The effects of the growing female to male ratio in college

The idea that sex ratios alter sexual behavior is well-established. Analysis of demographic data from 117 countries has shown that when men outnumber women, women have the upper hand: Marriage rates rise and fewer children are born outside marriage. An oversupply of women, however, tends to lead to a more sexually permissive culture. The same holds true on college campuses. In the course of researching our book Premarital Sex in America, my co-author and I assessed the effects of campus sex ratios on women's sexual attitudes and behavior. We found that virginity is more common on those campuses where women comprise a smaller share of the student body, suggesting that they have the upper hand. By contrast, on campuses where women outnumber men, they are more negative about campus men, hold more negative views of their relationships, go on fewer dates, are less likely to have a boyfriend, and receive less commitment in exchange for sex.
http://www.slate.com/id/2286240/pagenum/all/#p2

Found at When Boys Fail

How does this "man shortage" affect marriage rates?  For now, at least, a college degree is a status marker.

As just about everyone (from Dennis Prager to pickup artists) has figured out by now, women tend to want men of high status, men they look up to — literally, in terms of height, and figuratively, in terms of social standing, income, and education. If women systematically outpace men on these status markers — as they are beginning to — they will have to compete for men they deem suitable at a less-than-even ratio. There’s nothing we can do about this that I can think of, but it will not be good for marriage. 
http://www.nationalreview.com/phi-beta-cons/260750/sex-campus-and-everywhere-robert-verbruggen

Most college graduates unqualified to work at most desired employers?

The Wall Street Journal reports that a survey asked college graduates with one to eight years of work experience to select five ideal employers.

While the top 10 on the list featured several high-tech companies, few young professionals likely have the skills to win jobs at such employers. According to the Education Department, the top majors for the class of 2008 were business, health sciences and social sciences and history. About nine times as many people majored in business in the class of 2008 as majored in computer science.

The top 20 list of employers:

1. Google
2. Apple
3. The Walt Disney Company
4. U.S. Department of State
5. Amazon
6. FBI
7. Microsoft
8. Central Intelligence Agency
9. NASA
10. Teach for America
11. Peace Corps
12. Nike
13. Johnson & Johnson
14. National Institutes of Health
15. Mayo Clinic
16. Centers for Disease Control
17. Sony
18. American Cancer Society
19. U.S. Department of Energy
20. Whole Foods Market

Pay cuts cause workers to slack off

These findings are disconcerting, but not surprising.

In experiments where workers were randomly assigned to receive wage cuts, they retaliated by slacking off.

In the comments to this story, it was pointed out that the experiments involved lower-paid workers whose pay was cut with no explanation, important points to consider.

http://www.slate.com/id/2288377/pagenum/all/#p2

"I think the employees have to become part of the solution."

The Port Chester school district:

"I don't really believe that a tax levy of over 6 percent will pass," board member James Dreves said of the proposed increase. "We run a really lean ship in Port Chester. I think the employees have to become part of the solution."...

Like other districts, Port Chester is coping with declining property values and increased pension costs.

Sounds familiar.

And this is just kicking the can down the road, shifting the burden onto future students.

On the spending side, the district expects to save $1.1 million next year as a result of a retirement incentive taken by 26 teachers and three administrative employees.

Pension reform is desperately needed.

Port Chester district aims for lower tax increase - lohud, 3/20/11

The entire article:

"Directional university"

I learned a new term recently.

Directional university:

A state-supported university in the United States whose name includes a compass direction, e.g. "North state name State University." Many directional universities started out as teachers' colleges, broadening their educational missions in the 1950's or 1960's. In most instances a directional university has easier admissions standards than its state's flagship university ("The University of state name") and serves a greater proportion of commuter/part-time/older students.

California does not have directional universities. As an equivalent, it has universities with the word "State" in their names.  

Job hunting with a degree from a directional university is mighty tough.

Let's see if I can think of a few possible examples.

--  Southern Connecticut State University
--  Midwestern State University
--  Western Nevada College

And my favorite:
--  Eastern New Mexico University, also affectionately known as "Enema U"

"63 percent of voters in union households" oppose LIFO

In New York City, 63% of voters in union household oppose LIFO.  I wonder what percentage of teachers oppose LIFO.

A whopping 78 percent of New York City voters said teacher layoffs should be based on performance, not the seniority-based "last-in, first out" law, a poll released today found.
Even 63 percent of voters in union households agree that layoffs should be based on merit, not LIFO, according to the Quinnipiac College survey.
Meanwhile 73 percent of voters said layoffs of cops, firefighters and other government workers should be determined by performance, not seniority. And a majority of voters in union households agree.
The results mirror the findings of a statewide poll released last month, which found that 85 percent of voters backed the elimination of LIFO.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/majority_based_performance_york_mT8LRF5xbXjyRUY1EFyvSL#ixzz1H2WAq6m4

ADDED:  This retired teacher supports LIFO.

Don't allow the massive propaganda machine influence what you consider common sense. The last in, by all moral, legal and common sense, should be first out, if there must be an out. The many years of love, dedication and sacrifice, all for children, deserves better. I'm certain that this political move to protect budget mismanagement has nothing to do with the "best" teachers, but rather the bottom line of failed budget planning.

Read the entire piece after the jump.

The combination of a strong teacher with Khan Academy - too good to be true?

A pilot program of "blended" or "hybrid" instruction that brings Khan Academy into the classroom:

To teach mathematics, schools in Los Altos, California, are piloting use of Khan Academy videos and online tools, which have replaced traditional textbooks and homework in two fifth-grade and two seventh-grade classrooms. Teachers say the change has brought huge benefits.

Here's a full description from the lasdandkhanacademy blog.

In Los Altos School District, we are constantly striving to improve instruction to meet the needs of all learners and prepare all K-8 students to thrive in our rapidly changing global community. In the continual quest to improve instruction, we are investigating new instructional delivery models and are currently piloting the use of Khan Academy as a hybrid-learning model in a few math classes across the district (two 5th grade classes, and two 7th grade pre-algebra readiness classes). In our pilot, Khan Academy is being utilized as a complement to our current math program.

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit with the mission of providing a world-class education to anyone, anywhere. It currently consists of over 1800 videos covering content in math and science one concept at a time. Concepts are arranged on a “Knowledge Map” which builds from the most basic mathematical concept to more complex concepts covered in high school calculus. Each concept is presented in digestible 10-15 minute video segments followed by practice exercises and tutorials. The software suggests next steps for students and provides teachers with a wealth of individualized student data on both concepts mastered and areas of struggle. With the use of Khan Academy as a hybrid-learning model, students are able to work through new material at their own pace during a portion of every math class. Teachers are able to use the data generated through Khan Academy to group students according to their instructional need and provide targeted math instruction.

Piloting Khan Academy provides us a unique opportunity to explore 21st century learning with our students by leveraging technology to differentiate instruction to meet the individualized learning needs of all students. We are fortunate to have formed a phenomenal partnership with Khan Academy and are excited by the potential differentiated learning opportunities for students that will develop as a result of this partnership.

The foregoing description is full of flowery edu-jargon, but there's no denying that Khan provides a superb way to track individual student progress.

Your classroom data...finally

 

Teachers and coaches can access all of their students' data. You can get a summary of class performance as a whole or dive into a particular student's profile to figure out exactly which topics are problematic. The class profile lets coaches glance at their dashboard and quickly figure out how to best spend their time teaching.

We've put a lot of energy into making sure that the Khan Academy empowers teachers by giving them access to the data they should've had for years. You'll know instantly if a student is struggling in multiplying fractions...or if she hit a streak and is now far ahead of the class.

But can the Los Altos School District gain efficiency and raise achievement levels?  A quick search found this meta-analysis:

The United States Department of Education reported recently that it's found some evidence to support the notion that blended learning is more effective than either face to face or online learning by themselves. Further, between online and face to face instruction, online is at least as good and may even have the advantage in terms of improving student achievement and potentially expanding the amount of time (and quality time) students spend learning.

Powerful potential - Here are some pulls from Bill Gates' appearance on NBC Nightly News.

The cutting edge of where education is going...

Kids like to move at their own pace...

We need to do a better job...

Teachers will always be important.  What Sal’s engaged in right now is working with teachers to see where they can use his material to relieve them of a lot of things.  And his interactive parts can track and the teachers can see is this kid behind, is this kid ahead.  It can help the teacher organize the class.  So the power of a combination of a strong teacher together with these resources, I see that as making a huge difference.

From The Gates Notes, here are some videos of Los Altos school administrators, teachers and students talking about the Khan Academy pilot.

And, Khan Academy is FREE! 

(I haven't read this yet, but here's more on blended learning:  http://educationnext.org/future-schools/)