Tuesday, November 26, 2013

University of Washington in Seattle One Of Most Beautiful Colleges

for series http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/americas-most-beautiful-college-campuses/13

University of Washington: Seattle

The eye-catching Collegiate Gothic Suzzallo Library at UW’s Seattle campus has 35-foot-high stained-glass windows and elaborately gilded vaulted ceilings that soar 65 feet in the air. But come spring, the Quad’s 30 Yoshino cherry trees steal the spotlight with blooms of delicate pink petals set against red-brick buildings (peak cherry blossom season, mid-March to early April).
Photo-op: The Drumheller Fountain for spot-on views of snowcapped Mount Rainier.
To-Do List: Musical acts at the newly renovated Neptune Theatre, which debuted in the University District in 1921. —Ratha Tep

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

GCSE Pass Rates in Britain

GCSE Pass Rates in Britain

white kid's burden

pupils eligible for free school means gaining five gcse's grade A* TO c
including english and maths 2012 %
economist Nov 9, 2013
black african 58
bangladeshi 58
pakistani 48
black caribbean46
mixed white / black 44
indian 40
white british 30


CRIME AND INEQUALITY

 By Chris Grove



Table 6.3 Proportion of pupils gaining 5 or more GCSEs grade A5—C by ethnicity, 1988-2004
               1988  2004  Percentage change
Bangladeshi  13 48 269.2
Black            17  36 111.8
Pakistani      20 45 125.0
White           26 52 100.0
sources  Gillboum and Mires (2000); Department for Education and Skills  (2006b).


Wednesday, November 13, 2013

College Education For All Key To Inequality Gap?

    1. College Education For All Key To Inequality Gap?




      New York Times ‎- 13 hours ago
      An opinion gaining traction holds that educational disparity is not the main ... In a poll conducted last month by the College Board and National ...
      In a poll conducted last month by the College Board and National Journal, 46 percent of respondents — including more than half of 18- to 29-year-olds — said a college degree was not needed to be successful. Only 40 percent of Americans think college is a good investment, according to a 2011 poll by the Pew Research CenterOn a pure dollars-and-cents basis, the doubters are wrong. ..workers with a bachelor’s degree still earn almost twice as much as high school graduates. College might be more expensive than ever, but a degree is worth about $365,000 over a lifetime, after defraying all the direct and indirect costs of going to school. This is a higher payoff than in any other advanced nation

       a critique, mostly by thinkers on the left of the political spectrum, that challenges the idea that educational disparities are a main driver of economic inequality....“Wage inequality has grown a lot over the last 15 years and the educational wage premium has changed little.”
    1. Rethinking the Income Gap and a College Education – New York ...

      www.credit-card-bank.biz/rethinking-the-income-gap-and-a-college-edu...
      17 hours ago - Wealth, Health and Inequality – New York Times November 8, 2013 By UWE E. ... to an annual report released last week by the College Board.


    Sunday, November 10, 2013

    Macalester College Asian Music Ensemble

    Macalester College Asian Music Ensemble


    see http://www.macalester.edu/academics/music/ensembles/

    This seems like a new thing to look out for in your next college besides the traditional western classical symphony orchestra


    They have an African Music ensemble too.

    Asian Music Ens
    The Macalester Asian Music Ensemble performs traditional and modern music from East and Central Asia. Core instruments include a variety of plucked lutes and zithers, bowed fiddles, bamboo/reed flutes, hammered dulcimer, and percussion from Chinese music and traditions across the Silk Road.

    Registration

    Registration for ensembles is taken care of by the directors of the ensembles during the first week of classes. Be aware there is some lag time between when students turn in registration information to the director and when the class appears on records.

    Course Credits

    • 1 credit per semester, but only after two consecutive semesters of enrollment. 
    • Study abroad does not count as an interruption. 
    • Credits for ensembles do not count towards the College's 18-credit limit.
    • Ensemble credits count towards the Fine Arts requirement, but only if the student has registered for four consecutive semesters of the same ensemble. 

    Rehearsal Schedule

    Fridays 4:45 - 6:15 p.m.
    M116 (Crawford Hall)

    Performances

    There will be one major performance per semester.

    Saturday, November 9, 2013

    Norway Schools Cure Boy's ADHD

    Norway Schools Cure Boy's ADHD

    Minnesota parent claims their short stay in Norway cured ADHD symptoms because he was too busy learning Norwegian and having fun in more and longer recess times and not having to take standardized (actually standards based) tests


    1. What works for kids? In Norway, it's a less-stressful classroom ...

      www.startribune.com › Opinion › Commentaries
      Nov 07, 2013 · This past July, our family moved to Oslo for six months. We left behindour 9-year-old son’s ADHD medication, which he started taking last year. The ...

    Friday, November 8, 2013

    Teaching to Urban / Minority Students Differently

    Teaching to Urban / Minority Students Differently

    source: http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/urban/who.html

    some  interesting bits:

    Uekawa et al (2007) found that Asians are the only major ethnic group that prefers individual work over group work due to the cultural value associated with bringing honor to the family through individual achievement. 

    They also concluded that group work benefited learning for Latino students, more so than other groups. Black students have been found to learn best with activities involve a high level of movement and verbal sharing in a communal setting (Parsons, 2008), which is commonly misinterpreted by white teachers as misbehavior and signs of defiance (Downey and Pribesh, 2004). Accordingly, urban college faculty should:

    The poor performance of urban public school students is attributed to issues of race and income within urban centers. Griggs et al. (2006) document that Hispanic and Black students continue to score lower than white and Asian students on standardized science test scores in their senior year of high-school. In addition, statistics from New York State indicate that pre-college urban classrooms are less likely to be led by highly qualified teachers than those in rural settings (Brackett et al., 2008). Although the situation has been improving since 2001's No Child Left Behind Act, schools with the greatest percentage of poor and non-white students still employ the least qualified teachers (Boyd et al., 2007). Thus bright students with high potential may be arriving in college classrooms with deficits from their pre-college education.


    Teaching to Diversity
    In their survey of teacher beliefs regarding minority students and students from low-income families, Bryan and Atwater (2002) noted common misconceptions and related classroom responses that could adversely affect learning outcomes in diverse classrooms. Two of the most common and problematic beliefs held by teachers of diverse students, as compiled by Bryan and Atwater (2002), are discussed below.


    Misconception 1: "Students from culturally diverse backgrounds are less capable than other students"
    Instructors who hold this belief, whether overtly or tacitly, tend to define less ambitious learning goals, provide students with less autonomy, allow less interaction between students, and tend to rely more heavily on passive teaching methods. In direct contrast, researchers have found that minority students respond most favorably to inquiry in which they have some degree of control, and resist lessons that they perceive as being imposed upon them (Moll et al., 1992).
    • Real-world problems with no clear answer, and with implications for the well-being of the community, are ideal for engaging a diverse class of urban students (Bouillion and Gomez, 2001; Basu and Calabrese Barton, 2007; Buxton et al., 2008).
    Misconception 2: "Teachers should treat all students the same, regardless of their class, gender, or race"

    This attitude, which is referred to as "dysonscious racism," is most commonly held by white teachers (Bryan and Atwater, 2002) who hold 85% of college faculty positions in the U.S. (NCES, 2006), as well as faculty who teach in predominantly white colleges (Marbach-Ad et al., 2008). This belief leads to teaching methods that do not take into account the lack of commonality in educational and cultural background in an urban classroom. For example, students whose secondary schooling was done outside of the United States may not understand references to specific events in U.S. history, or analogies that refer to American popular culture (e.g., television, food products)

    Thursday, November 7, 2013

    Rich Chinese Students Quit HS and Blow $16,000 On Test Prep For US College Prep

    Rich Chinese Student Quit HS and Blows $16,000 On Test Prep For US College Prep

    China is #1 source of foreign students, twice as many as #2 India

    1. Chinese students flock to U.S. exams to chase college dreams ...

      www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-us-china-education-20131107,0,229865...

      16 hours ago - HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese students form the largest ... for tests required by U.S. universities, including the SAT and the TOEFL ... in high school, where teachers put too much pressure on us," Li said. ... said lawyer Li Xuezong, who accompanied his son to Hong Kong. ... Chicago's oldest zoo animals  ...

      To pursue his dream of going to a U.S. university, Li Shiyuan, 17, quit high school in May.

      He began in Beijing, by attending three courses to train for tests required by U.S. universities, including the SAT and the TOEFL English-language test.

      This month, he sat the SAT exam for the second time in an effort to better his previous score and he plans to return to the Hong Kong test center in December.

      "It's much better than in high school, where teachers put too much pressure on us," Li said.

      His training for the exams has cost 100,000 yuan ($16,400), almost five times the annual disposable income of the average Chinese city-dweller.

      "As long as the family can afford it, I would like my child to go abroad for university to learn some real stuff," said lawyer Li Xuezong, who accompanied his son to Hong Kong.

      Nearly 200,000 Chinese students were at U.S. universities in the 2011/12 academic year, almost double the number from India, the second-largest group

      he 2011/12 academic year saw a surge of nearly a third in undergraduates from China, to about 75,000,

      Families typically save at least 1 million yuan ($164,000) for four years of college in America, but about 12 percent of China's 1.35 billion people still live on less than $1.25 a day.

      Zong said as many as 450,000 Chinese would go overseas for education this year, with the U.S. the most popular destination.

    NAEP Progress National and DC

    NAEP Progress National and DC


    results released Thursday from the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress,



    The Data Explorer for Main NAEP provides national and state results in 10 subject areas, including mathematics, reading, writing, and science. Results have been produced for the nation and participating states and other jurisdictions since 1990, and for selected urban districts (on a trial basis) since 2002.
    Subject, Grade:Mathematics, Grade 12    
    Jurisdictions: National, National public
    Measure: Composite scale
    Variable: Race/ethnicity used to report trends, school-reported
    Years: 2009, 2005

               2005 2009 
    white      157  161
    black      127  131
    hispanic   133  138
    asian      163  175
    amIndian   134  144
    TwoMore    142  158


    Rank
               2005 2009 
    asian      163  175
    white      157  161
    TwoMore    142  158
    amIndian   134  144
    hispanic   133  138
    black      127  131




    Subject, Grade:Mathematics, Grade 12  
    Jurisdictions: National, National public
    Measure: Composite scale
    Variable: Race/ethnicity used to report trends, school-reported
    Years: 2009, 2005

    Select Report:


    Export Reports
    Average scale scores for mathematics, grade 12 by race/ethnicity used to report trends, school-reported [SDRACE], year and jurisdiction: 2009 and 2005
    YearJurisdictionWhiteBlackHispanicAsian/Pacific IslanderAmerican Indian/Alaska NativeTwo or more races
    Average scale scoreStandard ErrorAverage scale scoreStandard ErrorAverage scale scoreStandard ErrorAverage scale scoreStandard ErrorAverage scale scoreStandard ErrorAverage scale scoreStandard Error
    † Not applicable.
    ‡ Reporting standards not met.
    NOTE: Black includes African American, Hispanic includes Latino, and Pacific Islander includes Native Hawaiian. Race categories exclude Hispanic origin. Prior to 2011, students in the "two or more races" category were categorized as "unclassified." The NAEP Mathematics scale ranges from 0 to 300. Some apparent differences between estimates may not be statistically significant.
    SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2005 and 2009 Mathematics Assessments.
    2009National161(0.6)131(0.8)138(0.8)175(2.7)144(2.8)158(3.0)
    National public160(0.6)131(0.8)137(0.8)175(2.9)145(2.9)151(3.0)
    2005National157(0.6)127(1.1)133(1.3)163(2.0)134(4.1)142(3.6)
    National public156(0.6)126(1.1)132(1.3)161(2.0)134(4.0)(†)

     

             Nat   DC   DOD
    White    250   276  250          
    black    224   221  233 
    hispanic 231   228  240 
    asian    258   NA   245
    natam    227   NA   NA 
    two      245   NA   249
    DC is much lower than average,  but black score is only 3 below natl black average
    DOD minority kids score MUCH higher than national averages
    Asians highest of all groups +8 points over white national

    Average scale scores for mathematics, grade 4 by race/ethnicity used to report trends, school-reported [SDRACE], year and jurisdiction: 2013
    YearJurisdictionWhiteBlackHispanicAsian/Pacific IslanderAmerican Indian/Alaska NativeTwo or more races
    Average scale scoreStandard ErrorAverage scale scoreStandard ErrorAverage scale scoreStandard ErrorAverage scale scoreStandard ErrorAverage scale scoreStandard ErrorAverage scale scoreStandard Error
    † Not applicable.
    ‡ Reporting standards not met.
    NOTE: Black includes African American, Hispanic includes Latino, and Pacific Islander includes Native Hawaiian. Race categories exclude Hispanic origin. Prior to 2011, students in the "two or more races" category were categorized as "unclassified." The NAEP Mathematics scale ranges from 0 to 500. Some apparent differences between estimates may not be statistically significant.
    SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2013 Mathematics Assessment.

    Science:

    2009  
    National  
    164 asian
    159 white
    151 twoplus
    144 amindian
    134 hispanic
    125 black


    Subject, Grade:Science, Grade 12  
    Jurisdictions: National, National public
    Measure: Overall science scale
    Variable: Race/ethnicity used to report trends, school-reported
    Year: 2009

    Select Report:


    Export Reports
    Average scale scores for science, grade 12 by race/ethnicity used to report trends, school-reported [SDRACE], year and jurisdiction: 2009
    YearJurisdictionWhiteBlackHispanicAsian/Pacific IslanderAmerican Indian/Alaska NativeTwo or more races
    Average scale scoreStandard ErrorAverage scale scoreStandard ErrorAverage scale scoreStandard ErrorAverage scale scoreStandard ErrorAverage scale scoreStandard ErrorAverage scale scoreStandard Error
    NOTE: Black includes African American, Hispanic includes Latino, and Pacific Islander includes Native Hawaiian. Race categories exclude Hispanic origin. Prior to 2011, students in the "two or more races" category were categorized as "unclassified." The NAEP Science scale ranges from 0 to 300. Some apparent differences between estimates may not be statistically significant.
    SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2009 Science Assessment.


    2013National250(0.2)224(0.3)231(0.4)258(0.8)227(1.1)245(0.7)
    National public250(0.2)224(0.3)230(0.4)258(0.8)228(1.1)244(0.6)
    National private251(1.0)221(2.0)238(2.7)251(3.2)(†)248(5.9)
    Large city254(0.9)223(0.6)229(0.8)256(2.2)230(3.0)245(1.7)
    District of Columbia276(2.1)221(0.8)228(1.8)(†)(†)(†)
    Massachusetts260(1.0)230(2.6)234(2.0)266(2.4)(†)255(3.1)
    DoDEA250(0.6)233(1.3)240(1.1)245(1.5)(†)249(1.5)

    Not mentioned in article: 

    District of Columbia Public Schools - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_Public_Schools

    The ethnic breakdown of students enrolled in 2012 was 72% Black, 14% Hispanic (of any race), 10% non-Hispanic White, and 4% of Asian and other races

    D.C. students post significant gains on national test

    D.C. students post significant gains on national test
    City leaders hail the results as evidence that gains in District schools are result of recent reforms.

    From 5 to 28% proficient or advanced 

    Still, only 17 percent of D.C. eighth-graders scored well enough in reading to be considered proficient or above, compared to 36 percent nationwide. [about half]


    But the city’s achievement gaps between white students and their black and Hispanic counterparts consistently have been the largest in the nation. The 2013 results show that those gaps narrowed slightly in some subjects and grade levels, but widened or remained the same in others.

    U.S. students show incremental progress on national test

    U.S. students show incremental progress on national test
    Education secretary calls National Assessment of Educational Progress results a ‘modest’ improvement.

     little progress has been made in narrowing the achievement gap between white students and their black and Latino counterparts, despite nearly a decade of federal law designed to close that margin. Florida was the only state to narrow the gap in scores between black and white students in both grades and both subjects.

    the District of Columbia was one of just one of a few jurisdictions — joining Tennessee and Defense Department schools — to post significant increases in both grades and across both math and reading. D.C.’s NAEP scores,which showed the biggest improvements in the nation in three of four categories, remained below the U.S. average for states. It is difficult to compare D.C. with other states because it is entirely urban. [uhh, it's 72% black, see above]

    comment: Viewed less charitably, this changing focus in our nation's schools that is occurring as a result of the NCLB/RTT sanctions/rewards is actually just another kind of cheating. Less morally reprehensible than a teacher or principal erasing incorrect answers on an answer sheet, but just as -- perhaps more -- damaging to the students in the long run.



    NAEP Progress National and DC CampusQuest 11/7/2013