - Eliminate the enormous subsidies to banks and private lenders and redirect that money to students who need it.

Some of these points clearly overlap the ideas of the other candidates. It seems as if everyone recognizes the importance of increasing access to pre-school. Richardson is also more blunt on a few points than the other candidates. Thus on No Child Left Behind his plan says

It is imperative that the next President ensures that states receive appropriate funding and are no longer forced to accept one-size-fits-all programs. I will reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, but eliminate the punitive approach of No Child Left Behind and replace it with a fairer, more comprehensive, and more supportive system of measuring progress.

He phrases it slightly differently in the final plan:

Reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, but eliminate the punitive approach of No Child Left Behind and replace it with a fairer, more comprehensive, and more supportive system of measuring progress.

That sounds good, but what does it mean? In the speech he gave on Thursday, he addresses this somewhat differently:

I will convene a national summit on Educational Standards and Accountability. We need to develop national Gold Standards that the states can adopt.

We should move from a pass/fail model to a more comprehensive system of measurement. Narrow tests will only create narrow people.

In general, we need to end the policy of punishment that Bush gave us with No Child Left Behind. If a school fails, we shouldn't punish that school, we should help it.

I am focusing on the issue of NCLB and ESEA because reauthorization is before the Congress right now, with the House committee having issued their proposed version and accepted comments from the public. So let's parse this a bit.

Richardson's approach recognizes that we must continue the funding of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, that there must be some kind of reauthorization: Title I provides major support to schools in low income communities which we cannot simply abandon because the current punitive measures of AYP etc as part of NCLB are devastating. It is not clear how he expects to get reauthorization without some measure of accountability, given the number of Democrats (like George Miller) who have insisted upon it. He is correct that there are problems with some of the tests being used to measure AYP, but does not seem clear that the problem is less the tests than how the data is being used. His idea on national standards also seemed a problem, and was an issue on which he was questioned during the call. I took detailed notes, and since it was an on the record call, I reproduce the relevant portion here:

Greg Topol USA Today - talk about what you�d replace NCLB with -

- fundamental problem a one size fits all test. Hurt minorities, ELL, disabled students, not done anything to narrow achievement gap. Punished school with AYP. I would do the opposite.

Blue ribbon committee, including educators, to come up w/standards and accountability and testing that is representing the America people

Greg - asked if national std

Gov - it would be national standard, but arrived at in consultation w/ teachers, parents, feds, etc, not an imposed std.

Greg again - trying to clarifying, and gov does not seem to understand - he says he doesn�t want one size fits all, but still wants a national standard

Let me see if I can clarify the notes. Richardson's answer almost seems to imply he thinks that everyone is taking the same test. Of course, each state uses the test of its choice. Thus it may be one size fits all in the state, but not nationally. And yet his solution is to have national standards. When reporters tried to get an explanation of how having national standards won't still be one size fits all, his answer was somewhat vague. He was never clear on how national standards could be measured other than by one uniform national test. Given that some are advocating national tests, it was a legitimate question, one for which he should have been prepared, but to which he was unable to give an adequate answer.

I was the only blogger who got to ask a question. I asked about the school based assessment program in Nebraska, and how the assessment for accountability is done in the school by teachers. I did mention that there is review at the state level, with some outside auditing. He seemed totally unaware of what Nebraska is doing (even though it has gotten some national attention), and my notes and my memory is that his response was

he does NOT want to give that much control to teachers, he wants the input of experts

Unlike the press I was not given an opportunity to follow-up.

I found a lot of his remarks in the conference call repetitive, and not really on the point of the question. For example, note the following, again from my notes (which I did on the computer):

Emily Richmond -- one of complaints it has forced schools to drop programs for gifted, etc, what is your plan to address this

Gov - NCLB has hurt gifted students, it doesn�t include them. You have to find framework of accountability that rewards gifted students. Let�s sit in a room, get blue ribbon commission. Not one size fits all testing across the country

The mantra is "not one size fits all testing." But he is still committed to testing.

Richardson has made a big deal of establishing a federal minimum starting wage for teachers of $40,000. While this is significantly higher than pay in his state (and he has not as Governor implemented this, even though he has helped raise teacher pay so that NM has jumped from 48th to 28th in teacher compensation), it might create real inequities, given far higher cost of living in some districts, and there are even some districts whose starting paying is already more than that. He was asked about his approach to this minimum, and again I refer to my notes. The very first question was on this, and there was a later question as well, and the next two block quotes cover those questions.

Bill Petroksey DesMoines Register - what is magic about 40K?

pot of money to reach 40K level -- 3 tier licensure system, we�ve disrespected teachers, we underpay them most important element for teachers but have more accountability and licensure standards

LasVegas Review issue starting salary - would it include merit pay, how do you envision that

does not support merit pay. Does support loan forgiveness, bonuses for teachers who go into weaker schools. Issue not merit pay, rather pay teachers better

then what is the accountability you would roll in? -
well, there has to be some elements that include accountability standards, testing: do need to week out bad teachers. . .

The loan forgiveness is related to his idea of service, which would apply to teachers. For each year of service broadly defined he would forgive the loans taken out to pay for two years of public college tuition, up to a total of four years. This is a possibly interesting idea, and it is using access to education as a means of providing a commitment to service, and not just in schools.


Let me in fairness discuss a number of points in his approach that are worthwhile.

He commits strongly to arts education. The final plan PDF has $500 million for this purpose. Of course, as is typical, even his final plan does not seem to agree with the speech he gave, from which I quote the following:

I will provide 250 million dollars for the NEA's Arts in Education programs.

We will pay for musical instruments and music teachers in underserved communities throughout the country. And we will make art and music therapy available for children with emotional and developmental challenges.

I will fiercely support state and local efforts to stress arts education in their curricula. The federal government will offer extra matching funds to states that draw up their own, comprehensive art programs.

Now, I suppose he arrives at a total of half a billion by dedicating 250 million to things other than the NEA's Arts in Education programs, but it is a bit confusing. Why use a specific amount that contradicts your plan and not simply say, if it is the case, that an additional quarter billion will go to these other aspects of arts education? As someone trained as a musician and as a teacher who has seen the importance of arts and music to the education of many students, often being the reason they persist in school and don't drop out, I want to be able to support such a proposal, and hence am bothered by the seeming inconsistency.

He said in the conference call that he is fully funding HeadStart, and would fully fund all-day KG (although not require it) even though it is not in his plan. He said that he is prepared to increase the federal share of education through high school from the current level of 7% to 11 or 12%.

Richardson asserts that he pays for all of his educational programs. Let me quote from the final plan PDF:

The Richardson Education Plan will be paid for by savings that have been previously identified - and unspent - in Hard Choices: Bill Richardson's Plan for Iraq and Defense Modernization, as well as from eliminating federal college loan subsidies to private banks and lenders.

He also addressed this in his opening remarks in the conference call, where he said the total cost of his plan would be about 60 billion, of which 57 billion would come from eliminating outdated weapons systems and the rest from the "ripoff" on college loans.


There ARE some good ideas in the plan, and is notable that Richardson makes an attempt to explain how he will pay for it. I remind readers that Richardson has been consistent - if perhaps unrealistic - in saying that he would not raise taxes (not even rolling back the inappropriate Bush tax cuts for the wealthy) but would pay for his proposals - in education and other areas - by reprioritizing and reallocating.

In my intro I stated something that will not endear me to Richardson fans:

And I have to say that the Governor's performance during the press conference convinced me that he is not ready for national office.

Bill Richardson is fairly personable, and can dominate a room with his presence. We have already seen a number of statements during this campaign that have raised questions about his judgment. Most notably was his unthinking selection of Byron White as a model of a Supreme Court Justice should he be making SCOTUS nomination. His rationalization that White had been picked by Kennedy, a Democratic president, does not wash. That question is one for which a presidential candidate needs to be prepared. I well remember Bill Clinton's answer in 1992, which was Mario Cuomo. Especially given the polarization of the Court and the nominees Bush has made - remember Harriet Myer? - one would hope someone with aspirations to be president would not mention someone who opposed Roe v Wade and voted in the minority on Miranda. I think it is financially impossible to get this country on the right track without being willing to roll back at least some of the Bush tax cuts, but I acknowledge that as a difference of philosophy and policy, and in itself might not disqualify someone as presidential, EXCEPT that I think it demonstrates either an unwillingness or inability to understand the economic crisis facing this nation. I have seen a similar pattern with respect to nuclear energy, but I am not going to go off on that now.

All of that was background to what I experienced in the conference call. Here is a man who has made what his campaign has touted as a major policy speech. He has distributed a document with a final plan that almost 48 hours later is still not up on his website. That demonstrates to me a lack of organization in the campaign. Given a track record that many would argue includes fairly poor management of the Department of Energy, that raises the concerns of some of my acquaintances from background material to possible red flag. And remember, the Wen Ho Lee incident including the violation of Lee's rights occurred on his watch.

Further, there were aspects of his plan for which he HAD to expect he would be questioned, and for which he was either unprepared, or else he was simply unwilling to answer the questions as asked. I have quoted examples, on the 40,000, on why his approach to having national standards is not a ne size fits all approach of the kind he is decrying in the current incarnation of NCLB. Listening to some of the exchanges could not help but remind me of my exchange with him in Las Vegas, where he acknowledged not answering my question, but then made no further attempt to do so.

Bill Richardson has undoubted skills, which he has demonstrated over his public career. He has a real concern on some issues that matter to me, such as education. I have worried that at times he is prone to the simplistic answer without necessarily thinking through the implications. I have found him careless in some of his remarks, as the Byron White choice indicated. In this conference call I found him really not prepared to discuss in detail his own plan. That was my perception. And that lack of preparedness is shocking. Friends from Energy have told me that he was a disorganized manager. We cannot afford at this time a president - or as Vice President potential President - someone who is not ready for prime time.

I have come to the conclusion that Bill Richardson is not ready to be president.

You may disagree with my assessment. I have disclosed our encounters and our exchange on the conference call so that you can properly weigh what influence they have on my coming to that conclusion.

I do want to be clear - should Richardson be the Democratic nominee against any of the Republicans in the race, I would vote for him - after all, I have yet to see that any of them is ready to be president, and some of them downright scare me. But I will under no circumstances support him in his efforts to obtain that nomination, and I would oppose his being on the ticket as Vice President.

I think he would be well advised to withdraw from the presidential contest and go for the open Senate seat. Of course I do not expect him to listen to me, or to others who have made the same suggestion.

I pondered for more than a day whether I should write this. I decided that it would be intellectually dishonest of me to stay silent. The campaign invited me to that conference call, albeit with very little notice. The campaign probably expected that I would write something, albeit not like this. I could have simply focused on the plan, which would have been the equivalent of what I did with the other four candidates. But based on what I experienced in this process I felt I had to go further. I debated doing so in a separate diary, but then decided I wished to come to closure and move on.

This is my opinion, based on my experience and perception. Disagree if you feel you must. Ignore it. Troll rate my tip jar. It is not a conclusion I wanted to reach, but I have:

And I have to say that the Governor's performance during the press conference convinced me that he is not ready for national office.

Peace.

The Week in Ed Science Links (and More)

Slim pickings this week.

Separate Is Never Equal. How social segregation leads to economic inequality

The power of segregation may be even greater than commonly thought. The study shows that even when there is no history of discrimination between two groups, social segregation alone can cause dramatic economic inequities to develop. . . . The team found that even when the two groups start out equal, some slight discrepancy is bound to develop randomly over time. As soon as that happens, the same dynamics come into play and magnify the inequality, making one group wealthier and more highly skilled and the other group poorer and less skilled. This result should serve as a warning for societies with strong social divisions, Sethi says. Even when social groups are economically equal, continued segregation may result in inequality over time.

Why people cheat when they don't have to

Why . . . do people cheat in situations where there is little to gain - one good grade, a slight edge in a game - and so much to lose? This irrationality may be the rule, rather than the exception, when it comes to cheating, according to a group of scholars who have turned their attention to the mysteries of the cheating mind.

How bird brains are shaking up science

Scientists are now studying various birds to explore everything from spatial memory to the grammatical structure of human language. This research is helping to reveal the secrets of the human brain. But it is also overturning the conventional evolutionary story of intelligence, in which all paths lead to the creation of the human cortex. The tree of life, scientists are discovering, has numerous branches of brilliance.

Diet Education Had No Long Term Impact On Childhood Obesity

An education programme which successfully cut the level of obesity in children by teaching them about healthy eating and discouraging fizzy drinks was no longer effective three years after the intervention came to an end, according to a study. The authors say the original study provided hope that simple interventions could have an impact on obesity levels but they now believe these sorts of programmes need to be continuous if their long term effect is to be properly assessed.

Preventing Bullying At Schools With Computer Role Play Game

An interactive role play game which helps children to cope with bullying at schools has been developed. Currently over 1,000 children all over Europe are part of pilot studies which aim to explore the impact that the software may have in the possible reduction of bullying among pupils.

Early School Success Protects Against Teen And Young Adult Drug Use

Adolescents who do well in school are less likely to smoke, drink or do drugs. But which comes first: drug use or school failure? Patterns of educational success or failure are well established for most adolescents by the time they reach the end of eighth grade, while drug use has only begun to emerge by that time.

Starting University May Be Hazardous To Your Health, Study Suggests

Moving away from home and adapting to a new social environment are just two of the many challenges that new students face as they enter university. A new study has found that these challenges can actually have a negative effect on a student's health. Female students who lived away from home were three times more likely to report symptoms of binge eating compared to those students living with parents during their first year of university studies.

Negativity Is Contagious, Study Finds

Though we may not care to admit it, what other people think about something can affect what we think about it. This is how critics become influential and why our parents' opinions about our life choices continue to matter, long after we've moved out. But what kind of opinions have the most effect? A new study reveals that negative opinions cause the greatest attitude shifts, not just from good to bad, but also from bad to worse.

Teens Getting Taller And Heavier

Adolescents have grown taller and put on weight over the last 30 years, but the problem of underweight teens may be worse. An analysis of the height, weight and body-mass index of teenagers during 1966-1969 and 1995-1997 in Norway demonstrates a shift towards taller and heavier teenagers, but also hints that there are more underweight adolescents.

A poor excuse for a teacher

A polemic column by Hugo Schwyzer in today�s Inside Higher Ed bemoans �educrats� who demand that he do a better job of making sure that his students are actually learning what he is teaching. But no, Schwyzer will have none of it. Instead he�s going to fight the good fight and resist making real accommodations: �But I�m still going to teach � primarily through lecture in an ancient, top-down, one-sided way. I�m going to pour out my enthusiasm and my passion, laboring in a field filled with rocky soil and pockets of rich earth.� That latter metaphor, by the way, refers to his students. Some are just rocks who cannot absorb Schwyzer�s seeds of wisdom. The seeds just bounce off. Others times his wisdom, he tells us, �ends up in the thistles, but some of it ends up in nice, loamy earth.� And that, my friends, is what teaching is all about. At least for Schwyzer.

Now don�t get me wrong. I�m not against lecturing per se. Research has shown it to be useful in specific situations (not many, but there are some). And I certainly know that college students sometimes come to class in, shall we say, not quite the perfect condition to learn. And I too have had my share of edu-jargon that can make insomniacs go to sleep.

But Schwyzer�s tirade is demeaning and just plain arrogant. Let me put it as bluntly as possible at first: if your students aren�t learning, then you�re not teaching. You may be spouting, pontificating, lecturing, sowing, seeding, PowerPointing. But you�re not teaching.

Now let�s go step by step: First, faculty such as Schwyzer assume that knowledge is just transferred from their mouth to the student�s brain. Sorry. Doesn�t work that way. Read the research. Second, few faculty understand how to align objectives to assessments. Put otherwise, they just spray knowledge out there shotgun style and hope that something sticks. If they in fact actually tried an informal assessment, such as the 1-minute exit survey, they�d realize that little actual stuck. But then they�d have to go back and re-teach something. Third, the �gardener� metaphor presumes that students are just passive entities such as �rocks� or � loamy earth.� Please. If there is one thing that the field of social psychology has taught us, it is that context matters. Teaching is always a two-way dance that consists of literally thousands of minute actions and reactions in the course of a one-hour class. So if Schwyzer�s students don�t get it, don�t blame them or those pesky educrats. Blame him.

I�d suggest he go visit one of his colleagues in the education department and actually learn something.

[cross-posted at the Encyclopedia Britannica Blog]

Teaching Slavery

I've been discussing with my foundations class the past few weeks the indirect and direct ways in which racism is perpetuated in schools. Here is a surprisingly overt example. I wonder what these teachers were thinking (even if they were trying to make the opposite point) . . .

http://www.stereohyped.com/education/homework-explain-why-slavery-was-good-20071004/

New Blog Asks for Comments on Ravitch's Op-Ed

Check out the new blog started by the chair of the Dewey Society's Commission on Social Issues, Len Waks, who asks for comments on Diane Ravitch's NYT op ed today on NCLB.