The SOUTH ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT —
"[The] blog he developed was something that made the district better." - Tim Jemal, SOCCCD BoT President, 7/24/23
A tightly managed conference call with Ben Stein and producers of the upcoming documentary “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” became the scene of yet another clash between proponents of intelligent design and defenders of evolutionary theory. Fresh from a botched attempt to crash a screening of the movie at the Mall of America last week, PZ Myers, a biologist at the University of Minnesota at Morris, had more success on Friday when he interrupted the call midway through a discussion of whether Darwinism inspired the Holocaust. Soon after one of the producers described ignoring Darwin’s influence on Hitler a “special form of Holocaust denial,” Myers offered some thoughts of his own (one participant in the call muttered, “You are a very persistent"). “The idea that Nazism is derived from evolutionary theory is pretty bogus,” he said. “Have you heard of a pogrom? Those have been going on for centuries.... You’re trivializing the whole thing to blame Darwin.” After one of the call’s organizers politely asked Myers to “do the honorable thing” and stay silent, the professor invited media to contact him for any clarifications about the producers’ “policy of lies.” (His latest blog post mocks Stein’s views by explaining why Newton’s theory of gravity is to blame for all force- and mass-related deaths.) Given that Stein’s new movie and campaign have him attacking higher education and pushing views that are widely seen as absurd by scientists and historians alike, he might not seem an obvious choice to speak at a major gathering of university leaders. But he is one of the featured speakers on the program of this summer’s annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Business Officers. A spokeswoman for the group said officials there were unaware of his latest campaign and movie when they invited him to appear.
An educated person will expect accuracy in each subject only so far as the nature of the subject allows......
—Aristotle
.....I’m pretty busy, like everybody else, but I have had time to look a bit further into the origins of the SLO mess in which we now find ourselves. .....Last time (Whence SLOs?), I noted that the push to emphasize “student learning outcomes” (SLOs) seems to trace back to the agenda and philosophy of the “outcomes based education” (OBE) movement of the 80s and 90s. I noted that the educational theory that is associated with OBE seems to have arisen more from the world of academic educationists than from the concerns and agendas of conservative reformers. .....There is, however, a complex interaction between the conservative “back to basics” and “graduation exam” agenda and the (more or less progressive) educationist’s notion of “learning outcomes.” I sense that it will take some time to get my mind around that interaction. No doubt, to some degree, conservative reformers have borrowed from or taken on some elements of OBE ("measurable outcomes" and all the rest) because they wrongly assume that OBE is commonsensically focused on results. Well, no, common sense does not enter into OBE.
.....Arguably, the father of the academic “learning objectives”/OBE philosophy is Benjamin Bloom, a fellow with a doctorate in education who entered the academic limelight during the 50s and 60s. Like many post-war theorists (Maslow, Kohlberg, et al.), he offered a grandiose theory about human beings. According to Bloom, people develop as thinkers along a hierarchy from the particular and practical to the general and abstract. Hence,
In Bloom’s model, curriculum would be divided into discrete and manageable modules that could be sequentially arranged for ingestion by students. At the end of each unit of knowledge, measurable learning outcomes were identified and tests administered to ensure that students were prepared for the next step. These outcomes and their measurement, moreover, were connected to the performance of observable activities that would demonstrate “in real time” that a student had “mastered” the previous piece of the curriculum. (Howard Doughty)
(Some of the terms and ideas associated with Bloom are “mastery learning,” the importance of “action” verbs, learning “taxonomies,” and “measured learning outcomes.”) .....It is often said that Bloom’s theories have been adopted, but always with disastrous results. (I hope to be able to verify and spell that out in future.) For instance, Wikipedia’s article on Standards-based education reform asserts that
Education reform in the United States since the late 1980s has been largely driven by the setting of academic standards for what students should know and be able to do. These standards can then be used to guide all other system components…. Standards are an evolution of the earlier Outcomes-based education which was largely rejected in the United States as unworkable in the 1990s, and is still being implemented by some and abandoned by other governments … by the 2000s. The original model of OBE, which has met with large scale failures, attempted to completely change the structure of education and grading by massively individualizing instruction.
.....My guess is that the ideal of "individualizing" instruction is an element of OBE that reaches back to an earlier hero of progressive education: philosopher John Dewey (a fellow who was often horrified at how his words were being taken to mean, for what that's worth). .....In contrast to OBE, the “standards-based” movement (says Wikipedia) embraces only the “core” of the OBE program, namely:
• the creation of curriculum frameworks which outline specific knowledge or skills which students must acquire, • an emphasis on criterion-referenced assessments which are aligned to the frameworks, and • the imposition of some high-stakes tests, such as graduation examinations requiring a high standard of performance to receive a diploma. (Standards-based education reform)
.....One of the gurus of the “standards” movement is Marc Tucker, an influential fellow who heads the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE). He’s been active since the late 80s; President Clinton embraced 'im. Lately, he’s promoted the adoption of high school graduation examinations. (He was a prime mover of "No Child Left Behind." For a review of his book Tough Choices, see review.) .....Evidently, Tucker is somewhat of a disciple of self-proclaimed OBE guru William Spady. It seems that occasional efforts to implement Spady’s OBE ideas have been so disastrous that reformers are compelled to disassociate themselves with the term “OBE” with which Spady is associated. (See William Spady.)
THOSE NASTY, CLOSED-MINDED PHILOSOPHERS:
.....Lemme tell you where I’m coming from. I’m trained in (Anglo-American) philosophy, which means that I think about logic and evidence. Many in the philosophy world are accustomed to noting and bemoaning grand contemporary failures of thinking, such as belief in the paranormal, embrace of alternative medicines, the scandal of "repressed" memory therapy (see Elizabeth Loftus), and the support of George W. Bush—to name just a few egregious examples. .....Let me cut to the chase. If you want examples of bad thinking, head immediately to the world of academic educational theory. Or so say some people in my world of philosophers and logicians and hard-headed scientific skeptics. (Well, mostly, we say it amongst ourselves. Criticizing the educationist establishment is a bit like criticizing the Israeli lobby.) .....As I noted above, it is said that OBE theories have been adopted with always disastrous results. I don’t know if that’s true, but if it is, it wouldn’t be surprising. Recall California’s embrace of the discredited “whole language” teaching (of reading) method—which was followed, as always, by plummeting student reading performance across the state. (See Whole Language Controversies.) .....The facts simply don’t matter to some people. To this day, there are many within the education community who swear by “whole language,” the evidence be damned. To me, as a philosopher, there is little difference between such people and, say, those who rely on “Head-On” to cure their headaches. .....But never mind philosophers. Lots of academics are horrified by the poor thinking that attends OBE theory—and by the folly of embracing "learning outcomes" with their idiotic "action verbs." For instance, I came across the following article by Howard A. Doughty, a Canadian political scientist and historian. The article is wickedly entitled Blooming Idiots: Educational Objectives, Learning Taxonomies and the Pedagogy of Benjamin Bloom (2006). Here are some excerpts. .....They are merely that: excerpts. The actual article is quite lengthy.
DOUGHTY CONTRA BLOOM:
Benjamin Bloom’s initial forays into pedagogy were motivated by his study of student success and failure, especially in the years immediately following World War II. … Bloom learned that the difference between those who did well and those who did poorly was less a matter of good work habits, innate intelligence or educational background than it was the result of unequal problem-solving skills. Bloom also discovered that such skills could be taught. … Undoubtedly well-meaning and progressive in intent, Bloom’s studies and the educational reforms they inspired have, however, become weapons in the arsenal of educational corporatism…. ….. His influential reforms are rooted in his structural analysis of intellectual development and, in particular, in his theory of types of thinking. He produced a hierarchical taxonomy of thought that begins with the particular and the practical and rises to the abstract and universal. His internally coherent and superficially persuasive taxonomy of human thought processes led to recommendations for pedagogical practice.
In Bloom’s model, curriculum would be divided into discrete and manageable modules that could be sequentially arranged for ingestion by students. At the end of each unit of knowledge, measurable learning outcomes were identified and tests administered to ensure that students were prepared for the next step. These outcomes and their measurement, moreover, were connected to the performance of observable activities that would demonstrate “in real time” that a student had “mastered” the previous piece of the curriculum…. ..... The original components of Bloom’s taxonomy are easily presented and understood. He posits a ladder of learning that moves stepwise upwards in terms of levels of abstraction. Each step involves a specific kind of competence that allegedly can be tested with appropriate questions, each of which requires some “action” to demonstrate mastery of the material….
… Bloom’s taxonomy is obsolete. …Bloom created his taxonomy in a particular cultural context and that the social circumstances and political imperatives that gave rise to his ideas no longer exist. Bloom’s staircase of competencies was born of American social science’s naïve desire to construct universal, hierarchical, evolutionary and progressive developmental models in the social sciences…. ….. … Bloom’s taxonomy was originally put forward over fifty years ago, and has been revised so often that the current versions have lost much resemblance to the original, which is, nevertheless, the one that is still being touted in many colleges; … Bloom’s taxonomy is wedded to a hysterical, post-World War II, hypermodernist optimism that has been generally abandoned by serious scholars, but remains a minor article of faith among certain segments of the military, business and “training” communities; … Bloom’s taxonomy implicitly endorses corporatist social values, encourages individual conformity to those values, and is ideologically compromised, epistemologically repudiated, logically monstrous and pedagogically "unfit for service"; … Bloom’s taxonomy violates the basic mandate of the liberal arts (sometimes called general education), for it is ineluctably linked to behavioural training rather than to liberal (much less emancipatory) education….
… The ideal of educating the whole person and not just the part of a person which performs well in the labour market is subverted in every way by the corporate model, of which Bloom’s learning objectives and “action” orientation have become an integral part. ….. … Among government officials and senior administrators, it was commonly believed, educational fashions come and go and rhetorical flourishes from on high can be routinely disregarded; educational leaders, after all, have shown tremendous gusto for various initiatives, but their attention spans are short and the most successful among them are not inclined to follow up on innovations, for a new fad is always crossing the horizon. ….. In place of the noble goal of graduating students who might possess advanced vocational skills and who have also been educated as citizens has been manifestly reduced where it has not been wholly eliminated. The postsecondary version of “back to basics” education which wreaked havoc in elementary and secondary schools in the 1990s is in full spate. Vocationalism, standardization and the fetishism of accountability are now all the rage. Moreover, in terms of the labour process that replicates the ideology inherent in the obliteration of general education, the store of full-time professors dwindles, cost-effective hiring of part-time and sessional instructors grows, and authoritarian managerial practices are accentuated.
…The adoption of Benjamin Bloom’s taxonomy of “types of thinking” and the insertion of its attendant language into the discourse of college education is but one small part of the general process of transforming colleges into corporate training centres. As inconsequential as it may appear in the overall structure of educational policy and practice, however, it is not unimportant…. ….. Two years ago, and for the first time that I can recall in forty years of teaching in one college and three universities, my colleagues and I were required to insert into our syllabi a “Statement of Learning Objectives” that contained only “action verbs.”….
The rationale for the edict apparently arose from the view that words such as “understand” are essentially useless because “passive” terms “do not convey what the student should be doing.” Instead, we were ordered to employ words that were included on a list of active words that emanated from Bloom’s own research (Bloom, 1956). Some people reacted to this new requirement with dismay. … Grumpy reactions and displays of reluctant submission aside, we all acquiesced.
Like others who have tried to save themselves unnecessary bother and pointless friction, I too complied with the edict, but I did so regretfully and under sullen protest. Also like others, I suppose that I was tired of confronting “silliness” with quixotic gestures that change nothing and are quickly allocated to the category of buffoonery…. ….. The 1950s and the 1960s were the salad days for a certain sort of intellectual system builder, of which Benjamin Bloom is representative. As triumphal Western civilization turned its attention to newly independent Third World nations, intellectuals had it in mind to lay out what would now be called a road map to a future of global democracy and prosperity…. ….. Moving on to ethics, Lawrence Kohlberg sorted out the disturbing results of the Milgram experiments using similar tactics…. He attempted to show, through the interpretation of a vast number of repetitive and seemingly reliable, cross-cultural experiments, that worry about human evil was justified, but that there was also hope. Our ethical reasoning was built on inevitable and discoverable inherent stages of moral development. Once we learned the nature of our innate moral calculus, calumnies could be overcome…. ….. In education, Bloom trotted out his own six-stage theory. At the lower end were types of thinking (knowledge, comprehension and application) which would suffice for the training of suitably submissive citizens and fully-functioning consumer-workers (the stereotypical Dickensian “Gradgrinders” whose political docility and mindless materialism ensured social stability and corporate profits). At the higher end were analysis, synthesis and evaluation, the types of thinking that could be achieved with appropriate teaching techniques were applied to potential business and cultural leaders—people, we are given to assume, such as Conrad Black, William Bennett and Bill Gates. ….. Like all such inventions, Bloom’s design is premised upon “a standard theory of human nature that its promoters consider applicable to all cultures and at all times” (Biehler, 1971, 213). We must treat such grandiose claims with appropriate caution.
In adopting Bloom’s template, I think we are making a number of errors. We are accepting the veracity of an intellectual fashion of fifty years ago, which has not been well served by time. At the time that Bloom was fashioning his theory, Ronald Reagan was appearing every Sunday night as host and prime huckster for General Electric on its television program, “GE Theatre”. At the close of every episode, I vividly recall, he would bid the audience farewell with the slogan: “At General Electric, progress is our most important product.”….
… One obvious point concerns the history of Bloom’s taxonomy itself. It is, by all scientific standards, an antique. Over the years, various individuals and agencies tinkered with it and, by the 1990s it had been substantially revised to the point where resemblances of contemporary versions to the original are of antiquarian interest only….
The version of Bloom’s typology that is being imposed upon colleges is a thoroughly deceased old horse that needs no additional flogging. We need not overly concern ourselves with criticism of the detritus of Bloom’s brainchild. We must remember that we are being told to build into our course outlines an obsolete relic, the creaky old bones of a fundamentally flawed instrument. Its fundamental flaws are more important than any forensic inquiry into its antiquated remains, and they are what need to be addressed. ….. The types of thinking Professor Bloom celebrates are well and good in moderation; however, just as I do not completely disapprove of testable learning outcomes, neither do I find them necessary, sufficient nor even appropriate for measuring a liberal education. There are, at least, a few other types of thinking to be tossed into the mix. How about quiet reflection? How about the ecstasy of aesthetic transformation? How about (dare I say it) small hints of “wisdom.” I am even prepared to give a quick nod to Howard Gardner’s notion of “multiple intelligences” (1993), which at least provides a little balance, flexibility and something about musical or kinesthetic learning—anything to strip Bloom of his imperious certainty and his theoretical boxes, with their straight sides, study tops and even design, that are just right to be plopped atop one another as we ascend the ladder of learning.
Even if, however, we were to shrug in tentative agreement that Bloom’s typology adequately described human thought in all its forms, I would still find the insistence on a strict behavioural assessment of whether a student has “mastered” a subject objectionable. Measurable mastery is available for only the simplest of tasks; college education should be more subtle, more nuanced and harder to spot. It should involve the internal growth and transformation of the student and not the acquisition of the capacity to respond on command with a regurgitation of curricular morsels previously ingested from a text or some “activity” put on by a teacher grown tired of lecturing, no longer having the stamina to be “a sage on the stage.” Absent expensive brain activity monitors (which I probably wouldn’t trust and certainly wouldn’t know how to use anyway), I am stumped when it comes to describing what happens when students “do” wisdom. ..... Constructing educational policies that are designed to encourage students to do something with data and, when the doing is done, declare the performances to amount to “mastery” is a cruel joke….
MEANWHILE, ON THE FAR RIGHT...
Some view Outcomes Based Education (OBE) with alarm, but not for the reasons mentioned above. Nope, according to the Lunatic Right (LR), OBE is actually a government plot to establish thought control. —Er, no, it's a plot by Humanists to make us socialists. —Um, maybe it's part of a global strategy to bring about One World Government!
One thing is certain: Bill Clinton's up to his eyeballs in it!
.....(CLICK ON ARROW.) Chunk at home, with Sunny Girl. He tells two "finger" stories, with the help of Sunny, including his celebrated 44 Magnum tale, which concerns the late "Mountain Ray" and a certain exploding Smith & Wesson handgun. .....Mostly for fans of the SUNNY GIRL.
.....Mountain Ray was a U.S. Marine, loved the Santa Ana Mountains, loved his dogs. .....He and Kathie and I—plus Ray's "dark green" Marine buddy—once saw a whoppin' big UFO together, in the sky above Live Oak Canyon. Good times! .....Raymond had a green thumb, they say. Knew the Latin terms for every variety. .....He and his crop are now gone. .....I think of him often.
(Some of you were asking how I get that "painted" look. In the case of the two Sunny photos above, mostly I relied on the "ink outlines" filter in Photoshop, though I also boosted saturation and then contrast. In the case of yesterday's Sunny photos, I used the "accented edges" filter instead, but I also boosted saturation and contrast. I sometimes add some "sharpening," which can produce weird effects. No doubt real photographers are horrified. Do I care? I do not.)
GOT HOME, let out the Sunny Girl. She enjoyed the good weather, the cool air. She weaseled around.
I gave her her medicine tonight. I've gotta shoot 1 ml of goop into her mouth twice a day. She hates it.
Hopefully, it will address what ails her, which may be urinary tract disease. Not sure.
Have I told you that she only drinks bottled water? It's true. She just won't touch my tap water, which comes from a well. Don't know what that's about.
~ This obituary ran in the Thursday March 27, 2008 edition of the Daily Journal, the legal newspaper.
Deputy PD Was a Progressive Advocate Eric J. Zucker 1959-2008
By Ryan Oliver Daily Journal Staff Writer
.....LOS ANGELES - Eric J. Zucker, a veteran Los Angeles County deputy public defender and progressive political advocate, died Monday after a 16-month battle with brain cancer. He was 48. .....Zucker's last assignment was as a deputy public defender in the office's Public Integrity Assurance Section, which is responsible for defending cases in which police misconduct is suspected and for reviewing post-conviction cases with potentially exonerating DNA evidence. ....."He was the quintessential public defender," Marie Girolamo, deputy in charge of the unit, said of Zucker. "He really was a true believer. He believed in what he did." .....Zucker previously served as deputy in charge of the office's Eastlake juvenile branch. He considered Homeboy Industries founder Father Gregory Boyle and Eastlake Juvenile Hall chaplain Sister Janet Harris to be among his mentors. .....He joined the public defender's office in 1990 after graduating from Hofstra University School of Law. He was a staunch opponent of the state's three-strikes law and testified against it before the California Senate after he saw one of his clients sentenced to 25-years-to-life for joyriding. .....In his latest assignment, Zucker was deeply involved in advocating on behalf of women serving life sentences who were unable to present evidence at trial that they had been battered. ....."He was one of the most energetic, positive-minded people I've ever known," Girolamo said. "Anybody who spent any time with him would immediately like him." .....A Los Angeles native, born Aug. 10, 1959, Zucker inherited strong progressive values from his parents, Betty and Max Zucker, who were survivors of the Holocaust. Zucker attended anti-war demonstrations as a child and was involved in a number of political and minority organizations while a student at the University of California and in law school. ....."He was one of the most generous people on Earth," said Zucker's friend, Pasadena attorney Ron Kaye. "He supported the rights of immigrants to juveniles to people with disabilities." Kaye said Zucker was able to use his compassion for people in the courtroom by bringing his clients' stories to life for the jury. .....Zucker is survived by his wife, Donna Herlihy, and their three children.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget plan to cut back funds for California’s need-based grants program would disproportionate hurt students at the state’s community colleges, the Institute for College Access and Success said in a report Thursday. The report said that because of the way money from the Cal Grant Program is distributed, new grants to community college students would be cut by 45 percent, or about 18,500 students, in the fall. The report also estimated that 700 students at the University of California would be denied a Cal Grant, 2,000 in the California State University system; 1,200 at private nonprofit colleges; and 3,000 at for-profit career colleges.
Three young inventors from Tustin and Irvine are heading up to Burbank today to hang out with Jay Leno for a few minutes of TV fame on the “The Tonight Show.”
Brandon Sharpe from Loma Vista Elementary will be talking about his belt buckle video camera. The invention, according to the third-grader, is designed to catch bullies in action. Joining Sharpe will be fifth-grader Benjamin Jacobs from Westpark Elementary and his “Perfect Parker” guide, which helps drivers park in their garages; and fifth-grader Kerissa Iyer at Brywood Elementary, with her popcorn-mate.
The trio was part of a group of more than 300 elementary and junior high students who displayed their inventions at the 21st annual Astounding Inventions showcase, which was sponsored by Greenberg Trauig law firm, at Irvine Valley College in January….
Congressional candidate Debbie Cook has won a victory, after the Fourth District Court of Appeal dismissed a lawsuit that challenged her ballot designation as mayor of Huntington Beach...Republican leaders said they filed the lawsuit on the grounds that Cook, a Democrat, shouldn't be allowed to use the "Mayor" designation on the ground that the voters elected her to the City Council and not to the position of mayor.... Cook has said she followed the law. She called the suit an attempt to distract her from her campaign to unseat Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, incumbent for the 46th Congressional District.
.....The lawyer for the Repubs? That would be Tom Fuentes' pal (and OC "Republican mafia" Godfather) Michael Schroeder. State GOP official Keith Carlson filed the suit. Carlson, who is on the IVC Foundation board, was the emcee at the November Fuentes fundraiser. .....The Reg notes that "Three Republican candidates for Assembly had also indicated 'mayor' in their individual ballot designations and achieved the position in a similar manner as Cook, records show. Republican leaders had not filed suit against them." .....That's because they're assholes. .....Carlson and Co. were ordered to pay Cook's litigation costs. .....Nya!
• ADIOS. Meanwhile, our pal Gustavo Arellano has written his last "Ask a Mexican" column. He ended today's offering with:
And with this, the Mexican formally bids adios, effective the feast day of St. Melito. It’s been a great run, cabrones, but all the hateful e-mail, the attacks by PC pendejos and the fact that few of you have bothered to submit video questions to my YouTube channel wear on a guy, you know? Besides, like Mr. Dooley, Olle I Skratthult and The Katzenjammer Kids before me, this column’s time has come: It’s no longer necessary to explain Mexicans to Americans because Mexicans are Americans. Gracias for all the fights, the propositions of sexytime explosion, and the slugged-back tequila shots after book signings, but there’s a little ranchito in Zacatecas waiting for me and a barefoot muchacha ready to cook me dinner. Vaya con Dios, America, and always remember: Order the enchilada-and-taco combo TO GO.
One of the key arguments made by David Horowitz and his supporters in recent years is that a left-wing orientation among faculty members results in a lack of curricular balance, which in turn leads to students being indoctrinated rather than educated. The argument is probably made most directly in a film much plugged by Horowitz: “Indoctrinate U.”
A study that will appear soon in the journal PS: Political Science & Politics accepts the first part of the critique of academe and says that it’s true that the professoriate leans left. But the study—notably by one Republican professor and one Democratic professor—finds no evidence of indoctrination. Despite students being educated by liberal professors, their politics change only marginally in their undergraduate years, and that deflates the idea that cadres of tenured radicals are somehow corrupting America’s youth—or scaring them into adopting new political views.
The study’s authors—Gordon Hewitt of Hamilton College and Mack Mariani of Xavier University, in Ohio—write that they believe too much time has been spent debating the proper methodologies for testing whether there is a political imbalance on college faculties. If the danger of such an imbalance is that it is hurting students, the key question is whether the imbalance leads to an otherwise unexplainable shift in student political attitudes. ….. Based on a review of numerous other studies, as well as of specific surveys of faculty political attitudes at various private colleges, they do not contest that the faculty in higher education is liberal—significantly more so than the public at large. To measure student shifts, the scholars used data from the University of California at Los Angeles Higher Education Research Institute in which students are asked—as freshmen and seniors—to place themselves ideologically. Student data were examined for specific colleges for which data on faculty political leanings were available, and those colleges were grouped into three categories, based on politics. The student attitudes were examined in 1999 as freshmen and 2003 as seniors.
The scholars find some self-selection, with students who enter college as conservative slightly more likely to be found at relatively conservative institutions, and so forth. But over all, they found only slight shifts in political leanings (albeit to the left) during the students’ four years. The analysis also found explanations other than faculty ideology—gender and wealth, for example—that correlate with the modest political shifts that took place. Whether the students attended a college that was more liberal or conservative did not correlate with the shift—which it would have had liberal professors been engaged in indoctrination, the authors write…..
~ Rebel Girl's friend who was dying has died - the only end of that particular story could have had for awhile now. Still, there it is, a fact that makes her breath catch and her eyes sting.
He was a public defender in the best sense of that word. She saw him these last years after her life had taken her south to Orange County at two kinds of venues: rock 'n roll concerts and good cause dinners. If there was music, they'd stand, for hours and sing along and dance, dance, dance, an aging coterie of lawyers, educators, community organizers, activists all, getting old, yes, drinking less, but willing to sing along late into the evening:
I saw two shooting stars last night. I wished on them – they were only satellites…Is it wrong to wish on space hardware? I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care..
All those good cause dinners with the round tables and the round bread rolls, the white poly-blend tablecloths and napkins, and the speeches and the standing ovations and the promises and pledges we made to people, ourselves and each other, over and over again. Liberty Hill. Death Penalty Focus. National Lawyers Guild. ACLU. It occurs to her that we spent a lot of time standing for one thing and another, all of it good.
And then that last dinner, last fall that honored, among other people, their friend for his work. It was a benefit for Families to Amend Three Strikes. He couldn't make it but two round tables of friends did, in a ballroom at an LAX airport hotel. They watched as a video played and their friend spoke, reading his speech from a chair in his green backyard just before going back to the hospital for another surgery. He wasn't giving up on anything.
This is for him today and for all of us.
From the Preface to Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (1855):
This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body. . .
.....The OC Weekly and OC Register are reporting that Tom Fuentes’ old sauna mate, Jeffrey Ray Nielsen, was sentenced today to three years in prison for molesting two boys. .....No word yet on whether Jeff's been asked to return that swell suit Tom bought 'im at Macy's.
March 24, 2008: TONIGHT'S meeting was uneventful, aside from the appearance of IVC's seal. .....Some faculty addressed the board concerning the contract. It turns out that our part-timers are very poorly paid. They rank fortieth in the state. Full-time faculty don't do so hot either, said union negotiator Lewis Long.
.....A contractor showed up to cry foul regarding the recommendation (item 6.14) to approve another contractor for the "restroom expansion" in the McKinney Theater. He said his bid was $90K lower, so what's the deal? .....During his report, Trustee John "Chicken Little" Williams got up once again upon his "security" hobby horse, this time bringing students' declining mental health into the mix. Evidently, the fellow read a story about student stress—this is "very scary stuff," he said—and, in his mind, that phenomenon had everything to do with the wave of violence at college campuses that he sees overtaking the nation. .....Have I mentioned that Mission Viejo is the safest city in the goddam country? .....About that wave of violence: Williams explained that there seems to be a "lull in the action" right now. I do believe that John confuses waves of violence with football games. This explains his advocacy of that big, new football stadium. .....Wagner told heroic war stories about founding trustee Hans Vogel. Expect some sort of ceremony for Vogel in the future. .....At some point, Trustee Nancy Padberg seemed to raise questions about a conference at some fancy schmancy hotel in Palm Springs. I do believe that John "Orlando" Williams indicated his intention of attending. He looked very tanned. .....Decisions were made about ATEP, but no effort was made to explain them to the public. Curiously, trustees Milchiker and Fuentes voted "no" on item 6.5: "reimbursement agreement: Camelot Development Tustin" ($786,100). .....Marcia noted the looming retirement of Mike Runyan. Inexplicably, she seemed to like 'im. I'm glad he's retiring. .....Nancy Padberg carped about the apparent failure to bring the "updating" of IVC's seal before the board for approval. On the other hand, she liked the new seal, which briefly appeared before the dais, barking. Several trustees threw it a fish.
........Intelligent design — the idea that the “irreducible complexity” of living things can’t be explained without some notion of a creator — continues to fuel struggles on the local level to control K-12 school boards. Now proponents of the controversial idea — dismissed as pseudoscience by a wide consensus of scientists — have graduated to college, and they wield a powerful new weapon: Ben Stein. .....The author, actor and lawyer, a former speechwriter for Presidents Nixon and Ford, perfected his monotone delivery in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” when he memorably induced a state of catatonia by lecturing his students about voodoo economics. ("Anyone? ... Anyone?") He used the deadpan style to similar effect in the quiz show “Win Ben Stein’s Money,” which pitted contestants against the host for a portion of his own paycheck. Now the conservative commentator is more interested in waking America up, with a documentary that seeks to challenge the “progressive orthodoxy of government-issued science in its winter of discontent.” ….. .....“Expelled” begins, according to a preview on the documentary’s Web site, with a montage sequence that introduces Stein’s quest to investigate scientists who have lost tenure bids or their jobs for supporting intelligent design or questioning evolution’s ability to fully explain the origins of human life. As a lone professor repeatedly scrawls “Do Not Question Darwinism” on a classroom blackboard, Stein pits the victims of evolutionary dogma against Dawkins and other atheists. As Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd on screen, Stein suggests that suppressing intelligent design contradicts America’s ideals of free expression. Flashes of Nazi death camps accompany the assertion of evolution’s “dangerous” implications….
.....When the U.S. Supreme Court two years ago limited the First Amendment protections available to public employees, faculty groups thought that they had dodged a bullet. While the decision didn’t go the way professors hoped, it specifically indicated that additional issues might limit its application in cases involving public college professors. .....Now, however, a federal court has applied just the principle that faculty groups thought shouldn’t be applied in higher education — that bosses can punish employees for speech deemed inappropriate — to a case involving a university. As a result, the American Association of University Professors and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression are asking a federal appeals court to affirm that the Supreme Court decision does not apply to public higher education. The two groups warn that failure to reverse the lower court’s decision could make it impossible for professors to freely debate hiring choices or campus policies….
.....These days, DON WAGNER is the president of the SOCCCD's benighted board of trustees. .....Don has been on the board since December of 1998. But how'd he get there? It sure as hell wasn't his pleasant personality! .....Check out these juicy excerpts from the October 1998 trustee candidates "board forum" on Cox Cable—pitting newcomer Don Wagner against "Pete" Maddox, and (also newcomer) Nancy Padberg against Leo Galcher. .....Back then, Don explained that people should vote for 'im cuz he knows how to bring people together and make nice! (Huh?) He's a healing kinda guy! .....He mostly defended the nasty old Board Majority that made the district a laughing stock. He generally would have voted as they did, he says. .....Don seemed to go out of his way to distance himself from the people who actually got him elected—the old corrupt union leadership, who paid for his notorious "anti-airport" mailer (see at left). .....THE BEST PART: Maddox accused Wagner of some dirty politics (re Pam Zanelli). Then Don got peeved! Check it out!
.....More than nine years ago, one of the gravest issues facing the district was "board micromanagement." .....Now, in part because of continued board micromanagement and the endless "plague of despair" brought largely by Raghu Mathur, our colleges are closer than they've ever been to losing their accredited status.
.....This morning, I read an interview of a former Jeopardy champ—he won $2.5 million—who visited “the OC” yesterday: 'Jeopardy' champ Ken Jennings tests O.C.'s knowledge. .....It turns out that Jennings is a funny guy:
Q: How did you prepare to be on "Jeopardy," other than making flashcards?
A: The flashcards really helped. But "Jeopardy" tends to quiz on the same things over again such as capitals and mixing cocktails. I guess if I run out of Jeopardy money I could be the world's best Mormon bartender….
Q: What was the hardest part of being on "Jeopardy"?
A: Coming up with 75 anecdotes to share with Alex every day. I started making things up at the end….
Q: It seemed Alex Tribek was rooting for you throughout the show, was he?
A: You know, I wondered about that. Sometimes, yeah, he'd act like he was rooting for me. But some days he'd be all Tribek: cool and detached. …
Q: Will you return to "Jeopardy"?
A: I hope so. Once you've been on "Jeopardy," they have past champions back on show. Maybe I'll get invited to the 50th anniversary show when Alex is just a head in a jar.
.....I was talking to a friend last night. I was telling her that you’ll never go wrong thinking of the “public mind” (PM) as an idiot. I was thinking of the PM as that great fictional American that we all “participate” in to some extent. PM is the guy who represents what America thinks and does. He voted for Bush. Twice. .....That guy is plainly a dolt. .....Take Jeopardy. Lots of people understand that it’s just a fun trivia game. But many more people—i.e., America—seems to think that it is a contest of intelligence. America also thinks that spelling bees are IQ tests. .....I was telling my students the other day about how I was watching the news the day before Katrina blew into New Orleans. There was some official guy in that town saying, “This could be the big one we’ve been warning about for years. This could be an unbelievable disaster!” .....But the PM (and its cheerleader, the President) said, “Yeah, whatever.” Later, New Orleans essentially drowned, and the PM was astonished: “How come nobody told us this might happen?” .....What's next for America? .....Next time: America doesn't understand why everyone doesn't love it.
President Dwight Eisenhower express[ed] astonishment and alarm on discovering that fully half of all Americans have below average intelligence! —Carl Sagan
....As you know, California community college faculty have been spending lots of time and energy on “Student Learning Outcomes”—SLOs. SLOs have been a big deal since 2002, when the accrediting agency (ACCJC) adopted new standards that focus on SLOs or “measurable student learning outcomes”. .....As we’ll see below, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (the ASCCC—or “the State Senate,” as it is often called) fought the adoption of those standards. But they lost that fight. .....SLOs appear to be the product of the “outcome-based education” (OBE) movement, which has been a significant political force more or less since the 80s. According to Wikipedia,
Outcome-based education is a model of education that rejects the traditional focus on what the school provides to students, in favor of making students demonstrate that they "know and are able to do" whatever the required outcomes are…OBE reforms emphasize setting clear standards for observable, measurable outcomes.
.....You might think that conservatives are behind OBE—OBE loves standardized tests—but that’s not exactly right. In fact, as near as I can tell, right-wingers have been the most vociferous opponents of OBE, sometimes for daffy reasons. (See Phyllis Schlafly's What's Wrong with OBE?) .....It appears that OBE (and SLOs) are in some sense the product of the prolific—but notoriously unimpressive—field of educational theory. Education theorists have power in the educational establishment, especially at the K-12 level. By the late 80s, their "measurable outcomes" notions bubbled up to higher ed. By the new millennium, they afflicted California community colleges.
* * * * *
.....I wanted to present some information here on the blog (starting with this post) to help put this whole SLO thing into perspective. Toward that end, I present excerpts from an article that appeared in the State Academic Senate’s journal, called Rostrum, back in October of 2002. .....Among other things, the article's author argues that there is no evidence that, as a way of improving learning, existing methods of measuring student learning fail or that monitoring SLOs succeeds. .....Further, the accrediting agency embraced SLOs against the overwhelming opposition of faculty and faculty organizations. Essentially, the move to SLOs (he argues) is an expensive unfunded mandate to busy faculty on questionable activities based on an unverified educational theory.
.....…In June 2002, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) passed radical new standards by which to accredit community colleges, incorporating the idea of “continuous improvement” of “measurable student learning outcomes” (MSLOs) throughout. The ACCJC passed these new standards over the vociferous objections of respected faculty organizations. Nationally, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has come out against modifying accreditation standards this way, and in California, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges along with the Community College Council of the California Federation of Teachers (CCC/CFT) have condemned this radical change by ACCJC. Why? .....The whole concept of MSLOs as the latest fad in education is somewhat akin to the now discredited fad of the ‘90’s, Total Quality Management, or TQM. .....Essentially, the ACCJC adopted MSLOs as the overarching basis for accrediting community colleges based on their faith in the theoretical treatises of a movement, just as advocates for the use of TQM in education … were part of an ideological movement. .....After repeated requests for research showing that such use of MSLOs is effective, none has been forthcoming from the ACCJC. Prior to large scale imposition of such a requirement at all institutions, research should be provided to establish that continuous monitoring of MSLOs has resulted in measurable improvements in student success at a given institution. No such research is forthcoming because there is none…. .....The new standards would require documentation and continuous improvement of learning outcome measures at the course, program, and certificate levels. This would require faculty and administration to measure outcomes that can be immediately documented, not long-term outcomes such as successful application of coursework in students’ careers.
….. .....Often, objections to MSLOs are met with, “But, you faculty will define what the outcomes to be measured are.” This assumes that what faculty currently measure via exams and grades are not adequate, and that faculty should spend their time generating new and much more specific skill based measures. However, no evidence has been presented establishing that the outcomes of our pedagogical efforts are not adequately measured by our current approaches, or that new measures would lead to greater student success. .....In addition, much that is most beneficial in higher education is often difficult or impossible to measure—but certainly is not measurable at the course level. A business department might feel the most important outcome is that their students use what they learn in the classroom successfully in a career in the business world. But this is not a learning outcome that can be documented at the course or program level.
….. .....…[T]he MSLO movement utilizes a scorecard approach, in which you assess in percentage terms where your students are now in terms of a defined learning outcome, and how you would like to increase the percentage in 5 years, say. Then, you set as your goal the percentage improvement you want to make each semester! This requirement, that there be continuous improvement of learning outcomes, assumes that student achievement can be increasingly rationalized like a production process. .....This push to document and improve student learning outcomes essentially creates pressure to focus one’s course objectives on discrete, skill-based and hence most easily measured variables. Quantitative variables are more easily tracked than qualitative ones. This over time will yield to a “dumbing down” of the curriculum, as broad capacities and more long-term, qualitative changes in student behavior and perception will be relatively de-emphasized in the push to measure. .....How about faculty members in art deciding that an outcome is that students have at least a rudimentary appreciation of great art and how to recognize it? How does one measure that? How does one measure a sociology department’s desired outcome that their students have a more tolerant attitude towards other cultures and ethnic groups? You can probably think of more examples of the impossibility of measuring outcomes of what we do. Even if it were possible, is it realistic to expect a 2% (say) improvement per semester in any given outcome?
..... .....Perhaps what irritates us most about the ACCJC’s action, besides the fact that they chose to ignore the best advice of the practitioners in the field (the faculty), is that tying accreditation to MSLOs means that the faculty as a whole would have to spend precious time and effort to engage in measuring everything that moves on the campus, diverting our energy and efforts from interacting with students. Will our colleges receive additional funding for these efforts? We seriously doubt it! So, we are being asked to engage in what virtually amounts to a huge unfunded mandate.
….. .....… The Academic Senate plenary sessions passed resolution after resolution condemning the use of MSLOs as the basis of accrediting decisions, many being passed unanimously. These were votes of faculty members representing faculty at all 108 California community colleges, and represent the collective wisdom of California community college faculty. The faculty members sitting on the ACCJC are or have been active in local or state senates. It is unfortunate that they did not heed that collective wisdom and vote against the implementation of these new standards. Every fad that comes along will find a few adherents among the faculty, but when the opposition among our faculty is as strong as it is, it’s clear that the faculty is not split on this issue.
….. .....Based on the resolutions passed overwhelmingly at its plenary sessions, the Academic Senate is studying ways to combat the institutionalization of MSLOs. The Academic Senate is working with both the AAUP and the CCC/CFT to consider our next steps, whether it is possible to delay implementation of these radical changes in the accreditation standards, as well as to explore alternatives to the ACCJC…..
These articles appeared in the Rostrum of February, 2002, a few months prior to the ACCJC’s adoption of new standards:
* “Ignore Us At Your Peril!”: The San Francisco Accreditation Hearing
.....“Ignore us at your peril!” Those were the closing words … during testimony at the Accrediting commission’s hearing on Draft A of the proposed new accreditation standards. The hearing, held on Sunday, January 6th in San Francisco, was the only one to be scheduled in the continental United States.
….. .....…All of the participants were in communication with one another prior to the hearing, with the result that the overlap in testimony was minimal. It will surprise no one who attended the Fall Plenary Session, or who has read the resolutions generated there, that those assembled to provide testimony came to persuade the Commission to abandon their misguided emphasis on quantifiable outcomes, and to focus instead on educational quality….
* The Proposed Accreditation Standards: A Summary Critique
.....At its recent session, the Academic Senate passed a record number of resolutions concerning the proposed accreditation standards. Other faculty organizations have also gone on record opposing the proposed draft standards…. The Commission currently intends to adopt a revised draft at their June 2002 meeting. .....…Acccording to the commission’s “Project Renewal” plan, the revision aims to import quality assurance approaches from business and to address inclusion of the wide variation in institutions now on the higher education “market.” But to widen the umbrella in this way essentially reduces the standards to the lowest common denominator….
"You cannot, in fact, dream up anything so preposterous that you will not find it being taught in some school." —Richard Mitchell
.....Activists from Little Saigon say they are putting the University of Southern California on notice over a Socialist Republic of Vietnam flag that flies on campus. .....Three activists – Hung Nguyen, An Son Tran and Tung X. Nguyen – approached an employee of the University Relations department on campus last week to make an official request that the school remove what is perceived as the communist flag by Vietnamese Americans or replace it with the red and yellow former South Vietnamese flag. ....."The red and yellow flag is the official flag of the Vietnamese American community," Hung Nguyen said. "The university has hundreds if not thousands of students from our community and they should honor our sentiments about the flag." .....But USC officials don't plan to remove or replace the flag, said university spokesman James Grant. .....USC is among the nation's most diverse campuses and has thousands of international students attending, Grant said. So far, no student has complained about this particular flag, he said. ....."The flags have been in our main building for a long time," he said. "They were made to conform to state and United Nations standards. We see no need to take them down." .....The activists approached Irvine Valley College last month with a similar request. The college took down its entire exhibit of miniature flags from 144 countries after Westminster Councilman Andy Quach and Garden Grove Councilwoman Dina Nguyen and the activists objected to the presence of the communist flag in the exhibit. .....Hung Nguyen said he and others intend to visit all California's campuses and urge them to remove the communist flag. .....The Union of Vietnamese Student Associations, based in Garden Grove, also sent out a letter to USC two weeks ago after a Vietnamese American student there told them about the flag, said Bao Mai, a senior member of the student union. .....“We have a good community of Vietnamese students, a few hundred, in USC,” he said. “We don’t want to see a large-scale protest happen there. We want to resolve the issue before that.” .....But the students union would certainly join in a protest if it happens because USC has a Vietnamese Student Association on campus and is a member of the union, Mai said. .....Hung Nguyen said community members from Little Saigon will attempt to have a discussion with top USC officials to make them see why the local Vietnamese American community is extremely sensitive to the issue. .....The rapidly growing Little Saigon community is primarily composed of refugees who fled Vietnam in the '70s and '80s after the communist takeover in that country in 1975. ....."Our first step is to give them the information," he said. "The second step is to have a discussion between our Vietnamese elected officials and university officials to see if they will take down the communist flag. Our last resort will be to protest the university's approach to this issue." .....Quach said he has not been approached by Nguyen to talk to university officials. ....."It is of course at the discretion of the university, but I don't think the university understands the political and emotional implications of their decision," he said. .....Quach said he might send them a video tape of the 1999 protest of a Little Saigon video store owner who displayed a large banner of Ho Chi Minh outside his store. Thousands thronged outside the store in protest. ....."The video will show them how strongly anti-communist this community is and how strongly we feel about it," Quach said. .....Grant said the university respects the community's sentiments about their flag. ....."They do have their right to express their feeling and opinions," he said. "But I don't think we did anything wrong by flying that flag. It is Vietnam's official flag."
.....The aftermath has flowed predictably enough since Feb. 13, when Danish newspapers reprinted cartoons that sparked fury among Muslims around the world in 2006: There was more fury. .....Street protests started in the streets of Copenhagen and spread to Sudan, Pakistan, Turkey and other parts of the Islamic world. Now, after more than a month, comes what might be the direst reaction in Osama bin Laden’s latest message. .....“Publishing these insulting drawings,” he said, “is the greatest misfortune and the most dangerous.” .....An analyst interviewed by The Associated Press interpreted the message as a “clear threat against E.U. member countries and an indicator of a possible upcoming significant attack.” .....In The New York Times today, Michael Kimmelman writes that “many Europeans seem fed up,” including some of the cartoonists. One has been moving from safe house to safe house to elude any assassins, while another is struggling to find meaning in the second printing…. .....Meanwhile, a politician two countries away is planning to release a movie that has “triggered a panic in the Netherlands that could only be likened to the dread leading up to a massive storm,” according to Der Spiegel, a German magazine. .....Geert Wilders’s 15-minute film reportedly juxtaposes excerpts from the Koran with beheadings and stonings on a split screen, a warning of “the threat of the growing Islamization of Western society,” he said in an interview with a Danish TV station, Reuters reported. .....Even before the film’s release, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende of the Netherlands insisted that his country did not share the views of Mr. Wilders, who is the subject of death threats — threats made all the more unsettling by the 2004 murder of another Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, who was killed for being “an enemy of Islam,” the killer said. .....“I strongly condemn Geert Wilders’s condescending statements about Muslims,” Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark said on Wednesday, according to Reuters. “I find these expressions extremely offensive.”….
.....Spring! .....Once again. .....Today's poem, courtesy of Kenneth Rexroth, from his cycle titled, "Toward an Organic Philosophy."
SPRING, COAST RANGE
The glow of my campfire is dark red and flameless, The circle of white ash widens around it. I get up and walk off in the moonlight and each time I look back the red is deeper and the light smaller. Scorpio rises late with Mars caught in his claw; The moon has come before them, the light Like a choir of children in the young laurel trees. It is April; the shad, the hot headed fish, Climbs the rivers; there is trillium in the damp canyons; The foetid adder’s tongue lolls by the waterfall. There was a farm at this campsite once, it is almost gone now. There were sheep here after the farm, and fire Long ago burned the redwoods out of the gulch, The Douglas fir off the ridge; today the soil Is stony and incoherent, the small stones lie flat And plate the surface like scales. Twenty years ago the spreading gully Toppled the big oak over onto the house. Now there is nothing left but the foundations Hidden in poison oak, and above on the ridge, Six lonely, ominous fenceposts; The redwood beams of the barn make a footbridge Over the deep waterless creek bed; The hills are covered with wild oats Dry and white by midsummer. I walk in the random survivals of the orchard. In a patch of moonlight a mole Shakes his tunnel like an angry vein; Orion walks waist deep in the fog coming in from the ocean; Leo crouches under the zenith. There are tiny hard fruits already on the plum trees. The purity of the apple blossoms is incredible. As the wind dies down their fragrance Clusters around them like thick smoke. All the day they roared with bees, in the moonlight They are silent and immaculate.
From this morning's Inside Higher Ed:
