Short Take: Clock Kid School Officials & LEOs Should Have Texan Cards Revoked

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A handful of thoughts about the Muslim Texan kid with the homemade clock, and the predictable attempts in some right-wing corners to minimize the story and shift the focus elsewhere.

1. Breitbart, for people who bemoan leftists' "victim mentality," you sure are quick to trot out examples and ask why President Obama hasn't also called THESE families who were the victims of BS at school, implying that it's because he doesn't care about white people, or non-Muslim people, or what have you.

2. The fact that the teacher became aware of the clock "when it's alarm went off in class" should have been their first clue that this wasn't a bomb. Because when a bomb's alarm goes off, the bomb goes BOOM.

3. The adults who looked at this contraption - which is only comprised of electronics and contains no plastique, no massive quantities of fertilizer, no ordnance, no other variety of materiel, and no incendiary device whatsoever - and thought that it was a bomb should be ashamed to consider themselves Texans.  Surely, good Texans are more familiar armaments than THAT by the time they complete elementary school.  

4. In a different story, a school official or law enforcement officer explained that the child was arrested because when asked about it, he said it was a clock, and didn't give any other explanation for it.  It's unclear what sort of other explanation he should have given for it, since it was, in fact, a clock.

Deconstructing the US Math Education “Crisis,” Part I

Actual public school middle school math / US Dept. of Education, CC BY 2.0

75% of our nation's high school seniors probably aren’t mathematically incompetent, despite a recent recurrence of the nearly annual hysteria to the contrary.

Associated Press, May 7, 2014: US 12th graders make an "ABYSMAL showing" in math and reading according to the 2013 NAEP results.  "Only about one-quarter are performing proficiently or better in math and just 4 in 10 in reading." "America's high school seniors lack critical math and reading skills for an increasingly competitive global economy." (emphases added) 

PANIC!  CRISIS!  Blood in the streets! Dogs and cats getting married ...

BUT ... WAIT a minute.  Is this really a crisis?  Are 75% of our 12^th graders honestly mathematical nitwits, as reporting on the NAEP results seems to imply?  I wanted to know, so I mucked around the NAEP website. 

Based on what I gleaned from the NAEP Test Framework, the skills that the "Basic up to almost Proficient" students generally lack (compared to the "Proficient and Above" students) are unlikely to negatively impact their general readiness for college or work.  These skills are necessary in specific STEM-related positions where advanced mathematical concepts are utilized on a daily - or even monthly - basis.  "STEM-related" jobs are anticipated to number just 5.6% of all jobs in 2022.  

All hand-wringing aside, this is not a crisis. 

Q1: How is "Proficient" defined?  How does it fit into the rubric of the performance levels that the National Center for Ed Statistics uses?

Do K-12 Teachers Need Master's Degrees to Be Effective?

Kindergarten in session / Woodley Wonderworks CC BY 2.0

In Oregon, all newly licensed teachers (who already completed an accredited teacher education program, in addition to whatever subject matter course work might be required for teaching an academic subject in grades six through twelve) have six to nine years in which to earn a Master's degree (or complete a comparable quantity of graduate education) if they wish to retain their teaching license. This is true from Kindergarten through grade twelve. 

After reviewing a number of non-licensure graduate programs in education in the Portland, Oregon area, I began wondering about the following:

1. Are such requirements necessary? What is an elementary school teacher going to glean from a Master's in Ed program that will be worth the $18,000-40,000 cost (not to mention the opportunity cost of losing a year of income, if undertaken full-time) in terms of teaching efficacy and/or financial return?  If the accredited teacher-prep programs don't provide adequate preparation in pedagogy, why aren't those being scrutinized for revision instead, so that new teachers have the tools they need when they first enter the classroom? 

2. Are such requirements sensible in terms of national fiscal policy? With Direct Loan balance forgiveness available after 10 years of public service work post-degree, is the return on a teacher's Master's worth the cost to tax-payers?