Meanderings

MSFT CES Swan Song

What message is being sent by Microsoft's final act at the Consumer Electronics Show? Does it mean that they've given up on innovation? Will they be satisfied from here on out with incremental updates and tweaks to their software and services rather than continuing to push for world changing innovation? I guess time will tell.

What is Average Anyway?

In my math class we have a measure that we call the Bandini Line. This is the score that students must surpass to achieve a passing grade on their assignments. The name comes from a fertilizer commercial that aired in Southern California in the mid to late 1970's in which a skiier stood atop a gigantic pile of cow manure (Bandini Mountain) and unsuccessfully attempted to ski down. He face planted in the manure and that was the humor in the commercial. It was pretty low brow, but to a Junior High School boy it was the funniest thing ever.

In my math class the goal is to avoid the skiier's fate by remaining above the Bandini Line, which is 80 percent.

With the Bandini Line at 80 percent, it means that the average score on a quiz is typically in the range of 84-87 percent. Some students do not reach Bandini and some students surpass the quiz total by doing bonus questions which award them extra points. Now think about that for just a minute. In order to be "average" in my math class the students need to 84 percent on math assignments that are, at a minimum, one grade level ahead and usually 2 or 3 grade levels ahead. That's really hard, and quite an academic achievement. That means that the "average" student in my math class performs above the 90th percentile nationally. This isn't to boast, it is simply to point out the imprecision of the notion of average.

The reason that I bring this up is that earlier this school year, standardized testing results were sent to parents that included a bit of data that compared their child's score to their peers in our community. Some parents where quite distressed when they read that their child scored in the 12th percentile in a particular academic area when their teachers had been reporting all year that they had been doing fine. How is this possible?

It is possible when a lot of kids do very well on a test and their scores are very tightly grouped. If the mean score on a test is 84 percent and the standard deviation is 3 percent, that means that 2/3 of the students scored between 81 and 87 percent. It means that 96 percent of scores fall between 78 and 90 percent; so a student can fall in the 75th percentile nationally and in the 4th percentile locally.

It means that average is a very nebulous thing to define.

 

Duty? I Don't Think So.

Yesterday, the president of my local teachers union sent the membership an email that said, in part: "I also want to thank all the people who attended Tuesday's General Membership meeting.  In order for a union to be effective, it requires all its members to be engaged. Voting during elections and turning out for General Membership meetings are the basic obligations for everyone. The MIEA leadership will continue to work toward setting up structures that enable all members to meet their basic duties next year."

Excuse me, but my obligation to the union ends with the dues that are taken from my paycheck each month. I have no duty to attend meetings, vote for board members, campaign for democrats, or do anything else to support union activities. With my non-involvement I understand that my voice will not be heard, but I am quite clear that what I would have to say would not be welcomed in their meetings anyway. I also understand that non-participation means that I forfeit the right to complain about the quality of their representation. I am fine with that as well, just don't lecture me about my so-called "duty" to the MIEA.

Saturday's Philosophy Lesson

Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) was a medieval philosopher who posited the notion that there are two classifications of beings: necessary beings, or those that must exist, and contingent beings, those that may exist but whose existence is not necessary. I find it an interesting intellectual exercise to organize things in this fashion.

Legislating Waste...

Here is a brief email exchange that occurred between me and the MISD's Director of Food Service, Katie Watland, followed by my own commentary:

Hi Katie,

After going to Islandwood Environmental Learning Center for several years as a 5th grade teacher, I became much more aware of the amount of food waste that occurs during our lunches. This is particularly true during the primary lunch sessions where I see the smaller kids sometimes throwing away half of their meals. I was wondering if the food services team has recently discussed the notion of differentiating portion sizes for smaller kids so that they received enough food to be nutritious, but not so much that they would throw it away. For example, smaller pizza slices for smaller kids, fewer chicken nuggets, etc. Given our new online payment strategy, maybe they could be charged a bit less for their lunches - a real win for parents as well.

Thanks for the great job you guys do for the kids every day.

Best Regards,

Ellis Reyes

Katie's Response:

Hi-

Thank you for your concerns for potions with the primary lunch.  We are part of the National School Lunch Program and with that we are required to follow the guidelines setup by the USDA.  We are required to offer at least 2 oz of Meat/ Meat alternative, 3/4 cup of fruit/vegetable, 8 oz fluid milk, and a serving of bread.  We have to treat every student equally with portions and would not be able to charge two different prices for elementary.

While we can't change the portion sizes maybe somebody at  your school would like to take on composting like they do at Island Park Elementary. 

If I can be any further assitance, please let me know.

Thank  you,

Katie

++++++

 

That's right. One size fits all. A Kindergartner with a size 2 stomach gets the same amount of chow as the 5th grader with a size 12 stomach. So the size 2 dumps half of her food into the trash because she's full, and the size 12 goes back to class with a growling stomach. How is this a wise use of resources? Can we afford to be this wasteful? Wouldn't a little bit of flexibility be useful in this situation? Changing this ridiculous law is going to be my class' public service project for the year. We will begin by performing a statistical sampling of food waste over grade levels and lunch periods to gather data. We will then then use the Food Service's costs to calculate an average food waste cost per day and then extrapolate that number to a per year cost. Then we will compile a list of elected officials whose voices may be persuasive in changing the law and will start writing letters and sending emails.

We'll see where things go from there.

44 x 365 x 2 (Mrs. Maxine D.)

You were the first teacher that I didn't respect and I was only 9. Why? Because you made me do long division between the lines (which was impossible) and you said Massa-Too-Sus, not Massa-CHU-setts. I don't think I learned anything in your class.

Obamanomics in the Classroom

Imagine the uproar if I sent this letter to the parents of my Accelerated Math Students.

++++++

Dear Parents,

In an effort to mirror the seemingly popular Obama economic plan I am going to revamp the grading policy in my classroom. If your student earns grades that are in the top ten percent of the class, I am going to redistribute 39 percent of his or her score to the "less fortunate" students in the class. This will create a more level playing field and will create opportunities for the students who find it more difficult to achieve in school than your students do. Your child may do extra credit work to boost their end of term grade, but any additional work will be scored at a special "capital gains" rate with 55 percent of score from this extra work being redistributed to their classmates.

To ensure that there is not an achievement divide between the students in my classroom, a performance cap of 85 percent will be imposed upon all work submitted. Any score that exceeds 85 percent will have the overage redistributed to students who performed less well on that assignment. This will prevent a small group of students from earning far more points than their classmates thereby avoiding a chasm between the "haves" and the "have-nots". If, at any time, a student's total grade points equal more than 2.5 times that of any classmate, his or her grade points will be adjusted to eliminate this disparity.

By the end of the grading period this redistribution strategy should place all student scores within one standard deviation of the mean creating a more equitable overall grade distribution.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

 

Predictable Union Fear Mongering

Last week, two teachers from the Seattle School District wrote a special editorial to the Seattle Times condemning the Superintendent and her choice of McKinsey & Co. to perform an audit of the District to assist her in developing a strategic plan. I find many aspects of their argument specious and others tired recitations of boilerplate liberal propaganda.

 

First of all, they take the Superintendent to task for accepting $750,000 in PRIVATE MONEY  to hire McKinsey to do the work for the District. This is a very clever way of creating a no-win situation for Dr. Goodloe-Johnson. If she had used District resources to hire the consultants she would have been criticized for misallocating funds that could have been spent directly on instruction. Now that she reached out to the private sector to secure the funding, the money is somehow tainted because it has ties to for-profit corporations and wealthy individuals.

 

 Specious.

 

Next, the teachers, whom I am relatively certain do not have MBA's or backgrounds in business, take McKinsey to task because a handful of their clients have had problems; some of them very significant problems. Let's look at the facts surrounding this claim, shall we? McKinsey is a global consultancy serving thousands of clients. The scope of their practice is extremely broad ranging from Information Systems Consulting, to Corporate Strategy, to Mergers and Acquisitions, and beyond. Pinning the failure of a handful of their clients, some of whom committed crimes leading to the downfall of their companies, is like blaming the contract cafeteria workers for students who were arrested for shoplifting and missed the WASL because they were incarcerated. It doesn't follow.

 

Or viewed another way, if all but five students in the Seattle School District passed the WASL, should the credit be given to the contract cafeteria workers? After all, thousands of them passed after having eaten a school lunch.

 

Similarly troubling is their use of the word "coerce" regarding McKinsey's report to Minneapolis Public Schools. What leverage does a consultancy have over a large public school district that they could coerce them to do anything? Recommend? Sure. Suggest? Even better. But coerce? I don't think so.

 

The holes in the authors' logic and understanding of the business world are shocking.

 

Perhaps it's this precise attitude toward organizational improvement and ignorance of the functioning of the private sector that leads 20 percent of Seattle families to choose private schools.

 

Market Share 12-28-07

In a recent Seattle Times article, the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors and Superintendent expressed concern about improving their district's "market share"; attracting or bringing back students who live in the city but attend private schools. So the question is, when you have a product that is as complex and personal as a child's education, how can a large urban district improve its market share?

 

First, let's look at the numbers. According to the most recent census data there are 563,374 people living in Seattle, and of that number 13.8 percent or 77,745 are school-age children. The Seattle Times estimates that 20-25 percent of these families or approximately 17,500 choose private over public schools, thereby depriving the district of nearly $131 million in state and federal revenue annually. So, regardless of one's point of view about how these students should be brought back into the fold, it is clear that the stakes are very high.

 

 I think the next logical step is to parse out who these students may be, not specifically, but in a product affinity sense:

 

Of the students who attend private schools:

 

______ % who attend private schools will not return for any reason

 

______ % who attend private schools would return if several needs were met

 

______ % who attend private schools would return if one specific need was met

 

The other side of recruiting/attracting the students outside of the system is retaining the students who are currently enrolled in SPS. Here's how I would break that down:

 

______ % who attend Seattle Public Schools will stay because they can't afford private schools (the captive audience).

 

______ % who attend Seattle Public Schools will stay because they feel that their needs are being met within the system.

 

______ % who attend Seattle Public Schools will leave because one specific need is not being met.

 

______ % who attend Seattle Public Schools will leave because several needs are not being met.

 

This breakdown can be fine tuned, but for a first pass I think that it provides a place to begin thinking about where to dedicate the district's efforts regarding recruitment and retention. 

 

In the article, the new School Board expressed a desire to expand, "its focus to the city's middle-class families and their concerns; program placement, choice, consistency, and predictability." How do they know that these are the chief concerns of parents whose kids have left the District for private schools? Have formal surveys been taken or is this simply anecdotal information that will be translated to policy because it makes good sound bites. Actually, for a good sound bite, they need to rearrange the concerns so that they are alliterative: choice, consistency, program placement, and predictability. The C2P2 plan.

 

Let's see how it works.