Alman’s conjecture: The more expensive a college’s tuition is, the more insane its students are.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
November 8, 2024
Alman’s conjecture: The more expensive a college’s tuition is, the more insane its students are.
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1854964493484179776
https://twitter.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1854964493484179776
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/11/7/harvard-students-react-donald-trump-reelection/
Harvard Professors Cancel Classes as Students Feel Blue After Trump Win
Students awoke to a somber campus following Donald Trump’s reelection to the presidency early Wednesday morning. “My heart dropped a little bit,” one student said.
By Madeleine A. Hung and Azusa M. Lippit
November 7, 2024
At 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Sophia R. Mammucari ’28 woke up to a phone call from her mom — and the news that Donald Trump had been officially reelected.
“I still had some hope that she was going to win by a small amount. And then I woke up this morning, and that’s not what happened,” Mammucari said. “I probably cried for like an hour.”
On election night, students gathered at viewing parties hosted by friends, House tutors, the Institute of Politics, and the Harvard Republican Club to watch results roll in.
The next morning, they woke up to a somber campus.
When Samantha M. Holtz ’28 googled the presidential election’s outcome before her Wednesday morning swim practice, her “heart dropped a little bit.”
“Being at Harvard, I was surrounded by a lot of people who were very pro-Harris, so in my mind it was already a decided election,” Holtz said. “It was a little bit shocking to me.”
Luke P. Kushner ’27 said he was “really, really disappointed” by the presidential election results.
“Very early on in the night, it became pretty clear that it was going to go in the direction of Trump,” Kushner said. “I went to bed before they called it, and at that point I was pretty resigned.”
‘Space to Process’
In Harvard’s freshman dining hall Wednesday morning, Holtz joined a teammate to eat breakfast with College Dean Rakesh Khurana.
According to Holtz, Khurana told students to “let yourself feel a bunch of emotions about how this is going to impact us in the future, and listen to other people and how they feel about it too.”
Some professors also encouraged students to process in the aftermath of the election, adjusting course requirements in kind.
Courses such as Sociology 1156: “Statistics for Social Sciences” and Applied Math 22a: “Solving and Optimizing,” as well as several General Education courses — 1074: “The Ancient Greek Hero” and 1111: “Popular Culture and Modern China” among them — canceled their Wednesday classes, made attendance optional, or extended assignment deadlines.
The move echoes the aftermath of Trump’s first win in 2016, when professors postponed exams and changed lesson plans to lighten students’ schedules.
Economics lecturer Maxim Boycko wrote in a Wednesday email to students in Economics 1010a: “Intermediate Microeconomics” that the course’s typical in-class quizzes would be optional.
“As we recover from the eventful election night and process the implications of Trump’s victory, please know that class will proceed as usual today, except that classroom quizzes will not be for credit,” Boycko wrote. “Feel free to take time off if needed.”
Jack A. Kelly ’26 said he “was tempted to say ‘no’ to class today.”
“I had some professors that have been like, ‘If you need to not come to class, that’s understandable,’” he added. “This definitely takes a toll on people’s mental wellbeing.”
Throughout Wednesday, student organizations, faculty, and House tutors also offered chances to come to terms with the election results.
Physics professor Jennifer E. Hoffman ’99 wrote in an email to physics students and faculty that her office would be “a space to process the election.”
“Many in our community are sleep-deprived, again grieving for glass ceilings that weren’t shattered, fearful for the future, or embarrassed to face our international colleagues,” she wrote. “I stress-baked several pans of lemon bars to share.”
A ‘Very Dark Moment’
For many College students, Trump’s policy proposals mark a source of despair for the next four years.
“Long term, I’m very concerned about Trump’s policies and the things that he has endorsed,” Kushner said. “Trump’s attitude towards democracy and the norms that we have in this country are really, really concerning.”
Kelly, who is enrolled in a class about healthcare, said he is particularly aware of Trump’s potential impact on American medical systems.
“We have an exam next week about the Affordable Care Act and other kinds of healthcare policies,” he said. “A lot of what we’re learning might become moot if the ACA and the progress that was made under that law is repealed in the second Trump administration.”
Eleanor M. Powell ’25 said she is especially worried about Trump’s impact on the judicial system.
“I’m really worried about the court — and not just the Supreme Court, all of the courts where he will be able to appoint judges,” Powell said. “I think we’re in for a very dark moment in the 21st century’s history.”
Several students attributed their emotional reactions to Trump’s rhetoric toward minority groups across the U.S.
“I just couldn’t believe that Donald Trump won, because he is literally a felon, he’s a criminal, and he’s a racist,” Rachele D. Chung ’28 said. “I just can’t believe America voted that way.”
“I feel really sad for the state of women,” Claire V. Miller ’28 said. “If the candidate hadn’t been a Black woman — like if it had been a white man who was just younger than Trump and mentally sharp — I think they could’ve won.”
Victor E. Flores ’25, co-president of the Harvard College Democrats, said he was afraid for the “countless people” who could be affected by Trump’s policies.
“There are marginalized communities across the country that are waiting and watching to see what will happen,” he said. “I am certainly disappointed by these results.”
‘We’re Not Going Anywhere’
For politically engaged Harvard students in groups like Harvard College Democrats and the IOP, Trump’s win marked the conclusion of months of heavy campaigning.
Harvard College Democrats Co-President Tova L. Kaplan ’26 praised the students who have been “working incredibly hard” campaigning for Kamala Harris.
“Those networks that we’ve built and the skills that we’ve built — in students organizing, canvassing, political communications, community building, issue area, advocacy and more — are going to be all the more crucial in this fight ahead,” she said. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Alexander H. Lee ’27 said while results were not what he was hoping for, he is motivated to focus on local politics and “make the best out of what we have right now.”
Though students on both sides of the political aisle fought hard for their preferred candidate, IOP President Pratyush Mallick ’25 said he enjoyed seeing bipartisan “unity” at the IOP watch party and “super high” voter turnout.
With the end of the presidential campaigns, Mallick added that students interested in careers in presidential administration have entered a “transition process.”
“Many people who are thinking about pursuing careers in a Harris administration might explore opportunities and other avenues of public service and walk down those pathways,” he said. “And people who are kind of doing the vice versa might look to transition over to the Trump administration.”
‘A Lot More Vocal’
With Trump’s return to the Oval Office, some students said, Harvard’s campus may see a surge in conservative activism despite its usual “blue tint.”
Many students agreed that support for Trump is strong in limited conservative pockets, including the Harvard Republican Club — which endorsed Trump in July — and the Salient, a conservative student magazine which has published pro-Trump content this year.
According to Chung, Harvard students with more conservative beliefs tend to be quieter, but student Democrats “scream it from the rooftops.”
But in the aftermath of the election, some students predict a change.
“I’m very clear eyed about what this election means in terms of emboldening misogynistic, racist, hateful rhetoric,” Kaplan said.
“I don’t know to what extent that will trickle down to Harvard,” she added, but “we’re going to do our best to make sure that it doesn’t.”
“I think that the Trump supporters will now be a lot more vocal on this campus which, free speech is great, but there might be more animosity,” Mammacuri said.
Jara A. Emtage-Cave ’25, a student on the women’s rugby team, said pro-Trump sentiment seemed to gain traction even before November.
“In the past two weeks before the election, I’ve encountered a lot more people who are pro-Trump, specifically in the athletics community,” Emtage-Cave said.
Following the election, Akash D. Anandam ’28 said he assumed a handful of Harvard students were “popping champagne.”
On Tuesday night, HRC was indeed gleefully ushering in a second Trump presidency.
“It is morning again in America!” HRC President Michael Oved ’25 wrote in a statement to The Crimson Wednesday morning.
“I am pleased that the Harvard Republican Club played a part in this remarkable victory and historic comeback of President Trump,” Oved wrote. “It’s now time for us all to come together, unite around our new President, and tackle the issues that face our country.”
Legos, Cocoa, and Coloring Books for Georgetown Students: At the McCourt School of Public Policy, officials are offering ‘mindfulness’ options to cope with the election. The only thing missing is a blankie.
https://www.thefp.com/p/georgetown-election-safe-space-trump-kamala
Legos, Cocoa, and Coloring Books for Georgetown Students
At the McCourt School of Public Policy, officials are offering ‘mindfulness’ options to cope with the election. The only thing missing is a blankie.
By Frannie Block
November 4, 2024
On Wednesday, the day after the election, most of us are going to roll out of bed, have our breakfast, and get on with our day—no matter which presidential candidate wins. But students at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy—where diplomats and policymakers are molded—have another option: They can play with Legos. Seriously.
In an email to McCourt students, Jaclyn Clevenger, the school’s director of student engagement, introduced the school’s post-election “Self-Care Suite.”
“In recognition of these stressful times,” she wrote, “all McCourt community members are welcome to gather. . . in the 3rd floor Commons to take a much needed break, joining us for mindfulness activities and snacks throughout the day.”
Here’s the agenda (and no, you can’t make this up):
10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.: Tea, Cocoa, and Self-Care
11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.: Legos Station
12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.: Healthy Treats and Healthy Habits
1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.: Coloring and Mindfulness Exercises
2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.: Milk and Cookies
4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.: Legos and Coloring
5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.: Snacks and Self-Guided Meditation
I wanted to ask Clevenger why college and graduate students needed milk and cookies to recover from their stress—and how being coddled in college might someday affect American diplomacy—but she didn’t respond to my calls or emails.
Of course, Georgetown is hardly the only school fearful that their students will be traumatized after the election. At Missouri State University, the counseling center has set up a post-election “self-care no phone zone space” with calm jars, coloring pages, and sensory fidgets.
And just last week, The New York Times reported that Fieldston, the elite New York City private school, was making attendance the day after Election Day optional for “students who feel too emotionally distressed.” Fieldston has also eliminated all homework requirements that day, and is even providing psychologists for “Election Day Support.”
Jerry Seinfeld told the Times that his family found such decisions so aggravating that it caused his youngest son to withdraw from Fieldston and switch to a different school in the eighth grade. “What kind of lives have these people led that makes them think that this is the right way to handle young people?” he said. “To encourage them to buckle. This is the lesson they are providing, for ungodly sums of money.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Dominion is either incompetent, or deliberately trying to cause trouble. Either way, election officials need to find a better company.
Well, it’s happening yet again. The government of Michigan recently issued this statement, which says there is a “programming issue” that is hampering some people’s ability to vote.
I don’t know if this “programming issue” was caused by incompetence, or was a deliberate attempt to cause trouble. But it doesn’t matter which of those two it was. Either way, Michigan, and all other governments that use Dominion voting machines in their elections, need to find a better company.
https://x.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1852068274508280139
https://twitter.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1852068274508280139
Time and time and time again, “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion,” and other similar words are being used as excuses to dumb down educational standards. Here are 24 examples.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
October 15, 2024
Time and time and time again, “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion,” and other similar words are being used as excuses to dumb down educational standards.
Here are 24 examples:
1) The New York Times wrote, “The Board of Regents on Monday eliminated a requirement that aspiring teachers in New York State pass a literacy test to become certified after the test proved controversial because black and Hispanic candidates passed it at significantly lower rates than white candidates.”
Original: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/nyregion/ny-regents-teacher-exams-alst.html?_r=0
Archive: https://archive.ph/GzyQM
2) The New York Times wrote, “A 2009 Princeton study showed Asian-Americans had to score 140 points higher on their SATs than whites, 270 points higher than Hispanics and 450 points higher than blacks to have the same chance of admission to leading universities.”
Original: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/opinion/white-students-unfair-advantage-in-admissions.html
Archive: https://archive.ph/MEDXn
3) Patrick Henry High School, San Diego’s largest high school, cited “equity” as its reason for removing some of its classes in advanced English, advanced history, and advanced biology.
4) The Vancouver School Board cited “equity and inclusion” for why it got rid of its honors courses in math and science at its high schools.
Archive: https://archive.ph/MBOEo
5) In the name of equity, California will discourage students who are gifted at math
Original: https://reason.com/2021/05/04/california-math-framework-woke-equity-calculus/
Archive: https://archive.ph/N4CQC
6) PBS Boston affiliate WGBH: “Boston public schools suspends test for advanced learning classes; concerns about program’s racial inequities linger”
7) Lowell High in San Francisco, one of the country’s best public high schools, replaced its merit based admissions with a lottery based admissions, because the school had too many Asians.
Original: https://abc7news.com/sfusd-board-of-education-meeting-school-lowell-high-sf/10325219/
Archive: https://archive.ph/iGzom
8) Expecting math students to get the right answer is now considered to be a form of “white supremacy.” See page 6 at this link:
Original: https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/1_STRIDE1.pdf
9) The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City canceled its honor society because whites and Asians were earning better grades than blacks and Latinos.
Archive: https://archive.ph/WNwvW
10) New Jersey stopped requiring new teachers to be proficient in reading, writing, and math, because the requirement was considered to be an “unnecessary barrier.”
Archive: https://archive.ph/vh6io
11) Washington Post: “Maryland school district worker fired after correcting student’s spelling in a tweet”
12) Oregon again says students don’t need to prove mastery of reading, writing or math to graduate, citing harm to students of color
Archive: https://archive.ph/mV38Y
13) In Mississauga, Ontario, a public high school library removed every book that had been published in 2008 or earlier, under the justification of “inclusivity,” “anti-racism,” “equity,” and “diversity”
Original: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/peel-school-board-library-book-weeding-1.6964332
Archive: https://archive.ph/ktv2R
14) The public schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts stopped offering advanced math classes to students in grades 6, 7, and 8, because students of some races had been doing better than students of other races.
15) Met applicants ‘functionally illiterate in English accepted in bid to improve diversity’
Archive: https://archive.ph/t3Pia
16) New York Times: “At N.Y.U., Students Were Failing Organic Chemistry. Who Was to Blame? Maitland Jones Jr., a respected professor, defended his standards. But students started a petition, and the university dismissed him.”
Original: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/us/nyu-organic-chemistry-petition.html
Archive: https://archive.ph/iDG0t
17) New York Times: “Texas Wesleyan Cancels Play After Students Say Use of Slur Is Harmful. The play’s author, who is Black, said he crafted its language to be historically accurate in representing civil rights struggles. But the theater program at the university heeded the call of students.”
Original: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/06/us/texas-wesleyan-play-racism.html
Archive: https://archive.ph/uIz1L
18) University bans sonnets as ‘products of white western culture’
Original: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/14/university-bans-sonnets-products-white-western-culture/
Archive: https://archive.ph/RrXCi
19) The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center temporarily placed Professor Julie Overbaugh, an award winning HIV researcher, on administrative leave, after the school found out that she had once dressed up as Michael Jackson for Halloween.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Overbaugh
Archive: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Julie_Overbaugh&oldid=1234427714
20) Canadian court declares math test for new teachers ‘unconstitutional’ because of racial disparities in passage rates
Original:
Archive:
21) The English Touring Opera fired 14 of its musicians because they were white.
Archive: https://archive.ph/Rl9Ub
22) Sunrise Park Middle School in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, cited “equitable grading” as the reason why “students no longer will be given an F grade – no matter how bad they did on an assignment or test or if it was turned in late or not at all.”
Archive: https://archive.ph/JkGij
23) The UCLA Anderson School of Management placed lecturer Gordon Klein on involuntary administrative leave because he refused to dumb down his curriculum for black students after the murder of George Floyd.
Archive: https://archive.ph/XCdng
24) Washington Post: “Students hated ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ Their teachers tried to dump it. Four progressive teachers in Washington’s Mukilteo School District wanted to protect students from a book they saw as outdated and harmful.”
Archive: https://archive.ph/H6Z6A
Democrats are claiming that this question from a firefighters’ exam “discriminates against Black candidates.”
https://x.com/cremieuxrecueil/status/1844058406434283824
Justice Department Secures Agreement with Durham, North Carolina, to End Discriminatory Hiring Practices in City’s Fire Department
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a settlement agreement with the City of Durham (City), North Carolina, to resolve the department’s claim that the hiring process for firefighters in the Durham Fire Department (DFD) violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Specifically, the department alleges that the City’s fire department screens applicants with a written test that discriminates against Black candidates.
Title VII is a federal statute that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, sex, color, national origin and religion. Title VII prohibits not only intentional discrimination but also employment practices that result in a disparate impact on a protected group, unless such practices are job related and consistent with business necessity.
The settlement agreement resolves a civil pattern or practice investigation the Civil Rights Division opened in February 2020. As part of the investigation, the division conducted an in-depth review of DFD’s hiring practices, applicant data and other information received from the DFD. The division concluded that the fire department was using a written test that does not meaningfully distinguish between applicants who can and cannot perform the job of a firefighter. The test also disqualified Black applicants from employment at significantly disproportionate rates. The department thus concluded that the test violates Title VII.
“Discriminatory employment tests do more than cost applicants a fair chance to compete for public service jobs like firefighting; they also prevent communities from being served in these crucial positions by the most qualified candidates for the job,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The under-representation of Black people in the fire department workforce in Durham, and across the country, undermines public safety efforts. This settlement agreement requires the Durham Fire Department to reform its unlawful hiring process and provide monetary and other relief to those already harmed. The Justice Department will continue to work to ensure that all qualified applicants have a fair and equal opportunity to serve their communities.”
“Employers should identify and eliminate practices that have a disparate impact based on race,” said U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston for the Middle District of North Carolina. “The Justice Department will continue to work to eliminate discriminatory policies that deprive qualified applicants of a fair chance to compete for employment opportunities.”
The complaint, filed yesterday in the Middle District of North Carolina, alleges that the City’s uses of the written test called the Comprehensive Examination Battery (CEB) disproportionately exclude Black candidates from employment as firefighters. The department further alleges that DFD’s uses of the CEB are not job-related and consistent with business necessity, and thus violate Title VII.
Under the terms of the consent decree also filed yesterday, DFD will:
Adopt a written test that does not discriminate in violation of Title VII and provide data to the department on the administration of the new test to ensure compliance;
Pay $980,000 in back pay to applicants who were disqualified by DFD’s uses of the challenged test; and
Hire up to 16 applicants who were unfairly disqualified by the challenged test and who successfully complete the new firefighter selection process.
The full and fair enforcement of Title VII is a top priority of the Civil Rights Division. The division has issued a fact sheet on combating hiring discrimination by police and fire departments to help applicants for public safety jobs understand their rights to be free from discriminatory hiring processes. More information about the Civil Rights Division can be found at http://www.justice.gov/crt.
A thought experiment: A student is admitted to four different colleges, with each of the four colleges having a different reason for admitting the student.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
September 9, 2024
A thought experiment: A student is admitted to four different colleges, with each of the four colleges having a different reason for admitting the student.
Question: Of these four colleges, which college would be the best match for the student?
College #1: The student is admitted based on merit.
College #2: The student is admitted because their family donated $100 million to the college.
College #3: The student is admitted because the football team wanted the student to play on their team.
College #4: The student is admitted based on affirmative action.
Stacy Clarke – the Toronto Police Service’s first Black female superintendent – admitted she helped six Black cops cheat to get a promotion in “a desperate effort to level the playing field.”
As a person who is in favor of making sure that every police officer is qualified to do their job, I think this police officer should have been fired, not just demoted.
Instead of helping black police officers to cheat on their exams, she should have helped them to study so they could pass their exams fair and square.
She is a racist because she thinks black people are too dumb to pass a written test.
‘No room in policing for noble cause corruption’: Trailblazing Toronto cop who cheated to get Black officers promoted stripped of rank
Stacy Clarke – the Toronto Police Service’s first Black female superintendent – admitted she helped six Black cops cheat to get a promotion in “a desperate effort to level the playing field.”
By Wendy Gillis
August 28, 2024
By leaking confidential exam questions to six Black officers, Supt. Stacy Clarke “played the lead role in perverting their moral compasses,” a police tribunal heard — becoming the “maestro” of a sophisticated promotional cheating scheme that rocked the Toronto Police force and has now halted the senior officer’s meteoric rise.
Clarke’s orchestrated plan to help racialized cops get ahead amounted to “extremely serious” misconduct, tribunal adjudicator Robin McElary-Downer said in a much-anticipated penalty decision released Wednesday — a betrayal of her badge so great that Clarke, the force’s first Black female superintendent, needed to be stripped of her history-making rank.
“There is no room in policing for noble cause corruption,” McElary-Downer told a full public gallery inside Toronto police headquarters, referencing an unethical act aimed at achieving a greater good.
“Honesty and integrity are non-negotiable character traits of a police officer. Superintendent Clarke’s actions demonstrated both were absent,” she said, knocking Clarke down to inspector for two years and ruling she must reapply to regain her hard-fought higher rank.
Clarke pleaded guilty last year to seven counts of professional misconduct under Ontario’s police legislation after admitting she’d taken photographs of confidential interview questions then texted them to six Black candidates who were taking part in the highly competitive sergeant’s promotional process in 2021. Her high-profile sentencing hearing has shone a glaring spotlight on racial diversity within Canada’s largest police service, prompting debate about whether the ends could have justified the means inside a force still fighting anti-Black racism outside and in.
At a closely-watched sentencing hearing this May, Clarke claimed she’d helped the cops cheat in a last-ditch effort to counteract a still-present racial bias that keeps Black cops back, discrimination she knew all too well as a barrier-breaking police leader. Her unvarnished account of discrimination on the force won her hero status among many supporters, who brought her flowers and hugs during the hearing.
“I felt at the time that (the six officers) did not have a fair chance in this process and my own history and experience of racial inequity compounded this feeling,” Clarke wrote in an internal police report, calling the cheating “a desperate effort to level the playing field.”
On the stand in her own defence, Clarke suggested it was an open secret that senior officers had long helped their preferred candidates get promoted, though she acknowledged that was no excuse.
Groans of disappointment and anger could be heard in the auditorium Wednesday as McElary-Downer read out her decision — particularly the ruling that she must reapply to be superintendent, which supporters say means Clarke will never regain her trailblazing title.
“You can talk about fairness of systems. You can talk about the rules. No substantive change has ever been accomplished by following the rules that the system made,” said Audrey Campbell, former president of the Jamaican Canadian Association (JCA) and Clarke supporter.
“One man’s criminal is another man’s freedom fighter,” she said.
Speaking briefly to reporters inside police headquarters, Clarke — who had listened emotionless throughout the hearing — said she was taking time with her family to consider next steps. She has 30 days to contest the decision to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission, which adjudicates appeals of police tribunal decisions.
“Just very disappointed and very sad about it,” Clarke said, on her way out. “There’s a lot of people who have shared these types of experiences. But I’m looking forward to moving forward. There’s a lot of work still to be done.”
In her 71-page ruling, McElary-Downer said that on first glance the case was “complex and challenging,” particularly as it concerned the “thorny issue” of anti-Black racism and the “purportedly unfair promotional process for Black officers.”
But she stressed it wasn’t her job to make recommendations about anti-Black racism or the promotional process.
“Rather, I am here because a very senior ranking officer of the Toronto Police Service, admittedly lead six very junior ranking officers into a scheme of cheating,” McElary-Downer said.
Clarke’s behaviour may have been well-intentioned but it was a “grave act of betrayal” of the six officers she helped cheat, McElary-Downer said. All six faced career consequences after the scheme came to light: five cops received unit-level discipline and were docked thousands in lost salary, while a sixth was demoted for professional misconduct.
“As a mentor, as a senior ranking officer, it was her duty, her moral and ethical obligation to lead by example and demonstrate honesty and integrity above reproach. Rather, she led by modelling corrupt behaviour and unfortunately, they followed,” the hearing officer said.
She noted, however, that Clarke’s swift recognition of her wrongdoing was laudable — she demonstrated accountability by pleading guilty and apologizing.
“I have no doubt she is deeply remorseful. While Superintendent Clarke’s actions failed to model the core values of the TPS, she has modelled courage, accountability, and responsibility, in her actions post misconduct,” McElary-Downer said.
Another mitigating factor was Clarke’s otherwise “distinguished and exemplary career in law enforcement,” she said.
But her misconduct — which caused a rupture of public trust in policing — illustrated an abuse of her position and her power, McElary-Downer said, making her “an unsuitable candidate to be automatically reinstated to the rank of superintendent.”
“Clarke will need to reapply down the road, and when she does, I am truly hopeful she will demonstrate her readiness to serve at the rank of superintendent,” the hearing officer wrote.
That decision sided with police prosecutor Scott Hutchison, who argued Clarke’s actions might well have warranted dismissal. Joseph Markson, Clarke’s lawyer, said forcing her to reapply to her rank would be “tantamount to a permanent demotion.”
Both lawyers declined to comment following Wednesday’s penalty decision.
Herman Stewart, another Clarke supporter and former JCA president, said forcing Clarke to reapply banishes her from ever being promoted again.
“She will never get it if she were to reapply,” Stewart said. “She’s doomed.”
In a statement Wednesday, Toronto police said the force acknowledged Clarke’s case “brought forward a number of issues that the service is addressing,” noting it has implemented reforms aimed at diversifying the ranks.
“We are committed, in partnership with the Toronto Police Service Board, to meaningful change and continuous improvement to create a respectful, safe, and inclusive workplace,” Chief Myron Demkiw said in a statement.
Alongside the groundswell of support, Clarke’s case prompted division among Black Torontonians and the policing community.
“We need more police accountability, and the individuals who implicate themselves in police harm and misconduct, whether they are Black or not, have to always be held to account,” Toronto activist and author Desmond Cole told the Star in May.
The Toronto Police Association has been vocal in its concerns that Clarke, as a senior officer, could be treated with kid gloves compared to lower-ranking cops. In a statement Wednesday, union president Jon Reid said TPA members “have long expressed concerns about the need for more accountability among senior officers.”
“Their actual and observed experiences indicate that expectations and rules for senior officers are not consistently enforced,” Reid said.
“As we move forward, we must continue to engage in transparent dialogue and take steps to ensure that accountability and fairness are not concepts but practiced realities within the service.”
The US Spends a Lot on Education – but We Don’t Know Enough About How It’s Spent
The US Spends a Lot on Education – but We Don’t Know Enough About How It’s Spent
By Mark Schneider
August 15, 2024
Except for tiny Luxembourg, the United States spends more money on education than every other OECD country and exceeds the OECD average by over 50 percent. This is not just true of absolute levels of expenditures: As a share of GDP, combining federal, state and local expenditures, the US also spends more on education than its peers. In 2021, the US spent about 5.6 percent of GDP on education, compared to the OECD average of 5 percent, 4.5 percent in Germany, 3.5 percent in Japan, and 5.2 percent in France. Over the past two decades, this continual increase in spending outpaced the growth in the student population, such that per-pupil expenditures on education grew from $16,600 in 2003 to close to $20,000 in 2022 (in constant 2022 dollars). But even as more money gets poured into our education system, student performance has not improved.
Student scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) peaked years ago and have declined over the last decade. Our students have also not improved on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which tests 15-year-old students across the globe. In 2000, the first year of PISA, US students scored 504 in reading and 482 in math (PISA was designed to make the average score 500 points, with a 100-point standard deviation). In 2022, the most recent PISA test administration, the US scored 504 in reading—the same as 2000. And math? Just 465.
Even though the nation already spends more than its peers on education—and has not seen commensurately high performance on student achievement—in the last few years, the amount of money flowing into schools grew dramatically. Most notably, over three years during COVID, the federal government funded the newly created Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund to the tune of $190 billion. This was the largest-ever flood of federal money into public education.
In the few years since ESSER was passed, the data show that, in general, school districts spent money on the same items they did before the pandemic influx. But we are mostly flying blind, without enough information about where the money went and whether it bought any improvements.
In 2015, the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) mandated better information and increased transparency about school expenditures. Despite this long-standing legal mandate, the federal government—specifically, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)—has failed in its responsibility to gather and publicize the data needed to track school expenditures in a timely manner. In October 2023, NCES issued a report (not raw data, mind you, just a report) on revenues and expenditures for Fiscal Year 2021. The full data have been promised for some time but not released—and as of today, the most up-to-date school finance data are from 2017.
This hole has been largely filled by Marguerite Roza of Georgetown’s Edunomics Laboratory. But despite Roza’s excellent work, more detailed analysis needs to be done to unpack national trends and extract lessons that can help us understand how to reverse the stagnation evident nationally—and to make the large and ever-growing national investment in education more effective and efficient.
The combination of increasing expenditures, a continued lack of transparency, and a lack of timeliness on the part of the federal education statistical agency seems to meet Einstein’s definition that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Chicago teachers’ union claim that Black kids cannot pass standardized tests doesn’t go over well with mom
https://www.yahoo.com/news/chicago-teachers-union-claim-black-100034530.html
Chicago teachers’ union claim that Black kids cannot pass standardized tests doesn’t go over well with mom
By Hannah Grossman
August 12, 2024
The president of an American Federations of Teachers’ affiliate in Chicago was berated by a Black mom for claiming on a radio station that standardized tests are “junk science rooted in White supremacy” as well as “eugenics.”
Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and executive vice president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, was asked by a Black radio station last week about public school students’ declining reading and math scores. Specifically, criticism that Gates was advocating to boost teachers’ contracts with money that would be better served addressing student achievement.
She responded that gauging student achievement through testing was the problem.
“The way in which, you know, we think about learning and think about achievement is really and truly based on testing, which at best is junk science rooted in White supremacy,” she said. “Now, if you have another hour, I can get into why standardized tests are born out of the eugenics movement. And the eugenics movement is always thought to see Black people as inferior to those that are non-Black.”
“You can’t test black children with an instrument that was born to prove their inferiority,” she said. “Some of this is about, releasing our people from a standard that is created for the failure.”
However, a Black mom in Chicago called the radio station to firmly disagree with Gates that Black children can’t pass the tests.
“We have a literacy gap and that no one is addressing. And I know that the [Chicago Teachers’ Union] really they are not curriculum experts,” she said. “And I really think these questions to be asked of [Chicago Public Schools], because they are the ones who should be providing the proper curriculum for our students.”
“I want to say – as a parent – [regarding] standardized testing, we’re not ready to move beyond that right now,” the mother added.
“Let me say this to you,” she continued. “I passed every standardized test, and I want my children to be able to do it even though I’m Black. That does not mean I cannot achieve on standardized tests. And our children need to be able to do so that they can be competitive. Our focus needs to be on the literacy gap that Black children have, this not being addressed.”
Fox News Digital contacted the Chicago Teachers’ Union for comment and did not immediately receive a response.
During the interview, Gates also stressed the importance of teaching critical race theory (CRT).
“This is why being able to teach CRT is important, because it helps us to examine how we come to our conclusions,” she said. “CRT is an important function and should be in our education system, which is why the Republicans… are aiming directly for those types of things.”
The head of the AFT, Randi Weingarten, has previously claimed CRT was not in K-12 education, blaming the “culture warriors.”
“Let’s be clear: critical race theory is not taught in elementary schools or high schools,” she said in a July 2021 conference. “It’s a method of examination taught in law school and college.”
Other teacher union leaders have made similar claims.
The National Education Association union’s president, Becky Pringle, sent a letter to social media companies, urging them to take action against “the alarming growth of a small but violent group of radicalized adults who falsely believe that graduate level courses about racism are being taught in K-12 public schools because of misinformation spread on social media.”
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle: “That building in particular has a sloped roof, at its highest point. And so, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAEnyleiwg0
Trump rally shooting ‘unacceptable,’ Secret Service director says
“The buck stops with me,” Kimberly Cheatle said in an ABC News interview.
By Julia Reinstein, Luke Barr, Quinn Owen, Alexander Mallin, and Jack Date
July 16, 2024
In her first network interview since the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said that the Pennsylvania rally shooting was “unacceptable.”
“It was unacceptable,” she said in an interview Monday with ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas. “And it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.”
The violent incident on Saturday, which left one rallygoer dead, marked the first time a current or former president has been wounded in an attempted assassination since Ronald Reagan in 1981.
When she first learned of the shooting, Cheatle said she was shocked and concerned — both for Trump and for the Secret Service agents who responded to the incident.
“It was obviously a situation that as a Secret Service agent, no one ever wants to occur in their career,” she said.
‘Buck stops with me’
As the head of the agency, Cheatle said it’s her responsibility to investigate what went wrong and make sure nothing like it can happen again.
“The buck stops with me,” she said. “I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary.”
Cheatle responded to reports that the suspect was seen and identified as potentially suspicious before he opened fire, saying that “a very short period of time” passed between then and the shooting.
“I don’t have all the details yet, but it was a very short period of time,” she said. “Seeking that person out, finding them, identifying them, and eventually neutralizing them took place in a very short period of time, and it makes it very difficult.”
Cheatle also said that local authorities were tasked with securing the building where the alleged shooter fired the shots before being taken out by a Secret Service sniper, and confirmed that local police were present inside the building while the shooter was on the roof.
“In this particular instance, we did share support for that particular site and that the Secret Service was responsible for the inner perimeter,” Cheatle said. “And then we sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter. There was local police in that building — there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building.”
Cheatle said she has reached out to Trump but has not yet spoken with him.
In the days since the attack, Cheatle and the Secret Service have faced heightening scrutiny for failing to prevent the incident from happening, and even calls from some to resign.
Cheatle said she would not resign from her role.
She is expected to testify before the GOP-led House Oversight Committee next Monday, July 22.
Cheatle also said there were not any snipers on the roof that were used by the shooter because it was sloped.
“So there’s a number of factors that come into play on how we secure buildings, both in our perimeter and out of our perimeter,” she said.
“At that site itself, there were actually a number of buildings in the outer perimeter. I know that we’re all focused on this one particular building because of what took place there. But there are a number of buildings in that outlying area,” Cheatle explained.
“That building in particular has a sloped roof, at its highest point. And so, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof. And so, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside,” she said.
Director says to have confidence in Secret Service
Still, she said, the American people should have confidence in the Secret Service’s ability to protect the president and former president.
In the aftermath of the assassination attempt, she “immediately” started looking at the protective details of those under Secret Service protection.
She said she reached out to the former president’s staff and attempted to contact him but hasn’t gotten through.
Cheatle also pushed back on the misinformation surrounding the assassination attempt.
“Secret Service is not political,” she said. “Security is not political. People’s safety is not political. And that’s what we’re focused on as an agency.”
And she reiterated, as other officials have said, that there is “no truth” to the rumors the former president’s detail asked for more resources.
The decision to take out the shooter, she said, was a “split-second decision” the agent made while perched on the roof.
“They have the ability to make that decision on their own. If they see that it’s a threat and they did that in that instance,” she said.
“And I applaud the fact that they made that decision and didn’t have to check with anybody and thankfully neutralized the threat.”
Here are two quotes from the New York Times which prove that DEI = “Didn’t Earn It.”
https://twitter.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1772731581209190422
Here are two quotes from the New York Times which prove that DEI = “Didn’t Earn It.”
The New York Times wrote, “The Board of Regents on Monday eliminated a requirement that aspiring teachers in New York State pass a literacy test to become certified after the test proved controversial because black and Hispanic candidates passed it at significantly lower rates than white candidates.”
The New York Times wrote: “A 2009 Princeton study showed Asian-Americans had to score 140 points higher on their SATs than whites, 270 points higher than Hispanics and 450 points higher than blacks to have the same chance of admission to leading universities.”
If a person can’t do third grade math, they shouldn’t be admitted to college. Or high school, for that matter.
https://twitter.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1767670415436939386
https://apnews.com/article/college-math-test-help-6cca6a5e873d5aeb5e75b4f94125d48c
August 31, 2023
“This is a huge issue,” said Maria Emelianenko, chair of George Mason’s math department. “We’re talking about college-level pre-calculus and calculus classes, and students cannot even add one-half and one-third.”
For Jessica Babcock, a Temple University math professor, the magnitude of the problem hit home last year as she graded quizzes in her intermediate algebra class, the lowest option for STEM majors. The quiz, a softball at the start of the fall semester, asked students to subtract eight from negative six.
“I graded a whole bunch of papers in a row. No two papers had the same answer, and none of them were correct,” she said. “It was a striking moment of, like, wow — this is significant and deep.”
A decade ago, the San Francisco public schools stopped teaching algebra to 8th grade students
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sfusd-algebra-middle-school-18645514.php
Algebra would return to middle schools under plan before SFUSD board
By Jill Tucker
February 2, 2024
San Francisco middle schools would once again offer Algebra 1 to eighth-grade students starting in the fall under a proposal heading to the school board for a vote later this month.
The battle over whether to return the course offering to middle school students has lasted years, with parent protests, a lawsuit and an upcoming ballot measure in March. The measure urges the district to give students the opportunity to speed up the math sequence, allowing them to take calculus as high school seniors without having to take summer school or double up on math courses.
“SFUSD’s vision for math is to prepare all middle school students for Algebra 1 in eighth grade and increase the number of underrepresented students in higher level math,” said Superintendent Matt Wayne in a statement.
District officials pulled the course out of middle school 10 years ago, saying they wanted to delay tracking students into separate math sequences until high school, an effort they hoped would push more disadvantaged students into higher math courses.
The results were disappointing, district officials said. Parents argued the move only held back high-achieving students.
The plan, however, would take some time to phase in. About a third of the district’s 13 middle schools and six K-8 schools would offer the course during the school day in the upcoming school year through a pilot program. The rest would add it to math class offerings over the following two years.
In the meantime, those enrolled in sites not selected for a pilot program would be able to take Algebra 1 through a staff-supported online program or summer school.
“Change is long overdue,” said school board President Lainie Motamedi. “The Board of Education is committed to seeing this through. Our deliberate approach to implementing Algebra I to all eighth-grade students underscores our dedication to ensuring every student has access to the opportunities that higher-level math and educational excellence brings.”
The pilot programs would test out three versions of school-day Algebra 1 if the proposal is passed, including enrolling all eighth graders in Algebra 1, enrolling students based on interest or readiness and giving students the opportunity to have both eighth-grade math and Algebra I on their schedule.
“We will evaluate these approaches while remaining focused on our goal of increasing students’ math achievement, particularly our students who SFUSD has historically underserved,” Wayne said. “Ultimately, SFUSD is working towards offering Algebra 1 in eighth grade during the school day at all middle and K-8 schools by the 2026-27 school year.”
Wayne’s final proposal posted on the agenda late Friday varies slightly from a previous plan vetted at a town hall in January that included before- or after-school Algebra 1 courses. That option is no longer in the plan heading to the school board.
Eight “gifted and talented” students from the New York City public school system have just been arrested after this viral video showed them brutally beating and assaulting a student on a bus
Eight “gifted and talented” students from the New York City public school system have just been arrested after this viral video showed them brutally beating and assaulting a student on a bus.
Here’s the video:
https://twitter.com/NYCSchoolSafety/status/1752397170857144769
Here are links to two news article about this incident:
https://nypost.com/2024/02/03/metro/nyc-school-kids-arrested-over-caught-on-video-bus-beatdown/
The American Museum of Natural History has just canceled its Native American exhibits
https://www.amnh.org/about/statement-new-nagpra-regulations
Beginning this Saturday, we will be closing two halls dedicated to Indigenous cultures of North America, the Eastern Woodlands and Great Plains Halls, to visitors and staff. Both Halls display artifacts that, under the new NAGPRA regulations, could require consent to exhibit. The number of cultural objects on display in these Halls is significant, and because these exhibits are also severely outdated, we have decided that rather than just covering or removing specific items, we will close the Halls. In addition to closing these two Halls, we will be covering three cases just outside of the Hall of Eastern Woodlands and two cases in the Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples, which display Native Hawaiian items. In addition, two cases in Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall also will be covered.
One immediate effect of these closures will be the suspension of school field trips to Eastern Woodlands, which for years has hosted local students as part of their social studies curriculum.
Ibram X. Kendi is a racist, not an anti-racist, because he thinks black plagiarists should not be held to the same standard of accountability as white ones. This is called the “soft bigotry of low expectations.”
https://twitter.com/DanielAlmanPGH/status/1742719459087765528
Toronto city council votes unanimously to change the name of its town square from one group of slavery supporters to a different group of slavery supporters
https://tnc.news/2023/12/15/toronto-slave-trading-dundas1/
Toronto used word from slave-trading African tribe to replace Dundas
By Andrew Lawton
December 15, 2023
Toronto city council voted unanimously on Thursday to change the name of Toronto’s world famous Yonge-Dundas Square to “Sankofa Square” to distance it from Henry Dundas’ purported connection to the transatlantic slave trade.
The word used by the City of Toronto, True North has learned, originated from a tribe known for its role in the slave trade.
While Dundas was, in fact, an abolitionist, the Akan people of Ghana, from whom the word “sankofa” comes, were active participants in the slave trade and imported slaves to develop their own economy.
As scholar A. Norman Klein, reviewing the work of renowned Ghana historian Ivor Wilks, wrote, the Akan “exchanged their gold for these slaves, who rewarded their Akan masters by creating an ‘agricultural revolution’ during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
https://twitter.com/AndrewLawton/status/1735509933431329174
The Akan people imported slaves to help clear their forests, where they searched for gold, and also sold slaves to Europeans, fuelling the transatlantic slave trade.
In 2006, Ghana apologized to descendents of slaves for its role in the slave trade.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said the name change is part of the city’s commitment to “confronting anti-Black racism, advancing truth, reconciliation and justice, and building a more inclusive and equitable City.”
“The City of Toronto is committed to acknowledging the impact of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery, while focusing on mitigating costs and impacts on residents and businesses,” Chow said. “Adopting the name Sankofa Square recognizes the need to reflect on and reclaim teachings from the past, and enables us to move forward together.”
A primer on the “sankofa” concept by NC State University’s African American Cultural Center says it originates from “King Adinkera of the Akan people of West Africa” and translates to, “it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot.”
Historians, even those on the political left, tend to agree that Dundas was a supporter of the abolition of slavery. Controversy around him stems from an amendment he proposed to an abolition motion from William Wilberforce to make it more “gradual,” but he said in doing so it was because he thought that was the most effective way to end slavery. Given it took more than 50 years from that point for the transatlantic slave trade to end, he was likely right.
Dundas also called on African leaders to stop their complicity in the slave trade, which they didn’t do at the time.
Despite the city’s historic revisionism of Henry Dundas and his legacy, it said in a statement that the “Sankofa” word was inspired by a reverence for history.
“The concept of Sankofa, originating in Ghana, refers to the act of reflecting on and reclaiming teachings from the past, which enables people to move forward together,” the city’s announcement said.
Toronto will also be stripping Dundas’ name from two subway stations and a library next year.
America’s top universities should abandon their long misadventure into politics, retrain their gaze on their core strengths and rebuild their reputations as centers of research and learning.
https://twitter.com/FareedZakaria/status/1733927077085143263
https://twitter.com/FareedZakaria/status/1733927077085143263
Abbott and Costello comedy skit: “13 times 7 is 28” – Real life students at Kennesaw State University: “15 times 4 is 48”
Abbott and Costello comedy skit: “13 times 7 is 28”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HQPQkP5y_8
Real life students at Kennesaw State University: “15 times 4 is 48”
New Jersey drops basic skills requirement for new teachers: ‘Caved to … union demands’
New Jersey drops basic skills requirement for new teachers: ‘Caved to … union demands’
November 29, 2023
ABC News WHAM 13
TRENTON, N.J. (CITC) — Aspiring teachers in New Jersey are no longer required to prove they are proficient in reading, writing and math.
Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law Monday the elimination of the state’s basic skills test requirement. Passing the exam was previously required for teachers to become certified if they did not score in the top one-third percentile of the SAT, ACT or GRE.
Under the new law, teachers can now skip the exam and instead receive an alternate teaching certificate. After four years of employment at a state-approved school, which includes public and charter schools, the educators will then receive a standard teaching certificate.
The elimination was long cheered by the state’s teachers union, which called the basic skills test an “unnecessary barrier.”
“It’s well documented that standardized tests are a poor way to measure knowledge or skills and that not all people are best able to demonstrate their knowledge and skills on standardized tests,” the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) told Crisis in the Classroom (CITC). “If they can successfully complete an accredited degree and student teaching, a one-off standardized test is unnecessary and uninformative.”
However, others disagree, arguing New Jersey “caved to teacher union demands” by lowering standards.
“If teachers cannot read, write, and do math, they have no hope of instilling those skills in the rising generation,” Angela Morabito, a spokesperson for the Defense of Freedom Institute and former press secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, told CITC. “Students and families deserve better.”
Ken Gardner, a retired high school principal, echoed Morabito on social media, asking “if the teacher cannot pass a Basic Skills Test, how can we expect them to provide quality education to our students?”
The removal of the basic skills test requirement comes as New Jersey students struggle to recover learning losses following the COVID-19 pandemic. The most recent results from the National Association of Educational Progress show math and reading scores have significantly declined for fourth and eighth-graders.
A June study of nearly 700 teacher preparation programs found most elementary school teachers are graduating ill-equipped to teach students how to read. Only 25% of prep programs nationwide cover all five components of scientifically based reading, while an additional 25% fail to adequately cover just one of the components.
I support meritocracy, because I want police officers who are actually capable of putting handcuffs on a suspect. In this video from Chicago, four police officers, working together, repeatedly try, and repeatedly fail, to put handcuffs on one suspect. Eventually the suspect runs away.
https://twitter.com/CPD1617Scanner/status/1727678611933515858
How exactly is this a “school,” and how exactly are the people who attend it “students”? It seems more like a day care center for juvenile delinquents.
By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)
November 28, 2023
This video from NBC News shows multiple “students” brutally beating a school employee at Hill Crest High “School” in Queens, New York.
I put the words “students” and “school” in quotation marks, because based on everything that the media has reported on this institution, it doesn’t seem to be a “school,” and the people who attend it don’t seem to be “students.”
The “students” skipped “class” for two hours so they could jump up and down in the hallways, and yell and scream about a teacher who had attended a pro-Israel rally on her own personal time during off school hours. I don’t think the “students” who are yelling and screaming actually have any idea what it is that they are yelling and screaming about. The “students” threatened the teacher, and she had to lock herself in a room for her own protection.
How exactly is this a “school,” and how exactly are the people who attend it “students”?
It seems more like a day care center for juvenile delinquents.
Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog 