Caveat: Who Knows Who the Good Teachers Are?

The students.

A recent article in the New York Times explains.  Looking for what types of data provide the best correlation with objective measures of teacher performance (such as improved test scores, etc.), Gates Foundation researchers and statisticians discover (discover?) that students know who the good teachers are.  The fact that the "education establishment" might be shocked or surprised by this encapsulates, elegantly, what is wrong with the "education establishment."

Caveat: Falling Down For Fun

The kids at school decided to use an extremely slippery, ice-covered ramp in the courtyard area as a recreational device during lunch break. 

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Earlier, when I looked out my window at 7:40 am, this is what I saw.  Dumptrucks.  Snow.

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Walking toward the bus terminal, I saw one of the very, very sad palm trees planted in front of the Glory Hotel.  Why do Koreans plant palm trees?  I don't think the palm trees like the climate.

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Then Mr Lee stopped by me as I crossed the traffic circle, and offered me a ride.  I met his kids, who go to Yeonggwang Elementary.  I met his wife, again, and we dropped her off at her work at Yeonggwangseo (West Yeonggwang) Elementary.  I had never been in that part of Yeonggwang – it was very beautiful with its fresh coating of snow, and reminded me of driving through rural southeastern Minnesota in winter – rolling hills, mixtures of hardwood and pine forest, stubbly pale yellow fields covered in white, grain elevetors, random rural hardware stores, etc.

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