~ Jason Sparks ~

History seems likely to repeat in US...

2011-06-15T08:13:00.007-06:00

The U.S. Department of Education administered a history exam called the "National Assessment of Educational Progress", aka the Nation's Report Card, to a representative sample of public and private schools, testing 7,000 fourth-graders, 11,800 eighth-graders and 12,400 high-school seniors. The test results were then broken into "below basic," "basic," "proficient" and "advanced."

Only 20% of U.S. fourth-graders, 17% of eighth-graders 12% of 12th-graders who took the 2010 history exam were "proficient" or "advanced," unchanged since the test was last administered in 2006. Given that USA is a democratic society, it's critical that we prepare our children to vote from an informed perspective.

For more info see http://nationsreportcard.gov/ushistory_2010/

Great conference: Education Innovation Summit

2011-04-08T07:47:00.007-06:00

My mind is still reeling from the presentations at this week's Education Innovation Summit at ASU's SkySong facility. The crowd was a healthy mix of VCs, Edupreneurs, industry players like Pearson, local practitioners, industry luminaries such as Joel Klein, Ron Huberman, and Adrian Fenty.

A common theme I heard was that politicians in US are afraid to make such changes because they fear the environment here isn't ready for such reforms, and if they propose changes, the public will react negatively, and they won't get reelected. So, the political environment needs to be more open to change.

While we keep hearing about budget cutbacks in US, we should note that the US still spends more per student than any other country in the world. So perhaps the Republicans aren't simply against education. The US has been increasing budgets and shrinking class sizes over the last decade, but these aspects alone have not affected student outcomes. That means we need to look beyond these factors.

ASU's president Michael Crow explained that times have changed and education needs to change. Under his mangement, ASU has improved student outcomes, increase enrollment numbers, graduate rates, and research projects despite a 60% drop in public funding. You can't do this by sticking with traditional models. Of course higher education isn't tightly controlled like K-12.

Joel Klein explained that we should not be surprised that a monopoly government institution with a unionized workforce resists change as this is what our current education system really is. However, we have to do something with urgency to prevent the "American dream from becoming the American memory". Here are Mr. Klein's top five ways to reform our system:

Move towards data-driven system. With data we can see what's working and what's not. Right now we don't have such details.
Move from textbook to digital. If history is any indication, this has greatly improved other industries.
Shift away from traditional school classroom model towards new models.
Embrace customized/individualized approaches to student education.
Rethink human capital. Are we mandating that teachers do bureaucratic tasks? How could they better spend their time?

These points resonated with with others said. Ron Huberman, a humble public servant that ran Chicago Public Schools with a $5 Billion annual budget expressed he could have done a much better job with $4 Billion if the system was free of the bureaucracy that holds in back. In the US, 90% of school board members are directly aligned with teachers unions. Can you say conflict-of-interest? But the problem is not union's alone. Ineffective management by superintendents and others are equally to blame.

Carlos Watson, journalist turned investment banker, compared Education's struggle to move beyond "incrementalism" with Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail commentary that "superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes."

As an edupreneur, it was great to attend some business sessions and be reminded of key points like maintaining focus, partnering wisely, remaining student-driven and to make sure we're solving real problems.

DFMv3 is live!

2011-03-31T10:48:00.006-06:00

After 3 years of research and development, Dr. Flowers Test Prep and Logical Steps have launched the next iteration of our test prep platform helping students prepare for the MCAT online - DrFlowersMCAT.com

A big thanks for all of those that worked with us - advisers, students, teachers, parents, consultants, designers, programmers & project managers. Geeze, Lynn, wherever you are, thanks! ASU and SkySong, thanks for being the conduit for much of our premed research.

In this release, we've moved away from a strict individualization of student curriculum and more towards a guided journey to what you need to know. We now let students select which journey they'd like to pursue from Cram Session to Physics Booster. We've reworked thousands of concepts in math, chemistry, biology, physics, verbal reasoning and writing to be compatible mobile devices. We've moved everything to the cloud. We added a massive "question pool". We built support systems and trained resources to grade essays our client's essay according to AAMC's metrics.

The research told us so much. We gave cameras to premed students to photograph and tell their stories of preparing for the MCAT. From this we learned that students have busy and varied lives, and may study anywhere and anytime. We conducted surveys of premed students that revealed weaknesses in our competition. Second hand research and monitoring of what's working in mobile, social media, web 2.0, etc provided the reality check for the underlying platform.

We also learned that there's a lot of good content online. Yet finding it and tracking what you've learned vs what is covered on the MCAT is tedious. And fitting that into a busy schedule means the value of online test prep courses now is how to make efficient use of students' time.

It was amazing studying so many educational theories and trying to fit them together to deliver an effective & coherent experience. This meant we had to iteratively rework the application dozens of times and occasionally have heated debates about which theories should be applied when, where and how. As my friend Waseem once told me, "figuring out what to execute seems to take forever; execution is the easy part."

I learned that performance on standardized exams has more to do with applied knowledge than theoretical knowledge. I feel the same applies to building an elearning system. Now, let's see how we did applying our knowledge in DFMv3.

Top Socially Networked Cities in US

2011-03-20T09:11:00.003-06:00

Men’s Health recently ranked US cities by how socially networked they are by considering analysis from LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Friendster, Reddit and Digg, and SimplyMap. Online social gurus Mashable feels the study is scientifically accurate.

Notice Denver's strong showing.

Most socially networked
1 Washington, DC A+
2 Atlanta, GA A+
3 Denver, CO A+
4 Minneapolis, MN A+
5 Seattle, WA A+
6 San Francisco, CA A
7 Orlando, FL A
8 Austin, TX A
9 Boston, MA A
10 Salt Lake City, UT A-

11 Cincinnati, OH A-
12 Raleigh, NC A-
13 Burlington, VT A-
14 Portland, OR B+
15 Madison, WI B+
16 Dallas, TX B+
17 Portland, ME B
18 Sacramento, CA B
19 Aurora, CO B
20 Boise, ID B
21 Charlotte, NC B
22 Wilmington, DE B
23 Oakland, CA B
24 St. Louis, MO B
25 Las Vegas, NV B
26 Columbus, OH B
27 San Diego, CA B
28 San Jose, CA B
29 St. Paul, MN B-
30 Plano, TX B-
31 Tampa, FL B-
32 Nashville, TN B-
33 Los Angeles, CA B-
34 Phoenix, AZ B-
35 Newark, NJ B-
36 Miami, FL B-
37 Norfolk, VA C+
38 Richmond, VA C+
39 Chicago, IL C+
40 Durham, NC C+
41 Colorado Springs, CO C+
42 Des Moines, IA C+
43 Jersey City, NJ C+
44 Indianapolis, IN C+
45 Milwaukee, WI C+
46 Fargo, ND C+
47 Columbia, SC C+
48 Houston, TX C+
49 Philadelphia, PA C+
50 Birmingham, AL C+
51 Cleveland, OH C+
52 Kansas City, MO C
53 New York, NY C
54 Greensboro, NC C
55 Reno, NV C
56 Manchester, NH C
57 Providence, RI C
58 Baltimore, MD C
59 Little Rock, AR C
60 Louisville, KY C
61 Sioux Falls, SD C-
62 Omaha, NE C-
63 Pittsburgh, PA C-
64 Baton Rouge, LA C-
65 Lexington, KY C
66 Wichita, KS C-
67 Anchorage, AK C-
68 Lincoln, NE C-
69 Cheyenne, WY D+
70 New Orleans, LA D+
71 Tucson, AZ D+
72 Buffalo, NY D+
73 Honolulu, HI D+
74 Santa Ana, CA D+
75 Charleston, WV D+
76 Oklahoma City, OK D+
77 Virginia Beach, VA D+
78 Winston-Salem, NC D+
79 Tulsa, OK D+
80 Albuquerque, NM D
81 Fort Worth, TX D
82 San Antonio, TX D
83 Jackson, MS D
84 Chesapeake, VA D
85 Jacksonville, FL D
86 Riverside, CA D
87 Memphis, TN D-
88 St. Petersburg, FL D-
89 Toledo, OH D-
90 Corpus Christi, TX D-

Least socially networked
91 Billings, MT D-
92 Fort Wayne, IN D-
93 Bridgeport, CT D-
94 Detroit, MI D-
95 Fresno, CA F
96 Bakersfield, CA F
97 Lubbock, TX F
98 Stockton, CA F
99 Laredo, TX F
100 El Paso, TX F

US Students not the best as science....

2011-01-26T12:49:00.005-07:00

The National Center for Educational Statistics just released a report on the science knowledge of American students in grades 4, 8, and 12.

Visit the reports Execute Summary page.

Breast-feeding leads to better test scores

2010-12-20T15:50:00.006-07:00

While it's widely known that breast-feeding has many health benefits, a new study has reinforced earlier research to indicate that breast-feeding can boost your test scores!

A study from Australia in the journal "Pediatrics" found that babies, especially boys, who were breast-fed for the first six months of life or longer, scored higher academically, including in standardized tests when they were older, than children who were not breast-fed.

The research found that breast-fed boys scored 30% better in writing and 20% better in math at 10 years old than their formula-fed peers.

Early Findings from Gates Foundation on How to Measure a Teacher's Impact on their Students Learning Outcomes

2010-12-15T10:33:00.012-07:00

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are researching the widely disputed issue of how to measure a teacher's efficacy through their Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) initiative. The more effective the teacher, the better the student outcomes.

The foundation is trying to uncover "a more complete indicator of a teacher’s impact on student achievement" and how such an indicator relates to how teachers are recruited, developed, rewarded, and retained.

The initiative just published their initial findings.

In getting to the answer to the massive question concerning teacher efficacy, the MET initiative captured 13,000 classroom lessons on video, student vs teacher perceptions of these lessons, and consider standardized tests and their relationships to students and their teachers. Based on this raw data, here are some early findings from the researchers:

1. In every grade and subject we studied, a teacher's past success in raising student achievement on state tests (that is, his or her value-added) is one of the strongest predictors of his or her ability to do so again.

2. The teachers with the highest value-added scores on state tests also tend to help students understand math concepts or demonstrate reading comprehension through writing.

3. The average student knows effective teaching when he or she experiences it.

4. Valid feedback need not be limited to test scores alone. By combining different sources of data, it is possible to provide diagnostic, targeted feedback to teachers who are eager to improve.

Exciting stuff! Again, these are early findings so more findings are coming.

Thanks Bill & Melinda for your awesomeness.

New exams coming for math and language arts for third graders to high school

2010-09-15T07:09:00.002-06:00

U.S. Secretary of Education Duncan Announces Education Grant Awards aimed at Improving Student Assessments. Two winning applications composed of 44 States and D.C. Win Grants to Fund Assessments Based on Common Core Standards.

The grant requests, totaling approximately $330 million, are part of the Race to the Top competition and will be awarded as follows.

Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, (PARCC), (PARCC) is a coalition of 26 states including AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MD, MS, ND, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC and TN.

The PARCC coalition will test students' ability to read complex text, complete research projects, excel at classroom speaking and listening assignments, and work with digital media. PARCC will also replace the one end-of-year high stakes accountability test with a series of assessments throughout the year that will be averaged into one score for accountability purposes, reducing the weight given to a single test administered on a single day, and providing valuable information to students and teachers throughout the year.

The SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium is a coalition of 31 states including AL, CO, CT, DE, GA, HI, IA, ID, KS, KY, ME, MI, MO, MT, NC, ND, NH, NJ, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, UT, VT, WA, WI, and WV. The assessments will be ready for use by the 2014-15 school year.

The SMARTER coalition will test students using computer adaptive technology that will ask students tailored questions based on their previous answers. SMARTER will continue to use one test at the end of the year for accountability purposes, but will create a series of interim tests used to inform students, parents, and teachers about whether students are on track.

For both consortia, these periodic assessments could replace already existing tests, such as interim assessments that are in common use in many classrooms today.

For more, read ed.gov's article here.

Sleeping for performance

2010-08-05T12:57:00.001-06:00

I stumbled across these two articles on sleep. Both give tips on how to increase performance.

Lying in at the weekend boosts your brain power, study shows

Seven hours sleep is the recipe for health

Naif Al-Mutawa: Superheroes inspired by Islam

2010-07-21T09:28:00.001-06:00

A man with a vision.

TED Video

Research Brief: Optimal Testing Environment

2010-05-30T16:20:00.003-06:00

There's new research out from The Principals' Partnership which explores secrets of acing standardized exams. Some of the tips are consistent with what I've documented in other posts on this blog. According to the research, you should:

• Feel good when entering a testing arena, possessing a positive frame of mind
• Think of the tests as exciting challenges, not something to be endured
• Review and discuss the formats regularly prior to the exam
• Use a lot of practice tests and make sure to learn the vocabulary of the instructions
• Periodically, administer timed tests
• Teach specific skills such as: how to read a passage, reading questions before the passage, outlining writing prompts before writing, underlining key words in the test questions and directions, planning the use of time, completing the questions they know first, going with their first answer, answering every question and not allowing themselves to be distracted by others.
• Get a good night’s rest before the test and to allow sufficient time to arrive at the testing locating with time to settle in and get comfy
• Practice deep breathing and counting to ten to help relax
• Dress in layers so that you can keep comfy during the exam
• Eat a good breakfast and bring a snack that is not salty
• Find and study your weaknesses.

Better readers get better test scores

2010-05-30T15:30:00.002-06:00

I came across a report entitled The Data Are In:
Teaching Reading Prepares Students for Standardized Tests.

The report analyzes data from tests taken from New York's ELA in November 2008, March 2009, and June 2009 involving data from 50,000 students. Students were in 3rd through 8th grades. The study found the following trends.

• As reading levels increase, percentages of students passing the state exam increase.
• As reading levels increase, scale scores increase.
• The increase in percentages of students passing and scores rising, taken together, creates a precise pattern that is repeated over and over in each grade and time frame of the year.
• Benchmarks are sometimes wider, sometimes narrower, and often higher than we previously thought.
• Benchmarks also sometimes show slippage from one grade to the next, particularly from 5th to 6th and from 6th to 7th.

Might be a good time to read that order that subscription to Science Magazine after all...

2010 Mahindra Scorpio 4x4

2010-03-27T14:12:00.003-06:00

Here's a real truck...

It's a turbo diesel from India with a better towing capacity that Toyota's equivalent offering yet $10,000 cheaper in Costa Rica.

NYT: In Hard Times, Lured Into Trade School and Debt

2010-03-18T13:56:00.003-06:00

This story discusses the economics of trade school education and how trade schools benefit from their students' hope that new skills = new jobs, despite the current recession.

Whoa! Eric Schmidt shares his views!

2010-03-18T13:50:00.004-06:00

Eva, welcome to Earth!

2010-03-09T12:30:00.004-07:00

Eva Sparks
7 lbs 8 ozs
19 inches long
drinks plenty of milk
sleeps a lot

Costa Rica Tourism Forecast to be on the Rebound

2010-01-12T12:06:00.004-07:00

This report just out shows that the sky isn't falling in Costa Rica's tourism industry.

That follows common sense... as they're not making any more paradise, except in Dubai perhaps. Costa Rica's consistently rated as one of the happiest places to live with great healthcare to boot. Its focus on the environment, short distance from US & Canada and foreigner friendly atmosphere would indicate that the trend towards more people heading south should continue.

Based on the report abstract, here's an overview of what's happening.

eLearning in Costa Rica

2010-01-05T11:11:00.004-07:00

I just came across this enlightened presentation of elearning in Costa Rica. Warning it's 20 minutes.

It turns out that there's an alliance with Korean and Costa Rican governments in order to share knowledge of elearning between these countries.

From my research Costa Rica is a great area for elearning. Labor is reasonable on global levels. The infrastructure is good. The literacy rate is 96% which is the highest in the region. Additionally Costa Rica has a population of only 4.5 million with strong government policies on education. Combine these facts with open source solutions and some hard work and you've got elearning.

The only negative I personally see is that Costa Rica's local telephone company is a government monopoly. Thus telecommunications is not open to the best solution that competition delivers. But rather whatever the ICE delivers.

Should test prep programs try to teach academic content?

2009-09-14T21:33:00.004-06:00

When I read statements like the following, I become distraught about trying to teach students to score better on a test by putting in the hours to learn the content and practice the skills being tested.

According to the $2 billion test-prep industry, performance on the SAT and ACT can be improved with tips and tricks. "We don't pretend to teach students a lot academically," says Ed Carroll, an executive director at The Princeton Review. "Taking tests is a skill that can be developed, like playing a guitar or tennis."

Source: 10 Things College Admissions Tests Don't Do

Test day tip for heterosexual males: avoid beautiful women

2009-09-04T09:19:00.003-06:00

Psychologusts at Radboud University in The Netherlands carried out a study on how men perform after being the presence of an attractive woman. The results are published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology. The research shows men who spend a couple of minutes with an attractive woman perform poorly in tests designed to measure brain function.

For more, read the Telegraph's article here.

Stanley H. Kaplan

2009-09-02T15:34:00.003-06:00

On August 23, 2009, Stanley H. Kaplan left behind a changed world.

As the founder of the nation's first test preparation company, he built a new global marketplace in standardized test preparation. He started his company from his parents' Brooklyn home in 1938, and it became a chain of more than 100 centers nationally. After selling his business to the Washington Post in 1984, the education business grew to a global giant in the paid-education market. He remained working there until 1994.

He challenged the College Board's position that tutoring won't help prepare students standardized tests. “To say you can’t improve scores is to say you can’t improve students, and I disagree with that,” he told The New York Times in 1979. He convinced the Federal Trade Commission that students could be helped through test prep, and by doing so launched a multi-billion dollar test prep industry.

Mr. Kaplan was rejected from medical school, and yet later tutored thousands of students on the MCAT. In Manhattan the Rita and Stanley H. Kaplan Cancer Center at the New York University Medical Center is a reminder of his impact of this world.

He loved his work. Kaplan spent long nights devising practice SAT questions and finding entertaining ways to teach the Pythagorean theorem.

Mr. Kaplan believed that students should have access to higher education based on their capabilities, not financial backgrounds or connections. Ironically, many students in a recent survey conducted by Logical Steps at Arizona State University found that students perceived Kaplan's courses to be very expensive, but safe. Newsweek wrote the following.

Today SAT prep courses are often viewed as a pricey tool that gives an advantage to upper-middle-class kids in the admissions arms race, but for decades Kaplan's clientele was striving ethnic New Yorkers who hoped higher scores might put them on par with WASPy prep-schoolers and Ivy League legacies. "He challenged society with the notion of meritocracy," said Andy Rosen, Kaplan's current CEO, in his eulogy.

I'm not sure if his company is continuing his belief or just cashing out, but Mr. & Mrs. Kaplan became big philanthropists, and I raise my glass to his legacy.

Standardized exams under attack in UK

2009-09-02T13:55:00.003-06:00

According to the Guardian, Peter Hyman, who was in Tony Blair's inner circle for almost a decade as a speechwriter and strategist before he left to become a teacher, says that the exam system don't teach children to think. The article quotes what Hyman wrote in the Observer, "There is almost an unspoken deal: we'll spoon-feed you the required information to pass your exams, if you play by the rules and do your homework on time."

This is the recurring criticism of systems that use standardized exams, that students can simply be taught to what is needed to pass the exam, and nothing else. I'll be very interested to see if the UK works out a better system...

Experts weigh in on the value of standardized tests

2009-08-04T15:53:00.001-06:00

There's a fascinating discussion on standardized tests here.

Movie about Student Loans

2009-07-30T07:02:00.002-06:00

Here's a trailer for a upcoming documentary on student loans. The movie is called "Student Loans Default". It does make me wonder if we'll see a movement in education like we're currently seeing in healthcare.

Closing the standardized test results gap by changing the test

2009-07-29T22:45:00.011-06:00

Is it just me or does this smell of the usual political manipulation of test results?

According to boston.com, Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine today spoke about his work as the Governor of Virginia.

And, I am so proud of the work we are doing in Virginia to boost achievement in schools:

More than 87,000 ESOL students in the Commonwealth far outpace English language learners in other states around the country. Right now the National Assessment of Educational Progress – known as “the nation’s report card” – ranks Virginia number one in the nation for fourth-grade reading proficiency by English language learners.

Virginia’s ESOL program has also made significant strides to improve learning outcomes for English language learners – the Commonwealth now leads the nation in achievement. We took a stand against standardized tests designed for native English speakers, and created alternative tests for English language learners instead. Virginia closed the achievement gap between English language learners and other students from 21 points to 9 points, and improved the pass rate on Standards of Learning tests by non-native speakers by more than 20 percent (from 55 percent to 78 percent) since 2003. Virginia’s English language learners have also improved achievement overall on high school exit exams and national standardized tests.

Chewing Gum Can Improve Test Scores

2009-07-29T22:20:00.004-06:00

According to Chris Chatham at ScienceBlogs, "there's ample evidence that chewing gum enhances cognition", although scientists aren't exactly sure why this is the case.

Whatever the case, I say bring some gum to your study sessions and exams!

Fitness level affects academic performance

2009-07-29T21:58:00.006-06:00

According to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, your fitness level is related to your academic performance. The following are findings from a study of grades K-8 in the 2007–08 school year:

- Standardized test score performance increases consistently with increasing fitness across all weight groups.

- Overall, students in the top 5% in fitness score 36 percentile points higher on standardized tests than students in the bottom 5% in fitness.

I guess that means that jocks aren't so dumb after all...

Only 20% of 16,000 sixth graders passed standardized exams in Math, Science and languages

2009-07-29T21:27:00.002-06:00

In Gaza that is. Or at least that's what the Institute for Middle East Understanding says here.

Follow directions

2009-07-27T16:44:00.005-06:00

The NYTimes.com's story, Just Following Orders: An Evil Essay tells the story of how on the SAT, Mr. Schrefer intentionally tried to submit the most evil essay possible crediting Nazis as the "brightest thinkers of our time". He did this while following the instructions which do not include anything about morality. He received scores from two graders, a 5 and a perfect 6, for his essay.

China's National Higher Education Entrance Examination

2009-07-27T13:31:00.010-06:00

China's National Higher Education Entrance Examination (中华人民共和国普通高等学校招生全国统一考试) has been described as the "most pressure packed examination in the world". For Chinese students, who under the one child policy are their family's sole future earning potential, this is "a watershed that divides two dramatically different lives". If they score well, they can be accepted to higher education programs and go on to participate in the benefits of China's growth. If they they score poorly, there future is almost certainly to be working at the bottom of a very crowded peasant class. Here are some quick facts about the exam:
- Held annually over 3 days
- Prerequisite for almost all higher education institutions at the undergraduate level
- Usually taken in students' last year of secondary school
- Overall mark is generally a weighted sum of students' marks in different subjects
- Scored on a scale of 100-900 points
- Max score varies wildly from year to year
- Provinces allowed to customize their own examinations
- 3 mandatory subjects are Chinese, mathematics and a foreign language
- A mix of 3 sciences (physic, chemistry, biology) and 3 humanities (history, geography, political education) are taken depending on the programs being applied to
- In 2006, 8.8 million are estimated to have taken the exam
- In 2007, 7 students with overall highest score in their provinces entered Hong Kong's Universities rather than the two major Universities in China.

Using Social Media in University Admissions

2009-07-22T17:32:00.004-06:00

A study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth entitled "Social Media and College Admissions: The First Longitudinal Study" highlights why it's important for students to keep their online image in proper order.

According to the report "a significant proportion of schools continue to research students via search engines (23%) and social networks (17%)." The report concludes that "the traditional factors will still play dominant roles in admissions decisions however no longer can students place damaging material online without potential consequences".

This is significant not only because it shows that universities are really doing their due diligence on their students, but indirectly points to potential way to reach out to admission officers, especially for more high profile applications like scholarships - through the links that come up when googling your name!

Standardized exams

2009-07-21T12:07:00.018-06:00

Is it just me or have you noticed that standardized exams are like a political football?

In Ohio, a teaching union doesn't feel any love lost if they're less standardized exams in this world. In Romania, teachers banned a standardized test on the Romania language citing issues over recent hiring and firing policy changes by the Education Department. Something similar is happening in Los Angeles too! Might this be because standardized tests can be used to measure teaching performance as well as student performance?

In Arkansas, they're using different scoring strategies between state and national standardized exams. Their national scores keeping struggling while state exam results are skyrocketing. Guess which set of scores local educators point to?

John Taylor Gatto and his latest book "Weapons of Mass Instruction" is leading the charge by education professionals who feel the mere existence of standardized exams leads to teachers teaching to those exams and neglecting other forms of education thus limited our students to becoming standardized drones. And when you read stories like this one in Florida, you can understand his point.

The poor and underrepresented minorities feel that the rich will always score better on such exams thus perpetuating a cycle of poverty.

In Georgia, some people need to do some explaining about allegations on cheating on their standardized tests.

Standardized tests are frequently misrepresented. They can powerful indicators but can be manipulated in the spirit of "lies, damed lies and statistics". Look no further than the recent debate over Sotomayor and the exams used with firemen. On both sides of the issue people are passionate about what the results of the exams really mean and if the exam was even a valid measure.

Yet a serious alternative to standardized test hasn't emerged in the public debate. Whatever the case, standardized exams aren't going away. They're destined to exist as long as there's a need to judge the masses.

2009-07-20T09:59:00.005-06:00

A great quote by Randall C. Deike, Vice president for enrollment at Case Western Reserve University who holds a Ph.D. in educational psychology.

"Too often standardized testing is condemned when it's really test misuse that's at issue."

Source: Take Tests Down a Notch, Report Says
Admissions group urges colleges to 'assume control' of debate on testing
Chronicle of Higher Education
By ERIC HOOVER

Insight into school principals and standardized tests

2009-07-20T09:37:00.003-06:00

I came across this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that sheds light into the competitive pressures on schools and their principals in performing well on standardized exams. Ever since No Child Left Behind was implemented, standardized exams have been a key metric in gauging school performances between 3rd and 11th grades. Some scores have risen drastically in a way that statistically points to cheating.

Insight into Reverse Discrimination through Standardized Tests in China

2009-07-14T15:43:00.011-06:00

While reading about the ethnic tension that happened last week in Xinjiang China, I read an Associated Press article that stated the following.

A week before the Xinjiang riot, the hottest topic on the Internet — the most freewheeling public forum in China — was outrage over a top-scorer in the ultra-competitive college entrance exam.

The 17-year-old Han Chinese student's family falsely listed him as a minority, entitling him to 20 extra points and giving him a boost in landing places in top schools. The subterfuge, discovered by education officials, cut across notions of fairness in a society that for hundreds of years has seen standardized exams as a channel for merit-based advancement.

While riots and death are definitely horrible and newsworthy, the two paragraphs above caught my eye because, at Dr. Flowers Test Prep, we've reviewed research on how to address stereotype threat - the fear that one's behavior will confirm an existing stereotype of a group with which one identifies and which can affect performance - within standardized tests. In Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink, The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, he describes how our unconscious views, may be quite different from our stated views and that these unconscious biases may have in educational performance. At Dr. Flowers Test Prep, we've identified a couple of test preparation techniques involving scaffolding/fading and priming as being strong ways of addressing stereotype threat and the self-fulfilling prophecies that can result from this phenomenon.

Where to find Happiness?

2009-07-06T09:09:00.004-06:00

According to Happy Planet Index, Costa Rica tops the list of countries that are happy. Sadly the US is only 114th, but that's partly because the index weighs the ecological footprint of countries and the US is a massive polluter.

CNBC: Happiness Is ... Living Green in Costa Rica

CNN: Costa Rica tops list of 'happiest' nations

Google Wave Preview

2009-06-04T08:01:00.001-06:00

An Introduction to Health Commons

2009-05-07T14:07:00.009-06:00

This is a lovely video by John Wilbanks explaining the problem that Health Commons is attempting to solve through the connecting silos of knowledge using good design and good ol' trail and error.

Many of the points John so clearly describes are relevant to the work we're doing.

Part of his presentation discusses the need for trial and error in order to learn what works - a favorite topic at Logical Steps. Many of our projects over the years have required us to build things that we've never seen or heard of before. As humans our need for cognition leads us to seek to understand what we're building, how effective it will be and when it will be ready. Yet building something great comes from testing the boundaries and failing enough until you can formulate a strong enough hypothesis to build something that really works. This has caused us to reconsider what it means to deliver a product. We now view everything we work on in a state of evolution - a constant beta.

The video goes on to discuss connecting processes. As we've seen with Revenue Cycle University, connecting processes allow one to see the big picture and how an action in one step can affect something else that no one is yet aware of. Yet such insight comes at a cost as you need to identify, document and analyze processes before arriving at any conclusion. To get this part right requires interviews, observations, phone calls, emails, forum postings, organizing, reflection, fine-tuning, etc. We've worked out a way that allows us to teach others how to discuss their own processes and that was no small feat. So my hat's off to the folks at Health Commons for laying the groundwork for it to work the other way around.

NPR on the power industry

2009-05-02T14:51:00.002-06:00

National Public Radio's program All Things Considered covered the power industry this week.

They detail that expertise is quickly leaving the power industry in the form of boomers retiring. We've heard this too while collaborating with Arizona State University in discussions with Arizona Power Supply. Separately I've also heard this point from major technology vendors in the utilities sector too.

This opens up great opportunities for younger people to backfill the positions. However, unless the skills are passed down quickly, the sector will likely face a skills shortfall. Complicating the matter is the introduction of newer technologies like green energy and intelligent power grids into the industry.

All of this foretells major efforts required to usher in the inevitable.

The Library of Kenya

2009-04-20T08:25:00.004-06:00

I'm pretty psyched about the launch of the Library of Kenya. This is the brainchild of Ledama Olekina, a very busy guy. Besides running Maasai Education Discovery which has been bringing education to the rural communities in Kenya, running food drives and leading the charge to build Kenya's first national library system, he's running for president of Kenya.

With the help of the guys at OSSLabs, we setup a Koha library system and will iteratively customize it to support the needs of the Kenyan people. Exciting!

Revenue Cycle University

2009-04-20T08:13:00.005-06:00

I've been extremely busy lately, Logical Steps has been rolling out Revenue Cycle University with "go live" dates this summer. This is part of Logical Steps' latest joint venture with the amazing folks at Zimmerman. In this venture, In this venture, we've rolled out 20+ courses to a major health system in New York and are in the process of rolling out 10 new courses to 6 clients. Each course must be customized for the client, for a total of 60 courses, not to mention demo courses!

As part of this initiative, we're also building a super cool learning system. I dare not say elearning system because that term has lost its meaning to me with all of the varieties, standards and actual ways that people learn online. That said, our system is leveraging the best from our work with new media platform R&D including social media, animations, closed-loop feedback, healthcare specific asset libraries and many more exciting features.

Considering that we have teams in US, Singapore and India working on this, we're managing 3 different holiday schedules. Each course has dozens of tasks and combined with the system development tasks, our current project plan has almost 1800 tasks. Whew!

TED Talks: be careful with plastic!

2009-02-24T15:57:00.001-07:00

World ministers call for green economy

2009-02-16T10:22:00.003-07:00

A meeting of environment ministers from around the world in Kenya has called for a 'global green new deal' that will see increased job creation and economic growth.

Click here for full story.

2008 Latest Edition - Did You Know 3.0 - From Meeting in Rome this Year

2009-02-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

Worrisome video about our government

2009-02-14T09:47:00.003-07:00

In this video of C-Span, Rep Paul Kanjorski (D-Penn, 11th District), the Capital Markets Subcommittee Chairman, explains the circumstances around the initial $700 billion bailout payment.

It is worrisome that he explains that he doesn't understand finance and he doesn't know what to do.

I don't think he would have admitted this except he was verbally attacked by an angry caller. It reminds me of what a wise man once told me: people always reveal more when they are desperate. In this case, Rep Kanjorski was desperate to defend himself.

Funny cartoons describing game theory!

2009-02-13T17:52:00.002-07:00

Sample comics from Raph Koster's book "A theory of fun".

Kenya has Geothermic Energy!

2009-02-13T12:27:00.002-07:00

Check out this movie for more. This could important for Narok, Kenya's vision of becoming Africa's first "green city".

Doctors make less mistakes using checklists

2009-01-17T11:26:00.002-07:00

In a study published by the New England Journal of Medical, surgeons can reduce the rate of major complications from 11% to 7% by using basic checklists. Additionally, deaths dropped nearly in half with a rate of 1.5% going down to 0.8% using checklists.

I hypothesize that checklists can help in less critical circumstances too.

2009-01-16T12:53:00.004-07:00

Over lunch I read The Death of Process, PERIOD!

Author Max J. Pucher tries to tackle some tough topics about trying to follow processes at work and what really matters when considering improving business. He evokes agile thoughts vs traditional project management concepts.

Learning Organizations

2009-01-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a great passage from Wikipedia that captures the essence of what we're helping clients achieve through our organizational e-learning platform and methodology.

Learning organizations are those that have in place systems, mechanisms and processes, that are used to continually enhance their capabilities and those who work with it or for it, to achieve sustainable objectives – for themselves and the communities in which they participate.

The important points to note about this definition are that learning organizations:
– Are adaptive to their external environment
– Continually enhance their capability to change/adapt
– Develop collective as well as individual learning
– Use the results of learning to achieve better results.

Speed diagramming class

2009-01-07T10:30:00.001-07:00

Here are Susan, Andrea, Amanda and Ann during a speed diagramming exercise.

2009-01-03T07:48:00.003-07:00

Just read an article on Singapore's economy in the Walls Street Journal.

Having worked in Asia through the economic downturn in 1998, I know it can be tough. Back in those days, I worked for LANSA under the direction of Gordon Davies and was charged with supporting our partner network in Asia. In such times, everyone had to cut back because spending dropped. I learned some lessons about partnering.

First of all, in bad times, it's important to support partners all the more because they're faced with cut backs and their ability to service clients may drop. By stepping in to field questions and introduce ideas that are working elsewhere, it's possible to increase sales, quality of support and maintain education minimums.

Secondly, when the sky is falling morale is low. Maintaining a positive attitude is contagious that can spread to partners.

Also, traditional targets have to be taken with a grain of salt. Partners will already be trying to put on their best face to clients. There's little need to pressurize partners to meet numbers that are no longer tied to reality. Instead, meet with partners to formulate new targets based on what they see in their local market. This provides excellent market intelligence too. This can also help uncover if any partners are headed towards disaster. Let me tell you a story...

Before I arrived on the scene in Asia, one of LANSA's partners with 30 clients one day announced they were closing their doors. There had been no warning and no chance to prepare for us to minimize the damage to LANSA's local reputation and future support contracts. As result the market shunned LANSA. However, because LANSA was present during the 1998 economic downturn, we built a new reputation in this market and came out of the recession with doors opened again.

At Zimmerman HQ

2008-12-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of me, Vish, Amanda, Andrea and Mike.

Vish shoveling snow

2008-12-17T08:30:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of Vish shoveling snow. We had to dig ourselves after a snow storm to make some meetings in Milwaukee!

Assessments

2008-12-11T14:45:00.003-07:00

Today I came across a Wikipedia entry on Assessments. The entry begins by stating that an assessment is "the process of documenting, usually in measurable terms, knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs".

It struck me that scholastic and organization training departments attempt to assess knowledge and skills while advertising and political entities attempt to assess attitudes and beliefs.

Who assesses knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs besides the CIA?

How the US ranks internationally in Math and Science

2008-12-09T10:54:00.004-07:00

For all of the criticism against the US educational system, it's nice to see that we haven't totally lost it, although there's clearly room for improvement. An article by USA Today discusses the results of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS.

"It's discouraging," says Francis Eberle, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association. "Other countries are investing and we can see their progress," he says. "Do we want to be average?"

That's a hard question to answer because the competition of education around the world is fierce. To be above average requires budgets and vision. And schools are institutions which are usually resistant to change and we're talking about our nation's children so we're naturally conservative.

Demographics of Internet & Mobile Usage

2008-12-05T17:16:00.006-07:00

General Demographics of US Adults

Baby Boomers

US Teens

US College Students

General US population - video streamers

US Unique Views for TV, Online and Mobile Video by Gender

US Unique Views of TV, Online and Mobile Video by Age

Online and Mobile Usage of US Internet Users by Age

Using the Mac: crawling

2008-11-24T10:40:00.005-07:00

Last weekend I switched from PC to Mac. All in all it's been pretty painless. There were a couple of obstacles that I encountered.

For example, I almost did not buy a Mac because when ordering software through apple.com the reviews for Microsoft Office 2008 were so bad that I was scared away. Like most professionals, I need Word, Excel, PowerPoint and an email client. However, after reading through other online reviews and re-reading the reviews on apple.com I realized that Microsoft Office is fine for most Mac users. It's just there are problems with Exchange Server and lack of support for BookEnds. If you're using these, life may be bad. The other point made in the reviews is that there are not many new features added since the 2004 version. As I'm not using Exchange Server, BookEnds and MS Office 2004, 95% of the comments didn't apply to me. It took me a couple of read throughs to realize this! I bought Mac and have been using it for a week now.

One issue with Microsoft Entourage is that there's no ability to set the amount of time before an email account times out. That's kind of pathetic as it's basic functionality for an email client and one of my colleagues has been forced to stay with gmail until we can figure out a work around. In exploring this time out issue, it becomes obvious that there are a lot of people writing about this, but it doesn't show up in Microsoft's support pages. If anyone discovers a work around for this, please let me know.

Another minor point of frustration is that Skype operates slightly differently on Mac. My woes probably won't affect 99% of Skype users. I use Skype for business. I conference in colleagues from Singapore and India into calls in the US. When dialing into a conference line I'm asked to dial the conference code and press the hash ('#') key. Skype provides a nifty dialpad for this. However, this dialpad is not available if you're already in conference mode (e.g. have another caller in a Skype call). Thus I need to dial into a conference call, enter the code and then can initiate other Skype calls to conference in my colleagues. It's a pain to be sure, but the price is right so it's worth tolerating. I wrote to Skype about this problem, but received a general response explaining that there is a dialpad in Skype. The Skype support personnel did not understand that the dialpad isn't usable for entering a conference code while in a Skype conference. :(

Ted is king!

2007-09-10T18:00:00.000-06:00

I've enjoyed watching videos at Ted.com for a year or so now. What an inspiring organization! I wanted to highlight a couple that really resonated with me today.

The first is by Journalist-provocateur Andrew Mwenda of Uganda who claims that aid by the west has caused Africa to focus on aid instead of independence. It's a classic case of do you feed the poor or teach them to fish?

The second is by Jeff Skoll who struck me as a person who is really trying to make this world a better place. Check it out below.

Let me know if you have any favorite TED videos.

Web Conversation Rates

2007-09-10T17:23:00.000-06:00

I just came across this Q&A on LunaMetrics.com/blog. Pretty thought provoking!

Blanco Undermount Clips

2007-07-23T22:13:00.000-06:00

Home Depot is charging $25.50 for a Blanco Undermount Clip which includes a screw, a clip, an insert, a washer & a washnut. According to Home Depot's website, most sinks require 10 clips so that would be $255 to mount your sink.

If you buy online, Home Depot will cover the cost of shipping.

Tech tip: removing text formating

2007-05-29T17:01:00.000-06:00

Frequently, when we copy and paste text from one document to another, we copy not only the text but also its accompanying formating (e.g. blog, italics, alignment, table details, font colors, and even proprietary MS formating, etc.). This occurs because the formatting details are put into the clipboard along with the text.

To remove the formatting and just copy and paste the text, there are two basic approaches. The first is to paste the text to a tool like Notepad. Then select and copy the text from Notepad. When you subsequently paste the text, it'll have no previous formatting. The second technique can be used when working with FCKeditor. The interface for FCKeditor provides a nifty set of options for pasting.

The left button allows the text to be pasted as it is in the clipboard.

The middle button allows the formatting to be removed and only the text to be pasted.

The right button allows is specifically designed for pasting text with formatting from MS-Word into the FCKeditor.