The 'Certified' Teacher Myth

Interesting study here...

The 'Certified' Teacher Myth - WSJ.com
Harvard researchers Paul Peterson and Daniel Nadler compared states that have genuine alternative certification with those that have it in name only. And they found that between 2003 and 2007 students in states with a real alternative pathway to teaching gained more on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (a federal standardized test) than did students in other states.

The study undermines the arguments from colleges of education and teachers unions, which say that traditional certification, which they control, is the only process that can produce quality teachers. The findings hold up even after controlling for race, ethnicity, free-lunch eligibility, class size and per-pupil state spending.

What viciousness!

The Goldman family just said on TV that they were PROUD that their efforts to drive OJ Simpson crazy drove him to commit the burglary and kidnapping in Las Vegas. How can someone be PROUD and thrilled that they drove someone to commit a crime? No matter what they thought he was guilty of - he was found innocent by the justice system, and to deliberately pursue an innocent man for THIRTEEN YEARS with the aim of driving him mad and driving him to commit a crime is SICK!

Pupils won't ruin tax-funded netbooks

This story from Australia indicates, interestingly, the changing attitudes towards student responsibility and school-provided laptops. Just a few years ago, the majority opinion was that they would be destroyed or stolen. Now that seems to be the minority, as least in NSW, Australia.

Unfortunately, such enlightenment has not reached across the seas to us in Trinidad and Tobago. We still believe that computer resources are to be locked up in "computer labs"in the schools, and separate from, not integrated into, the general learning environment.

I hope that this attitude will disappear very soon from the educational administration here, as if we are to achieve Vision 2020, we will need to have tech resources integrated across the curriculum at ALL levels of the education system.

Jacqueline

SENIOR NSW education bureaucrats have angrily rejected suggestions that public school students will trash the 197,000 laptop computers to be provided for them next year using federal taxpayer funds.

The $98 million tender for the mini-laptops, also known as netbooks, was issued yesterday and is believed to be the single largest purchase ever of such devices. A further $60 million will be spent rolling out a wireless computer network in 571 NSW public schools. The states and territories have received about $2 billion from the Rudd Government to upgrade computers in schools, with the NSW Labor Government deciding to spend its share on netbooks that students between Years 9 and 12 can use at school and at home.

Many students in elite private schools are already provided with laptops.

While the NSW program has broad support among principals, teachers and parent groups, one principal has dismissed the plan as "crazy".

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24749264-15306,00.html?referrer=email

President-Elect Obama: 100 Days to Demonstrate Commitment to Human Rights

Excellent Petition - walk the walk, don't just talk the talk!

"To: President-Elect Obama
We petition that…
You can bring to an end the previous administration's seven-year assault on human rights.

I call on you to demonstrate your commitment to justice by:

1. Announcing the timeline to close Guantanamo
2. Issuing an executive order to ban torture and other ill-treatment as defined under international law
3. Ensuring that an independent inquiry into the USA's detention and interrogation practices in its 'war on terror' is set up

These are three key steps on Amnesty International's checklist for your first 100 days in office. You can counter terror with justice. We are counting on you
Sincerely,
The Undersigned"

Death to film critics! Hail to the CelebCult! - Roger Ebert's Journal

Death to film critics! Hail to the CelebCult! - Roger Ebert's Journal
So very correct!

In Trinidad, a 1904 Gem of a House Is in Distress - NYTimes.com

The last decade has seen the destruction of a number of the island’s historic buildings, including the 1904 Union Club, which was torn down in 1998 and replaced by a 21-story office tower; the Coblentz House, an 1877 estate near the Savannah, demolished the following year; and a turn-of-the-century gingerbread house restored in 1954 by Colin Laird, Trinidad’s most prominent contemporary architect, which was torn down in 2005 and replaced by a faux French chateau. When the Boissiere House was listed for sale, many feared a similar outcome, given its location on prime real estate.
Read the rest of the article here...

Drupal Takes Home 2008 Overall Open Source CMS Award

I've always loved Drupal for its power, but it's too much for my main little personal site, so I use joomla. Maybe it's time to look at Drupal again...

Drupal cleaned up for the second year in a row in the 2008 Open Source CMS Awards, taking home both the Overall Open Source CMS Award and the Best Open Source PHP CMS Award. This marks the first time in which a content management system has ever won the overall award in back-to-back years.

Read the rest of the article here at the Content Management Blog - InformationWeek