Friday, October 31, 2008

Electoral college tool from Google

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Mathematics assessment in East Asia

Frederick K.S. Leung from The University of Hong Kong has written an article in ZDM about assessment in East Asia. The article is entitled In the books there are golden houses: mathematics assessment in East Asia, and it was published online on Tuesday. The paper is an adaption of a plenary lecture that Leung presented at the Third East Asian Regional Conference on Mathematics Education in Shanghai, August 2005. Here is the article abstract:
In this paper, some fundamental issues on mathematics assessment and how they are related to the underlying cultural values in East Asia are discussed. Features of the East Asian culture that impact on mathematics assessment include the pragmatic nature of the culture, the social orientation of East Asian people, and the lop-sided stress on the utilitarian function of education. East Asians stress the algorithmic side of mathematics, and mathematics is viewed more as a set of techniques for calculation and problem solving. The notion of fairness in assessment is of paramount importance, and there is a great trust in examination as a fair method of differentiating between the able and the less able. The selection function of education and assessment has great impact on how mathematics is taught, and assessment constitutes an extrinsic motivation which directs student learning. Finally, the strengths and weaknesses of these East Asian values are discussed.

Mathematics assessment in East Asia

Frederick K.S. Leung from The University of Hong Kong has written an article in ZDM about assessment in East Asia. The article is entitled In the books there are golden houses: mathematics assessment in East Asia, and it was published online on Tuesday. The paper is an adaption of a plenary lecture that Leung presented at the Third East Asian Regional Conference on Mathematics Education in Shanghai, August 2005. Here is the article abstract:
In this paper, some fundamental issues on mathematics assessment and how they are related to the underlying cultural values in East Asia are discussed. Features of the East Asian culture that impact on mathematics assessment include the pragmatic nature of the culture, the social orientation of East Asian people, and the lop-sided stress on the utilitarian function of education. East Asians stress the algorithmic side of mathematics, and mathematics is viewed more as a set of techniques for calculation and problem solving. The notion of fairness in assessment is of paramount importance, and there is a great trust in examination as a fair method of differentiating between the able and the less able. The selection function of education and assessment has great impact on how mathematics is taught, and assessment constitutes an extrinsic motivation which directs student learning. Finally, the strengths and weaknesses of these East Asian values are discussed.

Semi-virtual seminar in mathematics education

Matthias Ludwig, Wolfgang Müller and Binyan Xu have written an article about A Sino-German semi-virtual seminar in mathematics education. The article was recently published in ZDM. Here is the abstract of their article:
In summer 2006 the University of Education in Weingarten, Germany, and East China Normal University, Shanghai, performed a semi-virtual seminar with mathematics students on “Mathematics and Architecture”. The goal was the joint development of teaching materials for German or Chinese school, based on different buildings such as “Nanpu Bridge”, or the “Eiffel Tower”. The purpose of the seminar was to provide a learning environment for students supported by using information and communication technology (ICT) to understand how the hidden mathematics in buildings should be related to school mathematics; to experience the multicultural potential of the international language “Mathematics”; to develop “media competence” while communicating with others and using technologies in mathematics education; and to recognize the differences in teaching mathematics between the two cultures. In this paper we will present our ideas, experiences and results from the seminar.

Semi-virtual seminar in mathematics education

Matthias Ludwig, Wolfgang Müller and Binyan Xu have written an article about A Sino-German semi-virtual seminar in mathematics education. The article was recently published in ZDM. Here is the abstract of their article:
In summer 2006 the University of Education in Weingarten, Germany, and East China Normal University, Shanghai, performed a semi-virtual seminar with mathematics students on “Mathematics and Architecture”. The goal was the joint development of teaching materials for German or Chinese school, based on different buildings such as “Nanpu Bridge”, or the “Eiffel Tower”. The purpose of the seminar was to provide a learning environment for students supported by using information and communication technology (ICT) to understand how the hidden mathematics in buildings should be related to school mathematics; to experience the multicultural potential of the international language “Mathematics”; to develop “media competence” while communicating with others and using technologies in mathematics education; and to recognize the differences in teaching mathematics between the two cultures. In this paper we will present our ideas, experiences and results from the seminar.

Working with artefacts

Michela Maschietto and Maria G. Bartolini Bussi have written an article entitled Working with artefacts: gestures, drawings and speech in the construction of the mathematical meaning of the visual pyramid. The article was published online in Educational Studies in Mathematics two days ago. Here is a copy of the abstract:
This paper reports a part of a study on the construction of mathematical meanings in terms of development of semiotic systems (gestures, speech in oral and written form, drawings) in a Vygotskian framework, where artefacts are used as tools of semiotic mediation. It describes a teaching experiment on perspective drawing at primary school (fourth to fifth grade classes), starting from a concrete experience with a Dürer’s glass to the interpretation of a new artefact. We analyse the long term process of appropriation of the mathematical model of perspective drawing (visual pyramid) through the development of gestures, speech and drawings under the teacher’s guidance.

Working with artefacts

Michela Maschietto and Maria G. Bartolini Bussi have written an article entitled Working with artefacts: gestures, drawings and speech in the construction of the mathematical meaning of the visual pyramid. The article was published online in Educational Studies in Mathematics two days ago. Here is a copy of the abstract:
This paper reports a part of a study on the construction of mathematical meanings in terms of development of semiotic systems (gestures, speech in oral and written form, drawings) in a Vygotskian framework, where artefacts are used as tools of semiotic mediation. It describes a teaching experiment on perspective drawing at primary school (fourth to fifth grade classes), starting from a concrete experience with a Dürer’s glass to the interpretation of a new artefact. We analyse the long term process of appropriation of the mathematical model of perspective drawing (visual pyramid) through the development of gestures, speech and drawings under the teacher’s guidance.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Musical Elective of the Week

The Musical Elective of the Week is: Tracy Grammer.

Liam is away and so now Sara will play...the music of a beautiful singer-songwriter struggling to overcome the death of her musical and life partner.

It was Tracy and Dave, once upon a time. Dave Carter, that is. They were a pair-- they worked together in a "marriage in music" and made the most gorgeous albums. Then one day after a run, young Dave Carter suffered a heart attack and left Tracy all alone.

The outpouring in the music community was amazing.

Well somehow life went on, and Tracy continues to sing. I recommend all of her work and especially what she recorded with Dave. Once in awhile Tracy makes it to Madison. There was a time I even harbored hopes she'd sing at my wedding. (Didn't happen..too much money). I think she'll be here again next year.

A beginner should start with Tanglewood Tree. No doubt, you'll get hooked.

love is a garden of thorns, and a crow in the corn
and the brake growing wild
cold when the summer is spent in the jade heart's lament
for the faith of a child
my body has a number and my face has a name
and each day looks the same to me
but love is a voice on the wind, and the wages of sin
and a tanglewood tree

Welcome!

Welcome to the official blog of the Journal of Educational Controversy, an interdisciplinary electronic journal for dialogue about our nation's education. We are very excited about this blog and about the increasing debate, more lively than ever, that comes with each issue of our journal.

Aristotle said, "Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy." This journal attempts to create a common forum for change, a place in which we can get angry at the right time and for a right reason. All public matters are traced back to the purpose and practice of our public education. We need spaces for debate about education so that ideas can be produced, discussed and applied.

Our journal has received over half a million hits since we started in 2006. We publish across a variety of disciplines, and our editorial board includes professors of law, anthropology, education, sociology, English, philosophy and diverse cultural and ethnic studies. Each issue poses a different controversy that is related to teaching and learning in a pluralistic, democratic society. Previous issues' topics have included Schooling As if Democracy Matters, Jonathon Kozol's Nation of Shame 40 Years Later, and Liberty and Equality: Conflicting Values in the Public Schools of a Liberal Democratic Society. Our next issue, on Thinking and Teaching About Poverty and Class, will come out this winter.

You can read the journal here and the calls for papers here. You can also watch speeches by authors and presenters, roundtable discussions and see our rejoinder section, in which readers respond to the articles. (Rejoinders are up to 1500 words.) We hope you enjoy it, and become excited to contribute to the conversation.

A Topic Deserving of a Thesis

Attention graduate students: good thesis topic here. Take note!

Inside Higher Ed reports a growing interest among colleges, particularly those in the South, at recruiting Jewish students. Wow, has the world changed. (For more on that, see Karabel's The Chosen.)

Why is this happening? Here's what the colleges say: "...We’re seeing a lot of other schools recognize the value and recognize the contribution that these students are making to a college campus..."

But of course, we must ask, what does "contribution" mean? Thankfully, the reporter does raise this issue--might colleges, faced with declining enrollments and revenues, be acting strategically to target a population with high rates of college-going, and relatively higher incomes?

It would be great to know more. Specifically: How widespread is this trend? What are the discussions like inside administrative offices? Which schools are successful at upping Jewish enrollment? What are the effects? How do the Jewish students feel on these campuses? That and so much more.

So, student-- go for it! And report back on your findings, please.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

They Can't See the Page: More Basic Reasons Poor Kids Struggle to Learn

One in twenty students has trouble focusing well enough to read without trouble. How are kids supposed to learn if they can't see the page?

This isn't new information. We've known about the "vision problem" for years.

In fact, not surprisingly, for poor children this problem, is much worse.

Research indicates that:
50% of low-income kids have untreated vision problems
In some underserved areas, the number of children who fall through the cracks is staggering. Optometrists volunteering through the Lions Club found that 47 percent of children had vision problems in schools in West Los Angeles.
And you can't catch these problems with the cursory exams usually done in schools:
Many lay people confuse a vision screening with a vision exam, although the former is but a procedure that's supposed to identify those children who may need further examination. However, the screenings many schools administer even fall short of that. Vision screenings that test only acuity detect 30 percent of children who would fail a professional exam
In fact, cursory exams may actually exacerbate the problem, indicating that a child can see fine and reducing the chance that she will get a comprehensive exam. In other words, poor exams may actually ensure that the problem is never corrected.

How much of the challenge that poor kids face in learning results from incredibly basic causes that have nothing to do with pedaogy (or even with more subtle issues like cultural mismatch, etc.).

How about the relationship between vision and "delinquent" kids?

A key finding was that almost all of the 132 delinquents in the study had learning related vision problems, but only a few had nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism. Common in teens, these refractive problems are a sign that the person has made adaptations to deal with the stress of close work in the classroom. . . .

The lack of such problems in these delinquents indicates that, at any early age, they chose not to deal with close work, Dr. Harris said. Other study findings show the reason why. They simply lacked the vision skills to do close work.
How much of the achievement gap could be eliminated with comprehensive health care, breakfast, and nutrition?

What an incredible tragedy. Even on these most basic levels we find it impossible to support these children.

They Can't See the Page: More Basic Reasons Poor Kids Struggle to Learn

One in twenty students has trouble focusing well enough to read without trouble. How are kids supposed to learn if they can't see the page?

This isn't new information. We've known about the "vision problem" for years.

In fact, not surprisingly, for poor children this problem, is much worse.

Research indicates that:
50% of low-income kids have untreated vision problems
In some underserved areas, the number of children who fall through the cracks is staggering. Optometrists volunteering through the Lions Club found that 47 percent of children had vision problems in schools in West Los Angeles.
And you can't catch these problems with the cursory exams usually done in schools:
Many lay people confuse a vision screening with a vision exam, although the former is but a procedure that's supposed to identify those children who may need further examination. However, the screenings many schools administer even fall short of that. Vision screenings that test only acuity detect 30 percent of children who would fail a professional exam
In fact, cursory exams may actually exacerbate the problem, indicating that a child can see fine and reducing the chance that she will get a comprehensive exam. In other words, poor exams may actually ensure that the problem is never corrected.

How much of the challenge that poor kids face in learning results from incredibly basic causes that have nothing to do with pedaogy (or even with more subtle issues like cultural mismatch, etc.).

How about the relationship between vision and "delinquent" kids?

A key finding was that almost all of the 132 delinquents in the study had learning related vision problems, but only a few had nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism. Common in teens, these refractive problems are a sign that the person has made adaptations to deal with the stress of close work in the classroom. . . .

The lack of such problems in these delinquents indicates that, at any early age, they chose not to deal with close work, Dr. Harris said. Other study findings show the reason why. They simply lacked the vision skills to do close work.
How much of the achievement gap could be eliminated with comprehensive health care, breakfast, and nutrition?

What an incredible tragedy. Even on these most basic levels we find it impossible to support these children.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Empirical research on mathematics teachers

Sigrid Blömeke, Gabriele Kaiser, Rainer Lehmann and William H. Schmidt have written an article that has been entitled: Introduction to the issue on Empirical research on mathematics teachers and their education. The article was published in ZDM some days ago. The article is without an abstract, and it appears to be the editorial of the forthcoming issue of ZDM. This issue will have a main focus on results from the international comparative study: "Mathematics Teaching in the 21st Century (MT21)". So, it appears as if those of us who are interested in the preparation of teachers, teacher education, teacher knowledge, etc. are up for an interesting next issue of ZDM!

Empirical research on mathematics teachers

Sigrid Blömeke, Gabriele Kaiser, Rainer Lehmann and William H. Schmidt have written an article that has been entitled: Introduction to the issue on Empirical research on mathematics teachers and their education. The article was published in ZDM some days ago. The article is without an abstract, and it appears to be the editorial of the forthcoming issue of ZDM. This issue will have a main focus on results from the international comparative study: "Mathematics Teaching in the 21st Century (MT21)". So, it appears as if those of us who are interested in the preparation of teachers, teacher education, teacher knowledge, etc. are up for an interesting next issue of ZDM!

What's all the fuss about gestures?

Over the last years, the focus on gestures in mathematics education research has been growing. Anna Sfard has now written an article that was published in Educational Studies in Mathematics a couple of days ago. The article has a focus on this particular field of research, and it is entitled: What’s all the fuss about gestures? A commentary. Here is the abstract:
While reading the articles assembled in this volume, one cannot help asking Why gestures? What’s all the fuss about them? In the last few years, the fuss is, indeed, considerable, and not just here, in this special issue, but also in research on learning and teaching at large. What changed? After all, gestures have been around ever since the birth of humanity, if not much longer, but until recently, not many students of human cognition seemed to care. In this commentary, while reporting on what I saw while scrutinizing this volume for an answer, I will share some thoughts on the relationship between gesturing and speaking and about their relative roles in mathematical thinking.

What's all the fuss about gestures?

Over the last years, the focus on gestures in mathematics education research has been growing. Anna Sfard has now written an article that was published in Educational Studies in Mathematics a couple of days ago. The article has a focus on this particular field of research, and it is entitled: What’s all the fuss about gestures? A commentary. Here is the abstract:
While reading the articles assembled in this volume, one cannot help asking Why gestures? What’s all the fuss about them? In the last few years, the fuss is, indeed, considerable, and not just here, in this special issue, but also in research on learning and teaching at large. What changed? After all, gestures have been around ever since the birth of humanity, if not much longer, but until recently, not many students of human cognition seemed to care. In this commentary, while reporting on what I saw while scrutinizing this volume for an answer, I will share some thoughts on the relationship between gesturing and speaking and about their relative roles in mathematical thinking.

Measuring quality of mathematics teaching in early childhood

Carolyn R. Kilday and Mable B. Kinzie have written an article called An Analysis of Instruments that Measure the Quality of Mathematics Teaching in Early Childhood. This article was published online in Early Childhood Education Journal on Friday. A starting point for this article (both authors work at the University of Virginia, in the U.S.) is that "the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (2008) has recently called for more research to determine the skills and practices underlying teacher effectiveness, and on methods for developing this capacity". The article gives an interesting overview of some of the major instruments for evaluating and measuring teaching quality in the U.S. Here is the abstract of the article:
The evaluation of teaching quality in mathematics has become increasingly important following research reports indicating that preschoolers are developmentally able to engage in mathematic thought and that child performance in mathematics at this level is a strong predictor of later school achievement. As attention turns to early mathematics education, so too does the focus on teaching quality. This paper reviews nine instruments designed to measure mathematics teaching quality—their theoretical bases, foci, and psychometrics—and examines their appropriateness for administration in early childhood settings. Three of the nine measures are identified as having highly desirable characteristics, with one of them specifically designed for early childhood administration. The measures, our review process, and our recommendations for practice are presented. As school divisions and teacher educators examine teaching quality, they will be better able to support their teachers’ practice, and better able to reap the benefits in improved child outcomes.

Measuring quality of mathematics teaching in early childhood

Carolyn R. Kilday and Mable B. Kinzie have written an article called An Analysis of Instruments that Measure the Quality of Mathematics Teaching in Early Childhood. This article was published online in Early Childhood Education Journal on Friday. A starting point for this article (both authors work at the University of Virginia, in the U.S.) is that "the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (2008) has recently called for more research to determine the skills and practices underlying teacher effectiveness, and on methods for developing this capacity". The article gives an interesting overview of some of the major instruments for evaluating and measuring teaching quality in the U.S. Here is the abstract of the article:
The evaluation of teaching quality in mathematics has become increasingly important following research reports indicating that preschoolers are developmentally able to engage in mathematic thought and that child performance in mathematics at this level is a strong predictor of later school achievement. As attention turns to early mathematics education, so too does the focus on teaching quality. This paper reviews nine instruments designed to measure mathematics teaching quality—their theoretical bases, foci, and psychometrics—and examines their appropriateness for administration in early childhood settings. Three of the nine measures are identified as having highly desirable characteristics, with one of them specifically designed for early childhood administration. The measures, our review process, and our recommendations for practice are presented. As school divisions and teacher educators examine teaching quality, they will be better able to support their teachers’ practice, and better able to reap the benefits in improved child outcomes.

What Keeps Me Going

I'm in my 5th year as an assistant professor, and I'm just starting to figure it out. Tonight I received an email that helped clarify things quite a bit...

It comes from a student who took the very first sociology of education class I ever taught. I don't want to identify him so suffice it to say that he's a first-gen college student, an underrepresented minority, who had never traveled outside of Wisconsin when we met. Upon graduation he planned on a career in law, but was accepted by Teach for America and sent to New York City. (Again, he had NEVER been outside of WI....)

I've long wondered what happened to him. Here goes:

"Professor Rab:

Hey I am so sorry and this email is long overdue. I just wanted to give you a quick update on how things are going with me. This past year I completed my 2 years with Teach For America and received my masters in elementary education from Pace University. This past summer I worked for Teach For America as a corps member adviser training the new teachers and it was an awesome experience.

I have decided to remain in the classroom teaching 4th grade at PS XXX in the Bronx. I would like to pursue administration in the future. I have been placed in a lot of leadership positions at school as only a 3rd year teacher: data specialist, data inquiry team chair, school leadership team co-chair, grade team leader, etc. My plate is really full this year but well worth it. I am in the process of applying for grad school's again for a masters in supervision and administration. Following those 2 years I would like to get my PHD in Supervision and administration as well.

I have to say that meeting you and being in your sociology of education class really did inspire me from you being so young and talented at the time and me even being interested in education. Thank you! I hope all is well with your family and wor
k."

And that's it-- I'm staying where I am. Right here. Where clearly, despite my best efforts, I matter.

The Brain in Color


More at Technology Review.

The Brain in Color


More at Technology Review.

ZDM, November 2008

Along with Educational Studies in Mathematics and Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, ZDM has also recently published their November issue of this year. This issue contains a long list of interesting articles:
The theme of this issue is: Mathematics Education: New Perspectives on Gender.

ZDM, November 2008

Along with Educational Studies in Mathematics and Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, ZDM has also recently published their November issue of this year. This issue contains a long list of interesting articles:
The theme of this issue is: Mathematics Education: New Perspectives on Gender.

JMTE, November 2008

The November issue of Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education has been published, and it contains the following set of articles:
Personally, I find this issue particularly interesting, as it has a strong focus on mathematical content knowledge as well as beliefs. These are the main focus areas of my own research as well. I especially find the article by Silverman and Thompson interesting, and their attempt to approach a framework for the development of mathematical knowledge for teaching provides a nice overview of the research that has been done after Lee Shulman presented his ideas about Pedagogical Content Knowledge.

JMTE, November 2008

The November issue of Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education has been published, and it contains the following set of articles:
Personally, I find this issue particularly interesting, as it has a strong focus on mathematical content knowledge as well as beliefs. These are the main focus areas of my own research as well. I especially find the article by Silverman and Thompson interesting, and their attempt to approach a framework for the development of mathematical knowledge for teaching provides a nice overview of the research that has been done after Lee Shulman presented his ideas about Pedagogical Content Knowledge.

ESM, November issue

The November issue of Educational Studies in Mathematics has arrived. It contains the following articles:

ESM, November issue

The November issue of Educational Studies in Mathematics has arrived. It contains the following articles:

Friday, October 24, 2008

Mayoral Control

October 2008

The following column is based on my remarks from a recent New York State Legislative Hearing on continued Mayoral control of schooling in NYC.

I sometimes wonder: What would have happened if the Governor or State Legislature had wiped out all the School Boards in the state, and replaced it with a system controlled lock-stock-and-barrel by the Governor, under the slogan of accountability? Lots of citizens, like those in my hometown upstate, gripe about their local school board, but you and I know there would be hell to pay if we abolished their voice in their schools. Why is it, then, so easy to eliminate lay voices only in our big cities with predominantly low income students of color as our school clientele? Who are we afraid of?

We are in the midst of a period in history that has profound disrespect for experience and knowledge—and those who whine most about our incompetent teachers and schools are leading the parade. Auto companies are run by people who know nothing about cars, and schools by people who know nothing about schools. Even as a principal it was hard not to fall into that trap: those neat ideas I had as I fell asleep, that fell apart under the scrutiny of my colleagues who might have had to implement them. How odd that the folks who have been advising the Mayor represent some of the most unaccountable players on the American stage—resisters to the most basic forms of oversight.—NYC’s business and finance community. (And by a mayor who publicly argues in the NY Times that there should be no, zero, “oversight” of his powers.)

But let me switch to some truths from a very old-timer, one who spent nearly 30 years as a teacher and principal in some of NYC’s most innovative and successful schools. Me. Reform did not begin with Bloomberg; and in fact there is not a scintilla of evidence that overall the children of NYC are better off today than they were before he became Mayor. I am sympathetic—the problem is pretty huge and no other city has solved it; except that he either really believes he has succeeded or has tried to convince all of us of that there’s been a small miracle under his leadership. Neither graduation rates nor test scores confirm his enthusiasm for his own reign.

I would even sympathize with that if he was not such a zealot for so-called “hard” data. There is no hard data that says he has moved us forward. Not that he has not tried, changing plans every few years, and so have all his subordinates. I know first hand all the ways in which principals are capable of giving their bosses the hard data they want. They could not give it to him because it was not there. The hard data simply does not show what he claims it does. But saddest of all is how easy it is to fool a lot of people a lot of the time—to invent myths that become common wisdom.

I heard one in D.C. last week about China—as a well-meaning congressman asked how it could be that China now graduates 97% of its young people, when we graduate only 50%. Of course the reality is that 90% of the Chinese do not even start high school. But like everyone else, I did not correct him. We’re just too damn polite. And after a while, we’re not merely polite, but we pass the myth on. We forget it was nonsense. And so it has been for decades about our schools; and NYC is a prime example. We are not alone, but not far behind the Texas or Chicago miracles—whose myths collapsed as soon as the next politician inherited the mess.

We pay a price for the lack of an open process of governance. Democracy is not a sure-fire cure—for sure—but it is the one and only possibility. And even if it is not, it is the one we claim allegiance to. It’s what our schools are all about teaching us about.

Here is another example closer to my life story. The claim is that Mayoral control may appear centralizing, but that, in fact, at its heart is decentralization down to the school level, the empowerment of principals! Right? What principal dares to stand up and say it ain’t so! It is unanimous. I became a principal in 1974 of a K-6th grade school, and of a second in 1978, and then of a third, a 7th-12th grade secondary school in 1985. There is not a single power that current principals now have that I did not have, and a lot that they do not have that I did! And I was hardly alone—just ask some of my old colleagues. Some used their powers, some did not; and it is true neither the Central nor the District boards encouraged them to do so. It is a myth that principals had their hands tied in the bad old days. Yes, there was a lot of bureaucratic tangle. And there still is! Yes, we did not solve the question of how to take advantage of the best wisdom available to us in open and transparent ways. And we still don’t. Yes, we couldn’t get rid of people without due process; and I wouldn’t want it otherwise.

But the union that the Mayor complains about eagerly embraced our ideas, and moved to change the process of hiring – and they convinced their members and changed the contract. The first major example of high school reform of an existing failed secondary school was the joint project of the union and management who together championed a process that led to the Julia Richman Educational Complex—one of the leading examples nationwide of successful big school to small schools reforms—and which is now under threat of closure, by the Mayor.

It is when we are not afraid that we find it easiest, not hardest to talk truth to each other, take some risks. When we want dictatorial power is when unions are most needed, not least.

At Central Park East Secondary School, and the other schools we worked closely with, we had control over our budget, our curriculum and our assessments. We designed, with the assistance of city and state and union, a challenging process for determining graduation standards that led to unprecedented success in a student body of largely so-called “at risk” students. We graduated 90% of whom 90% went on to 4-year colleges.

There was in the late 80s and early 90s, the beginning of a stunning opening up of ideas about schooling. An ever enlarging alternative school division, encompassing 50,000 high school students, was thriving with some of the least likely students, and proposals were on the table for spreading these ideas across all five boroughs—with the union’s support!

The mayor has found a solution to that that we had not dreamed of. Change the population. District 5—central Harlem—looked bad. Ditto for East Harlem. Now they are being gentrified, the poor being pushed out. The Bronx—which if it were a city has a school record equal to D.C.—will apparently have to wait a while for gentrification to improve their schools. Meanwhile, all over the city the wonderful idea of small schools of choice has evolved into small schools for different kids. Are small schools still a good idea? Yes, but it began under decentralization, not Mayoral control, and it is time to reassess it’s impact on equity.

I am not calling for a return to the good old days.

What’s changed? There are still oasis of good practice, amidst public hype that suggests vast improvements. Hard working colleagues continue to struggle, and they make a difference. But they are handicapped for many of the same reasons—not enough power—or even voice—in the hands of those who can best make a difference. Mayoral control has moved us further and further away from hearing the voices of citizens or professionals, parents or teachers, much less kids! It has moved us further and further from the kind of mutual respect and trust that allows expertise to be used well, and the voices of those who know the most to reach the voices of those with power. The further apart these two are, the greater the suspicion, fear and dysfunction.

Mayoralty controls need to be rethought, root and branch. We need ways to insist that schools be responsible for decisions that are best made inside schools by the people who are most affected. We need to look at Boston’s interesting work with “pilot schools,” for example. We need to enlist school people, not Wall Street experts, to design wiser ways to hold people accountable. We need to remind ourselves that democracy itself was invented as a way to hold leaders accountable, not the enemy of accountability.

Before we decide whether it is okay to pay children (and teachers) to learn and do well in school, we need to ask who has the right to make such decisions on our behalf?

I came back from China—the real one—a year and a half ago, and I am intrigued by how many ways NYC is beginning to remind me of Beijing, and alas it is not a happy thought. We are not ready to trade in our democratic voice in the raising of our children in the hopes that the Mayor’s friends will have better ideas than we all collectively do.

© 2008 Deborah Meier

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Research To Keep An Eye On...

At a retreat of the National Academy of Education last week, I heard a presentation by Greg Walton (Stanford University) that took me by surprise. This guy conducted a series of experiments that showed that simply telling black students they "belong" in college and have struggles which are common and surmountable can have a direct positive impact, increasing their college achievement. Walton's are small but randomized controlled interventions in a lab setting, which makes for great confidence in the effects he estimates. At least for this population, which I'd characterize as black college students willing to participate in an experiment (a group arguably different from the general population, and also different from the population of white students willing to participate), a brief psychological encounter in a lab seems to make a big difference. I'd need to know more before I bought stock in this one, but in the meantime, Walton's research is something I'll be keeping an eye on....

No Free Speech for Nobel Laureate

I want to reproduce a letter written by a friend of mine - Andrew Aeria - on the move by UM to scrap a talk that was supposed to have been given by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi. Just to clarify, the letter is written with a sarcastic tone, in case there is any confusion.

Congrats to the UM VC!
Andrew Aeria | Oct 23, 08 4:38pm
I refer to the Malaysiakini report Invite to Nobel laureate scrapped after 'protest from students'.

I am writing to congratulate Rafiah Salim, the vice-chancellor of Universiti Malaya for bravely and single-handedly putting Malaysian academia back into the international spotlight.

Well done, Rafiah. By caving in to some obviously hidebound ‘Iranian students’ and cancelling Iranian Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi’s scheduled lecture on 'Islam and Cultural Diversity' at UM, you gratuitously displayed to the world your university administration’s equally immaculate bigoted view of academic freedom and the pursuit of knowledge.

Certainly, as Malaysians who already are the most informed in the world and living in a diverse multi-cultural society, we have no need to listen to ‘nobody’ Nobel Laureates like Shirin Ebadi, right?

I mean, what else does Ebadi know and what else can she tell us about ‘Islam and Cultural Diversity’ that we in Malaysia, with the help of our ‘Iranian students’, do not already know? So, well done.

I also gushingly applaud Rafiah Salim’s robust defence of the emotional health of ‘our Iranian students’. After all, if these blinkered ‘Iranian students’ are unhappy about ‘nobody’ Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi’s views and don’t want to listen to her, let alone allow others to explore any ideas that are different from their intolerant views, then surely we in Malaysian academia have to dance a jackboot march to their tune even if it is reminiscent of the Third Reich, no?

Well, Rafiah, you and your administration have pretty good goosestep dance moves, that’s for sure. I’m certain that all those now ‘happy Iranian students’ will gladly give you a 45-degree full-handed salute.

And if you listen closely, you might hear them happily utter ‘Seig Heil’! What courage you display in protecting the fragile emotions of our ‘Iranian students’. Truly well beyond the call of academic duty. Well done!

In this excellent spirit of ‘Malaysia Boleh’ and to ensure Malaysian academia’s continued international prominence, may I humbly suggest that you now direct the UM chief librarian to identify and publicly burn all books authored by Shirin Ebadi and other Iranian scholars of ‘Islam and Cultural Diversity’ that the ‘Iranian students’ don’t like.

I am sure those ‘Iranian students’ can very quickly draw up an extended list of disagreeable books that make them unhappy for your immediate action. Indeed, why stop at Iranian scholars, Islam and Cultural Diversity?

Why not just burn the whole UM library down so that all in Malaysian academia (led of course, by ‘our happy Iranian students’) can return to the raw pristine beauty of our vain-glorious collective ignorance.

Indeed, I am sure those ‘Iranian students’ and your administration would gladly welcome such a move as a significant civilisational move forward; Malaysian academia’s leap of faith into the brave new world of the 21st century!

Hurrah!


Since when have Iranian students in our public universities started dictating policy? Does this mean that if Indonesian students protest a talk given by Habibie, such a talk will be canceled?

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for the right of the Iranian students to protest. But if they want to protest, they should be given a space, both physically as well as in different student newspapers, to protest Shirin Ebadi's presence on campus. But she should also be given the space to speak her mind in a way that is befitting of a Nobel Laureate. But this is Malaysia so we should not expect either to occur, apparently.

Estimating Iraqi deaths

Brian Greer's article, which was published in ZDM two days ago, surely has an interesting title: Estimating Iraqi deaths: a case study with implications for mathematics education. The focus of this article is also interesting:
In this paper, I present an account of attempts to quantify deaths of Iraqis during the occupation by US and other forces since the invasion of March 2003, and of the reactions to these attempts. This story illuminates many aspects of current socio-political reality, particularly, but by no means exclusively, in the United States. Here, these aspects are selectively discussed in relation to the overarching themes of what the story illuminates about the uses of statistical information in society and about shortcomings in mathematics education.

Estimating Iraqi deaths

Brian Greer's article, which was published in ZDM two days ago, surely has an interesting title: Estimating Iraqi deaths: a case study with implications for mathematics education. The focus of this article is also interesting:
In this paper, I present an account of attempts to quantify deaths of Iraqis during the occupation by US and other forces since the invasion of March 2003, and of the reactions to these attempts. This story illuminates many aspects of current socio-political reality, particularly, but by no means exclusively, in the United States. Here, these aspects are selectively discussed in relation to the overarching themes of what the story illuminates about the uses of statistical information in society and about shortcomings in mathematics education.

Knowledge and confidence of pre-service mathematics teachers

Yeping Li and Gerald Kulm have written an interesting article that was published in ZDM on Tuesday. The article is entitled Knowledge and confidence of pre-service mathematics teachers: the case of fraction division. Here is the abstract of the article:
To make teacher preparation and professional development effective, it is important to find out possible deficiencies in teachers’ knowledge as well as teachers’ own perceptions about their needs. By focusing on pre-service teachers’ knowledge of fraction division in this article, we conceptualize the notion of pre-service teachers’ knowledge in mathematics and pedagogy for teaching as containing both teachers’ perceptions of their preparation and their mathematics knowledge needed for teaching. With specific assessment instruments developed for pre-service middle school teachers, we focus on both pre-service teachers’ own perceptions about their knowledge preparation and the extent of their mathematics knowledge on the topic of fraction division. The results reveal a wide gap between sampled pre-service middle school teachers’ general perceptions/confidence and their limited mathematics knowledge needed for teaching fraction division conceptually. The results suggest that these pre-service teachers need to develop a sound and deep understanding of mathematics knowledge for teaching in order to build their confidence for classroom instruction. The study’s findings indicate the feasibility and importance of conceptualizing the notion of teachers’ knowledge in mathematics and pedagogy for teaching to include teachers’ perceptions. The applicability and implications of this expanded notion of teachers’ knowledge is then discussed.

Knowledge and confidence of pre-service mathematics teachers

Yeping Li and Gerald Kulm have written an interesting article that was published in ZDM on Tuesday. The article is entitled Knowledge and confidence of pre-service mathematics teachers: the case of fraction division. Here is the abstract of the article:
To make teacher preparation and professional development effective, it is important to find out possible deficiencies in teachers’ knowledge as well as teachers’ own perceptions about their needs. By focusing on pre-service teachers’ knowledge of fraction division in this article, we conceptualize the notion of pre-service teachers’ knowledge in mathematics and pedagogy for teaching as containing both teachers’ perceptions of their preparation and their mathematics knowledge needed for teaching. With specific assessment instruments developed for pre-service middle school teachers, we focus on both pre-service teachers’ own perceptions about their knowledge preparation and the extent of their mathematics knowledge on the topic of fraction division. The results reveal a wide gap between sampled pre-service middle school teachers’ general perceptions/confidence and their limited mathematics knowledge needed for teaching fraction division conceptually. The results suggest that these pre-service teachers need to develop a sound and deep understanding of mathematics knowledge for teaching in order to build their confidence for classroom instruction. The study’s findings indicate the feasibility and importance of conceptualizing the notion of teachers’ knowledge in mathematics and pedagogy for teaching to include teachers’ perceptions. The applicability and implications of this expanded notion of teachers’ knowledge is then discussed.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

MTL, Volume 10 Issue 4 2008

Issue 4 of Mathematical Thinking and Learning has been published with the following main articles:

MTL, Volume 10 Issue 4 2008

Issue 4 of Mathematical Thinking and Learning has been published with the following main articles:

Palin's College Choices

Here's a quick post that follows up on Sara's recent post ("Palin Is A Swirling Student!") about Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin's college education.

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times ran a story ("Sarah Palin's college years left no lasting impression") that suggests that few professors and classmates can recall Palin from her college years. Even more interesting is the insight it provides into how Palin selected some of the colleges she attended. My guess is that Palin's is not an atypical approach. One of the reasons given in the article is that her family couldn't afford -- especially from Alaska -- to make the campus visits that often are a normal luxury available to students from wealthier families.
Palin's parents -- a high school science teacher and school secretary -- could not afford the college tours so common today. Their four children were expected to, and did, work their way through college.
"We didn't have the luxury of spending a week driving around visiting universities to see what they're like," said Kim "Tilly" Ketchum, a high school friend. "We were looking at pictures of campuses."

Palin and Ketchum picked the University of Hawaii at Hilo from a brochure.
Only after arriving in Hawaii did they realize that Hilo had rainfall approaching 100 inches a year. "The rain," Ketchum said, "was disturbing."

They attended orientation but never even enrolled.

The Wasilla girls soon moved to sunny Honolulu and enrolled in Hawaii Pacific University, a small private liberal arts school. They lived in an apartment in the Waikiki Banyan and took a bus to school.

Palin, a school spokeswoman said, attended full time as a business student.

The girls studied on the beach, tried surfing and pulled straight A's, Ketchum said. "We took the basic classes -- chemistry and biology, this and that."

But there was a problem. "When you're used to having some cooler weather, you get tired of the heat," Ketchum said. "We went one semester there before we realized we needed to go someplace else."

They transferred to tiny North Idaho College, on the shore of Lake Coeur d'Alene. Palin's older brother, Chuck Jr., had gone there before transferring to their father's alma mater, the University of Idaho in Moscow.

At North Idaho, Palin and Ketchum found what they had missed in Honolulu. They lived on campus before moving to separate apartments their second semester. "It was all very quaint," Ketchum said. "You kind of felt safe."

IEJME, October 2008

The October issue of International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education has been published. It has the following articles (links to the article abstracts):

IEJME, October 2008

The October issue of International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education has been published. It has the following articles (links to the article abstracts):

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Malaysian academic quoted in the Economist

It's not often that a Malaysian academic gets quoted in the Economist. I read this economist article last week and it referred to a Malaysian academic by the name of Narayanan Kulathuramaiyer, who is based in UNIMAS in Sarawak. I google scholar searched him and he has a pretty long list of publications. The Economist quoted him as a data mining expert. Kudos to the professor!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Paid for by Norm Colemonster?

I should show this to my students when we start talking about campaign advertisements and how they work:

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Mike Rose on McCain on Education

Interview with Mike Rose who wrote Possible Lives and Lives on the Boundary. His blog is here with more comments in the leading post.

Mike Rose on McCain on Education

Interview with Mike Rose who wrote Possible Lives and Lives on the Boundary. His blog is here with more comments in the leading post.

PhD for Zahid Hamidi

A few friends emailed me recently to tell me that an UMNO leader, Zahid Hamidi, currently a Minister in the PM's department and former UMNO Youth Chief when Anwar was still DPM, was recently conferred a PhD in Communications from UPM. I applaud his resilience in doing his PhD part time despite his busy schedule as a politician. But I am probably a bit suspect in regard to the content of his PhD thesis.

I heard Zahid Hamidi speak at a small PROMUDA function a few years back and he came across as an intelligent and intellectually curious UMNO leader. This was in 2003 and he was already doing his PhD then. I was impressed because he didn't really need to get a PhD to bolster his political credentials. I'm glad that he managed to finally finish his PhD. It's a long process which I can certainly attest to as I'm working hard to finish my own PhD thesis next year.

But I can't help but have a niggling doubt as to the quality of his PhD research. For now, I'll have to give him the benefit of the doubt in regard to whether he did all the work himself or if he hired researchers to some at least part of the work on his behalf. I'll reproduce a brief description of his thesis which appeared on the Ministry of Information website and I'll comment after that.

Deputy Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has been conferred a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Communication by Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).

He will receive the Phd at UPM's convocation in October, said the university's School of Graduate Studies Deputy Dean Prof Dr Hasanah Mohd Ghazali in a statement here today.

The university senate approved the degree at its meeting on Feb 21. For the Phd, Dr Zahid completed a thesis entitled "Barisan Nasional Manifesto As Agenda for Malay Language Newspaper During the General Election Campaign."

The study was undertaken to identify the usage of BN manifesto as an agenda for the Malay language newspapers namely Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian during the general elections in 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995 dan 1999.

Dr Zahid, when asked to comment on the degree, hoped that it would spur the young generation to pursue their education to a higher level. He said that the major factor for his success was his belief in life long learning and hoped that it would encourage his children to follow in his footsteps.

"I hope this success will spur my political colleagues, especially the younger ones to study to a higher level. "If I can do it at the age of 55, the young generation should feel challenged (by it)," he said.

Commenting on his thesis, Dr Zahid said that based on the research the manifesto, which is regarded as a promise by BN, was the basis for the success and support obtained by the party during the general elections.

If the manifesto announced provided something good for the rakyat, the effect would be seen from the number of popular votes and increase in the number of seats won by BN, he said.


I'm not sure if this article quoted him correctly but I find the last remark quite disturbing. Has there been a case in the past whereby a BN manifesto would NOT provide something good for the rakyat thereby leading it to lose popular votes and seats? I'm not sure if he had a well defined dependent variable and a set of independent variables which he used in a regression analysis to test his hypothesis but from that statement alone, I find this hard to believe.

Furthermore, he tracked the usage of the BN manifesto in Utusan and Berita Harian in the elections starting from 1982 and ending in 1999. Unless you used very sophisticated coding to pick out and define different categories of reports and later quantify them, I suspect that you would not get much variance in regard to how these papers presented the BN manifesto to its readers - overwhelmingly POSITIVE! In social science methodological speak, you don't get any variance in the independent variable i.e. the BN manifesto or the newspapers reporting them.

In any case, I don't really think there's enough variance on his dependent variable i.e. electoral outcomes in the 6 elections he covered. He cannot possibly use the outcomes in individual constituencies as his dependent variables since you cannot possibly measure the impact of newspaper reporting on the BN manifesto by individual constituencies.

My sense is that he may have been poorly guided by his advisers at UPM who might not have wanted to piss off a high ranking UMNO leader and deny him his PhD. Every PhD inevitably has its share of weaknesses (I'm sure my own will be the same) but some methodological shortcomings will not pass muster in most universities where the advising committee does some sort of quality control.

I hope I can get my hands on his PhD thesis. If anyone has access to it, please email me.

Election Day and Schools

A number of communities are canceling classes on Election Day due to a fear about possible threats to school security and student safety, reports the New York Times ("Safety Concerns Eclipse Civic Lessons as Schools Cancel Classes on Election Day").

The headline and the article suggests that canceling classes negates the possibility of using the voting process -- which often takes place in school gymnasiums and cafeterias -- as a real life civics lesson. In the current context, that's probably true, as these schools are trying to balance safety, security and voting all on their own without the support of policymakers.

I strongly favor making Election Day a national holiday. U.S. Congressman John Conyers Jr. (D-Michigan) sponsored a bill (H.R. 63) in 2005 that would have accomplished exactly that. Since presidential elections only come around every four years, states should seek to codify election days as state holidays as well. In fact, Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and West Virginia have already done so.

Making Election Day a national holiday would elevate the democratic process as something sacred, a protected day when real life can at least slow down and working families can easily find the time to cast their ballots and have their children accompany them if they so choose. The movement toward more early voting is certainly terrific, but there is something special about walking into a polling place on the actual election day and exercising your democratic right.

Here's an alternative initiative focused, in part, on the issue of why we vote on Tuesdays. (In short, because the Constitution says so, based on the needs of the 18th Century agrarian economy.) Why Tuesday? is supported by the likes of Bill Bradley, Jack Kemp, Norman Ornstein, Joe Trippi and Andrew Young. Cool.

Seminar with Sean Delaney

Thursday and Friday last week, we had an interesting seminar at University of Stavanger with Seán Delaney from Marino Institute of Education, Ireland. The seminar had four themes, all within the topic of mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT):
  1. Overview of research on teacher knowledge, with reference to pupil attainment
  2. Studying the mathematical work of teaching in order to evaluate construct equivalence of the teacher knowledge measures in new settings
  3. Using the mathematical quality of instruction to validate the multiple-choice measures of teacher knowledge
  4. Issues related to translation and cultural adaptation of measures
Seán Delaney has been part of the Learning Mathematics for Teaching (LMT) Project at University of Michigan, and he finished his PhD earlier this year. His thesis was entitled Adapting and using U.S. measures to study Irish teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching, and he had Deborah Ball as his main supervisor. In the June issue of Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, an article about the pilot phase of Delaney's study was published:

Delaney, S., Ball, D., Hill, H., Schilling, S., and Zopf, D. (2008). “Mathematical knowledge for teaching”: adapting U.S. measures for use in Ireland. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 1(3):171-197.

Seminar with Sean Delaney

Thursday and Friday last week, we had an interesting seminar at University of Stavanger with Seán Delaney from Marino Institute of Education, Ireland. The seminar had four themes, all within the topic of mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT):
  1. Overview of research on teacher knowledge, with reference to pupil attainment
  2. Studying the mathematical work of teaching in order to evaluate construct equivalence of the teacher knowledge measures in new settings
  3. Using the mathematical quality of instruction to validate the multiple-choice measures of teacher knowledge
  4. Issues related to translation and cultural adaptation of measures
Seán Delaney has been part of the Learning Mathematics for Teaching (LMT) Project at University of Michigan, and he finished his PhD earlier this year. His thesis was entitled Adapting and using U.S. measures to study Irish teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching, and he had Deborah Ball as his main supervisor. In the June issue of Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, an article about the pilot phase of Delaney's study was published:

Delaney, S., Ball, D., Hill, H., Schilling, S., and Zopf, D. (2008). “Mathematical knowledge for teaching”: adapting U.S. measures for use in Ireland. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 1(3):171-197.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

From arithmetical thought to algebraic thought

Elsa Malisani and Filippo Spagnolo have written an article called From arithmetical thought to algebraic thought: The role of the “variable”. This article was published online in Educational Studies in Mathematics last week. Here is the article abstract:
The introduction of the concept of the variable represents a critical point in the arithmetic–algebraic transition. This concept is complex because it is used with different meanings in different situations. Its management depends on the particular way of using it in problem-solving. The aim of this paper was to analyse whether the notion of “unknown” interferes with the interpretation of the variable “in functional relation” and the kinds of languages used by the students in problem-solving. We also wanted to study the concept of the variable in the process of translation from algebraic language into natural language. We present two experimental studies. In the first one, we administered a questionnaire to 111 students aged 16–19 years. Drawing on the conclusions of this research we carried out the second study with two pairs of students aged 16–17 years.

From arithmetical thought to algebraic thought

Elsa Malisani and Filippo Spagnolo have written an article called From arithmetical thought to algebraic thought: The role of the “variable”. This article was published online in Educational Studies in Mathematics last week. Here is the article abstract:
The introduction of the concept of the variable represents a critical point in the arithmetic–algebraic transition. This concept is complex because it is used with different meanings in different situations. Its management depends on the particular way of using it in problem-solving. The aim of this paper was to analyse whether the notion of “unknown” interferes with the interpretation of the variable “in functional relation” and the kinds of languages used by the students in problem-solving. We also wanted to study the concept of the variable in the process of translation from algebraic language into natural language. We present two experimental studies. In the first one, we administered a questionnaire to 111 students aged 16–19 years. Drawing on the conclusions of this research we carried out the second study with two pairs of students aged 16–17 years.