Secrets of the City

Holy shit.

Just another ad-dependent media outlet bashing Craigslist. Oh, wait…

Minneapolis police say local users of the Internet bulletin board Craigslist should use caution,

It seems Minneapolis police are the ones bashing Craigslist. Given recent news stories the place appears to be used by hoodlums.

The low score comes mostly from the state’s lack of various teaching programs and effectiveness measures that other state’s have For example, the state was docked for lacking a statewide program to reduce class sizes.

Somebody’s teacher deserves a scolding.

I’ve got the report in front of me, 18 states have programs to reduce or limit class sizes, 26 have a student-teacher ratio median in elementary schools of 15:1 or less.

FWIW

Speaking of social networking, schools, and Kare11, there was also this story about some Eden Prairie athletes being disciplined for having photos of them drinking at a party show up on Facebook.

“I’m personally pretty upset and wondering why someone would collect these photos and turn them in,” O’Leary said. “A lot of kids’ lives are going to be ruined as far as scholarships and sports are concerned.”

Hmm, maybe you should have thought about that before partying. He says the photos were taken before he signed the required pledge not to drink. He also says he didn’t drink and was just holding the beverages of his friends (and if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you).

Maybe if we didn’t demonize alcohol and taught our children a health respect for it, many kids wouldn’t feel the need to binge drink which has led to 4 deaths this year already of college aged people.

I agree, I think the 21 drinking age is stupid and that kids should learn how to drink at home with their parents, not at parties with their friends. I certainly drank underage, both with my family and friends, but I also never signed a pledge not to drink alcohol that would have consequences if I violated it.

How many roses did the thieves make off with?

(Hoping other people get the reference, feeling like a perv if they don’t)

The group’s “Quality Counts” annual report on K-12 education gives Minnesota a D+ for how well the state is improving its teaching.
+
the report shows that Minnesota student’s chances for success based on education and family factors are far better than students in most other states. In that category, Minnesota got a B+, and ranked seventh nationwide.
=
maybe the need to “improve” teaching in the way that they measure it isn’t at all necessary.

They measure it on a number of levels, including: Licensure requirements, quality monitoring, salaries and incentives, talent management, school working conditions, professional dvlpt, support for beginning teachers and others.

For example, do we require substantial coursework in the subject area tought for initial licensure? No (27 states do). Do we require formal evaluations of teachers’ perfomance? Yes (43 states do). Do we have license reciprocity or portability? No (38 states do). These are all issues the EPE says have a positive impact on teaching.

Opportunity for success is divided into three categories: Early foundations (family income, parental employment, etc); Schooling years (pre-college); and Adult outcomes (income, employment, etc). Our “Chance for success” index is 7th at just below 90 percent. Of the three categories, school years is found to be the driving force behind a high ranking.

FYI

We’re about 5 comments into this conversation about teachers and it’s already better informed and calmer than what I’m sure we’re going to read, hear, and see over the next few days. Most will see the words “teachers” and “D+” and that will be it.

The shortcomings or abject failures of the systems in which educators are trained and in which they teach are the entities that are being scrutinized far more than the teacher themselves. The breadth and depth of the report is always impressive, but I’m annually worried when it comes out because it takes equal depth to interpret the findings.

I think the next couple of days will be utterly compelling to watch locally. Also, with the war and the economy eating up so much time, I wonder if news like this will force the presidential candidates to lay out some specifics about how they view public education. Bashing NCLB isn’t good enough. I want to hear some innovation and some leadership. Education seems exceptionally marginalized thus far.

“How many roses did the thieves make off with?”

What an unholy fucking pervert!!

We’re about 5 comments into this conversation about teachers and it’s already better informed and calmer than what I’m sure we’re going to read, hear, and see over the next few days. Most will see the words “teachers” and “D+” and that will be it.

Agreed. The headlines alone are enough to frustrate anyone who actually understands what the report is saying.

I find it odd that my internet husband and real life husband are both teachers…

Elizabeth, you are the perfect human being. No mistakes, ever, sounds like. Congrats!

Why don’t we try that again, but making an actual point instead of a personal attack?

I don’t find that odd at all, mb. (When you’re married, you can use nicknames like “mb” for “mb21.”) It just shows that your fine taste in men isn’t constricted to the real world only.

Condescend much? Maybe it’s the gas fumes.

re: High School drinkers In my day any kid who was at all interested in a scholarship was informed by Coach that their chances would evaporate if they were caught doing anything untoward at all. And in prep school, our deans made a point of informing us that those of us on scholarship would forfeit it if we got in trouble. It created a stupid parallel system of rich kids misbehaving and poor kids getting really devious.

Well, frankly, if teachers and parents think that having kids sign an honor code to make them refrain from drinking, cheating, having sex after 12, they’re really kidding themselves. It’s not surprizing that kids are having beer bashes, it’s just surprizing that they’d be dumb enough to pose for digital pictures.

Oh, and Max is always condescending…it’s a part of his charm.

I don’t know about that, alie. Before I left for college, I bet my parents a plane ticket anywhere in the country that I wouldn’t be married or engaged when I graduated college. Needless to say, I won the bet. (Haven’t yet cashed it in though.)

Well, frankly, if teachers and parents think that having kids sign an honor code to make them refrain from drinking, cheating, having sex after 12, they’re really kidding themselves. It’s not surprizing that kids are having beer bashes, it’s just surprizing that they’d be dumb enough to pose for digital pictures.

We all know abstinence-only education does not fix the problem.

You would think by now that no one is surprised that a) kids do this, b) the pictures show up online, and c) somebody rats ‘em out.

RE: drink Why isn’t there a scheduled age difference for small beer, strong beer or wine and distilled spirits?

I’ll make the foolish assumption, that if kids come from stable homes, their parents could model good behavior and introduce their adolescent children to responsible consumption patterns in public settings. This would be preferable to the power hour alcohol related fatalities, neo-prohibitionism and nanny state nonsense of our current system. Think of the children…

Condescend much? Maybe it’s the gas fumes.

Or maybe it’s a lack of patience for anonymous commentors who have little to offer but sarcastic stabs rather than actual conversation.

Max,

Love the VC Andrews reference. Flowers in the Attic?

That’s the one.

What kind of crazy euphemism is “physical mishandling?”

“physical mishandling” kind of lends itself to all sorts of euphemisms. ‘While physically mishandling said 9 year old girl, he then misplaced her teeth.‘

“But your honor, I didn’t abuse the little girl, I just mishandled her and misplaced some stuff. I mean, how am I s’posed to know a little girl’s skin rips and bones break so easily. And darned if I know how her teeth ended up on the floor. We misplaced them. Maybe little girls should come with warnin’ labels and instructions, then I won’t be so likely to mishandle and misplace stuff again.“

Good defense.