I’m finished with this book before being finished with it. This book is very much the opposite of ‘Waiting for Superman’ but not just in position to charter schools. Diane, in her long career in education policy, never learned that the plural of anecdote isn’t data. Neither did she ever find a statistic she couldn’t cleverly use to support her side of the argument. Conclusions that ‘the average charter school isn’t better than the average public school’ don’t allow you to condemn all charter schools. Her stance on teacher unions is comically pro-union. Writing that unions in southern states are weak and those states don’t have better schools while unions in Massachusetts are strong and look how good those schools are doesn’t count as a critical argument. Correlation is not equal to causation except on Fox News. Earlier she praised the Bay State for having a strong curriculum, are we to forget this during your union cheer-leading chapter?

Surely we must agree that test scores aren’t the only way to judge teachers, but don’t rely solely on peer reviews as an alternative. Other businesses seems to find good ways to evaluate employees without falling back on standardized test scores.

I tried to hang in there, but when read critically many of her arguments fall apart. And when many of your arguments (meaning whole chapters) don’t hold water, maybe I should look harder at the others too.

View all my reviews

From the unpublished archives, Jack “eating” applesauce at about 13 months.

]]> http://www.buzolich.com/home/2009/jack-down-the-slide-again/feed 0 http://www.buzolich.com/home/2009/jack-slides-into-the-pool http://www.buzolich.com/home/2009/jack-slides-into-the-pool#comments Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:52:01 +0000 buzolich http://www.buzolich.com/home/2009/jack-slides-into-the-pool

Jack Slides Into the Pool, originally uploaded by buzolich.

]]> http://www.buzolich.com/home/2009/jack-slides-into-the-pool/feed 0 http://www.buzolich.com/home/2009/mambo-5-by-wcc-summer-camp http://www.buzolich.com/home/2009/mambo-5-by-wcc-summer-camp#comments Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:14:40 +0000 buzolich http://www.buzolich.com/home/?p=170

]]> http://www.buzolich.com/home/2009/boys-on-the-fourth-of-july-2/feed 0 http://www.buzolich.com/home/2006/little-bunny-foo-foo http://www.buzolich.com/home/2006/little-bunny-foo-foo#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2006 17:55:09 +0000 buzolich http://www.buzolich.com/home/2006/little-bunny-foo-foo/ Continue reading »]]> Little Bunny Foo Foo,
Hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ‘em on the head

Down came the good fairy and she said

“Little Bunny Foo Foo,
I don’t want to see you
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ‘em on the head.
I’ll give you three chances,
And if you don’t behave
I’ll turn you into a goon!”

The next day:

Little Bunny Foo Foo,
Hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ‘em on the head

Down came the good fairy and she said

“Little Bunny Foo Foo,
I don’t want to see you
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ‘em on the head.
I’ll give you two more chances,
And if you don’t behave
I’ll turn you into a goon!”

The next day:

Little Bunny Foo Foo,
Hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ‘em on the head

Down came the good fairy and she said

“Little Bunny Foo Foo,
I don’t want to see you
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ‘em on the head.
I’ll give you one more chance,
And if you don’t behave
I’ll turn you into a goon!”

The next day:

Little Bunny Foo Foo,
Hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ‘em on the head

Down came the good fairy and she said

“Little Bunny Foo Foo,
I don’t want to see you
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ‘em on the head.
I gave you three chances
And you didn’t behave
Now you’re a goon!”

The moral of the story is: HARE TODAY, GOON TOMORROW

Can you tell me how to get
How to get to Sesame Street

Come and play
Everything’s A-okay
Friendly neighbors there
That’s where we meet

Can you tell me how to get
How to get to Sesame Street
How to get to Sesame Street
How to get to Sesame Street

(woh woh, bee doh!)

Rubber Duckie, joy of joys
When I squeeze you, you make noise!
Rubber Duckie, you’re my very best friend, it’s true!

(doo doo doo doooo, doo doo)

CHORUS:
Every day when I
Make my way to the tubby
I find a little fella who’s
Cute and yellow and chubby
(rub-a-dub-a-dubby!)

Rubber Duckie, you’re so fine
And I’m lucky that you’re mine
Rubber duckie, I’m awfully fond of you

(repeat chorus)

Rubber Duckie, you’re so fine
And I’m lucky that you’re mine
Rubber duckie, I’m awfully fond of
Rubber duckie, I’d like a whole pond of
Rubber duckie I’m awfully fond of you!

(doo doo, be doo)

If you watched the season premiere of South Park yesterday, you’ll expect the boat in the first one to hit a beaver dam. “I broke the dam.” I was hoping the episode would have ended with a slow clap building into a global warming causing crescendo. Glad to have you back South Park.

Fox Sports Ads:
Motor boat, motor boat
Nailgun, modded to semi-auto
Leaf blower/Flame blower

Kirk Gibson rocks! Astros – WhiteSox sucks.