So there’s a great editorial in Monday’s times detailing the joke that is the grading profess for standardized tests. I’m sure this going to be a fun book to read as well, even though I can’t believe anyone will truly be surprised by how inherently flawed the evaluative process actually is.

By Weds, we should have at least two letters from testing companies excoriating the writer, one letter from an outraged governmental official, and one letter from a good hippie professor commending the author.

Here.

It’ll probably get deleted, so here’s the text:

This is the most badassed guitar in the history of rocking with guitars. It’s shiny black with an awesome wood neck from a tree and a sweet mirror pick-guard that you can do lines off, check your fro, and defend against lasers. I have done two of these. The lasers were awesome. The pick guard is cracked and only the volume knob works because of the power this thing puts out. And then there’s the amp. The AMP? Oh hell yes – this amp is only just about the most badass little bitch in the world. It screams like a harpie and bangs like (cut here). How many watts? I’m gonna guess 28 because there’s one number on the front, and that’s 28. No-name you say? It has a name – right on the front. LGA. You know why you’ve never heard of it? Because everyone but me who’s tried to tame this beast explodes. That’s why. Are you man enough? And if you’re a chick, are you man enough? $150 lets you ride this ride.

It looks like this book is going to be the latest “it” book on urban education. And while the thesis is profound and important, I just have to hope that the message principals receive is that this task, of forming teams, of working together, or ensuring instructional coherence, has to be in place of other activities.

What I see happening in most Philly schools is a principal hearing about this (or more likely a region person) and adding another meeting and another set of responsibilities to already overburdened teachers. The “Christmas tree” approach — yeah, we’ll have that too…

It was big night on television tonight. And instead of showing President Obama’s health-care speech that was on tonight, Fox aired its season premiere of “So You Think You Can Dance.” I guess they wanted to give viewers a choice between hearing what’s wrong with our country and watching what’s wrong with our country.

brilliant…

Reading an Iris Murdoch novel — The Sea, The Sea — mostly because Matthew Crawford cited her so extensively in his book on the nature of 21st century work — and remained baffled by the book. It raises the question I ask my student teachers to consider constantly: why do we continue to read books we’re not sure about? In other words, what do I do if:

*I like the writing but don’t understand the plot; should I continue muddling on?
*I despise the main character and don’t really care what happens to him; should I keep reading?
*I don’t believe in the possibility of the main character or the plot…
*”finish what you start” is in conflict with “I’m bored senseless”

The budget situation remains appalling; the failure of city council to do anything other than pass the buck to the state legislature may prove to be quite dangerous. I think Governor Rendell is well aware of the potential for this kind of thing, a resurgent, 1994-esque, election cycle next year should the economy force a tax increase next year.

As a long-term resident (and home-owner), there just isn’t the trust necessary for a major revision in property taxes, which is probably the long-term solution. The Inqy’s continued series on the failures at the BRT highlights the difficulty in using real estate taxes as a source of revenue. For example, they assess my house at $415k, at least $80k higher than it could possibly sell for, while identifying many of the fancy homes in the fancy Penn school catchment area as being worth significantly less. Not quite sure how this could happen. I’d be willing to handle a property tax increase but it has to be done fairly and accurately.

“In some ways I’m dismayed at the fact that professionals would not think of the impact of their actions on children.”