Month: September 2010

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The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education

The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education

author: Diane Ravitch
name: Elaine
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2010/09/06
date added: 2010/09/13
shelves: history, non-fiction, politics, sociology
review:
She closely reviews the literature around accountability testing and school choice, after describing how she came to be an advocate for those things. Curiously enough, she wrote the history curriculum for CA in the late 80s that I went to high school under. And the data doesn’t follow what she had hoped for, in fact in many cases it’s entirely counter-productive. If you’ve followed this stuff at all, then there’s nothing massively surprising, but lots of interesting food for thought. (A friend of mine is a high school English teacher in Texas; I’ve listened to a few rants.) A good reminder that there are no simple options for improving education, altho there are lots of simple obvious ones…that happen to be wrong.

What I find curious, personally, is that she was an advocate of these ideas at all. Her background is in looking at the simplistic education fads of the past, so choice and testing ought to have sounded warning bells. A testimony to the power of peer pressure, I suppose.

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The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy

The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy

author: Raj Patel
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2010/09/01
date added: 2010/09/13
shelves: economics, environmentalism, history, politics, read-again, sociology, urban-studies
review:
It hit a raw nerve for me about where I am in life and society, and I’m still trying to figure out how to describe that experience. I’d like to read it again and maybe make some notes as I go. Left with a vague sense of wanting to do something, but not enough of a strong direction of what exactly that ought to be. (That may just be about me.) Recommended with that reservation.

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The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy

The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy

author: Raj Patel
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2010/09/01
date added: 2010/09/13
shelves: economics, environmentalism, history, politics, read-again, sociology, urban-studies
review:
It hit a raw nerve for me about where I am in life and society, and I’m still trying to figure out how to describe that experience. I’d like to read it again and maybe make some notes as I go. Left with a vague sense of wanting to do something, but not enough of a strong direction of what exactly that ought to be. (That may just be about me.) Recommended with that reservation.

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Twitter Digest for 2010-09-12

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Today’s Links 9/11/2010

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Twitter Digest for 2010-09-11

  • @science_goddess just looked that up on imdb – fascinating! what theater? (saw star trek V in theater, only me, sis & a random guy.) in reply to science_goddess #
  • @andrea thanks! s'ok…cold & rainy. 🙁 in reply to andrea #
  • watching venture brothers for the 8000th time. still hilarious. #
  • . @pat_ramsey @thereisnocat @dylanw thanks, guys! in reply to pat_ramsey #
  • high five! RT @jbertrand: You are doing something right when FEMA calls you and asks for advice. #
  • @Oakwright you and me both. (I ended up writing two long ranty blog posts.) in reply to Oakwright #
  • RT @Oakwright: I like geek girls. I like geek boys. I like geeks that don't identify as either gender. I just like geeks. #
  • wow, thanks, I always wanted November weather for my birthday. (not!) on the plus side, big poofy kitty on the lap. #
  • @RobertAHunter thanks – that reminded me of something I read recently that I wanted to blog about. Placeholder: http://bit.ly/cQj9ji #
  • @l8dybug @TurtleNorthwest thanks! nothing fancy planned for today, but that's how I like it. and yes, I'm VERY glad to be feeling better. in reply to l8dybug #

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quote to elaborate on later

Switch, page 246:

Researchers who study social movements call situations like these “free spaces” — small-scale meetings where reformers can gather and ready themselves for collective action without being observed by members of the dominant group. Free spaces often play a critical role in facilitating social change.

This is in the context of two groups of hospital interns/residents, one of which was able to make a significant change in their work environment, and “free space” meetings were the key ingredient. But of course there’s a point I want to come back and make about things I’ve written on earlier. No time for it at the moment, but I wanted to get this down before I forgot/took the book back to the library.