You are a student taking an important math course taught in large lecture sections by an adjunct (who dropped out of your elite school’s graduate program). That frees up some of the professorial staff to work with a few brilliant math students that your college recruited for their Putnam team. (The Putnam Math Competition is […]
“The Fish Stinks From the Head”
June 25, 2013 by
The following is a comment about how administrators may have taken a statement by David Riesman. The comment was made on the following article. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323836504578551904167354358.html?mod=WSJ_article_comments#articleTabs%3Darticle Let’s see, there’s teacher training, not so good, overall. Then there’s STEM training, not so good, overall. Oh, there’s lawyer training, not so good, even “unscrupulous”, according to some […]
A Suggestion for Holding Colleges Accountable for Teacher Performance
June 25, 2013 by
I posted the following suggestion as a comment to this WSJ article http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323836504578553933214167460.html?KEYWORDS=arne#articleTabs%3Darticle A significant part of the teacher competency problem is no fault of the teachers. It starts with the training they get in college. Many high school teachers are especially penalized by inadequate preparation in their subject. This is no fault of […]
Important Paper on the Value of a Good Teacher (from a MacArthur Award Winner)
June 13, 2013 by
Raj Chetty (MacArthur Award Winner, HS Valedictorian, Harvard Summa Cum Laude [in only 3 years], Harvard PhD in Economics [in only 3 years], now a Harvard Professor) and his colleagues, John N. Friedman (Harvard) and Jonah E. Rockoff published “The Long-Term Impacts of Teachers: Teacher Value-Added And Student Outcomes in Adulthood.” I will be posting […]
Two sides to the “online course coin”
May 30, 2013 by
There is an article in today’s Wall Street Journal titled “Web Courses Woo Professors: Online Firm Opens Way for More Educators to Create Their Own Internet Classes” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324682204578513541557842934.html?mod=WSJ__MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird#articleTabs%3Dcomments I commented about my worries after reading these two paragraphs that I think show both sides of the coin. First, the good side, “I think that what […]
My take on today’s front page article in NY Times “Chinese Creating New Auto Niche Within Detroit”
May 13, 2013 by
Here is the link to the article http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/business/global/chinese-automakers-quietly-build-a-detroit-presence.html?ref=todayspaper The article starts, “Chinese-owned companies are investing in American businesses and new vehicle technology and ….hiring experienced engineers and designers in an effort to soak up the talent and expertise of domestic automakers and their suppliers.” I worry that, for reasons I give in the following comment, […]
I don’t agree with factual basis for NYTimes Op-Ed
April 13, 2013 by
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html I commented on this piece because I’m afraid it missed the point. Here is what I wrote. (If you have read TeacherTeacher competency exams for holding UNIVERSITIES accountable and It Starts in the18th Grade you already know the essence of what I wrote in my comment.) As a math professor with over two decades teaching […]
Interesting article in NYTimes today (4-9-2013)
April 9, 2013 by
Interesting article in NYTimes today (4-9-2013) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/technology/coursesmart-e-textbooks-track-students-progress-for-teachers.html?hp Here is what I posted. (I think it could be a lot clearer, since there are certainly students who don’t need to study much to perform well. On the other hand, even Einstein failed his French exam when he didn’t study. So, I guess what I mean is that if […]
Social Security Garnished for Some Scammed Graduate Students
At least, that is my take on the article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/I-Fully-Expect-to-Die-With/138507/ It notes that student debt for those over 60 is over $38 Billion and for over 50 is $155 Billion! Here is the short story as I see it. Many students go to far too many undergraduate schools where far […]