61 Thoughts to “There is no news….Open Thread”
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Blogroll
- 9500Liberty
- Bacons' Rebellion Blogspot
- Bearing Drift
- Blue Virginia
- Citizen Tom
- Counts of Monte Cristo. The
- Derecho, The
- Dixie Pig, The
- My Side of the Fence
- My Star Journey
- NARAL Pro-Choice VA Blog
- New Dominion Project
- Nova Common Sense
- NovaTownHall Blog
- One Libertarians's Point of View by Al Alborn
- Pete Candland's Blog
- Potomac Local
- Prince William Muckraker
- PW Conservation Alliance
- PWC Moms
- PWCPolitics.com
- PWCPolitics.com
- Red NoVA
- Shad Plank, The
- She the People
- State of NoVA, the
- The Jeffersoniad
- Townhall
- VEA Daily Reports
- VivianPaige
- WDGolden.com
- You, Me and the Lamp Post
That is sort of a lie. Truth, I am feeling too lazy to do a post for a new thread. So….it is up to our contributors.
I will start things off, the Semi final state football championship has been rescheduled again. It will be played tomorrow night at 7 PM at Libety High School near Bealeton. How come Fauquier County has the bucks to put in astroturf and Prince William doesn’t?
I suggest checking out the new grocery store Aldi on Portsmouth Dr. I was amazed at the prices. You do need to make sure you take a quarter with you to insert in the slot to free up a cart. Then when your done shopping you lock your cart up and your quarter is returned to you. I wonder how many of these shopping carts we’ll see in WestGate. Where’s RedDawn? She loves shopping carts. 😉
OMG!! The Skins are acutually winning.
Too bad it isn’t five bucks.
Redskins lose…again.
@Emma
WOOHOO!!!
If you have never been to Merrimac Farm, I suggest you consider a “road trip”. It’s a Virginia Wildlife Management area. I was out there today taking a few pictures in the snow. It’s just a beautiful place. If you need directions or want more information, go to http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wmas/detail.asp?pid=37
Merrimac is quite gorgeous! Tucked away and quiet…
The field at Liberty was completely donated. I believe it was an alumnus and that he also donated the snack bar and restroom building. If anyone is interested in donating all or part of the million bucks to put one in at Osbourn, I would love to hear from you.
For those interested in Tea Party protests against the results of electoral contests or football contests, the Washington Redskins will be holding a Tea Party protest of the entire 2009 season, at which they will denounce the Cowboys, Saints, Giants, and Eagles as a socialists.
The team’s management realizes it’s a lot to ask the NFL commissioner to nullify an entire season and cancel the Super Bowl and all that, but when he sees that hundreds if not thousands of Redskins fans are pissed off about the results of this year’s season, it’s possible he’ll change his mind.
I know what you’re thinking. What kind of a loser would show up for this event? We got it covered! If no one shows up, the Redskins will be using footage from the last time the Redskins made the NFC Championship game. Hopefully that pesky Jon Stewart won’t notice it was shot more than a decade ago. You can bet Fox News viewers won’t be smart enough to notice. That God for Fox News viewers. They can make any loser’s whining, freaking, crying, or moaning into a white power movement.
I also have some words for reality-based football fans and non-sore-losers of the world: tip your hats to the Redskins for making the Saints wet their tights and just live to fight another day. The young Redskins receiving corp is learning to play together and feeding off each other’s hunger to succeed. This season is a bust anyway so the Saints’ fluke victory only means the Redskins will get a higher draft pick. Here’s the question: do you draft offensive line, running back, or quarterback?
Either way, I’d say give Jason Campbell another season. Not so sure about Zorn though.
Tim Demeria , thanks for the information. If I get email stating interest, I will forward you the information.
Apparenty the location/time change/ etc is as hotly contested as the game itself between Lake Braddock and Battlefield.
Good honest story on importing poverty into America – http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/06/AR2009120602775.html
An Open Letter To President Obama
Mr. President,
I am very disappointed with the way you are governing, and failing to lead this country in any direction that helps working Americans.
We have millions of illegal immigrants taking jobs that Americans can work. You sit and watch, and tacitly encourage these people to stay here rather than to go back to their home countries. You watch while American businesses import poverty into America by hiring illegal immigrants, whose health care expenses are paid for by working-class Americans even while we go into debt paying for our own health care.
Nearly every goal you have could be furthered if we encouraged illegal immigrants to self-deport. We would have more money to spend on education, on health care and on hospitals and doctors. Unemployment would go down, way down, and our children could get summer jobs once again. Wages would go up, and particularly for lower-class Americans. It would look like a better America to most of us, though not so much for business owners whose money talks louder than my vote ever can or will. If American wages go up, big business becomes unhappy. Lord knows you don’t want them unhappy. Not long ago you insisted that we borrow money, mostly from working-class people, against our future to throw at big business, just to keep them happy.
But even if you hear me and understand me, you won’t move in this direction, because it would hurt your chances for reelection. Your party is fighting hard to present the best face forward to Latino voters, as they are a big part of your plan fof reelection.
You stand for nothing real, you attempt nothing real, you do nothing real. Your ostensible goals are disconnected from your actions or the likely consequences of them. In the fractured mess of modern-day America, it’s the smart political position.
Perhaps your training as a “community activist” has shaped your worldview to the point that you don’t understand what working people really want or need. Most of your proposed schemes are going to keep American turning into a society of haves, heavily taxed, and have-nots who mostly fill out tax forms because they end up getting money BACK from the government rather than putting a penny in.
I suppose that between your worldview, and the pressure from political and business leaders, it makes sense to you to import millions of uneducated poor, to reduce the educational level in America, and to increase the labor pool to the point of 10% unemployment. Perhaps you see our government as a massive opportunity for charitable works. Perhaps you think that’s what Americans have fought and died for over time.
And of course, as we continue to pay people more depending on how many children they have, and to pay them more depending on how little money they have, and providing subsidy for irresponsible behavior, like any other government subsidy we will get more of what we’re paying for. Poverty and irresponsibility.
I for one am very disappointed. You don’t really seem to care. You seem to think that you can tax me a little bit more, watch me slip into debt a little bit more, and your job will be done. You’ll be remembered as the all-time great “community activist”, playing your fiddle like Nero while our society fractures further towards permanent overclass and underclass.
Rick Bentley
Well, then bring Bush back. He seemed to be all over all those problems. NOT
Bush would get a different letter. However, Obama has been President for 11 months now, and it’s time he be held responsible if not for the whole recession, at least for his stated policies. Such as they are.
Choosing between Bush and Obama is like choosing between a violent gang rape or choosing between a drugged date rape.
I refuse to participate in my own continued rape by these two political parties, neither of whom cares about my interests.
According to the 1910 census, the Town of Manassas had 1217 residents and
the number stayed under 2,000 until the 1960 count recorded 3,555. Fifty
years to triple, but 1960 to 2010 growth is predicted to show a population
that has grown more than ten times larger – to at least 38,000.
(1910 -1217, 1930-1215 —- twenty years and we lost two folks!)
U.S. Census Bureau is hiring to fill 7000 temp positions in our area for 2010 census taker jobs http://2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs3
Sorry, correct link:
http://2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs/
That’s interesting Richard. I’m wondering if Manassas was mostly Caucasian prior to 1960 and what spurred the population boom. Did it have anything to do with the Civil Rights Era? Just wondering not even guessing.
I’ve had an interesting couple weeks with our county government. My son recently enrolled in a PWC public school. I’ve been amazed hearing how much of his school day is spent on computers. To be up front, I’m not very much in favor of it, and see the computers in the classroom as more of an expensive toy that distracts from real school work, but I started poking around.
I started with my local school board rep. I asked how and why we got to this point. He told me I was the first to question the computer obsession, most parents want more technology in schools, and the implementation of technology has been based on research.
So, I asked to see the research. Over the course of the next couple weeks, in a conversation that included our associate superintendent for technology (didn’t even know we had one before) I’ve heard there is research, then that isn’t any, then that there is but I can’t see it.
Concurrently with all this, I found average SAT scores for the county from 1973 on, from a group that seems to understand all the changes in test formats, how to counter “recentered” scoring, etc. The amazing thing is the consistency of these scores. We’ve held a constant but slight downward trend over 35 years, losing a combined 22 points on our averages (for the original two sections of the test, as the essay section was only added recently).
Since 1973… a time before smartboards, when the only wires in a classroom were connected to the light switch.
So, now I’ve come to the probably conclusion that we’ve spent millions and millions on hardware, software and salaries not to teach but to maintain the hardware and software, as well as salaries for a staff that exists to oversee the continued implementation of new hardware and software, all under the belief that these computers would improve education, only to see our scores on the SAT continue slowly downward.
But those SOL scores have risen.
And this ties into one of the more innovative uses of computers (sarcasm intended). The kids can go to a website called “study island,” in which they are asked SOL questions. For every question they get right, they get to play a computer game.
We’re using the computers to teach SOL questions via rote memorization, and giving the kids the incentive to memorize them so they can spend time in the game.
Is this good or bad? I can see where we do get better SOL scores out of it, as would any rote memorization of the questions and answers – computerized or not. And I’m not opposed to rote memorization. Additionally, I’m not opposed to studying for tests, standardized or not. If the test really tests what we want our kids to know, then that’s what they ought to be studying.
The part that gets me is 1) using computers to do more slowly what could be done without them more quickly, with more repetition, more memory, etc., and 2) why we feel the need to give our students computer game time as a reward for answering a question correctly.
W-T,
Think around 1960 Manassas started to change from a small
farming/diary oriented town to an outer suburb of DC. Certainly
some “white flight” moving here might have played a part, but the
big movers were the opening of a large IBM facility and the building
of I-66. Remember moving here in the early 1970’s primarily
because it was the closest place to where I worked that I could
afford a decent house and it was still a whopping 20K!
“Dairy” – perhaps a writer’s colony could have been “diary oriented”,
but our pens were used to hold cows.
Thank you CindyB for the census information. A person can make a few
bucks and help their local commmunity. A “complete count”
helps us obtain our fair share of representation and funding
for the next TEN years!
Strange things are happening on the dark side. The great blogger ‘Lucha Lucha Lucha’ features the story about the man exposing himself at Duncan Donuts. The man has a Latino surname, Sanchez. A man named McGrann was arrested for similar activity near Chinn Library, an Anglo sounding name. How odd that name was never mentioned over on the dark side.
Typical. Is it worse to expose yourself if you are Latino than if you are Anglo? Perhaps the velvets will help explain that.
@Black Velvet Reporter
>>> features the story about the man exposing himself at Duncan Donuts.
Sure about that?
Huh, I’m new on this blog so still learning what’s what. It seems a couple posts I made earlier didn’t survive the moderator’s review. No inappropriate words, no flaming tone… so am I to guess my mistake was questioning an expense in the school budget?
Maybe the reporter meant Dunkin Donuts. I thought it happened at Subway.
Welcome Paul. We are glad you are here. You weren’t approved because I didn’t go in to the pending list this afternoon. I apologize. All first posts need approval. Sometimes that happens in a timely fashion and sometimes it doesn’t. Also if you change names or email address, that takes an approval. That part is just how the software is set up.
That is some pretty interesting research you have ferreted out. I suppose I am surprised that SAT scores are a motivating factor for schools getting computers. I would have assumed that the real objective is that you can’t even buy a car that doesn’t have computerized parts and that computers are so much a part of our daily lives that to not have them in school would just be….well…unthinkable.
I would also hope that school computers are about much more than sol scores and computer games. Actually I am having a hard time understanding the connection between the SAT scores and the computer. I don’t think the educational community is unified on the use of computers or calculators yet. Strange. Hand held calculators were introduced about 40 years ago in the classroom. Teachers are still fighting over the use within a building. then there are the parent/teacher/student fights about them. All while most kids are too lazy to even bring one to class. As a kid, I would have killed to have been allowed to use a calculator.
Computers came into PWC in the early 80s I think. Much has evolved, and much hasn’t evolved.
Keep us posted please.
Thanks, I see the posts now. Thanks for the explanation, too.
What you’ve said is similar to the responses I received from my school board member and the administrator I traded e-mails with. In summary, computers are part of everything we do, so kids need to learn to use them now.
I don’t think that argument is compelling. I have a hard time seeing a connection between kids playing computer games in school and their ability to help produce computer-chip-complete cars in the future.
Our kids are learning to “use” computers. They aren’t learning to build computers, or sling code. Computers are becoming easier to use as this technology continues to mature. User skills can be taught later, like high school or college, without any cost to student development, I believe.
And the simple fact as we all know is most kids have user skills beyond what the school teaches. Another anecdotal story to follow. My son is new to PWC public schools because he previously was in a county Catholic school. Last year (fifth grade) he tells me that another student was doing searches on things like “hot nurses.” And he’s giggling, so without asking him too much about it, I kind of figured he was among the group that viewed the results of that search. So I go to the assistant principal, not to turn in the kid who initiated the search (I do know who my son says it was) but instead just to ask if its possible – do kids have unsupervised time on computers. He said its not likely because there’s so many firewalls in place. I ask whether its possible – he hesitates and then says theoretically it is, if a child knew how to get to an outside server, “but we don’t teach them how to do that.”
I’m guessing a couple of them know how.
The SAT scores are illuminating I believe, because they show a constant rate of academic development since 1973 (actually trending slightly downward).
We’ve bought all of these computers with the promise they would make for better academic development. Doesn’t seem like that promise has been realized.
Going back to a topic we flirted with in the last open thread, for those who believe that the rich aren’t paying their ‘fair share’, here are a few graphs that suggest the top 1% of tax payers pay more than the bottom 95% combined. Even more disturbing is that 61 million Americans did not pay a penny in income taxes (or got reverse income taxes due to refundable credits)
http://blog.american.com/?p=7951
As an aside, I’d love to know how that think tank scored the american.com domain name.
Paul, I am trying to narrow down your concerns. Do you feel that all computer use in elementary school is taking up time that could be better spent doing other things? Do you feel your child’s teachers are not prepared to teach using the computer as a tool? Do you feel there is too much play and not enough actual learning with the games being played? Is the courseware the problem, the teacher, or lack of supervision?
I think what is more illuminating about SAT scores is how many more people are being encouraged to take the test since 1973. If you want to see even more drastic change, take those same stats back another 20 years. Schools get some sort of kudos for encouraging kids to take these tests rather than limiting the SAT. Of course nowadays the big goal is for everyone to go to college. We all know that is a joke.
I actually think computers have darn little to do with SAT decline. Kids read less and more kids take the test, rather than just those with strong academic inclincation who several generations before would have been in your college prep courses.
Formerly, that is pretty interesting. How come we always hear about the middle class being the worker bee here while the rich figure out how to not pay their share and the poor get money back?
Then we hear that most businesses don’t pay taxes. I don’t know who to believe now. I think it is probably a good case of Mark Twain’s “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”
Translation: It is human nature to think that the other guy is getting away with less than we are.
There’s an old joke that goes something like this: “Anybody who is more sexually adventurous than me is a pervert. Anybody who is less sexually adventurous than me is a prude.”
I think it’s similar with wealth. In America, the “rich” are anybody who makes more than you realistically expect to make in your lifetime and they don’t pay their fair share. Almost everybody considers themselves middle class or “upper middle class”. Heck, there are people who consider themselves upper middle class even when they are in the top 10% of household incomes. (That’s about $130k HHI)
Personally, I’m in favor of no income tax at all, no corporate tax and a consumption tax structured something like a national sales tax. I’d settle for a flat income tax rate though. Unfortunately, neither of those is likely to happen in my lifetime. I believe our tax system will get ever more complex as it helps to disguise the growth in taxes to come. (And I’m not implying anything against President Obama. Just that as a country we have written some very large IOUs. We are either going to have to renege on them (which we’ve never done in history) or start paying a LOT more in taxes.
Moonhowler – I’m not sure I’ve even crystalized the thinking on my objections as yet, beyond the basic notion that cost-benefit analysis isn’t being done here.
If we’re paying this much for a resource (computers and other equipment in classrooms), there ought to be a track record of getting something out of the resource. If that can’t be demonstrated, there’s a pretty good indicator of wasted spending.
But you asked some pretty good questions, so let me try stumbling through them.
Do I feel all computer use in elementary schools is taking time away from other things? Not sure, but I’d blindly guess that’s a yes. I don’t see a compelling reason to have wired elementary classrooms for computer use. I could buy off an a single computer room per school, so the teacher can show the kids some things off the internet which go beyond the text books (the recent NASA mission to blast a bunch of ice out of the moon comes to mind), but this is more in the realm of inspiring further learning rather than actually building the fundamentals these kids need. Its kind of way of taking a field trip without ever leaving the building.
Do I feel my child’s teachers aren’t prepared to teach using the computer as a tool? First, my child is in middle school, so we’ve jumped out of the elementary discussion. I can’t answer this. The bigger question for me is whether its advantageous to even worry teaching use of computer as a tool in sixth grade. But I can tell you this – based on how unintuitive that edulink set-up is, I think its fair to question the school district as a whole as to how qualified it is to use the technology it has.
Do I feel there is too much play and not enough actual learning? Yes.
Is the courseware the problem? Can’t answer that, but again I’d ask whether any software is necessary (and if not necessary, why did we spend money on it?).
Is the teacher the problem? I don’t think so.
Is the lack of supervision the problem? Its a potential problem, as per my anecdotal story about last year.
And in many ways we pay less taxes than many countries. One trip to Canada takes your breath away tax-wise, especially when you are paying it everything both provincial and national. Great Britain taxes the living hell out of gasoline. We could never do that here, our distances are too great. Of course they get National Health Care also.
It seems that taxes are never taken away. There are just so many we don’t even realize we are being gouged.
Paul, Many of those computers are from the state. I am not sure of the actual breakdown. I agree with you about building labs rather than in-class kid computers. With class periods only being x minutes long, I don’t really see what good a couple of kid computers in a classroom would do. Someone isn’t paying attention if they are on the computer.
On the other hand, are there special needs? Usually laptops are available for special needs kids.
The teacher is another matter since so much instruction now is done with smart boards, projectors, etc and almost all the record keeping is done on computer.
Let me readjust my thinking from elementary to middle school–There are technology objectives. Are they being taught as part of the rotation? (art, music, teen living, etc?)
Word processing is great for some of the English teachers if they can book enough lab times. I would have killed for a machine that let me make corrections when I was that age. It makes a big difference when writing a paper of any kind to be able to edit electronically.
Aren’t some of the SOL tests being giving on the computer? Will that eventually justify the cost if huge copies of booklets aren’t being consumed each spring? There are also practices that are online.
I do know that the personal computer, and actually it was those old apples were introduced in elementary and middle schools in the 80’s. The state came up with teacher objectives in the 90’s sometime. Every teacher in the state had to be certified at a bare bones minimum in word processing and excel and be tested.
Maybe the computers are rotated out too fast. You don’t need state of the art in a computer lab used mainly for word processing. Maybe we need to utilize what we have better and for longer periods of time. Maybe we need a county-wide schedule.
Who repairs computers when they have serious problems? Is this an inhouse job? Those computer specialists in each building are state funded.
Is there still site based management? How is information pooled about some of these questions?
My school board member tried telling me that some of the computers were bought with state funding. I replied I pay state taxes as well as local property taxes, so it doesn’t matter to me from which pot wasted expenditures come.
I don’t have any idea about the technology objectives, nor the rotation you mentioned.
But that’s a good point for discussion, too. What should the technology objectives be in terms of educating our 6th graders? I’d kind of like my son to continue developing his math skills, reading skills and writing skills. I tend to think that can be done without computers.
I don’t know if the SOL tests are computerized or not. My son says he’s taken all but two of his class tests on computers. I do know the “study island” thing is encouraged – a website that allows kids access to computer games each time they answer an SOL question correctly.
Regarding your maintenance question, looking at the budget, I know we funded somewhere around 75 IT support people. Whether they actually fix computers, or just troubleshoot network access difficulties I don’t know.
Some of your questions go beyond what I know, and seemingly beyond what the county wants me to know. The first response from my school board member was not to worry about it, because everything had been implemented according to research. This started the whole follow-on conversation in which I heard there really wasn’t any research, and there was but I wasn’t going to see it.
I haven’t found the county to be very forthcoming at all on this issue – which to me is a red flag in itself. I’m a contractor supporting the defense department, and from time to time deal with budgetary issues. Usually when someone won’t talk about something, or tries to push aside conversation with bureaucratic platitudes, its an attempt to hide something potentially embarrassing. This is the feeling I get when specific questions – the type of which you are asking me – get responses like, “the implementation of this technology will allow us to provide a world class education to our students.” I actually got that response.
I just typed a long response and the blog went down. arggghhhh.
Paul, I expect you are getting the runaround because the principals don’t know, not because they are hiding something. Principals never like to say ‘I don’t know’ so they spew bs and blather instead. World class education indeed. LOL
Call Ken Blackstone or Keith Imus at Independent Hill. Both are the Super’s right hand men. They are paid the big bucks to know the answers to your questions.
The rotations are samplings of various subjects kids might take in middle school and high school. I will use the old fashioned names: music/art/home ed/tech ed/ keyboarding/several languages. It is all done on a sample basis and different schools offer different rotations. I don’t know if it has been standardized or not.
I think keyboarding is a good idea actually since so much is computer based. Of course, there are things one can use for keyboarding that aren’t nearly as expensive as a computer. I am all over that word processing from an editing point of view. I can recall having to type entire pages over back in the dark ages.
Keith Imon is the associate superintendent for technology with whom I’ve been trading e-mails. Actually let me check… was blaming the “world class” line on the school board member, but just looked at my in-box… that line came from Mr. Imon.
He makes too much money to be giving that kind of information out to parents. He needs to engage in serious discussion. I think he came down with the super and they adopted that as a slogan. 🙄 Sorry, world class education doesn’t cut it.
I do support computers in schools but that is not to say you haven’t asked a seriously good question about the best use as they apply to the educational setting. You can throw a thousand new computers in a school every year and they will not take the place of good instruction in core subjects.
There are 2 types of computer people in most middle schools. There is the hardware person and then there is the educational person. The educational person is paid for eventually by the state. I don’t know all the correct titles.
Another surprising bout of truth in today’s Washington Post – http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/08/AR2009120804446.html
I’m not completely opposed to computers in school. Just not sure they belong in every classroom. Same goes for smartboards, etc. I do think that’s most likely a waste of money, and time that could be spent on more traditional educational approaches, especially at the elementary level.
Again, after spending millions and millions (I’d guess somewhere around $8 million a year – hardware, software and non-teaching computer-based salaries combine) we ought to see some indicators we’ve gotten something for those expenditures.
Rick, I read that in the wee hours and thought about a thread. I didn’t even know where to begin. I suppose my only question is, how does this differ from other immigrant waves?
Is it only illegal immigrants who seem to inherit poverty?
Paul, I think if a teacher wants a smart board and will use a smart board for instruction, then they are great. If they are going to sit unused, then they are a huge waste of money. Some schools ‘share’ the smart boards. Not sure how that would work out. I know of another school that has them portable which takes up too much space in already overcrowded classrooms. That seems like another waste of resources.
Are you familiar with school fusion? I think that is probably a great idea all the way around. Again, I have someone at Stonewall HS and not all the teachers utilize it to its fullest. I think that is a partnership with the business community.
What kind of indicators do you have in mind? I will have to say that test scores would be real unimportant to me. Too much is tied to various test scores to the point they have almost stripped away any love of learning.
I am also going to throw out the idea that with all the technology out there in the non school world, teaching methods that somehow dragged me screaming and kicking into college really would not cut it nowadays. In fact, I will throw myself on my own sword and say that some of the skills I have are probably unneed in today’s world.
“how does this differ from other immigrant waves?”
It’s illegal. It was never agreed to by the citizens in this so-called “Democracy”/Republic. And it’s larger in scope.
“Is it only illegal immigrants who seem to inherit poverty?”
Well we spent billions upon billions in a “war on poverty” trying to lift US citizens out of poverty, from the 60’s on. Now that entire effort is undercut for the sake of lowering wages.
Illegal immigrants aren’t being encouraged here to stay because it’s any type of considered charity. Or because they do anything positive for working-class Americans, on balance. Or because any person or objective study ever indicated that incorporating 20-30 million more poor and uneducated will do anything but bankrupt our welfare system, hospitals, prisons and schools. They are here for the singular reason that they devalue labor in the US and thereby fuel development for those who already own land and businesses.
I used to vote Democratic to STOP this kind of madness, to stop big bueiness from dominating our social policies. The joke’s on me.
Too many Democrats are A-OK with watching this happen.
300 million people
10% unemployment
15-20 million illegal immigrants coddled and encouraged to stay here
This is SICKENING.
Moon, how did we ever manage with just blackboards?
School fusion – is that the thing that sends me e-mails about 10 o’clock at night, telling me what my kid has to turn in the next day? I’d rather he kept an assignment book with pen and paper, so I can see that after dinner.
Test scores are the indicators I had in mind, because without that, its just anecdotal.
I realize the falling SAT scores over 35 years didn’t impress you, but if we can excuse ourselves from spending on resources that doesn’t improve test scores, then I don’t see any fiscal accountability here.
The county seems to promote a test score approach, but prefers to look at SOLs. I don’t think these are good indicators, because it seems like the kids can learn the SOL questions by rote memory (I’ve never taken one, but it seems like our schools know the questions ahead of time), whereas SATs are too big to memorize specific questions.