The governor of New York recently proposed that 50% of teachers evaluations be based on the results of standardized tests. I’m not going to go into great detail about how much of fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of standardized tests that is. The short version is that standardized tests give the most useful information when it’s not too specific, so for example looking at a district by district sample, or by selecting randomized classrooms from the entire state/province to give an overall picture. Other people have explained what a problem it is to hold teachers responsible for things they don’t have full control over. I’m not going to go into that today. Instead I’m going to focus on the labour market.
Tag: Education
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The Problem with “College Costs” Articles
Everyone associated with the Higher Education field, and a lot of people who aren’t, seem to like to talk about the cost of Higher Education. From Kevin Carey’s book “The End of College” to New York Times opinion pieces and their responses, and more responses this is a hot topic. For a Canadian perspective I find a lot of interesting thoughts on the topic with this blog too.
Having read too many articles which explicitly ignore points which contradict their narative I’m going to propose two New Rules:
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Indigenous Access to Post-Secondary
Aboriginal people make up 6% of BC and the percentage is rising quickly.
From an economic standpoint there’s a huge wage gap between aboriginal and non aboriginal workers pay based on looking at full time workers with the same career classification. But the good news is that the more education an aboriginal person has the closer that gap is. In fact the gap almost disappears for aboriginal people with a masters degree or higher. But Aboriginal people are less likely to go to post secondary, with only 45% of working age aboriginal people having a post secondary certificate diploma or degree compared to 62% for non aboriginal residents.
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How is this a threat?
Last week NASPA’s blog had a post called “Five Megatrends Threatening Student Affairs (and How to Turn Them Into Opportunities)” written by Laurence N. Smith and Albert B. Blixt. It was an interesting read, but I have to take issue with one of their points.
Trend #3: Changing student demographics
Overall competition for students will increase over the next decade as the number of high school graduates declines while the racial/ethnic/socio-economic makeup of entering students will shift. By 2020, 45 percent of the nation’s public high school graduates will be non-white compared with 38 percent in 2009. Students will be more likely to be the first in family to attend college and will have fewer economic means. In addition, more of those entering college will be foreign-born including immigrants and international students recruited actively by colleges and universities. Adult learners, often with jobs and families, are becoming a greater percentage of the student body. Finally, we are seeing the end of the millennial generation and a new “touchscreen” generation coming to campus. All of these emerging segments have different needs and expectations that have direct implications for what services student affairs needs to provide.
Here’s my issue: how is this a threat to Student Affairs? Now, I understand that they’re trying to make a rhetorical point to springboard into their ways to take advantage of opportunities but hear me out with my issue.
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#MySAPath – My Path to Student Affairs via Indigenous Education
The full post of this is over at The Student Affairs Collective blog.
I am a student advisor (both academic and career advising) at a small aboriginal college in Vancouver B.C., Native Education College. The issue I have with describing a non-traditional student affairs path is that I have very little reference for what a traditional path is; there are so many routes to the field, at least among my colleagues here in Canada. Mine may have been a little unusual, though.
My plan when I went to University was to be a high school English teacher. There were many reasons my plan changed but most of them come down to being unaware of my options. I went to university thinking I had one option, came to realize that I had three, and wound up taking the first option anyway only to change my direction two years later.
Please go here for the rest of the article.
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For the New Board of Education
Although I was not elected (not even close) I’d like to give my thoughts to the new Board of Education in Abbotsford School District, SD34. Please take ideas from all of the candidates platforms. I mentioned during the forum that it’s important to cast a wide net to bring in a lot of ideas so that the best can be examined. Please use the ideas of all of the candidates, or at least examine them.
To that end, I’d like to propose four points for you to look into.
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Time for Inside Higher Ed to End Anonymous Comments
There have been many cases against anonymous comments.
Popular science removed their comments entirely for a good reason, as referenced in a New Yorker article:
“The editors argued that Internet comments, particularly anonymous ones, undermine the integrity of science and lead to a culture of aggression and mockery that hinders substantive discourse.”
Huffington post brought up To Kill a Mockingbird:
“Lee’s basic claim is this: We are capable of doing far worse things to one another when we do not have to own up to the things we do.”
The cases for anonymous comments tend to focus on the lack of effect restricting it will have as people are still willing to say terrible things in public under their own names.
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Thoughts on the Mindset List
Beloit College in Wisconsin puts out an annual “Mindset List” to give you an idea of where the newest college students are coming from in regards to what they see as being “the world as it has been”.
Take a look at the info behind it here: http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/ and this years here: http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2018/
The list is very geared towards the US, as it’s from a US college, but I wanted to show a few that I felt were particularly important:
Students heading into their first year of college this year were generally born in 1996.
1. During their initial weeks of kindergarten, they were upset by endlessly repeated images of planes blasting into the World Trade Center.