Are you Right, Left, Up or Down?

After years of people trying to fit me into the Left or the Right, and watching the SC surveys that broke Republican voters into many categories, I decided to do some research and add some dimension to the topic.  Ironically I still land somewhere between Reagan and Clinton on this chart.  (seems about correct)

What are your thoughts on these type of charts or do you believe it is simpler than they make it?  I found it interesting that they put Democrat and Conservative both on the Totalitarian side of the line...  Seems about correct given their desire to impose their beliefs on others.


Politisite - Take the Test
CIVICA US Political Categories
COBSlog Nolan vs Asplund Chart
NCSU Left / Right
Freedoms Phoenix Nolan Info
Transcend Include One Chart

Unions in the Global Work Force

It looks like a new topic has found us per my last post and I am very busy, so here we go.

"As for my Union comment. As long as compensation is based on "Years of Service" instead of "Results and Effectiveness", companies in competitive fields are doomed to failure. This is why Unions are only proliferating in the Public sector."   G2A

"Republicans have a problem. There economic policies fail when they are put into practice. Eight years of the Bush Administration cost this nation millions of jobs and plunged us into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. How, exactly, do you spin that? The Republican answer is to find scapegoats. So they blame the housing crisis. Not of course the free market environment that led to the easy money policies that they so fervently supported, and which inflated the budget. Instead, they blame Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose major blunder was to join the party late. Republicans also blame, basically us. We shouldn't have bought homes, we shouldn't have taken out mortgages. We should have been content with our lot in life. And finally, Republicans blame unions. The fact that the union movement is in irreversible decline, a decline which, by the way curiously coincides with the decline of the middle class begun with Ronald Reagan's assault on PATCO, doesn't seem to faze them. It's better even for the Republican attack on unions, that unions are in such a greatly weakened position. It means that they find it very difficult to defend themselves."  --Hiram

"Religious" People Confuse Me

This post was almost called, Attack of the One Issue Voters.  Now I am not sold on Romney yet, but how can these "Evangelicals" totally ignore Mr Gingrich's past transgressions?  He isn't on his 2nd marriage...  He is on his third !!!  On top of that he has a questionable ethics record at best.  And according to Wiki, he is on his 3rd version of Christianity.

Whereas Romney appears to be a devout Mormon, Husband, Father, etc.  Yet somehow the pious church members want to support the individual that aggressively broke one of the top 10 twice.  Thoughts?

WP Gingrich and Evangelicals
Huff Post Gingrich Ethics
Wiki Romney
Wiki Gingrich

Pirating Content: SOPA / PIPA

Well if you have not heard about this topic, I think you had better turn in your web user card on the way out the door.   Wiki SOPA and PIPA   Apparently our government is considering some laws that would make it challenging and expensive for many web sites to operate.

Being a supposed "Small Government Libertarian", I really do not want the government putting anymore rules on the web or spending my tax dollars enforcing them.  Yet due to my strong belief that people should pay others for their work, I am fully in support of doing something.  As usual, I AM CONFLICTED !!!

A brief story: when I was younger I would pirate "free" music from my friends by copying it onto cassette tapes.  I mean I was broke and my friends had some cool tunes.  Yet when I got a job and matured (slightly), I started to truly understand that it was wrong to steal people's intellectual property without paying for it.  So I discontinued the practice and began paying for all of my tunes, movies, software, etc.  By the way, we do still "share" within the family. (I think that is ok, though I may be rationalizing...)

Now compare this with an acquaintance of mine who has 30,000 songs, another who watches "free" movies instead of renting or buying them, another that rarely buys software, and dozens of other examples of freeloaders extraordinaire.  And the scariest part of this is that most of these folks are at least comfortable with their pilferage, if not down right proud of how good of a deal they are getting.  On top of this...  Many of them are neither young nor broke...

I wonder if these folks would be willing to slip into a bakery and grab a "free" roll while the baker wasn't looking.  Or how many go to church on Sunday morning and pledge not to steal, just to come home and download that "free" content.

One more story: In a book named Predictably Irrational by Dan Arielly, they discuss some social experiments they ran and how the results did not always make sense. (a fascinating read)  One related to this post is when they placed bottles of pop in a shared college dorm fridge.  Not surprisingly, within a few days they were ALL gone.  So next they placed a plate with the same number of dollar coins in the fridge.  Surprisingly, all coins were still present at the end of the test.  Apparently we can rationalize taking things, but have a harder time with cash.

Thoughts?   STEALING  or A GOOD DEAL?

Mitt Romney?

I have been spending some time with my peers over at MNPublius, who of course are vilifying Mitt Romney.  Which seemed interesting, since I am getting the feeling that he is more of a moderate than the other Republican candidates.  Maybe that concerns them since this may allow him tro get more votes, maybe even stealing some from Obama.

So what do you think of Mitt and his candidacy:

• Will his Mormom beliefs prevent the Conservative Christians from voting for him? 
• Is he the evil corporate raider that MNPublius is trying to paint him as?
• Are his views on healthcare reform acceptable? 
• Other important issues?

If he gets the Republican nod, I am thinking he probably has a high likelihood of beating Obama.  Probably definitely worth discussing.

MNPublius Romney and Understanding
MNPublius Romney Capitalism goes Wrong
Wiki Romney
Mitt Romney site
Romney Weakness

Correlation Does NOT Imply Causation

Since the terms Correlation and Causation have come up in our discussions, I decided to provided some serious and humorous links to help folks learn about this concept that is so critical in our normal discussions.

Any good or humorous examples that you would like to add of where people have abused this?

Dilbert Correlation does not imply Causation
Qualtrics Correlation and Causation
Prudent Investor: Correlation vs Causation Cartoon
Wiki Correlation does not imply causation
Stats Help Correlation vs Causation
Youtube: Correlation and Causation - Employee Satisfaction
YouTube: Correlation Does NOT Imply Causation

As it applies to our recent discussions.  We know that many things are Correlated to poor test scores.  Meaning that they tend occur at the same time.  Some include:

• Lower incomes
• Minorities
• Urban
• Public Schools

However it is irresponsible to say that lower income, minorities, urban or public school Causes poor test scores.

It is likely that there are a number of additional factors that are not listed that may actually Cause the poor test scores. Some may be:

• Less access to books or other supplies
• Ineffective Teacher(s)
• Too much screen time
• Not doing homework / studying
• Parents irresponsible / Poor modeling

Questions?

Compensating for Demographics

J recently left this comment back at G2A Blame vs Contributions  and I thought it was worth more attention than it would get back there.

"The school funding formula is SUPPOSED TO "fully compensate" for demographics. If it does not, it is simply one more failure of government to solve the problem that some kids are being systematically deprived of the education "guaranteed" them. I would like to think that, if you started every kid out with the expectation he could learn, and properly nurtured that desire to learn we all have, it wouldn't cost more to educate a poor kid than a rich one. Other than the free lunch.


Of course, I'm willing to see the high differential of the current formula stay in place, so long as results are brought up to somewhere near equal. I mean, I can understand poor results if I'm getting by cheap, or paying more to get better results, but spending more and getting less just does not compute, not to mention the tragic loss of human potential.     J. Ewing"

So what are your thoughts on this?

The 2 & 7 School Model?

I proposed this crazy idea in the previous post's comments.

"I had a creative idea. How about we convert all but 2 of the RAS elementary schools to Magnets? And the only way students can get and stay in is by having Parents that are willing to prove their academic support of the child. This way we can co-locate all the unsupported kids in the 2 "community" schools. Thoughts?"

Currently RAS has 9 Elementary schools. (Forest, Lakeview, Meadow Lake, Neill, Noble, Northport, Spanish Immersion {RSIS}, Sonnesyn, and Zachary Lane)  Only Zachary Lane and RSIS are currently meeting AYP.  And this Fall RAS will open the new STEAM school.

My rationale is that if we take a rule from the Charter and Private school rule book, we could make the education experience more effective and controlled for the majority of RAS students.  And quite likely only 2 schools would be failing AYP when we were done.  Imagine if 7 of the schools had admission and continued enrollment requirements that the students and parents both had to meet.  And if they slipped from the path, they would be expelled back to the "community" schools.

Now I know that there are probably laws against this sort of thing, but it is an interesting concept.  I mean it seems in line with the Conservative's parent choice concept, it gives the Liberal and the Public school folk a way to succeed with the majority that are willing to work hard and perform, and finally it identifies the non-conformists early, and it may enable them to obtain the specialized help they need.  And it really is just an extension and sharpening of our current reality. 

Of course the cost per student in the "Community" schools will be quite high, but there won't be too many kids there.  By the way, I just guessed at 2 of 9 in our district, this may vary by community...  Thoughts?

Conservatives Stumped?

We didn't get very far on this, so I will put it out there again.
G2A Why Neighborhoods Decline?

Repeatedly the Conservative folks point at the "Government" and "Public Schools" as social systems that are failing the Poor citizens of our country.  In fact, often it seems that they believe these entities are causing or encouraging the poverty.

Often their solution is to make it easier for the Lucky kids to segregate from the Unlucky kids. (ie open enrollment, vouchers, charters, home schooling, etc)  All this being above and beyond the normal means. (ie living in more affluent communities, private schools, etc)

So how does this all apply to our local RAS community?  We have elementary schools where the majority of the kids receive free and reduced lunch, and many are not meeting academic expectations.  Many middle class and affluent families have run already or they are flocking to the Magnets.  This chicken or egg discussion seems pretty important if we intend to reverse some the decline we have been experiencing. Thoughts?

Can a school really compensate for the situational realities of these students and communities?  Do we need to do something else above and beyond the schools?  Or are we just in the gravitational pull of a growth and decay cycle that most inner ring communities experience? 

See Pg 9 of this Link for a Graphic View

For more detail see the links in this post

Another Plea for Support

In a search for new opinions and commentors, every so often I ask my readers to forward information regarding give2attain to their friends, enemies, anyone that may find the site interesting or those that think differently.  Just create an email, address it to your whole contact list, copy the address below and hit send. Or tell them to web search give2attain !!!

Send That Email NOW !!!  
http://give2attain.blogspot.com/

And just think, you can support a good cause without even needing to provide a credit card number.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

G2A Super Hero
G2A The Joy of Blog
Jokes Prank New Years Funnies
Saturday Evening Post Funnies
MSNBC NY Resolution Cartoons

Why Neighborhoods Decline?

We have a chicken or egg discussion going on at multiple locations, so I thought I would post some links and move the G2A discussion to this post.

Speed Gibson Full Steam Ahead
Speed Gibson Does Open Enrollment Work?
G2A Blame vs Contributions

G2A's View
"I don't think I have ever heard of someone open enrolling or moving because of a bad curriculum, bad building or poor Teacher."


J's View
"Of course not, because most of the other problems, the "social problems" and their side-effects, are secondary problems caused by the failure of schools to focus on education."

To add to my view, the older and smaller housing available in these neighborhoods also contributes to the flight to the suburbs.

What do you think? Did poor schools cause the Urban decay or did the Urban decay cause poor results in Urban schools?

Happy Holidays !!!!

I have to agree with J that it is time for family and the celebration of whatever holiday you and yours celebrate at this time of year.  And if you do not have one, check out the links below for some ideas.

Holiday Insights
December Holidays
Education World - December

And for some fun, here are some morse amusing links.

Funny Pics Holiday
Cartoon File Holiday
Glasbergen Holiday
Whipnet Christmas

Merry Christmas !!!  Happy Hanukkah !!!
Joyous Time Off !!!  or Enjoyable "fill in the blank" !!!

John and Family

Blame vs Contributions

Since I got a sense that some thought we were picking on the Teachers excessively, I want to talk about another favorite book of mine. Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most (Stone, D., Patton, B., & Heen, S., 1999)  Thankfully some folks wrote up summaries that I have linked to below.
Peace: Difficult Conversations Summary
Frumi: Difficult Conversations Summary

This is another incredible book if you want to work productively with people that see the world differently than you do.  The area of interest for me today is the concept of "Contribution Systems".  I have found this to be one of the simplest and most profound concepts.  Before learning this I may have "blamed" someone or some group for some unfortunate turn of events, and from my viewpoint it was usually pretty clear who was at fault and it typically was not me.

Now when something goes wrong, I take a little time to think about all the factors and people that may have contributed to the event, and often I do carry some of the burden of responsibility.  Finally, if it is important I can then attempt to apportion the blame/responsibility amongst the factors/parties.  Now I usually do not do this so that I can club someone, though sometimes it may be useful when negotiating a settlement.

I typically apportion the responsibility to the factors and people so that I can learn from the incident.  With this information I can change a policy, train someone, give directions differently, add some checks to my list, fix a flaw, etc, etc, etc.  The truly bad mistake is one that people do not learn from, and are therefore doomed to repeat over and over.

Now if we were to create a list of contributing factors with regard to why "so many children are left behind?"  What would you add to this starting list I have created?

Parents

• Irresponsible, yet they have children
• Do drugs, alcohol, smoking, etc. (ie harm child)
• Have more children than they can afford
• Poor parenting due to laziness or ignorance
• Propogating victim / entitlement mind set
• Can't speak English  (Laurie)
• Parents are illiterate (Laurie)
• Working 2 or more jobs (Laurie)
• Single parent household (Laurie)
• Belief systems, behaviors and actions not aligned with "typical American culture"
• ???

Children

• Choose to behave poorly or resist learning
• Child is academically or behaviorally challenged for physical, mental or emotional reasons
• ???

Public K-12 Teacher / Union System

• Protect the time served and education based comp system
• Resist firing of poor performers
• Resist standardized curriculum
• Resist competition / limiting options and availability
• ???

Public K-12 Administration

• Protect the time served and education based comp system
• Resist firing of poor performers
• Resist accountability measures
• Resist competition / limiting options and availability
• ???

Charter and Private K-12 Administration

•  Fiscal and Result Reporting scandals that damage reputation
• Cherry picking good determined students and leaving the others for the public schools to deal with

Belief Systems/Philosophy (may apply across categories)

• Soft bigotry of low expectations, expected to fail (JE)
• That universal public education is a public good AND entitlement. (JE)
• That education can not be run as a business. (JE)
• Belief that the Public School model is the only viable model. (JE)
• Education is entitlement and social service (JE / NG)
• ???

State Policies and Laws

• Inadequate funding
• Too many regulations
• Inadequate early childhood education
• Inadequate parent training
• Inadequate health care
• Inadequate social and nutritional systems
• Limit competition
• Too much or little accountability focus
• ???

National Policies and Laws

• Inadequate funding
• Too many regulations
• Too much or little testing and measuring
• ???

American Culture

• Too socialist - coddling lazy people
• Too capitalistic - coddling rich people
• Values Football more than Education
• Self centered with little thought of others
• Too few volunteers to help the unlucky kids
• Rich and Middle Class parents run from Poor neighborhoods and kids. Leaving high density neighborhoods of poor and unlucky students. (ie less funds, fewer volunteers, fewer good role models, more problems, etc)
• ???

Other Countries/Parties

• Foreign infiltration plot (JE)
• ???

Now this one I am going to do a little different. When you give me ideas I will add them to the list, so start brain storming...  Additional sub-headings are also welcome.

Whose Children have been Left Behind?

One of my Facebook Friends posted regarding the blog post linked below.  The thoughts we discussed in Liar Liar seem very related.  Here we have a woman that claims to have been a Conservative expert and ardent NCLB supporter claiming that she has seen the evil of her ways and switched sides.

So in this article she in essence says that Charters, Privatization, Testing, Incentive Pay, etc are NOT WORKING, and that we should focus on what seems to me as the typical Liberal / Public School agenda.  She references many facts and makes a convincing case.

Being an ardent NCLB supporter, of course I disagree with her.  If we don't have active system monitoring that drives system adjustments, we have no idea where we are relative to the goal and no way to correct the system.  It would be like a furnace without a thermostat, which makes no sense.

Now I do agree that NCLB does need some tweaks. Below are some links from our previous discussions on the topic. Some of her improvement points definitely make sense, like more early education and hire/keep only highly qualified Teachers.  Though I am sure we would disagree regarding what a qualified Teacher is...  She seems to like years and degrees... (ie pro-Union?)  And I am not sure how she would implement and pay for her ideas. 

It seems she believes that if we give the Educational and Social Services groups more money, they'll take care of the problem.  Which I find funny since we tried that for decades before NCLB, and the result was a huge gap and a burning platform that allowed NCLB to get passed. (Note: NCLB was a Ted Kennedy bill (ie Liberal), Bush just signed it... She forgot to mention that.) 

So what do you think, was she ever "Conservative"?  Is she trying to manipulate the information and us?  If so, what is her intent/motive?  What are your thoughts regarding the article and the topic?

Whose Children have been Left Behind?
by Diane Ravitch on Parents Across America
Parents Across America

G2A AYP, NCLB, PDCA
G2A No More NCLB?
G2A AYP  Pick your corner
G2A AYP - The Top 10 List
G2A Sir, The Class is to Hard
G2A High Stds Reqd
G2A Dead Beat Parents
G2A Teaching to Test?

Diane's Top 12

1. Every pregnant woman should have good pre-natal care and nutrition so that her child is born healthy. One of three children born to women who do not get good prenatal care will have disabilities that are preventable. That will cost society far more than providing these women with prenatal care.
2. Every child should have the medical attention and nutrition that they need to grow up healthy.
3. Every child should have high-quality early childhood education.
4. Every school should have experienced teachers who are prepared to help all children learn.
5. Every teacher should have at least a masters degree.
6. Every principal should be a master teacher, not a recruit from industry, the military, or the sports world.
7. Every superintendent should be an experienced educator who understand teaching and learning and the needs of children.
8. Every school should have a health clinic.
9. Schools should collaborate with parents, the local community, civic leaders, and local business leaders to support the needs of children.
10. Every school should have a full and balanced curriculum, with the arts, sciences, history, civics, geography, mathematics, foreign languages, and physical education.
11. Every child should have time and space to play.
12. We must stop investing in testing, accountability, and consultants and start investing in children.

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

I know there must be something more important to discuss out there, but this concept still fascinates me to no end.  Here is one of J's quotes from the last post.

"If you're getting your news from CNN you have no idea whatsoever what those who get their news from Fox know, because you will never hear it. Most studies find exactly the opposite, in fact. Remember, people CHOOSE their sources for news, and they do so intelligently, contrary to liberal belief. Lying to them or slanting the truth loses you audience. Compare Fox News and CNN and you will see it, plain as day."

Now what do you think, is there really a huge conspiracy out there where the Liberals, Conservatives, Whole Organizations, etc are actually working to twist FACTS and state LIES?  Or do they truly believe what they are writing, saying, etc is the TRUTH / FACTS?

If you answer twisting and lying, who do you think is the biggest LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE and why?

The reason it fascinates me is because it comes down to intent.  Are they really evil tyrannical manipulators or honest well intentioned engaged citizens, news people, politicians, etc?  That is a pretty big difference that seems very important to me.

As you are aware, I like to peruse all types of information sources so that I can understand the play from the perspective of all seats in the theater. Be it from the Left, Middle, Right or some other country. Overall I think most folks are being honest based on their perspective of reality, and I find it amusing when folks call these fellow citizens liars. 

Finally, what important sources did I miss below?

G2A Snopes and Relativity
Blind Spots
CNN
FOX News
Aljazheera (English)
BBC News
Huffington Post
EIB network
The Nation