Holding Someone Responsible

Twice already this month, here and here, I've written about some negative press received by a local school district because of its police force. The district brass have taken some action:

The chief for the embattled Twin Rivers Unified School District police force has been placed on administrative leave...

Breck was placed on leave the same day it was learned that the police force would curtail traffic stops and vehicle tows. The policy change comes after a rocky few weeks for the department.

Political Correctness Run Amok

The University of North Dakota has been strong-armed into changing its mascot from the Fighting Sioux, which it has been since 1930, because some people get their panties in a bunch over "a historically disenfranchised race of people" and "hurt":

Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed a law Wednesday overturning a last-ditch attempt in March by the Legislature — which counts many UND alumni among its members — to mandate that UND keep the Fighting Sioux name. That maneuvering caused scheduling headaches for UND teams and threatened its bid to join the Big Sky Conference as it transitions from Division II to Division I sports.

Since August, the NCAA has banned UND from hosting postseason tournaments and said the school's athletes may not wear uniforms with the nickname or logo during postseason play.

The NCAA is operating under the meme of "so open-minded, your brains fall out." How is a mascot at all "hurtful"? Did UND choose the Fighting Sioux to make a mockery, or because they thought it was something inspiring?

Whatever. I guess there are bigger battles in the world, but if you roll over for the little ones, how are you going to act for the big ones?

Sacramento State University's New Veterans Success Center

Three years ago I was privileged and pleased to interview some staff at Sac State's Troops to College office--not much more than a cubicle behinds the admissions office. Despite the cramped quarters, the director and staff impressed me with their work and vision. If you want to read about an excellent program with excellent people, click over to that link and get some good background information--this post will be waiting for you when you get back!

A couple weeks ago I received an invitation to the grand opening of the new Veterans Success Center, and tonight my son and I attended. What an uplifting evening! The Veterans Success Center is the new office for the old Troops to College Program, and we were there to celebrate its completion. The few speakers were thoughtfully brief, but they all spoke variations on a theme: it's not just the more spacious real estate, which is very nice and necessary, it's about the amazing work that's done there in the new center. One mentioned that on her travels to other universities, she found that other veterans centers are based on a deficit model--veterans must be helped to overcome some deficit they're perceived to have; Sac States is based on a success model, doing what is necessary to ensure our veterans succeed at school. Even the name of the office highlights this positive, forward-thinking outlook.

Democratic Congresswoman Doris Matsui also attended. After the speeches I made my way across the room to speak to her for a moment. I introduced myself and told her that her late husband nominated me to West Point; she very much appreciated hearing about that, and about the few correspondences I shared with him while I was a cadet. I also mentioned that I have a former student who wants to attend West Point, that she's his Congresswoman, and that he's looking forward to the upcoming interview process for his nomination; she seemed very interested in the topic, mentioning that interviews were going to be scheduled very soon. At that point I thought it best to let someone else get some "face time" so I excused myself. The congresswoman was very gracious.

All in all it was a very pleasant gathering, in nice, new quarters, for a terrific program. Sacramento State is, from the president on down, supportive of its veterans and of the varied veterans programs. As one speaker mentioned, it's not just the new quarters, but all the work that went into both their necessity and their creation, that made tonight so important.

It was a privilege to be there this evening.

Education Buzz

This week's is here, and includes my post about the not-very-judicious police force at a local school district.

How Do You Describe The Person You Love?

I was recently challenged to pick a few adjectives to describe the person I've loved the most in life--romantic love, that is, not familial. Here's what I came up with:

kind
generous
gentle
talented
smart
hot!

What words do you come up with for yours?

Majors With The Lowest Unemployment Rates

If you don't want to put yourself into the position where the only way out of your bad decisions is to participate in an Occupy (insert city here) protest and whine for others to bail you out, you might consider one of these majors:

Majors and their unemployment rate:

1. Actuarial Science—0 percent

2. Astronomy and Astrophysics—0 percent

3. Educational Administration and Supervision—0 percent

4. Geological and Geophysical Engineering—0 percent

5. Pharmacology—0 percent

6. School Student Counseling—0 percent

7. Agricultural Economics—1.3 percent

8. Medical Technologies Technicians—1.4 percent

9.Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology—1.6 percent

10. Environmental Engineering, Nursing, and Nuclear Industrial Radiology and Biological Technologies—2.2 percent

Notice there's no Aggrieved Victim Studies, Film History, Anthropology, Psychology, Puppetry, or Medieval Literature majors on that list. And I admit that #3 is a bit disappointing.

The Stats Project

For as long as I've been at this school, one of the "big deals" has always been the Stats Project. Starting last year, that project has been mine.

We've spent the last couple of class days brainstorming questions and then winnowing down the list. Some of the questions are plain, some are on controversial topics, and some are just plain startling! Next week I'll send my students out into the other classrooms around school to random choose students and survey them. We'll collate all the data, and my students will have until Christmas Break to write up a report on the project.

It's a lot of work for all of us--certainly a lot of reading and grading for me--but it's a valuable teaching and learning tool.

Are We Really Going To Make Such Excuses?

Are California's teachers--especially the next-to-impossible-to-fire tenured teachers--really going to claim that testing requirements are forcing them to cheat?

The stress was overwhelming.

For years, this veteran teacher had received exemplary evaluations but now was feeling pressured to raise her students' test scores. Her principal criticized her teaching and would show up to take notes on her class. She knew the material would be used against her one day.

"My principal told me right to my face that she — she was feeling sorry for me because I don't know how to teach," the instructor said.

The Los Angeles educator, who did not want to be identified, is one of about three dozen in the state accused this year of cheating, lesser misconduct or mistakes on standardized achievement tests.

Who Are They Protesting, and Who Should They Be Protesting?

From the Washington Post:

President Obama has called people who work on Wall Street “fat-cat bankers,” and his reelection campaign has sought to harness public frustration with Wall Street. Financial executives retort that the president’s pursuit of financial regulations is punitive and that new rules may be “holding us back.”

But both sides face an inconvenient fact: During Obama’s tenure, Wall Street has roared back, even as the broader economy has struggled.

The largest banks are larger than they were when Obama took office and are nearing the level of profits they were making before the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, according to government data.

Wall Street firms — independent companies and the securities-trading arms of banks — are doing even better. They earned more in the first 21 / 2 years of the Obama administration than they did during the eight years of the George W. Bush administration, industry data show.

The Instapundit doesn't refer to him as President Goldman Sachs for nothing, you know.

My point is always this: you can't fault corporations for seeking government assistance. You fault the government for selling out to them. My solution is to cut government power so that the corporation has nothing it can seek from government.

The Occupy (insert city here) crowd are as misguided as they are clueless.

NPR Hit Piece?

I wonder what their rationale for this story is:

Today, we have a stark contrast: blue states like California, New York and Illinois are careening toward bankruptcy as a result of the irresponsible policies imposed by their Democratic politicians, while red states like Texas, Utah and the Dakotas are showing the way to prosperity.

North Dakota is perhaps the most famous example; it has unemployment only because a few people are between jobs. There are many more jobs than people in North Dakota, so the state eagerly recruits workers from the rest of the country. But South Dakota is, arguably, an even better example of red state success, because it doesn’t have any oil. Despite being oil-free, South Dakota’s unemployment rate is around one-half the national rate. Its economy is booming. Why? When I talk with business leaders around the country who have facilities in South Dakota or who deal with businesses there, they invariably emphasize the quality of South Dakota’s labor force. The phrase “work ethic” comes up again and again. And, of course, South Dakota has a friendly business climate. It hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since 1974. And there isn’t a union in sight.

In a sane world, the news media would disseminate information about which states are most successful and what policies they pursue, so that other states can emulate them. That is a pipe dream, of course: we all know that in the world we actually inhabit, our media have an entirely different agenda.

Which leads me to the three-part hit-piece that NPR recently did on South Dakota.

It's true that on the topic under discussion in the NPR piece, South Dakota looks bad from a "proportionality" standpoint. But what about the 5 states with worse numbers than South Dakota? The two worst states, by NPR's own account, are Washington and Minnesota, why not report on those two?

All of this makes sense to a liberal journalist. If you are going to undertake a “yearlong investigation” of a state agency, concluding with the sensational claim that financial corruption and “cultural bias” are causing minority children to be “kidnapped” at a disproportional rate, are you going to waste your time in states like Minnesota and Washington? Don’t be silly–those states are run by Democrats, like you!

The author of the linked piece is going to dissect NPR's report in detail in upcoming posts, and closes with this:

For the moment, however, let’s just pause to consider why NPR thought it necessary to do a hit piece on South Dakota at all.

Why, indeed.

Update, 11/11/11: Powerline continues its debunking of NPR's story. Remember, NPR operates with taxpayer money.

It'll Be A Lighter Than Usual Workout At The Gym Today

I'm certainly no gym rat. I go only 3 days a week: Tuesday for a 45 minute circuit-type workout, Friday for an hour-long workout, and Sunday for a 90 minute workout. Today's workout won't be a full 90 minutes, though, as I just watched 70 minutes of the 2nd half of the 49ers game while "pep walking" 5.3 miles on my elliptical trainer. My cardiovascular fitness is nowhere near where it should be or where it used to be, but I'm not going to fault myself when I can do anything non-stop for 70 minutes.

Maybe I'll cut my legs some slack at the gym today and do a short upper body workout. And maybe I'll go swim a few laps in the pool, too!

Grade Inflation Hurts Math/Science Majors?

Volokh links to a NYT article on grade inflation in humanities courses and concludes:

If taking math, science and engineering courses requires students to sacrifice their GPAs and class standing, it should be no surprise that many choose other courses of study.

It's unfortunate, but it makes sense.

Using Sports To Teach Stats

There are lots of real-life examples to be used in stats classes, sports among them. However, I'm not sure that focusing only on sports is the best way to teach stats, primarily because there are plenty of people for whom sports is a meaningless topic:

At colleges and universities, however, baseball and other sports have become fertile grounds for teaching formal statistics to otherwise wary undergraduates. Pascal’s triangle helps explain why the favored team often loses the World Series. Expected values develop rather unexpected value when they unmask football coaching blunders. And when it comes to Bell curves, which would you rather plot — your school’s N.C.A.A. basketball scores, or snowfalls in Saskatoon?

If your course is "Sports Stats", that's great. But for a general course I see two problems with this. First, not everyone enjoys sports, and second, there are so many other topics that can demonstrate the applicability of stats.

“Intro Stat as a course is frustrating because students don’t care about the things you talk about — economics, politics — but everyone can relate to sports in some way, either as participant or fan,” says Jim Albert, author of the 2003 textbook “Teaching Statistics Using Baseball” and a professor of statistics at Bowling Green State, in Ohio. “The students are interested, and that’s all we’re looking for. They’re willing.”

I disagree. Personally, I don't even like baseball much. It's one thing to be there in the park enjoying a game, but I can't watch it on tv or read the paper about it or anything. And there are plenty of people out there who like economics and/or politics.

Flipping a coin twice is a mundane thought experiment; having Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns attempt two free throws with a game on the line is like watching ESPN in the classroom.

Can't stand basketball at all. And everyone can understand a coin flip.

Again, my point isn't to trash this idea--it certainly appeals to a certain segment of the population. But if you want a course that's universally applicable, you should probably include more than one topic. Why avoid weather, medicine, investing, gambling, psychology, test scores, manufacturing, "bar tricks", equal opportunity/discrimination challenges, weaponry, genetics, global warming (hehe), opinion polling, food production, red-light waiting time, and zillions of other topics, and focus only on sports?

American football is perhaps the greatest sport ever invented. Before my son was born I would spend all weekend on the couch, watching every game I could. I would run numbers through my brain constantly, predicting outcomes. Sometimes I'd even "reverse engineer" games, looking at game stats and trying to predict the finals scores of the games from them (it was more art than science, at least consciously, but I got to be very accurate at it). Fatherhood, though--especially single fatherhood--has reduced my football down to the point where I don't even know who's quarterbacking the Raiders today against Denver.

My point is that while I see the utility of using sports examples, and can even understand why many would take a "Math of Sports" class (I might enjoy a Math of Football class), such can never be more than a niche class.

Proper Attire For Instructors

I've written before on appropriate dress for teachers and professors. I don't insist on a suit and tie for men, but slacks and a collared shirt on most days seems reasonable to me. Shorts and flip-flops are a definite non-starter with me. Similar level of dress for women.

That this site exists is evidence that I'm not alone in my beliefs. It's called, "Prof or Hobo".

Using Kids

They're not your kids to do with as you please, teacher:

A fourth-grade teacher in Wisconsin has been reprimanded after he allowed his students to participate in a political protest against Gov. Scott Walker on a field trip to the state Capitol building.

He received a reprimand in his file.

Democrat Leaves The Plantation, Pays Penalty

There was a time when such ideas weren't considered treasonous, even by Democrats:

Rep. Krusick, the proposal’s author, patiently explained that her purpose was to make the grant program more, not less, inclusive. “Many people, regardless of minority status, are poor,” she said. “And the intent of this amendment was for inclusivity for all.” Belief in colorblind inclusiveness, however, may now result in her expulsion from the Democratic party in Wisconsin, since Rep. Zamarripa told a Madison radio station “that she would support removing Krusick from the Democratic caucus.” And Rep. Leon Young, D-Milwaukee, sent Krusick a letter asking her to stay out of Democratic strategy sessions. “We’ve all got to be one and vote that way,” he said in an interview.

Even I, No Fan of President Obama, Can't Fault Him For This

Perhaps the French don't make such remarks--and if that's the case, then it's yet another in a long string of State Department protocol failures--but even if it's a faux pas, there would be no reason that Obama himself (absent protocol briefing) should know:

President Obama came, he saw, he insulted.

“Obama insults Sarkozy,” blared the headline on one French website, taking umbrage at Mr. Obama’s wayward remark at the G-20 summit here about the physical appearance of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr. Obama thought he was making a gentle joke about Mr. Sarkozy, host of the summit, when he congratulated Mr. Sarkozy and wife Carla Bruni on the birth of their baby daughter on Oct. 19. Instead, Mr. Obama caused a minor international incident.

“I want to make mention that this is our first meeting since the arrival of the newest Sarkozy, and so I want to congratulate Nicolas and Carla on the birth of Giulia,” Mr. Obama told reporters shortly after his arrival at the G-20, with Mr. Sarkozy at his side. “And I informed Nicolas on the way in that I am confident that Giulia inherited her mother’s looks rather than her father’s, which I think is an excellent thing.”

He added, “And so now we share one of the greatest challenges and blessings of life, and that is being fathers to our daughters.”

Mr. Sarkozy, who is said to be very conscious about his looks, did not appear greatly amused by the comment, and some observers who attended the meeting said Mr. Obama’s remark fell flat.

The French president, who has three sons from two previous marriages, later told reporters, “You see the great influence of Barack Obama. It’s been four years now he tells me to be a father of girls is fantastic, he has two. So I listened and followed his example.”

But Mr. Obama’s remarks, intended as a compliment for the French president’s glamorous wife, ended up in the eyes of some Frenchmen as tagging their leader as an ugly man. France took notice.

In defense of Obama, I have to tell the French to put on their big boy undies.

Hey California, Are You Listening???

From his mouth to God's (or at least Jerry Brown's) ears:

Gov. Cuomo got it exactly right a couple of weeks ago when he said, “You are kidding yourself if you think you can be one of the highest-taxed states in the nation, have a reputation for being anti-business -- and have a rosy economic future.”

Democrats weren't always anti-business....

When It Rains, It Pours

Earlier this week I wrote about the police force of a local school district, and the tasteless (I'm being generous there) shirts they sold. Now they've got another ball to juggle:

The embattled Twin Rivers Unified School District police force is facing new scrutiny: this time for its practice of towing vehicles with expired tags or other violations and using the penalty fees to supplement its budget.

Twin Rivers police generated $45,000 by towing vehicles last year, a 55 percent increase in revenues compared with 2008.

In internal department emails earlier this year, officers were given targets for making vehicle and pedestrian stops, and initially for vehicle tows as well.

There's evidence of quotas for tickets/towing as well. Of course, such actions cause people to wonder if students are treated correctly by these sworn peace officers.

There's something we learned pretty quickly at West Point--people who wear uniforms live in a fishbowl, they're constantly under scrutiny. The Twin Rivers police force has either forgotten or failed ever to learn that lesson. When a society gives uniforms and firearms to certain people, it does so with a sacred trust that the force they can apply won't be abused. They are rightly held to a higher standard of conduct.

Someone needs to whip that department into shape, and do so with a quickness. There seems to be a leadership failure somewhere in that district.

Way To Treat Your Union Member

Yes, the "victim" in this story is partially at fault for not looking at her own pay stubs. That doesn't excuse the union involved from keeping the share of her money that it's not entitled to:

She wasn't looking at her paycheck stub; didn't do it for years. When she finally got around to checking it out in 2009, she discovered that she'd been paying out not just one but two deductions in union dues in a lot of paychecks in 2008 and 2009. One deduction was at a teacher's (higher) rate and the other at her own lower clerical/teacher's assistant level.

On other checks, she'd only had one deduction, but it was coded for a teacher. In bits and pieces, dollars and cents, she'd been overpaying for union representation for quite a while.

So she went to the Houston Federation of Teachers for help, and what followed, as HFT itself confirms now, wasn't optimum. She kept getting assurances that things would be fixed — that she would be reimbursed for the overpayments — and nothing happened.

Hat tip to reader MikeAT.