African-Americans make up a larger proportion of students than teachers. Many educators say that as a result African-Americans students suffer because they lack role models and white students suffer because they lack diversity. In a newly published paper (working paper version), Thomas Dee (Swarthmore College) supports some but not all of this story. Using data from Tennessee's Project Star, a very important experiment in which K-3 students were randomly assigned to small and regular sized classes, Dee finds that black students improve when they have black teachers. So far so good. Dee also finds, however, that white students improve when they have white teachers. Uh, oh. There goes the diversity is good for everyone story.Dee is quick to point out that we don't understand why students perform better with a teacher of their own race. If it is a role-model effect then why would white students perform poorly with black teachers - surely there are enough white role models to choose from that one more or less isn't going to have an effect on the self-esteem of white students. Another theory, with some support from other studies, is that teachers spend more time helping students of their own race. Note that if it is the latter then better teacher training, to overcome natural biases, could improve the effectiveness of both white and black teachers.
The cite for the paper is Dee, Thomas S. 2004. Teachers, Race, and Student Achievement in a Randomized Experiment. The Review of Economics and Statistics 86(1): 195-210.
 |  |  |
Duncan Walker of the BBC writes:
The prospect of a revolution in air travel has been raised by Nasa's successful test of a 5,000mph plane. But are we likely to see similar advances in other forms of transport?
I've update the links on my election page to the School Board Candidate's campaign Finance Disclosure Documents.
One week from today, Madison holds its spring election (school board, judges & county board). However and unfortunately, this race falls during spring break. If you are planning to be out of town, please obtain an absentee ballot from the City Clerk's office.
Some have asked why I spent the time (and money) to put together this web page, dedicated to the Madison School Board Race. I've summarized a few reasons here:
Jim Wasserman writes that the design of California's new quarter features former Wisconsin resident John Muir.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled the design of California's new quarter Monday, which shows conservationist John Muir, a California condor and Yosemite National Park's Half Dome mountain on the coin's tails side.More than 2 billion of the coins will be placed in national circulation in January 2005, said California State Librarian Kevin Starr.
Los Angeles graphic artist Garrett Burke, 42, designed the coin that Schwarzenegger selected from five finalists including images of sun and waves, a redwood tree, the Golden Gate Bridge and a gold panner.
"I'm thrilled with the outcome," said the self-described nature enthusiast, calling Yosemite Valley and John Muir the "real stars.
Dan Gillmor is right on the money with his criticism of Vermont's Patrick Leahy regarding his co-sponsorship of the "Pirate Act". One would think our politicians have more important things to do (education, health care, terrorism, the economy) than carrying water for the Hollywood cartel.
s stunning, and disheartening, to see U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who has been one of the champions of civil liberties on Capitol Hill, become a water-carrier for Hollywood and the music industry. But there's no other interpretation for his co-sponsorship of what's being called the PIRATE Act, a chillingly bad bill that would give the copyright cartel a gift for the ages.
The basics of this legislation are fairly simple: In a time when there are truly serious things on the minds of law enforcement, such as terrorism, Leahy and his colleague Orrin Hatch would send the FBI and Justice Department (Copyfight) after file-sharers. If this passes, look for a crackdown that makes today's music-industry lawsuit frenzy look tame. And look for the end of most experiments in new media, because file-sharing networks are the only financially feasible way to distribute content for people who aren't trying to corner a market.If I still lived in Vermont, I would call Leahy's office and ask anyone who'd listen how someone I've respected for years could do something so awful.
I've sent a note to Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl encouraging them to vote against this and any other similar nonsensical initiatives.
Michael Lewis pens a fascinating article on Billy Fitzgerald, the longtime baseball coach at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans. Fitgerald has coached many exemplary student/athletes. Recently, some of them got together to fund the school's gym renovation in his name.
Lewis's article explores the friction between a coach trying to get the most out of student/athlete's and parents who want to protect their children.
''The parents' willingness to intercede on the kids' behalf, to take the kids' side, to protect the kid, in a not healthy way -- there's much more of that each year,'' he said. ''It's true in sports, it's true in the classroom. And it's only going to get worse.'' - Scott McLeod, Newman's headmaster.
Since then McLeod had been like a man in an earthquake straddling a fissure. On one side he had this coach about whom former players cared intensely; on the other side he had these newly organized and outraged parents of current players. When I asked him why he didn't simply ignore the parents, he said, quickly, that he couldn't do that: the parents were his customers. (''They pay a hefty tuition,'' he said. ''They think that entitles them to a say.'') But when I asked him if he'd ever thought about firing Coach Fitz, he had to think hard about it. ''The parents want so much for their kids to have success as they define it,'' he said. ''They want them to get into the best schools and go on to the best jobs. And so if they see their kid fail -- if he's only on the J.V., or the coach is yelling at him -- somehow the school is responsible for that.'' And while he didn't see how he could ever ''fire a legend,'' he did see how he could change him. Several times in his tenure he had done something his predecessors had never done: summon Fitz to his office and insist that he ''modify'' his behavior. ''And to his credit,'' the headmaster said, ''he did that.''
When the Random Lake School District cut high school course offerings last fall to save money, teachers and parents stepped in to help fill the gaps.The district was faced with getting about $350,000 less in state aid, so it eliminated three high school teaching positions, one middle school teaching position and seven extracurricular activities, according to Joe Gassert, who’s been the district administrator for 10 years.
“The reduction in aid was a combination of declining enrollment and the smaller amount of money the state gave all school districts,” Gassert said.
Madison - The day he moved into his residence hall as a freshman, Christopher Loving heard the whispers of his hall-mates."There's a black guy on the floor. Somebody go talk to him."
Finally, three fellow University of Wisconsin-Madison students appeared.
After noting he was from Chicago, one asked Loving if he was from a rough neighborhood.
No, Loving said.
"My dad told me that all the black people in Chicago live in the projects. . . . Are you sure you didn't grow up in the Robert Taylor Homes?"
Nope.
"Well, does your dad play for the Chicago Bears or something?"
No, Loving said. He wasn't rich.
"Well, how do you go to school here then? I thought you had to be either really rich or really poor to go here if you're black."
Loving, now a junior and president of the campus Black Student Union, recalls the encounter with humor and sadness.
The 9/11 Commission Hearings are available right now for free at http://www.audible.com/911hearings. [...] You'll hear Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, former National Counterterrorism Coordinator Richard Clarke, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and others as they answer tough questions on blind spots in foreign intelligence that may have enabled the worst terrorist attack in American history.Download the Hearings now from our Web site, and feel free to share this e-mail with your friends. Let them know they can download the audio for free as well. From the Online Blog.
Julie Leung . This book is a fascinating look at the origins & cultural implications of the fast food business.
Fast Food Nation dates to 2001, but is well worth reading today.
Virginia Postrel writes that smart women who were shut out of the professions used to become teachers. That was bad for the women but good for their students. New York Times:
The best female students - those whose test scores put them in the top 10 percent of their high school classes - are much less likely to become teachers today."Whereas close to 20 percent of females in the top decile in 1964 chose teaching as a profession," making it their top choice, the economists write, "only 3.7 percent of top decile females were teaching in 1992," making teachers about as common as lawyers in this group.
So the chances of getting a really smart teacher have gone down substantially. In 1964, more than one out of five young female teachers came from the top 10 percent of their high school classes. By 2000, that number had dropped to just over one in 10.
Women who do become teachers, however, are better educated today than in earlier years so rather than a total dumbing down there has been a trend towards mediocrity.Merit pay would lead to better teachers but it is opposed by unions.
This is from the ever-wise Virginia Postrel, NYT password required. Here is a link to the original research. Caroline Hoxby argues that wage compression, often brought on by unionization, is responsible for three-quarters of the decline in the aptitude of female teachers.
Read the report directly (and avoid the spinning on both sides) here:
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission), an independent, bipartisan commission created by congressional legislation and the signature of President George W. Bush in late 2002, is chartered to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks. The Commission is also mandated to provide recommendations designed to guard against future attacks.Here's a few links from different points of view: Time Magazine | Wonkette's 9/11 Flow Chart | Talking Points | Instapundit
I've been reading Steve Coll's Ghost Wars, The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001.
Anyone interested in a deep look at how we arrived at the current situation in Central Asia should read this book. Coll follows our policies from supporting the Afghans & jihad fighters against the Soviets in the 1980's to our complete withdrawal (the source of our problems, I believe) after the Soviets left (leaving Afghanistan to the Pakistanis/Saudis and others) through the 1990's where a few tried to get those at the top engaged once again in the region as the Taliban rose to power (backed by Bin Laden and others) and finally, to 09/10/2001.
There's been no shortage of discussion recently on this topic, including the recent charges/counter charges around Richard Clarke. Clarke's White House role during the 1990's is discussed extensively in this book. I believe Coll's work provides a useful basis to get through the politics and discover that in reality, there was little leadership or will power to address these problems, until 9/11 (despite the Cole bombing, the African bombings and other telltale signs of what was to come).
The genesis of the problem is that we abandoned Afghanistan after the Soviets left (leaving it wide open for regional players), and did not re-engage in a serious way until post 9/11.
Fascinating read.
he Washington Post In Ghost Wars, The Washington Post's managing editor, Steve Coll, takes a long -- and long overdue -- look at the peaks and valleys of the CIA's presence in Afghanistan throughout the decades leading to Sept. 10, 2001. It is a well-written, authoritative, high-altitude drama with a cast of few heroes, many villains, bags of cash and a tragic ending -- one that may not have been inevitable. — James Bamford
The Cap Times spin's Wisconsin's recent decision to pull out of the MATRIX (Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange) data mining project (after the Doyle (a Democrat) Administration joined it February 11, 2004!) as an anti Bush Administration move:
Luckily, the records of Wisconsinites are going to be protected from the prying eyes of the Bush administration's security apparatus. States must agree to feed information into the Matrix database. This month, Wisconsin joined a growing number of other states in refusing to do so. According to a statement from Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager's office, "Because of the privacy concerns, we've suspended all involvement."The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Gina Barton provides a more balanced view of what actually ocurred: "Wisconsin law enforcement officials have changed their minds about becoming part of a computerized information-sharing network."
There are many reasons to be concerned about ongoing government programs that further intrude on our privacy. However, the Badger State joined the program, under Democratic Governor Doyle's watch, something not mentioned in the Cap Times editorial.
The best place to keep up to date on these issues (and send money) is the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
I sent an email to Dave Zweifel, Editor of the Cap Times today.
I must say that the Cap Times generally does a reasonably good job covering local news. However, the public's expectations are clearly changing. This free subscription offer is telling (96K PDF).
MATRIX Searches: [Google] [Teoma] [Yahoo] [alltheweb]
UPDATE: Tim Porter slices and dices newspaper's quality & circulation problems here.
Washington, DC has selected a non-profit organization to administer the first federally funded school voucher program in the nation, according to Justin Blum:
"The group selected, the Washington Scholarship Fund, will be administering the first federally funded voucher program in the country. The program received final approval from Congress in January after contentious debate.Meanwhile, the local morning paper suggested that Governor Doyle sign Senate Bill 253, which would let Wisconsin public universities run specialized schools for younger students. The article also references a recent statement by UW Chancellor John Wiley:The voucher program will allow at least 1,700 District children to attend private and religious schools this fall with grants of up to $7,500 per student.
At a news conference this morning, officials released new details of how the program will operate. Families first will apply to private schools and go through the schools' normal admissions procedures. Parents meeting the program's income guidelines then will apply for voucher funds, indicating their order of preference among the schools where their children have been accepted."
The measure could help address specific shortcomings in public schooling as well. For example, UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley this week cited "phenomenal shortages" in the country's supply of scientists and engineers. Charter schooling would let the UW System address the problem by getting in on the ground floor of public schooling, where educators could run a school geared to students with interest and aptitude in these areas. The students then get the preparation they need to pursue science and engineering degrees and careers.Wiley's comments follow a report from the American Electronics Association critical of American schools efforts teaching students science and math.
Michelle Delio writes that a new American Electronics Association report on outsourcing charges that the American school system fails to provide a strong science and math education to students.
"Despite our best efforts, our kids really have a hard time understanding why they might need advanced math or science in their adult lives", said New York middle-school teacher Keri Carnen.Noting that roughly 50 percent of all engineering, math and science degrees awarded by U.S. universities now go to foreign nationals, AeA researchers also called on the federal government to give green cards to all foreign nationals upon their graduation with master's and Ph.D. degrees, in an effort to keep these people -- and their skills -- in the United States.
Lee Sensenbrenner writes that Madison School Board President Bill Keys stated during a telephone interview Tuesday that golf and strings should be on the chopping block as the Board considers $9m reductions in the $310+ budget:
"Funding for the fourth-grade stringed music classes and varsity golf teams is being questioned by Madison School Board President Bill Keys as the school district struggles to find $10 million worth of cuts.Interestingly, Barb Schrank sent a one page Madison Schools Budget update where she writes:The district administration made its recommendations earlier this month for next year's budget, and the board is in the process of its own review.
Although administrators did not propose cutting the popular strings class, Keys said in a telephone interview Tuesday it's an option he'd like to consider.
"The strings class has always been brought up as a possibility, so I said let's bring it up again," Keys said."
"To date, the School Board has not received the budget for next year. How can the School Board make cut decisions without a reference budget?"[95K PDF] Great question.....
The Madison school district has, for a number of years, supported a Microsoft based monoculture of computing tools. This ill advised policy has placed far too much emphasis on one computing model (by the time today's elementary & middle school students enter the work force, the technology at hand will be quite different).
Today, Microsoft, a convicted monopolist was fined over $600m by the European Union. A number of other legal cases are underway, including this one in Minnesota.
Among the documents introduced in court this week was a letter from June 1990 in which Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, told Andrew S. Grove, the chief executive of Intel at the time, that any support given to the Go Corporation, a Silicon Valley software company, would be considered an aggressive move against Microsoft.Other evidence presented by the plaintiffs' lawyers at trial yesterday gave an account of how Microsoft violated a signed secrecy agreement with Go and showed that Microsoft possessed technical documents from Go that it should not have had access to.
Madison's financial support of this monoculture is absurd. We should take the cash we're sending to Microsoft and fund our PE program instead.... (Note that the argument that business uses Microsoft therefore we should feed our children the same dog food does not hold water. Increasingly, business is using open source tools such as linux, apache, php, mysql and other products)
John Schmid writes about Trafficcast's agreement to create a traffic monitoring system in Shanghai:
"This is a great example of a Wisconsin-developed technology and a Wisconsin-developed business that has found a significant market in China," Doyle said in an interview in Shanghai.Much of the hiring will take place in China. In Shanghai, there will be more than 100 employees eventually, adding to the 35 in the United States, Li said. Without giving the company's annual revenue, she predicts China will catch up to U.S. sales within two to three years.
The Republican National Committee released a new video today - mimicking some of those from www.moveon.org.
Samantha Ganey writes about child rearing strategies:
You'd better be a good parent. Because if you're not, your kids will resent you, get tattoos, pierce their upper lip frenulums, drop out of school and maybe even join the circus. And believe me, you'll be sorry, Mister.So how's that feel?
Optimism is everything
Amidst much discussion on outsourcing, Wisconsin native (and Netscape co-founder) Marc Andreessen writes about America's economic & cultural strengths:
more via John Robb....
- Higher education: -- we're the best in the world; students come from every other country on the planet to study in our colleges and universities.
- Entrepreneurialism throughout the system -- we continue to be the most entrepreneurial economy on the planet (more than China, more than India, certainly more than Japan, ... and way more than Europe).
- Risk-friendly culture (this is hugely important) - this is not true across all states - Wisconsin needs to encourage more risk taking - state subsidies are not the answer
- Culture that loves new things -- American obsession with the latest and greatest -- often made fun of but hugely valuable.
Maureen Wallenfang profiles wedding photojournalist/portrait photographer Lindsey Van Roy
 |  |  |
FLORENCE WILLIAMS writes about those who have learned to live on the cheap amongst some of the world's most expensive real estate. (I like the yurt....)
Former White House Security Czar Richard Clarke was evidently on 60 minutes Sunday recently talking about terrorism & politics (he also has a new book on the way...). Interestingly, Clarke was part of a federal government effort to cozy up to convicted monopolist microsoft regarding an initiative to "bifurcate" the internet..
I believe we must decide to bifurcate cyberspace into the current area of anonymity on one side and a secure zone for critical infrastructure on the other
Recall also that the Department of Homeland Security chose Microsoft as it's exclusive supplier of desktop and server software. (DHS chooses the least secure product...)
From John Robb...
Kathy Walsh Nufer writes about Hilbert High School's Grandparents Greeters Day:
Meet Rita Mathes and Jeanne Gast, who stationed themselves in the high school’s front hall on St. Patrick’s Day with a giant box of cookies.“Top of the mornin’ to you, help yourself,” Mathes wished students going her way.
“You, too, as soon as I can see,” responded a bleary-eyed boy as he shuffled in, fresh from the shower.
“They’re so polite,” said Gast, taking pride in their manners as if all the students were her own. This grandparent of 23 knows most kids in town. “We grew them up from pups, most of ’em,” she said.
Very nice high school web site, btw, including panoramic Quicktime VR Tours...
Gina Kolata writes about some different thinking with respect to opening arteries (using stents & bypass surgery) vis a vis heart attack risks:
But the new model of heart disease shows that the vast majority of heart attacks do not originate with obstructions that narrow arteries.Instead, recent and continuing studies show that a more powerful way to prevent heart attacks in patients at high risk is to adhere rigorously to what can seem like boring old advice — giving up smoking, for example, and taking drugs to get blood pressure under control, drive cholesterol levels down and prevent blood clotting.
Researchers estimate that just one of those tactics, lowering cholesterol to what guidelines suggest, can reduce the risk of heart attack by a third but is followed by only 20 percent of heart patients.
Judy Newman has a timely article on the state of Madison's biotech industry:
The biotech hub took a big hit last week with the news that PowderJect Vaccines in Middleton will close, wiping out the jobs of 88 employees, many of them highly educated, specialized scientists and technologists. And it's not the only local biotech that has pared its staff or even disappeared in recent years. <
There are several issues here:
Clayton Christensen, a Harvard professor who studies disruptive innovations recently discussed an idea to reduce health care costs for many typical patient requests:
"Christensen nailed it on the head when he said this is an industry in desperate need of disruption. In its current state, a gross amount of overhead costs prepare hospitals and doctors to treat the most complex illnesses known to mankind.In reality, most people need a quick look and a prescription. Christensen talked about a new business model coming out of Minnesota as the perfect disruptor for medicine.
Because Minnesota allows nurses to write prescriptions, the idea would be to create medical drop-in sites that treat 14 primary illnesses. Everything from strep throat to "burn your warts off."
The flat rate for a checkup and 'scrip is $29. If it takes more than 15 minutes, it's free.
This is what you and I want, right? No long wait on the phone. No huge bills for a simple checkup. Quick and easy, in and out.
This would provide an alternate product to consumers and make going to a big ol' HMO with a sore throat an unacceptable hassle for most consumers.
Christensen is suggesting this model to the Johns Hopkins hospitals in Maryland as a way for them to build their brand, embrace a disruptive force to come and give their patients what they want.
The Baltimore medical giant is reticent, he says, which is a typical response from an existing business reluctant to embrace disruption. "
Bruce Murphy writes that low income students struggle to fund a college education:
"Fifty years after the Supreme Court ruled that black Americans must receive an equal chance at a quality education, a college degree has become the ticket to the middle class. But it is a ticket that poor families - a high percentage of them minorities - often can't afford....Holmes works eight hours a week on campus and another 21 hours a week off campus at a local bank. She's had to scale back her class load to keep up. She also could take out more loans in order to cut back on work, but that would saddle her with as much as $20,000 in debt by graduation, with years of medical school education yet to finance."
Dan Shafer comments on the general substance free nature of TV News
Yep. "Real" news on TV died an agonizing death years ago when networks decided that next-day interviews with stars of network shows were news when they clearly weren't. I read two newspapers and several newsy Web sites a day and never watch TV news any more. I'm a tiny minority, but it works for me.Being an informed participant in the democratic process should be worth spending some time and brain cycles, not just sitting dumb and dumfounded in front of a boob toob passively absorbing the crap the networks hand out.
From Doc Searls....
Doc Searls provides some useful advice to anyone running web surveys....
Big company Web site user surveys invariably suck. They tend to be too long, to ask the wrong questions, and to be done by outside companies that don't have relationships with users. So I usually don't take them.
Bottom line: keep it simple and listen to your clients....
Barb Schrank passed along this news release regarding the 4th & 5th grade strings program vis a vis the current Madison Metropolitan School District $310+M budget discussions. [PDF version 83k]
Fundrace 2004 let's you search by address & zip code to view who in your nieghborhood has donated to national politicians.
via Dan Gillmor
Robots become reality? Actually, it's an upcoming fox film.... (from chris Gulker)
Lee Sensenbrenner writes about Wednesday's School Board Candidate Statements to the Madison Rotary Club:
Given six unfettered minutes to explain to the Madison Downtown Rotary why she is seeking re-election to the Madison School Board, Ruth Robarts said that with or without her, the school district has sharp divisions."I think it's wishful thinking that says removing me from the board will heal this divide, and we'll go forward in a unified way," she said during Wednesday's meeting. "I think now, in a very real way, our board needs a diversity of viewpoints. To grow confidence in the board, we need to have a full debate of issues and approaches."
The Cap Times Editorial Page comments on the role of the School Board vis a vis the Administration.
Wishoops.net has excellent coverage of this weekends WIAA boys basketball tournament (box scores and video clips).
Nice to see student radio back on the air.... [91.7FM Madison] [xml feed]
Beautifully done Quicktime VR and Video tour of the Bahamas (58MB)
Rather appropriate on a cool, snowy Madison day...
The Wisconsin State Journal's Editorial Page writes:
Instead of recognizing the Florence County cash squeeze for what it is - a symptom of a statewide school financing problem begging for legislative attention - lawmakers instead will:Roll over for whiners hollering "crisis!" Many large rural school districts are in trouble, squeezed by declining enrollment, inadequate tax base and high transportation costs. Florence County's substantial loss of state aid in recent years matches a corresponding decline in student enrollment. Lawmakers wrote this formula, which applies to all public schools, not just one in the hinterlands.
Reward bad management. The Florence County School Board recently bought out the contracts of three administrators for a whopping $439,000, plus extended health coverage for the former superintendent. With that kind of money at stake, school officials could have served taxpayers better by jetting in Donald Trump to bark out his catch phrase: "You're fired!"
It's certainly time to revisit how we fund public education. I sincerely hope that Governor Doyle thinks about this while winging his way to China (on a Tommy Thompson style trade mission) [WI Dept of Commerce 6 page PDF document on the trip fees & schedule]
The Chronicle features a sobering look at the soldiers who've made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq.
Related & useful reading: Retired Colonel David H. Hackworth writes a useful weekly column on military issues.
Cypress Semiconductor CEO TJ Rodgers is running for Dartmouth's Board of Trustees, with the stated goal that the college stop adding ethnic studies classes and refocus its resources on the fundamentals, such as civics, science and history.
Must we?
Don Walker writes:
Milwaukee Bucks owner Herb Kohl said Tuesday that it did not make sense to spend $50 million to $100 million to remodel the Bradley Center and said the community would have to discuss in the future the need for a new arena.The Democratic U.S. senator, noting that it had been a joy this season to own the team, said spending millions more to remodel the facility "would not extend its useful life."
Rather, he said, the Bradley Center board ought to consider more modest upgrades to the building that will generate new revenue for the Bucks.
The Minnesota Legislative References Library has a useful page on Minnesota Issues facing Financing Professional Sports Facilities.
[Google] [Yahoo Search] [Teoma] [All the web]
Evidently, former Governor Tommy Thompson's recently destroyed papers included those pertaining to the financing and construction of Miller Park.
Virtual Parks has a beautiful new Quicktime VR tour of California's Eastern Sierra, starting at Florence Lake (near Bishop, CA)
Interesting look at unconventional marketing (from book of joe)
The Comme des Garcons Guerilla Store flouts conventional wisdom in almost every way. Said Nancy Koehn, a professor at Harvard Business School, "Guerilla marketing is the wave of the future. Red Bull and Trader Joe's have built their followings by word of mouth."
from doc searls....
UPDATE: Lee Sensenbrenner writes about last night's "tense" board meeting.
Doug Erickson writes:
Carol Carstensen suggested Monday that the board seek an independent analysis of the school district's administrative costs as it mulls $10 million in proposed cuts (on a 300+m budget).Specifically, Carstensen said she's heard concern from the public about the cost of the district's administrators.
School Board President Bill Keys said he's not sure the board can cut much more from the administration.
"You still need to buy supplies and cut checks," Keys said. "There are things that have to be done."
Keys is correct that some of these things must be done. Perhaps there are better ways, including further automation, outsourcing to local businesses or simply eliminating some processes.
Christopher Hamady, technology coordinator for the Regina Coeli School, is looking for help with an interesting project:
Our Spanish teacher would like to find a school in a native Spanish-speaking country that would like to do web-based video correspondence with our students. The format would entail that each school would make QuickTime videos of their students asking simple questions about the culture of the other, and the other school would reply using the same medium. The videos would be uploaded to the Web so that each school could easily access them.Each group of students would have the opportunity to ask and answer questions in both English and Spanish, thus aiding development skills in speaking and translating of both languages. The participating school would have to have access to a web server to post their videos. The rest of the details could be discussed via email.
This is a great idea, and is quite doable with very inexpensive tools today.
Email reginacoeli_spanish@nwoca.org [from macintouch]
John Gartner writes in Wired that Cyber Schools are not measuring up...
Cyber schools -- where students complete all coursework online using home computers -- are a big hit with parents, who are signing up their children as quickly as the virtual doors open. However, test results for 2003 show students at many cyber schools are not measuring up to state standards or to their peers who attend brick-and-mortar schools.According to the non-profit Center for Education Reform, or CER, the number of online public schools has grown from 30 to 82 during the past two years, offering instruction in 19 states. That number could more than double in 2004, as school districts in Ohio have granted charters to 63 cyber schools, up from seven in 2003.
I don't know much about these initiatives, but one year's worth of data does not mean a whole lot....
While we in Madison argue over how to spend $300+m annually to educate our 25,000+ children, the Economist rightly points out that
"the world is becoming more unequal and justice demands a remedy. Right? Wrong on both counts" Poverty and inequality....
"Are we going to be replaced by a computer or what?" one veteran baseball scout told The Los Angeles Times last week.
Selena Roberts has a timely look at Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland A's. Beane has made the Oakland A's winners, despite a very low payroll and competitors with piles of cash (money is not the secret to success).
But what the swipes reveal is how threatening an alternate view is to baseball's theology.It's a threat to inept owners — and/or a certain baseball commissioner — who have used their small-market woes as habitual excuses for futility. It's a threat to Yankeesque teams who spend millions to assemble constellations only to be increasingly grounded by teams of cohesive humans. It's a threat to romanticized scouts whose legends are built on a 5 percent success rate.
"Everyone thought they had it figured out a long time ago," said Scott Hatteberg, the A's first baseman. "Now you have these young guys coming in to mess with it."
San Francisco's Commonwealth Club has an interesting interview with Beane and writer Michael Lewis regarding last year's excellent book, Moneyball.
Ruth Robarts emails her comments on the MMSD administration's proposed 3% budget reduction along with some alternative approaches.
 |  |
I've posted some photos from the division 4 (Prairie School vs. South Shore) and 2 (Luxemburg-Casco vs. Richland Center) WIAA Girls Basketball Tournament Finals.
Great fun!
Glenn Reynolds has a nice summary of today's Washington DC Silent March at the Spanish Embassy.
From Jeff Jarvis: a 4.2MB PDF of El Pais amazing coverage.
Lee Sensenbrenner has a summary of the nearly $10m in proposed cuts to next years $308m Madison schools budget:
The chops fall hardest on custodians, teachers and support staff. But they also take a significant toll on high school athletics, including big fee hikes, fewer teams and coaching positions as well as the elimination of all high school athletic directors.No upper level administrators would be affected by the proposed cuts.
Additional background here....
liu zen shares a stunning Quicktime VR Scene from China:
Situated in the northeast of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,
Guilin has always been famous for its scenery and culture.Guilin is a
karst basin surrounded by mountains. The Li River flows through Guilin
from north to south.
Liu's email: liuyz37@hotmail.com
Wisconsin Representative Terese Berceau emailed me last night that the Wisconsin Attorney General's office decided to back out of this project.
Citing both financial and privacy concerns, Wisconsin law enforcement officials have changed their minds about becoming part of a computerized information-sharing network.The network, funded by a $12 million federal grant, aims to create a clearinghouse of information authorities can use to track terrorists and criminal suspects. Advocates say it simply consolidates data already available to investigators, allowing them to access it more quickly. Detractors worry that it could be used to mine computer files for details about ordinary citizens.
The Madison Metropolitan School District announced their recommended budget cuts [265K PDF] today. (MMSD Budget site)
Barb Shrank passed along two budget documents from a March 1, 2004 presentation to the School Board.
Board of Education Agendas, Minutes & Schedule
There's been much discussion recently regarding laptops in schools, including a recent chat I had with Madison Superintendant Art Rainwater (MP3 3.7MB - video on the way)
From District Administration:
For those who envision laptop computers in the hands of every student, this may be the best of times and the worst of times. While classrooms using this approach are churning out success stories, growing state budget deficits are threatening future funding, leaving educators to wonder whether laptops for everyone is a great idea that they simply can't afford.A four-year, $37-million initiative to provide laptops to all seventh and eighth graders in Maine has transformed middle school classrooms there and generated positive reviews. At the same time, the state's budget crunch has left the program's longer-term future up in the air. In Michigan, a plan to equip the state's sixth graders with laptops recently lost more than half of its $39 million funding before it could get started, thanks to an almost $1 billion state budget shortfall.
Milwaukee goes after truant parents:
As part of an intensified effort to cope with the problem of truancy in Milwaukee, police will begin Monday to arrest parents of truant children. District Attorney E. Michael McCann called it "a new tactic" in the fight against truancy.
 |  |  |
Senators beat market by 12%
Corporate insiders beat the market by 5%
Typical US Household underperformed the market by 1.45%
"The results clearly support the notion that members of the Senate trade with a substantial informational advantage over ordinary investors," says the author of the report, Professor Alan Ziobrowski of the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.
From the Financial Times....
Ignacio Ferrando Margelm shares a stunning Quicktime VR scene from a recent ice climbing expedition (I don't know where this was shot)
He shared this note: "The wheather was fine to do this (max temperature -8:C) but not for my foot fingers.... I wait 2 hours in place and lost some sensibility..."
... that the average prices that senior citizens in Vermont must pay are 81% higher than the average prices that Canadian consumers must pay and 112% higher than the average prices that Mexican consumers must pay.From John Robb
Even as states retreat from participating in a controversial interstate antiterrorism database that holds billions of records of ordinary Americans' activities, Wisconsin has decided to join the program.
The head of Wisconsin's division of criminal investigation, James R. Warren, signed on to join the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, or Matrix, on Feb. 11, said Tom Berlinger, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which runs the program.
With access to the Matrix database, Wisconsin law enforcement officials can look up vast amounts of personal information culled from government and commercial databases. The information includes driver's license pictures, addresses, professional licenses, names of neighbors and relatives, and even domain-name registration filings and hunting licenses.
Officers also get access to information derived from Seisint's proprietary database, which includes voter rolls, property records, website registrations, civil and criminal court records, phone number directories and financial filings.
From Wired News.....
Learn more about Matrix: Google | Teoma | All the Web | Yahoo Search
Let Governor Doyle, your senators and representatives know how you feel about this initiative. You should also support the EFF.
"The shortfall is caused by costs - mostly tied to staff contracts - that have increased faster than state law allows school districts to tax, officials said. It's a phenomenon that's been repeated since 1994, and assistant superintendent Roger Price predicted that the district will face $6 million to $7 million shortfalls every year."
Great to see this article online; this morning's Wisconsin State Journal interview with School Board Candidates Shwaw Vang & Sam Johnson is not.... [Ed: it's 2004, is it not?]
This is a real opportunity for the board & community to start developing alternative sources of revenue - other than the property tax.
Learn more about the April 6, 2004 election & school board candidates here.
Vote!
Wisconsin Senate Bill 477 otherwise known as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, would cut the inflationary spending increase school districts are allowed under state-set revenue limits from $241 per pupil to $120 in the 2004-'05 school year and to $100 in subsequent years.
This article's premise that spending more money increases quality does not always hold. My brief interactions with candidates, the board and interested observers indicates that state & federal mandates (not always fully funded), services beyond the core educational programs, along with rising administrative costs are driving spending increases.
Wisconsin, like other states, needs to consider additional sources of education dollars. Residents are largely tired of ever growing property taxes. [Editor: how about auto license fees or sales tax changes]
Wisconsin Property Tax Information: Teoma All the Web Yahoo Search Google
I've added several items to my site for the April 6, 2004 Madison School Board Election:
This initiative was inspired by Dave Winer, Glenn Reynolds, Doc Searls, Jeff Jarvis, Dan Gillmor, Jay Rosen and many others....
School lunch has been a hot topic for many Madison parents. Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters has another approach....
Alice Waters is taking her message of eating healthfully, organically and locally to middle schoolers in their lunchrooms. If she builds a better sloppy Joe, will they eat it? By PEGGY ORENSTEIN
The Personal Video Recorder (PVR) Tivo has garnered many fans (though it's far from a runaway winner).
Some bloggers wonder why Tivo has not been a big hit. Doc Searls nails it...
Today's windy/cold weather makes French Polynesia very tempting.... (Quicktime VR Tours)
(From Quicktime News)
NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett, the world's second-richest person, wants to pay more taxes. And he wants the rest of corporate America to pay more too.
In his annual letter [196K PDF] to shareholders of his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (nyse: BRKa - news - people) holding company, released on Saturday, the 73-year-old Buffett said Berkshire's taxes rose more than eleven-fold to $3.3 billion from 1995 to 2003, as profits rose ten-fold to $8.15 billion.
During the same period, federal income taxes paid by all U.S. companies fell by 16 percent, to $132 billion.
"We hope our taxes continue to rise in the future -- it will mean we are prospering -- but we also hope that the rest of corporate America antes up along with us," said Buffett, who has previously criticized Bush administration tax policy.
Visit Berkshire Hathaway's site to view Buffett's annual letters, from 1977 to 2003.....
Affendy Awalludin shares a very nice Quicktime VR Hot bath in a natural pool scene from Perpignan in the South of France. (650KB)
Doc Searls has some useful commentary on a recent PBS Cringely column (The Curse of the Hundred Bagger) regarding the stagnant economy.
Searls references Peter Drucker's Post Capitalist Society with respect to the declining utility of large corporations (he's right on).
Moveon.org generated quite a bit of publicity with it's anti-Bush movies (CBS refused to run these during the SuperBowl!).
There are more here (from my friend Steve).
I'm amazed that the candidates continue to spend so much of their money on TV.....
President Bush has posted his TV ads here. John Kerry's videos.
Dave Farber's IP List has an interesting post on controlled economies:
Einar Stefferud writes:
"Reminds me of efforts to [support] Wisconsin.
I well remember how we had to buy margarine by mail order and hand mix
in the yellow coloring because it was against to law there to sell it
any other way.
And, the law required that all apple pie served in any state institution,
like the University of Wisconsin had to be served with a slice of Wisconsin
Cheese. Most of that cheese went into the garbage because most people did
not want cheese with their apple pie.
This kind of foolishness does not help an economy to grow jobs. It just
causes stagnation and waste and loss of incentives.
And higher taxes to pay for the waste.
Economies do not thrive under central control.
Economies and Internets do better without central control of details.
And, in the international situation, this is the beginning of a trade war,
ala the beginning to the 1930's depression, which lasted for approximately
10 years until WW-II finally bailed us out.
BTW, the trade wars were a major aspect of the causes of WW-II."
From Dave Winer:
A milestone case study from the Shorenstein Center PDF [324K] was released today. It tells the story of Trent Lott, his talk at Strom Thurmond's birthday party, and how the news flowed through professional channels, to the blogosphere, and back, ultimately resulting in Lott's resignation as majority leader of the US Senate.
Fascinating, and it's great that this report is publicly available.
Wisconsin State Journal Editorial page:
"Beginning in September, the gun industry can resume making, importing and selling military-style semiautomatic weapons that were outlawed a decade ago. And in a hard-to-understand flip-flop, U.S. Sen, Russ Feingold, D-Wis., stood apart from President Bush and a majority of Feingold's Senate colleagues of both parties by voting to dump the ban on these weapons."
I dislike any sort of political posturing via votes that our representatives make knowing a bill will die. Politics.....
Electronic logging & authentication in your car.
"What we're suggesting is the driver's license in the future will be a smartcard, and it's embedded with all the data required to operate the car more safely and efficiently," Toyota project manager Paul Beranger said.
If you are concerned about electronic rights (and you should be), support the EFF.
Architect Santiago Calatrava (Milwaukee's Art Museum) is set to make his mark on New York City's skyline with a new residential tower.
"Avi Rubin, a well regarded Johns Hopkins computer science professor and leading critic of e-voting, has written an account of his experience as an election judge on super tuesday.
Maryland was experimenting with e-Voting machines. Rubin puts it this way, 'this was one of the most incredible days in my life.' He wrote his experiences immediately after the day was over, capturing his perspective on the subject. A very interesting read."
From the Atlantic Monthly:
A new breed of American soldier—call him the soldier-diplomat—has come into being since the end of the Cold War. Meet the colonel who was our man in Mongolia, an officer who probably wielded more local influence than many Mongol rulers of yore.
Thanks to John Robb....
In order to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind, New York State
and Illinois have stopped dedicating funds to providing enriched programs
for gifted students, The New York Times reports.
"As long as students pass the exams, the federal law offers no rewards for
raising the scores of high achievers, or punishment if their progress lags."
We have special protection for the disabled, the various races, the two
genders (I think), ESL students--and we condemn the brightest to
intellectual starvation.
The consequences of abandoning a substantial percentage of the Republic's
brightest students--even if the great cities, by virtue of their size, and
the wealthiest suburbs, by spending their own money, are able to protect
their brightest--will be severe. "Justice cannot sleep forever."
Thanks to ALEX R. COHEN, J.D.
Avram Lank writes about health savings accounts (similar to IRA's), and the success a Wisconsin Bank has had promoting them.
Larry Lessig posts on a recent debate between California 12th District incumbent Democrat Tom Lantos and challenger Ro Khanna. The debate included a discussion of the No Child Left Behind Act (google) (teoma) (alltheweb) (yahoo).
And here's a link to one of my favorite exchanges. Ro criticizes Congressman Lantos for supporting the "No Child (except public school childred) Left Behind Act." Just "talking to teachers," he says, would have told you that Act wouldn't work. In classic DC style, Lantos' response: Ted Kennedy supported it, so it is "outrageous" for a "newcomer" to criticize what people who have "devoted their whole life to education" say. Ro is cut off in his reply: "I'm assuming that teachers who have devoted their whole life to education know more..."
From Glenn Reynolds:
"STEPHEN BAINBRIDGE has an article up arguing that Martha Stewart never should have been prosecuted.
Personally, I think they should be devoting their resources to investigating insider trading within the United States Senate."
