Sketchy Grade for Cyber Schools – Wired

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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….

More money doesn’t always pay off….

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“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.

Madison Schools Budget Update

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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….

Wisconsin Backs out of Matrix Personal Data Mining Project

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Wisconsin Representative Terese Berceau emailed me last night that the Wisconsin Attorney General’s office decided to back out of this project.
Gina Barton writes:

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.