Here a tax, there a tax, everywhere a tax, tax.
No wonder there are so many tea parties coming up on the 15th.
I found the picture at Granite Grok.com.
Cathy
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Change I Feared
Here a tax, there a tax, everywhere a tax, tax.
No wonder there are so many tea parties coming up on the 15th.
I found the picture at Granite Grok.com.
Cathy
Scientific Method and Correlation does not Imply Causation
Over the past six plus years of fighting for education reform and taxes I have come to find that educrats and the tax and spend crowd simply do not understand the Scientific Method and correlation does not imply causation.
I think taxpayers and parents must understand both of these concepts so that their BS meter will go off when they hear lines like, "If teachers were paid more the students would perform better and spending more on education produces better results." If as a parent or taxpayer you do not understand these concepts please click on the links provided above. By all means share the scientific method link with your children and grandchildren if they have not learned this concept at school.
Okay lets take a look at this "If teachers were paid more the students would perform better and spending more on education produces better results." Homeschooling parents do not get paid for educating their children and they spend pennies on the dollar educating their children yet their children continually out perform their public school peers. This blows the spending more on education produces better results theory out of the water. Vouchers vs. the District with ‘More Money than God’ is another great piece that proves spending more on education does not improve educational performance.
I could give you hundreds of more examples but it is best to do the research yourself. Find more articles but also when you come across an article that does support spending more on education improves performance, look at the research ask yourself did the researchers follow the scientific method or are they simply stating correlation equals causation.
I found the above picture at AntiQuark.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
I think taxpayers and parents must understand both of these concepts so that their BS meter will go off when they hear lines like, "If teachers were paid more the students would perform better and spending more on education produces better results." If as a parent or taxpayer you do not understand these concepts please click on the links provided above. By all means share the scientific method link with your children and grandchildren if they have not learned this concept at school.
Okay lets take a look at this "If teachers were paid more the students would perform better and spending more on education produces better results." Homeschooling parents do not get paid for educating their children and they spend pennies on the dollar educating their children yet their children continually out perform their public school peers. This blows the spending more on education produces better results theory out of the water. Vouchers vs. the District with ‘More Money than God’ is another great piece that proves spending more on education does not improve educational performance.
I could give you hundreds of more examples but it is best to do the research yourself. Find more articles but also when you come across an article that does support spending more on education improves performance, look at the research ask yourself did the researchers follow the scientific method or are they simply stating correlation equals causation.
I found the above picture at AntiQuark.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Friday, April 10, 2009
We said Goodbye to a Friend Yesterday
Who could have known on that day at the pound that I would come across a cute little dog who forever changed both of our lives? From the moment I took you home, you became my special little friend, filled with quirky habits both frustrating and endearing.
Through countless life changes, in good times and in bad, you were always there. You loved your special orange ball, until you lost it in a heating duct. Friends and relatives felt joy and anguish over the prospect of babysitting my little wiener dog.
Over the years, our family grew, but you were always my wiener buddy. Daddy wondered where my mint meltaways went, until you nudged a ball into his lap. Igloo turned you into a Frankenfurter, but learned to live with your bouncing demeanor.
Anastasia booted you out of my lap, but never out of my bed.
Alexander remains your main source of extra people food to this day. Our newest family member Fletcher took to you immediately.
George, you hold a special place in my heart that none can ever replace, none can ever forget. You've brought companionship, inspired songwriting, photography, and countless hours of storytelling.
You have fulfilled and exceeded our expectations of true friendship.
We've lived a long and happy life together. Our family will never be the same because of you, our family will never be the same without you.
Goodbye George.
I hope that those of you who had a chance to know and love him think about him tonight.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Summer School At Croydon - Is it cost effective and does it improve performance?
As you have read in the Eagle Times Article Jim Peschke rejected funds for summer school. His reasons was that only 41.7% of the students performed proficient in math with 9 months of schooling, how was two hours a day, four days a week for four weeks going to improve student performance. At this point Marilyn Brannigan scolded Jim and said he needed to do research in the the subject. Jim has done plenty of research and he knows that, "in fact most research shows that summer school as typically administered has little if any impact on learning.” You can read another article on the subject here.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Croydon Residents will see a 26 Cent Drop in the School Tax Rate.
The following article is from the April 9, 2009 edition of the Eagle Times. The article is a partial summary of what happened at the Croydon School Board Meeting.
Click on the article to enlarge the article.
Cathy
Jim sent the following to Archie Mountain as a correction to Jim's comments made in the article.
Archie,
I just read your article about last night's Croydon school board meeting and would like to comment while the event remains fresh in my mind. I believe that you misquoted me, and more specifically mischaracterized the interaction between myself and Marilyn Brannigan regarding the role of a school board member. This article gives an erroneous impression of my stance on the role of a school board member.
Marilyn Brannigan did not merely "suggest that I read up on the subject to understand it better." She dictated that in order to be a school board member that I had an obligation to read the research. (Her words were something like "If you're going to be a school board member, you need to read the research.") This is quite different than making a suggestion. This is a command - completely inappropriate in her position.
I cannot remember my exact response, but it was something to the effect of "I already have the only requirement to be a school board member - I got elected".
The point I was trying to make is that it is inappropriate for the Superintendent to attempt to define my role as a school board member. I believe that my words succeeded in making that point at the board meeting.
In contrast, your article not only fails to convey the spirit of the exchange, but actively represents an entirely different message.
Jim Peschke
Click on the article to enlarge the article.
Cathy
Jim sent the following to Archie Mountain as a correction to Jim's comments made in the article.
Archie,
I just read your article about last night's Croydon school board meeting and would like to comment while the event remains fresh in my mind. I believe that you misquoted me, and more specifically mischaracterized the interaction between myself and Marilyn Brannigan regarding the role of a school board member. This article gives an erroneous impression of my stance on the role of a school board member.
Marilyn Brannigan did not merely "suggest that I read up on the subject to understand it better." She dictated that in order to be a school board member that I had an obligation to read the research. (Her words were something like "If you're going to be a school board member, you need to read the research.") This is quite different than making a suggestion. This is a command - completely inappropriate in her position.
I cannot remember my exact response, but it was something to the effect of "I already have the only requirement to be a school board member - I got elected".
The point I was trying to make is that it is inappropriate for the Superintendent to attempt to define my role as a school board member. I believe that my words succeeded in making that point at the board meeting.
In contrast, your article not only fails to convey the spirit of the exchange, but actively represents an entirely different message.
Jim Peschke
How well did Croydon School Students Really Do in Reading And Mathematics?
On Monday I reported that the Eagle Times reported Croydon "maintained its perfect slate in both reading and math, goals it also reached in 2008." I also cautioned that I needed to read the report. Well I did!
When I was going to school 66.7% was a D and 41.7% was an F or failing. It appears to me that the Croydon school is failing to educate too many of our students.
If you look at the raw data this is what a perfect slate and reading looks like to educrats.
25% or 3 of the 12 students scored substantially below proficient in reading.
8.3% or 1 of 12 students scored partially proficient in reading.
50% or 6 in 12 students scored proficient in reading.
16.7% or 2 in 12 students scored proficient with distinction in reading.
In other words 66.7% of students scored proficient or above in reading. But with "new math or educrat speak" the group performance index score is 83.3%. Not perfect in my book and not good enough considering the amount of money taxpayers spend to educate Croydon's children.
33.3% or 4 in 12 students scored substantially below proficient in mathematics.
25% or 3 in 12 students scored partially proficient in mathematics.
41.7% scored proficient in mathematics.
No child scored proficient with distinction in mathematics.
In other words only 41.7% of the students scored proficient in mathematics. But with "new math or educrat speak" the group performance score is 66.7%.
I found the above picture at rttworks.com.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
What is Next For Croydon Schools - Jim Peschke
The Next Steps
The Croydon special budget meeting concluded at about 9:30pm with board approval of the necessary spending cuts. As in any negotiated process, none of the board members considered the end result to be perfect.
Although I believe that Croydon school is overstaffed, my budget proposal did not contain any staffing cuts. Budget areas where spending cuts were more palatable were abruptly deemed "off-limits" due to various combinations of bureaucratic regulation and "That's just the way it is" eduspeak.
We remain far from getting our money's worth from public schools; Croydon's per-pupil spending today is almost three times as much as it was only 10 years ago. Are students actually receiving three times the education, or are more funds simply being wasted due to government edicts and overzealous administrators?
The time has come to push back on unfunded mandates. Such resistance stands on firm legal ground, as the New Hampshire constitution specifically prohibits unfunded mandates. Some would try to intimidate us from standing up for ourselves, claiming the only resistance is total resistance and that total resistance would meet with disastrous consequences.
This is a false dilemma; many mandates have considerable latitude in their implementation. Scaling back mandates to bring costs out of the stratosphere doesn't rise to the level of Fort Sumpter defiance. We must also guard against becoming tools of our own demise by pressing for "more funding". All too often Big Ed's solution to unfunded mandates is funding them. That simply lets us keep $1 in our right pocket while Concord takes $2 from our left pocket. Mandates themselves are the problem.
The money we waste in mandated programs show that there's plenty of room to save taxpayer dollars. With a combination of legislative action and selective trimming, we can continue to make progress towards affordable public education.
Special interests spent decades buying laws to force us to spend more than we should. We can't undo this damage overnight, but the sooner we start, the sooner we can make "public education" truly "public" again.
Jim Peschke
Croydon School Board Member
Jim had sent the above letter to the Eagle Times. I have checked both online and several paper editions and have not been able to confirm if the Eagle Times published the letter.
There is a school board meeting tonight at the Croydon Village School.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
The Croydon special budget meeting concluded at about 9:30pm with board approval of the necessary spending cuts. As in any negotiated process, none of the board members considered the end result to be perfect.
Although I believe that Croydon school is overstaffed, my budget proposal did not contain any staffing cuts. Budget areas where spending cuts were more palatable were abruptly deemed "off-limits" due to various combinations of bureaucratic regulation and "That's just the way it is" eduspeak.
We remain far from getting our money's worth from public schools; Croydon's per-pupil spending today is almost three times as much as it was only 10 years ago. Are students actually receiving three times the education, or are more funds simply being wasted due to government edicts and overzealous administrators?
The time has come to push back on unfunded mandates. Such resistance stands on firm legal ground, as the New Hampshire constitution specifically prohibits unfunded mandates. Some would try to intimidate us from standing up for ourselves, claiming the only resistance is total resistance and that total resistance would meet with disastrous consequences.
This is a false dilemma; many mandates have considerable latitude in their implementation. Scaling back mandates to bring costs out of the stratosphere doesn't rise to the level of Fort Sumpter defiance. We must also guard against becoming tools of our own demise by pressing for "more funding". All too often Big Ed's solution to unfunded mandates is funding them. That simply lets us keep $1 in our right pocket while Concord takes $2 from our left pocket. Mandates themselves are the problem.
The money we waste in mandated programs show that there's plenty of room to save taxpayer dollars. With a combination of legislative action and selective trimming, we can continue to make progress towards affordable public education.
Special interests spent decades buying laws to force us to spend more than we should. We can't undo this damage overnight, but the sooner we start, the sooner we can make "public education" truly "public" again.
Jim Peschke
Croydon School Board Member
Jim had sent the above letter to the Eagle Times. I have checked both online and several paper editions and have not been able to confirm if the Eagle Times published the letter.
There is a school board meeting tonight at the Croydon Village School.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)