tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post2961444267341309408..comments2024-03-28T16:44:34.887-04:00Comments on the daily howler: Getting Ripped: There’s more where that came from!<b>bob somerby</b>http://www.blogger.com/profile/02963464534685954436noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-89510815137441536302013-10-21T10:35:31.267-04:002013-10-21T10:35:31.267-04:00Oh my Lord. It is not Ms. Ripley's fault that...Oh my Lord. It is not Ms. Ripley's fault that those kids are poor. Whose fault is it? I don't accept that its any of my fault.<br /><br />Maybe first things first find out whose fault it is that there are poor kids in America. Get serious about nailing that down. Keep on blaming and guilting people who have nothing to do with making anyone else poor and nothings ever going to change.<br /><br />Maybe she didn't intend for her book to speak to anything to do with those "poor" kids. They get PLENTY of attention and resources. Maybe she thinks education in America could do better for some other kids.Lionelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06336249052780481883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-57673184577069883872013-10-20T12:43:12.453-04:002013-10-20T12:43:12.453-04:00No such thing as no tomorrow in Minnesota!
http:/...No such thing as no tomorrow in Minnesota!<br /><br />http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2RViR0z3OW4/T6gj0LH3TkI/AAAAAAAAEXY/odm6jRyMqsY/s1600/band60card.jpgAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-68139320315021643282013-10-19T17:41:29.103-04:002013-10-19T17:41:29.103-04:00We know, we know. You think Somerby's overdoin...We know, we know. You think Somerby's overdoing it with Amanda Ripley’s ballyhooed new book, The Smartest Kids in the World.<br /><br />We understand the complaint! But Ripley’s book is a remarkable text, a Rosetta Stone which helps us see the nature of modern “journalistic” practice.<br /><br />Tomorrow, we’ll review what Ripley says about Minnesota. We’ll also look at some of what she leaves out. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-8341751462395617932013-10-17T13:58:08.241-04:002013-10-17T13:58:08.241-04:00The "talented" and oh-so-privileged Aman...The "talented" and oh-so-privileged Amanda Ripley is a charlatan – a poser – of the first order. She call herself (cough) an "expert" in matters of education. She passes herself off (wink) as an "investigative journalist." She's not. But many in the mainstream press fall for the masquerade. <br /><br />While Ripley peddles corporate-style "reform" to the American media and public, three things ought be remembered.<br /><br />1. The "talented" Ms. Ripley attended a high school that was very private, and very expensive, and might easily have been mistaken for a swank country club. Her formative years were, to say the least, cushy.<br /><br />2. Ripley argues that Common Core standards ("rigor) and better teachers (and merit pay) are necessary to ensure American "economic competitiveness" in the global economy. This is the very same nonsensical snake oil being promoted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable.<br /><br />3. There's simply no evidence to back up what Ripley (or the Cmaber, or the roundtable) says. <br /><br />Meanwhile, as The Post reports today, "A majority of students in public schools throughout the American South and West are low-income for the first time in at least four decades...Children from low-income families dominated classrooms in 13 states in the South and the four Western states." Then there are all those students in inner-city schools.<br /><br />The Post continues: "In a large swath of the country, classrooms are filling with children who begin kindergarten already behind their more privileged peers, who lack the support at home to succeed and who are more than likely to drop out of school or never attend college."<br /><br />To hucksters like Ripley, the answer is to toughen up and make the schools "do better." <br /><br />However, to those who know better, who aren't out pushing sales of a new book on the "Smartest Kids," the pernicious effects of poverty are well understood. For example, Michael Rebell at Columbia notes that the spike in poverty has dragged down international test scores, including the one (PISA) that Ripley uses to try and make her case (but she does a very poor job of it).<br /><br />Richard Rothstein, at U-Cal Berkeley, says that "reform" efforts that emphasize more testing, "rigor," and increased "accountability" for teachers (pretty much the "reform" advocated by Ripley) have been a failure. <br /><br />But my-oh-my, the "talented" privileged Ripley says nary a word about that. She parrots the delusional rants of Eric Hanushek, who thinks that higher taxes on economic plunderers – the big bankers and hedge-funders – impair economic growth.<br /><br />The U.S. already is economically competitive, typically in the top five as ranked by the World Economic Forum. When the U.S. drops in the rankings the WEF cites things like weak corporate auditing and reporting standards, suspect corporate ethics,) big deficits (brought on by Wall Street’s financial implosion), unsustainable levels of debt, a “business community” and business leaders who are “critical toward public and private institutions,” a lack of trust in politicians and a political process that lacks transparency, and “a lack of macroeconomic stability” caused by decades of fiscal deficits and debt that “are likely to weigh heavily on the country’s future growth.” <br /><br />But according to Ripley, the schools have to fix all that. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-81295819091780322392013-10-17T13:42:35.187-04:002013-10-17T13:42:35.187-04:00It's worth noting that her emphasis on the PIS...It's worth noting that her emphasis on the PISA test is very troubling for many reasons (http://mikethemadbiologist.com/2013/09/30/the-crumbling-tower-of-pisa-evaluation/). One thing worth noting is that Finnish college math teachers don't think their students are prepared for college math (not enough formalism I think).Mike the Mad Biologisthttp://mikethemadbiologist.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com