Muda69

'Equity' Grading Is the Latest Educational Fad Destined To Fail: https://reason.com/2024/05/03/equity-grading-is-the-latest-educational-fad-destined-to-fail/

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Modern public-education history is littered with novel education theories that have failed so spectacularly that the terms are now used as pejoratives. For instance, when I was in elementary school in the 1960s, the "New Math" focused on teaching abstractions rather than fundamentals. You can find reams of research documenting its failure decades later, but the evidence was recognized almost immediately.

That then-new approach "ignored completely the fact that mathematics is a cumulative development and that it is practically impossible to learn the newer creations if one does not know the older ones," according to Morris Kline's 1973 "Common Core," a set of educational standards embraced by California and 39 other states in 2010. On hindsight, it also deserves a failing grade.

"Despite the theory's intuitive appeal, standards-based reform does not work very well in reality," read a 2021 Brookings Institution report. "The illusion of a coherent, well-coordinated system is gained at the expense of teachers' flexibility in tailoring instruction to serve their students." Don't get me started on some of the loopier ones: pass-fail grading, the replacement of phonics with whole-language learning, and Social Emotional Learning (SEL).

"Education in the United States has lurched from fad to fad for the better part of a century, finding ever-ingenious ways to underperform preceding generations," explained investigative reporter Joe Herring in a 2022 piece reviewing some of them. Apparently, there isn't enough productive employment for education PhDs, so they spend their time dreaming up big experiments to improve education rather than focusing on the obvious ones.

The process gains life as evidence pours in about the latest underperformance. And the latest data certainly is impressive, albeit in a depressing way. Following COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, traditional public schools (and California's in particular) couldn't rise to the occasion. Teachers' unions slowed re-openings. Test scores plummeted, especially for poor and minority students. Many students checked out permanently, as soaring chronic absentee rates prove.

Always eager to embrace easy-button solutions rather than, say, ideas that promote competitiveness and excellence, our school bureaucracies are on to some "innovative" ideas that have a ballpark-zero chance of improving educational outcomes. The new ones are based around the concept of equity. As with every education reform fad, they sound OK in the elevator pitch. Who doesn't support equity? But they will create a mess that further impedes student progress.

For instance, some Bay Area schools have approved "equity grading." It's strange to focus on grading rather than teaching, but the details are even stranger. The Mercury News reports that one district removed "the practice of awarding zero points for assignments as long as they were 'reasonably attempted.'" It also eliminated extra credit for class participation. EG offers students "multiple chances to make up missed or failed assignments and minimize homework's impact on a student's grade." Now it will be almost impossible to get an A or an F.

It brings to mind Garrison Keilor's Lake Wobegon, the fictional Minnesota town "where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above average." Parents rightly worry that the new grading system will promote slacking. Why work extra hard when you won't be able to get an A? Why try to improve when you won't get worse than a C? It will create a false sense of equity—and make it tougher for colleges to recognize the best students.

 

Education theorists and consultants who promote this nonsense claim that it will encourage students and teachers to focus entirely on the mastery of material rather than surrounding fluff. They say it will better prepare students for the work world. Yet a lot of that so-called fluff—class participation, completing homework, handing in assignments on time—contribute mightily to such mastery.

Regarding the work world, ask my editor what he thinks if I miss my deadlines and still expect a paycheck. "Supporters of mastery-based grading say it could promote equity," notes an Education Next article. But will it improve learning and test scores? One needn't be a math whiz to know the answer.

State education officials also have jumped on the equity bandwagon. The California State Board of Education last year approved a new 1,000-page math framework that, as Education Week reported, "aims to put meaning-making at the center of the math classroom" and "encourages teachers to make math culturally relevant and accessible for all students." The framework isn't binding on districts, but it will influence everything from textbooks to teaching standards.

I'm not sure how to make mathematical computations more meaningful and relevant, but I suppose someone will write a book about its failures in a few years. Meanwhile, many parents know what succeeds: competition. But providing additional schooling options would pressure school bureaucracies and jobs-protecting teachers' unions to improve, and to them that's not a tolerable outcome.

Yet another race to the bottom approach for government education.  They keep on adopting new ways to fail at actually educating children.

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/hamilton-county/carmel/2024/05/01/carmel-plan-would-hike-new-home-fees-61-to-fund-parks/73504880007/

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Faced with a decrease in local income taxes, the Carmel Clay Parks and Recreation Department has proposed a 61% hike in construction fees for home builders to help pay for parks.

The change would boost impact fees for new construction from $4,882 to $7,863 per home or apartment unit, a cost that is likely to be passed on to homebuyers and renters.

Parks CEO Michael Klitzing said the hike would be assessed incrementally, at 11% a year, for five years and would generate an extra $924,000 for parks in that time.

Collection of the fees goes entirely to the parks department for new projects to meet the recreational demands of extra residents moving into the city. It comes as the parks face a $3.5 million annual revenue loss because Clay Township's share of county income taxes will decrease when the township pays off an old bond in 2025.

“There is an imminent storm on the horizon in the form of a funding shortfall to support the park system,” said Joshua Kirsh, a Carmel Plan Commission member appointed by Carmel Clay Parks. ”If all of the park's stakeholders don't address it is going to look bleak.”

Options include a new bond issue, reallocation of city funds or a property tax hike.

Klitzing said he makes “no apologies” for the impact fees because the parks system is part of what attracts new residents to Carmel.

State law requires cities to review the impact fee every five years and adjust it according to future park needs, population growth, and assessed and projected land value, among other factors.

Under the law, Carmel could raise the fee even higher, to $8,276. In 2019, Carmel raised the impact fees 64%.

Steve Lains, executive director of the Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis, said the hike will add to the cost of new homes.

....

Indiana. Indeed the land of taxes.

8 hours ago, HoopsCoach said:

The lacrosse coaches do not have an interest in becoming an official IHSAA sport.

Why not?  Is that sport too "high class" so making it an official IHSAA sport could open the door for bottom feeder government schools to start lacrosse programs?

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/dea-to-reclassify-marijuana-as-a-lower-risk-drug-reports-say/

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The US Drug Enforcement Administration is preparing to reclassify marijuana to a lower-risk drug category, a major federal policy change that is in line with recommendations from the US health department last year. The upcoming move was first reported by the Associated Press on Tuesday afternoon and has since been confirmed by several other outlets.

The DEA currently designates marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, defined as drugs "with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." It puts marijuana in league with LSD and heroin. According to the reports today, the DEA is moving to reclassify it as a Schedule 3 drug, defined as having "a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence." The move would place marijuana in the ranks of ketamine, testosterone, and products containing less than 90 milligrams of codeine.

Marijuana's rescheduling would be a nod to its potential medical benefits and would shift federal policy in line with many states. To date, 38 states have already legalized medical marijuana.

In August, the Department of Health and Human Services advised the DEA to move marijuana from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 based on a review of data by the Food and Drug Administration. The recommendation came after the FDA, in August, granted the first approval of a marijuana-based drug. The drug, Epidiolex (cannabidiol), is approved to treat rare and severe forms of epilepsy. The approval was expected to spur the DEA to downgrade marijuana's scheduling, though some had predicted it would have occurred earlier. Independent expert advisors for the FDA voted unanimously in favor of approval, convinced by data from three high-quality clinical trials that indicated benefits and a "negligible abuse potential."

The shift may have a limited effect on consumers in states that have already eased access to marijuana. In addition to the 38 states with medical marijuana access, 24 states have legalized recreational use. But, as a Schedule 3 drug, marijuana would still be regulated by the DEA. The Associated Press notes that the rule change means that roughly 15,000 dispensaries would need to register with the DEA, much like pharmacies, and follow strict reporting requirements.

One area that will clearly benefit from the change is scientific research on marijuana's effects. Many academic scientists are federally funded and, as such, they must follow federal regulations. Researching a Schedule 1 drug carries extensive restrictions and rules, even for researchers in states where marijuana is legalized. A lower scheduling will allow researchers better access to conduct long-awaited studies.

It's unclear exactly when the move will be announced and finalized. The DEA must get sign-off from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before proceeding. A source for NBC News said Attorney General Merrick Garland may submit the rescheduling to the OMB as early as Tuesday afternoon. After that, the DEA will open a public comment period before it can finalize the rule.

The US Department of Justice told several outlets that it "continues to work on this rule. We have no further comment at this time."

About dang time.   Government should have no say on what an adult chooses to put into their body.   Full stop.

7 hours ago, coachkj said:

Muda's suggestion for Sheridan's field.

Bingo.  Your MS Paint skills are to be commended.  Or did you use The Gimp?

20 minutes ago, Bash Riprock said:

Evidently so are lubricants...because there doesn't seem to be enough to stop the squeaking......

 

Yeah, oil isn't cheap anymore either.

Barf:

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20. (7): Culver Academies, Frankfort, Huntington North, Lebanon, Logansport, Marion, Muncie Central

118 miles between Culver Academies and Muncie Central.  

91 miles between Culver Academies and Lebanon.

Gas is expensive.

Along with other important info:  https://www.wrtv.com/sports/high-school/ihsaa-approves-girls-wrestling-boys-volleyball-as-new-sports-for-2024-25-school-year

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On Monday, the IHSAA Board of Directors approved full recognition of boys volleyball and girls wrestling.

With full recognition, the two sports will now have an established IHSAA state tournament. Girls wrestling will be a winter sport while boys volleyball will be played in the spring.

12 hours ago, Daniel_Bragg said:

It's literally the school logo, but...

Must be a new one because it doesn't look like the school logo on the Sheridan water tower.  That is a Blackhawk.

https://reason.com/2024/04/29/50-years-of-dd-you-cant-copyright-fun/

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), the granddaddy of tabletop role-playing games and one of the urtexts of nerd culture.

The golden anniversary could hardly have come at a better time; over the past decade, the game has undergone an unexpected renaissance, reaching levels of cultural saturation and sales that exceed even its 1980s heyday. Critical Role, a live-play D&D podcast, sold out London's 12,000-seat Wembley Arena last October. Even a passingly good Dungeons & Dragons movie helped mark the game's half-centennial.

If it seems strange that something as anachronistic and exquisitely dorky as D&D is popular again, consider that those qualities may be exactly why people are drawn to it. The Atlantic recently reported that Americans are suffering a "kind of ritual recession, with fewer community-based routines" and face-to-face meetups. It's perhaps not surprising that D&D has become a redoubt for old-fashioned, goofy fun in our digital age.

But there's another reason D&D has weathered 50 years of critical successes and failures: It radically empowered its fans to create their own adventures and games, keeping the tabletop gaming hobby alive even when its flagship was floundering. The 50-year history of D&D is an entrepreneurial success story, yes, but it's also a story of the advantages of an open-source, loose approach to intellectual property, and the disadvantages of being miserly with it.

When Gary Gygax, a Wisconsin war-gaming enthusiast, published the first edition of D&D in 1974, he was unemployed and cobbling shoes in his basement for spare cash. He had to recruit business partners and form their own company, TSR, to publish the game, because every major board game company passed on it.

In fairness to the suits who turned down a golden goose, D&D would have sounded incomprehensible on paper in 1974. You played fantasy characters, who worked together? Where is the game board you play on? No one wins? Wait, what's this about a "dungeon master"?

But the genius of D&D is better demonstrated than explained, and that's how the game spread—from friend group to friend group, slowly at first and then faster as the number of Johnny Appleseeds lugging their Dungeon Master's Guides around grew exponentially. It turned out that when you sat people down, told them they were wizards and knights and what-have-you, and got them rolling dice, they loved it. And they loved it across age groups: children, teens, and adults.

The revolutionary idea of D&D was its "expansive and generous belief in its players' creative potential," as I wrote in a 2018 Reason feature on the history of the game. It used the combat mechanics of tabletop war games, but as a framework for what was in essence a collaborative fantasy story generated by the players' choices. Dice were used to simulate randomness and risk, so a player had the freedom to, say, pickpocket a nobleman, but they might have to roll well to avoid being caught. Dungeon masters, the neutral referees who lead D&D sessions, had even more freedom. They could create their own campaigns and even whole fantasy worlds.

This encouragement of creativity extended to D&D's business model. In its early days, TSR gave its blessing to unofficial fan magazines and helped distribute unlicensed third-party content from small-press publishers.

Besides mutual advantage, TSR had good reason to not be too stingy with its copyright. The content of D&D was a mishmash of fantasy tropes and races that Gygax himself lifted from classic works in the genre. For example, the earliest versions of D&D used the term "hobbits," until TSR received a strongly worded letter from the company that owned the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's works. Ever since then, the fantasy worlds of D&D have been populated by "halflings" instead.

Things changed when tabletop role playing became a multimillion-dollar industry in the 1980s. TSR's position toward its intellectual property became increasingly litigious, roughly at the same time as its popularity plateaued and its product quality began declining. Relations between the company and tabletop gamers hit a low point in 1994, when TSR sent cease-and-desist letters to numerous websites hosting harmless D&D fan content, accusing them of infringing on the company's copyright.

When the third edition of D&D was released in 2000, under new ownership by the company Wizards of the Coast, it included a significant olive branch to the hobbyists that TSR had alienated: a "perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive license" allowing other publishers to use a chunk of the core D&D rules to create new games and material, royalty-free.

The Open Gaming License (OGL), as it became known, was a huge success, spawning classic computer games, reams of D&D material, and new role-playing games like Pathfinder. Today there are Kickstarters raising millions of dollars for third-party supplements to the current Fifth Edition D&D. (I have even self-published a D&D adventure online using the OGL. It sells enough units every year to support my gaming habit.)

So the entire tabletop gaming industry understandably flew into a barbarian rage last year when news leaked that Wizards of the Coast was going to "update" the OGL. The update included voiding the two-decade-old agreement and its guarantee of perpetuity.

Wizards of the Coast is scheduled to release a new edition of D&D later this year, and it was tired of seeing competitors use its secret sauce for free. But this felt like a betrayal to the independent artists, writers, and designers in the industry, who in an open letter compared Wizards of the Coast to a "dragon on top of the hoard, willing to burn the thriving village if only to get a few more gold pieces."

Wizards of the Coast backed down, but the controversy led several of the biggest third-party publishers to announce they were creating their own role-playing games unconnected to D&D. Paizo, publisher of Pathfinder, also created a new system-agnostic license for independent game creators, the Open RPG Creative License (ORC). When the new edition of D&D is released this year, it will have more competition, and game masters will have more freedom to choose which adventures they take their friends on outside the copyright owner's fantasy reservation.

One suspects the late Gygax, who was ousted from TSR in the 1980s and then sued for trying to publish his own games, would only approve.

I discovered D&D in the 1980's and played for several years.   Several of my children still play on occasion.  It is a game that has truly passed the test of time.

On 4/24/2024 at 10:04 AM, Bobref said:

 Do you let the people out of jail who broke the law when it was illegal? Do you automatically expunge their convictions?

No.  Going down that path lies madness. Also called reparations.

2 hours ago, Daniel_Bragg said:

Sheridan's turf work has begun. These pictures are from last Wednesday I believe. On Friday, I saw about 70% of grass completely gone. Also, the design for the completed turf. 

Again, looks expensive.  Also IMHO that logo is dumb.  There are better ways to represent a Blackhawk.  

11 hours ago, Lions 55 said:

   Work has begun on the Salem field. My understanding is it will be completed in the middle of July. The press box will be done after the season.

Looks expensive.

2 hours ago, Just a dad said:

 

1. Didn’t say it was all athletic scholarship money. Academic scholarship money and forgivable grants are nice, too.

2. Indoor track is a thing in Indiana

3. Do some research into the cost of private HS tuition after the $7k state credit and other incentives. You will find that it is less than $6k/yr. If you choose the right school

4. Played a few years of 7v7 but that cost is nothing. No private trainers or coaches, no workshops, no paid recruiting consultants, 2 single day college camps (about $150 total).

5. Club VB is a killer (mostly due to hotels) but Title IX should make that a low risk investment in the future. (I offset 2/3 of that cost by coaching for the club)

6. Don’t make this an us vs them competition, dude. It’s possible to want every kid to succeed. 

 

Thank you.  Only to the upper middle class to upper class can 6k a year be considered 'low cost'. Of course that cost is after basically a taxpayer funded subsidy.

26 minutes ago, Rodney said:

Of course I am it's nearly 2pm on a friday

Setting such a fine, outstanding example to the Gibson Southern youth.

The late Mr. Adams must be turning over his grave at such behavior,  and on the topic of this forum thread.

5 minutes ago, Rodney said:

To be fair you guys wouldn't want to talk football to much either

 

If you had to tell people you were

 

 

 

A hot dogs fan

?  Are you drinking on the job again?

This is Indiana?  A sniper on the rooftop of the IU Student Union, watching some kind of protest going on.

10 hours ago, Just a dad said:

He actually has 3 rings. 2 sport star. They are shiny. Daughter will probably end up with 3 as well. Both will get to play college sports on someone else's dime. $500k worth of free college education for my kids for just a few years of high value, low cost HS education.  I’m like the Warren Buffet of choosing High Schools. 

I’m done with this subject. You clowns bore me. 

Can you please provide details about this low cost HS education?  Also besides tuition have you also payed for travel teams,  workshops, camps, personal coaches/training, etc. for your two children in your quest for an athletic scholarship?

And what colleges/universities that cost $250k for A 4-year degree are offering your children athletic scholarships?

3 minutes ago, swordfish said:

ONE WORD - (Two words) Term Limits

That would also help.

Sneak peak at Lambeau Field next year:

25 minutes ago, Robert said:

So, what is the answer? Argentina?

Massive cuts in federal spending, in every agency/department/bureau/etc.  across the board.  I recently read that of every dollar the federal government spends, something like 32 cents of it is borrowed money.    So a 32% cut in federal spending sounds about right.  

1 hour ago, swordfish said:

Doesn't everybody remember when they (the Biden administration and the Fed) said higher prices were temporary?  

Econ 101 - the only way for prices to come back down is called DEFLATION.  That is NOT going to happen.  The inflation rate may be back at the 3% level now, but THAT IS STILL INFLATION - WAKE UP - Prices are not coming DOWN, they're just going UP SLOWER.

They're still going to call this a win when inflation settles at about 2.5 - 3% sustained, down from the 9 - 10% that built up from 2021 all the way through 2022, but these high prices are here to stay.  Inflation is still inflation.....I was alive in the late 70's and early 80's when my father was starting his business, prices never went down then and they won't now.

 

 

What did they expect the result of pumping trillions of new printed dollars into the economy would be?  Econ 101, it tends to make the value of all currency less, reducing spending power and raising prices.

Also:  https://reason.com/2024/03/21/emergency-spending-is-out-of-control/

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Emergencies are, by definition, unexpected and urgent situations requiring immediate action—except in Congress, where the term is increasingly used to justify spending decisions that should be part of the normal budget process.

Congress has authorized more than $12 trillion in emergency spending over the past three decades, according to a report released in January by the Cato Institute. About half of that total was spent in direct response to the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, but much of the other half was used for purposes that strain the definition of emergency.

Because emergency spending bypasses some of the scrutiny applied to the normal budgetary process, it has become a convenient way for lawmakers and presidents to hike spending—and add to the national debt. In 2023 alone, Congress and President Joe Biden proposed using emergency spending for many obviously nonemergency situations—including the items listed below.

• $600 million to replace existing airplanes, intended to be operational through 2030 to begin with, used for weather forecasting
• $500 million to cover higher-than-expected fuel costs for military vehicles
• $347 million for prison construction and related costs
• $278 million to accelerate ongoing construction of a new research center at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• $100 million for grants to local law enforcement to protect the 2024 presidential nominating conventions

"We must not let fiscally irresponsible legislators hoodwink their colleagues and the public into accepting spending increases by slapping the 'emergency' label on them and calling it a day." —Romina Boccia, director of budget and entitlement policy, Cato Institute

30 minutes ago, Robert said:

Rich guys have done this, not the boomers.  

The Boomers are the ones voting these big-government, uncontrolled-spending, politicians into office.  

32 minutes ago, Robert said:

 I think I'll need to take an economics course at a conservative Christian university and at a public school and see how they differ.

 

I hear Hillsdale College in Michigan has an Economics department.