Burgerville even does health care right

My brother sends along a link: the Wall Street Journal explaining how Burgerville's health care coverage has improved employee retention--and the bottom line.

In absorbing more of the costs, Burgerville's annual health-care bill nearly doubled, to $4.1 million from $2.1 million. But company leaders figured the move would boost recruiting and retention.

Under Burgerville's plan, individual hourly workers can enroll in a health-maintenance organization for $15 a month, with no deductible. A worker and spouse pay $30 monthly; family plans cost $90. Salaried employees, whose plans didn't change significantly, pay $84 a month for individual and $240 monthly for family coverage, and have an annual deductible of $500.

Executives say the plan paid for itself, and more. Turnover in 2006 plunged to 54%, from 128% in 2005. That's a big deal when it costs an average of $1,700 to replace and train a restaurant worker, according to People Report.

No word on whether the HMO actively encourages its members to abstain from their own products.

Burgerville's overall approach shows how corporate social responsibility doesn't have to hurt profits. Once they enter the South Sound (or at very least send a Nomad our way), they'll be the perfect fast food company.

strikes and lawsuits and swine flu...

...add your own "Oh my."

The school year commences in Washington state with a strike in the Kent district...

More than 1,000 striking teachers packed the picket line outside Kent School District headquarters Friday to let everyone know about their unhappiness with contract talks.

With only two days left to work out an agreement before school is supposed to start, striking teachers from every school in the Kent district showed up for the rally.

"We feel very put against the wall, painted into a corner - very disrespected that the district wasn't willing to bargain," says teacher Pat Deming.

Meanwhile, the Teamsters did a drive-by of support for the teachers' demands from the district as some teachers shouted, "Class size! Class size! Class size!"

(And read Ryan's take for some criticism of a critic; Lake Stevens is striking, too; at least Shoreline seems to have avoided the worst.)

...and a court date for the NEWS lawsuit...

Right in the middle of a recession that has created the worst atmosphere for school budgeting in decades, a coalition of Washington school districts, parents, teachers and community groups is going to court Monday to demand that the state start paying the full cost of education.

Attorneys for both sides say the economy will have little or no influence on the outcome of the non-jury trail, scheduled to begin on the first day of the school year for many district and to continue for six weeks of testimony in King County Superior Court before Judge John Erlick.

School districts have been struggling economically for decades, so while the recession makes things worse it doesn't make them different, said Mike Blair, chair of the group calling itself Network for Excellence in Washington Schools.

...and, of course, a potentially deadly flu strain.

Yay?

keep it fresh

For the first time in eight years of teaching, I will have the same schedule for the second year running. In the seven years prior, not only were my classes mixed up every year, but I had at least one class that I'd never taught before.

So, how am I handling the opportunity to, for once, enjoy the comfort of a cadence?

By taking on more responsibility, of course. Last spring I was elected Department Coordinator, which promises to be both mundane and exciting in equal doses. (I hear that a blog-neighbor who will not be named has also answered the call.)

But that's not enough. Let's see... how about... a student teacher?

Done and done. We've already met and started planning for the first few weeks, when we'll teach in tandem, until he's comfortable enough to steer the ship on his own.

bear fail

From Newcastle Trip '09

Even though we knew what the sign was trying to accomplish, every time we drove past it, we cracked up.

the modest films of a modest woman

Maybe Meryl Streep's too modest.

Now, I know I'm a good actress. I'm Meryl Streep. I've won two Academy Awards, and I have been nominated for 15. That's a record. But what my friends and I figured out is that the name Meryl Streep isn't really synonymous with one truly unforgettable film. It's weird to think about, but it's undeniably true.

Go ahead, try and name a classic movie I've starred in. Not a classic character I've portrayed, mind you, but an overall amazing piece of cinema. You can't. You just can't.

A little help, Lena?

Update: Lena answers the call--and explains why Streep's Casablanca is not The Hours.

Lacey TRL brings back the new nonfiction

Two months ago, I lovingly griped about the loss of the New Nonfiction section at the Lacey Timberland Library. Today, I'm happy to report that the shelf of shelves is coming back. Word comes from employee and blogger Kelsie Raddas:

Happy days are here again! There is once again a New Non-Fiction section in the Lacey Library! It is just about done and it will also feature new biographies.
It is also in a new location, aisle 5, just after the adult reference desk.

A lot of folks did a lot of work to get it to where it is. It looks really great!

Come on in and check it out!

Believe me, I will: the news is worth every exclamation point.

at the Museum of the Rockies

Earlier this summer, a group of unrowdy atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, and otherwise scientifically inclined skeptics descended upon Ken Ham's infamous Creation "Museum" in Petersburg, Kentucky. Pseudoscience-bashing fun was had by all.

As an intellectual palate-cleanser, I'd recommend that they make tracks to the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, which I visited for the first time a few days ago.

The Museum--which covers many other aspects of Montana's fascinating history--seems to have little patience for pseudoscience. Which is good. Though it lacks the size and grandeur of the Royal Tyrell Museum, its neighbor to the north, it's also a lot cheaper ($10 for adults) and a lot cleverer. Consider it the anti-Creation-"Museum."

Here are a few of the photos I took.

hooperhacking

Last weekend, Melissa and I helped Mom and Dad move to Newcastle, Wyoming. On a Saturday evening, after we tired of unpacking, the folks suggested that we take a drive through the area. (We brought our cameras along.) Mom says that when she was a teenager, she and her friends would similarly roam about the countryside, a practice she calls "hooperhacking."

At this point on the World Wide Web, this very blog is the only reference to such a cultural phenomenon, so I cannot say with any authority that the term "hooperhacking" belongs anywhere but in her crazy imagination.

swine flu predictions worsen; is your school ready?

Word from a White House report says that 50% of Americans could contract H1N1 this coming autumn.

The virus, clinically called H1N1, could cause symptoms in 60 million to 120 million people, more than half of whom might seek medical attention, and could peak before a vaccine is widely available, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology estimated in an 86-page report assessing the government's response to the first influenza pandemic in 41 years.

Although most cases probably would be mild, up to 300,000 people could require intensive care, which could tie up all those beds in some parts of the country at the peak of the outbreak, the council said.

If it gets that bad, you know that schools will be hit hard. Education Secretary Arne Duncan offers recommendations:

Duncan said schools should evaluate what materials they have available for at-home learning. The latest guidance provides more details on methods schools could use, such as distributing recorded classes on podcasts and DVDs; creating take-home packets with up to 12 weeks of printed class material; or holding live classes via conference calls or "webinars."

Federal officials said earlier this month schools should close only as a last resort. They also advised that students and teachers can return to school or work 24 hours after their fever is gone; the old advice was to stay home for a week. The virus prompted more than 700 schools to temporarily close last spring.

Online school: a solution that was evident back in April--or sooner, for some.

Upodate 8/29: Some 200 students at Washington State University have reported sick, many potentially with swine flu. In a pattern we're seeing across the country, the flu seems to strike within a week or two of the start of classes.

a most amazing minivan

A Dodge Caravan limousine, seen outside a Wyoming grocery store. More for your dollar, indeed.

the history of South Dakota tourism

To understand the profusion of roadside attractions along Highway 16 from the Wyoming border to Rapid City, you have to know your history.

In 1934, the United States suffered through a crippling Depression. As a way to spur economic development, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Tourism Restoration and Protection Act* into law, designating the southwestern corner of South Dakota as a National Cash Extraction Zone. The Act provided for the construction of a gigantic statue carved into the Black Hills, to be called the Mount of the Three Presidents, honoring Lincoln, Washington, and Jefferson.**

The TRPA enjoyed limited immediate success, bearing most of its fruit after the end of the Second World War, as hundreds of thousands of Americans, hungry for a sense of normalcy, descended upon South Dakota like gnats on a banana.

In 1964, the United Nations proclaimed the region a World Old-Timey Heritage Area,*** ensuring the maintenance of Reptile Gardens, Cartoon-Based Theme Parks, Chuck Wagon Dinners, Mystery Areas, and Ridiculous Tram Rides for generations to come.




*Or, as it was affectionately known, the Tourist Trap Act.
**Teddy Roosevelt's bespectacled face was added to the plan upon the insistence of nephew Franklin Delano, who refused to sign the TRPA without it.
***Only one other site in the United States has merited such a designation: the Drug Store That Shall Not Be Named.

negating the exit exam resolution

Regarding the September / October LD resolution, one of my readers asks,

Ok so aff seems pretty easy. it seems like the only neg argument is that we need one test that holds all students to the same level. Are there any other, better neg arguments we can think of?

That claim shows the basic instrumentality of standardized tests: they're not intrinsically good, but are only worth the goods they bring to those who take them, or those who administer them, or the society that requires them.

What are those goods?

Equality
A standardized test, when properly designed to eliminate subtle biases, levels the playing field in several ways. It exposes deficiencies in particular classes, schools, districts, or states, which allows educators or policymakers to allocate resources, change teaching strategies, etc. It can also expose inequalities across relevant demographic factors--race, gender, socioeconomic status, and the like. (The last, in educational research, is usually the most powerful determiner of one's educational fate.) Standardized tests have sparked real educational reforms, and an overall interest in overcoming the "soft bigotry of low expectations," in George W. Bush's memorable phrase.

Fairness
A standardized test is more objective than a teacher's gut feeling or a parent's pride. Administered in a tightly controlled environment, it's arguably less amenable to cheating or other kinds of corruption.

Democracy
A healthy democracy depends on an informed citizenry; the foundation is public education. Standardized tests in subjects that society, through democratic processes, has deemed educationally essential--math, science, history, letters--ensure a "floor" of democratic competence.

National Security / Economic Stability
Educationally, the U.S. lags behind other nations. The Neg can argue that this is because of the U.S.'s disparate, hodgepodge system of "local control," and that the use of standardized tests is a remedy.

That's great, I can hear you saying. So taking a test is important. Let's require everyone to take the test, then, but not require it be passed for graduation.

Two responses.

First, passing the test helps guarantee the worth of the diploma to cautious or skeptical observers, including employers and college admissions officers.

Second, and perhaps more important, it ensures the test is taken seriously. Consider Washington state. The WASL has four components: reading, writing, math, and science. Reading and writing are required for passing since 2006; as this handy chart shows (comparing my school's results to the state average), scores improved significantly after that year. (Yes, there are several counterarguments, and I'm glad you're already thinking about them.) In contrast, the math test has been an on-again, off-again requirement over its history, and scores have reflected that, including a significant dip this past year when students were able to graduate after failing, provided they continued taking math courses. Science has never been required, and our scores are abysmal.

Not only is the passage requirement essential for students to take it seriously, but it adds an extra layer of accountability for teachers. (The Aff might say, "merit pay would work better," but the Neg could respond that merit pay without an objective measure, like test scores, is susceptible to cronyism.)

For all the arguments listed above, accountability is the linchpin to the entire Negative case.

Last, a word about strategy. DO NOT let the affirmative pin you into defending the status quo, or tests in their present incarnation. Tests vary from state to state, in quantity, breadth, and quality. If needed, create a resolutional analysis or overview that makes this as distinct from a policy debate as possible. It's likely that the affirmative will try to present evidence that testing has failed; you can argue that those failures aren't inherent to tests, but to the lack of political will to implement them. Or you can try to sidestep the empirical debate altogether, arguing the proposal on an entirely moral plane. (This is LD, lest this resolution make you think otherwise.)

Some responses to Aff arguments

1. This will make teachers "teach to the test."
"Teach to the test" is only as bad as the test. Make the test an accurate reflection of what students have learned, measuring it against what they should have learned, and teaching to the test can be a positive thing.

2. What about students with test anxiety, or who through no fault of their own fare poorly on tests? And is it fair to have such a limited slice of time represent a student's work and worth?
Think of an analogous situation: written (or, these days, computer-based) tests for driver's licenses. Nobody complains that they're somehow unjust, even though they cause much anxiety and are not always a fair representation of a person's true ability. The key is to allow retakes, and to remediate--to help students who struggle to succeed. Failure is just a speed bump on the road to success.

3. Tests are biased.
Not well-designed tests. And even a slightly biased test that helps "raise the bar" and improve education is better than a system free of individual accountability that leaves children behind. (See what I did there?)

This post in no way exhausts the options for the Negative. If you have other brilliant ideas for negating the resolution, or questions about my initial efforts, share them in the comments.

in the stardust of a comet

Boosting theories that life on Earth was seeded from interstellar bodies, the amino acid glycine has been isolated in comet leavings.

Previously, researchers have found amino acids in space rocks that fell to Earth as meteorites, and tentative evidence for the compounds has been detected in interstellar space. Now, an amino acid called glycine has been definitively traced to an icy comet for the first time.

"It's not necessarily surprising, but it's very satisfying to find it there because it hasn't been observed before," says Jamie Elsila of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, lead author of the new study. "It's been looked for [on comets] spectroscopically with telescopes but the content seems so low you can't see it that way."

It's fantastic to finally see the results of research that began in 1998 with the launching of NASA's Stardust mission. Read more about NASA's astrobiology efforts here. Read more about Elsila here.

origin of the Usain Bolt pose

I kept thinking, I know I've seen that Usain Bolt pose before.


Because I had. Milk River, Alberta, 2006.

As you can see, Bolt's pose is the universal symbol for "Shower Me With Endorsement Contracts."

waiting for the Big One

Northwesterners have heard for years that a massive earthquake is bound to crash Washington state sometime, maybe soon, and it'll make the Nisqually Quake of '01 feel like a rumble of indigestion in comparison. And now, it might hit closer to home than we think.

Whereas scientists once predicted that a mega-earthquake would be centered just off the Northwest coast, now – using data from the tremors research – they say that it could be 30 miles or more inland, under the Olympic Peninsula, which lies to the west of Seattle and Tacoma across Puget Sound.

“The closer you are to the source, the stronger the shaking,” said Steve Malone, a research professor emeritus at the University of Washington.

Exactly how much stronger, and how much more damage such a quake would cause in the Puget Sound area, hasn’t been calculated, Malone said.

Read the whole thing to find out what researchers did to come to a new, controversial conclusion, and why not all geologists are convinced.

Also, if you own a home anywhere within commuting distance of Seattle, you might want to think about buying earthquake insurance.

high stakes exit exams: empirical evidence

The '09 Sept/Oct LD resolution requires the Negative to defend the use of mandatory high school exit exams. There are many ways to make the argument, most of which involve claims about academic rigor (exit exams hold students accountable) or equality (exit exams ensure all students everywhere are meeting standard.) It's therefore highly likely that both sides will look at empirical evidence to make their case.

Unfortunately, we have a dearth of quality evidence of the overall effects of high stakes exit exams in the United States. In an article titled "Exit Exams Harm Students Who Fail Them - and Don't Benefit Students Who Pass Them," published in Phi Delta Kappan in May of '09, John Robert Warren and Eric Grodsky look at all the states that have exit exams, a data set covering 33 years, and compare their students' outcomes to those of students in states with no exit exams.

The overall conclusions--based on data published here--are mixed. Here are a few of the findings.

Academic Achievement

We found no evidence for any effect of exit exams (minimum competency or higher competency) on reading or math achievement at the mean or at any of several cut-points of the achievement distribution. These results hold for 13-year-olds and for 17-year-olds and don't vary across racial/ethnic or social class backgrounds, undermining claims of disparate impact.

So, on the one hand, exit exams don't seem to disproportionately affect minorities (at least in this one respect), a point for the Neg against any Aff arguing that standardized tests are unfair. On the other hand, they're not making any difference in academic achievement, potentially a point for the Aff, at least on defense.

Job Preparation

We use data from the 1980 through 2000 U.S. Censuses and from the 1984 through 2002 Current Population Surveys to evaluate the labor market returns to exit exams (Warren, Grodsky, and Lee 2008). Both data sources include large, nationally representative samples of American young people. We limited our focus to 20- to 23-year-olds with no college education (and along the way we found that exit exams have no bearing on 20- to 23-year-olds' chances of having attended college). Young high school graduates who obtained their diplomas in exit exam states fared no better in the labor market than their peers who obtained their diplomas in other states. These findings held in states with minimum competency exit exams and in states with higher competency exit exams. They also held for students from different racial/ethnic backgrounds.

This is potentially a critical point for the Affirmative. If students who have taken an exit exam are statistically no better prepared for the world of work, perhaps the process is a waste of time and resources that could be better spent elsewhere.

Dropout Rates

Our analyses indicate that state exit exams reduce high school graduation rates (Warren, Jenkins and Kulick 2006). In states with "minimum competency" exit exams (assessing mastery of material that students should learn before 9th grade), graduation rates decline by about one percentage point. In states with "higher competency" exit exams, graduation rates decline by about two percentage points. Nationally, each percentage point reduction in the graduation rate means about 35,000 fewer young people leave high school with a diploma each year.

The social and economic impacts of dropping out are well documented; one merely has to make the extrapolation to a bleaker economic and social future for those who fail.

It would be unfair to argue that the authors would fall squarely on the Affirmative side of the resolution. As they write,

Exit exam policies are broken, and states should either fix them or get rid of them, but either option requires a political will that is in scarce supply among policy makers and politicians.

Absent junking exit exams, the other option would be to make them more rigorous--in the short term, denying significantly more students their diploma, which, as the authors note, is "now a prerequisite for social and economic success in American society."

Unless they can find an exemplary state that bucks the trend, and use it as a model for the nation, Negatives would be wise to resist any Affirmative attempts to wrestle them into defending the status quo. If Warren and Grodsky are right, there isn't much in the status quo worth defending.

the long arm of the law

Back in February of 2008, Capital High School went on lockdown because of a nearby bank robbery. At the time, I wrote,

For about 45 minutes, my advisory class sat in darkness near the inside wall, taking naps and chatting quietly about There Will Be Blood and the magic that is Daniel Day-Lewis. I totally called the bank robbery angle.

When they announced the lockdown's conclusion, saying that the search had been called off, I told students it was because the cops had probably caught the bad guy.

Nope.

Roughly a year and six months later, they finally have.

An anonymous letter to the Olympia Police Department in January helped detectives make an arrest Wednesday in a year-and-a-half old armed bank robbery on the west side, court papers state.

Abraham Sebastian Anthony, 22, turned himself in at a local state Department of Corrections office after he was identified as a suspect and located in Lansing, Mich., as part of Olympia Police Det. Jeff Herbig’s investigation, court papers state.

Olympia Police Det. Dan Smith said Anthony admitted to committing the robbery after his arrest and said he did it to get money to feed his OxyContin habit.

The investigation of the Feb. 12, 2008 armed robbery of the Columbia Bank on Harrison Avenue had stalled until an anonymous letter sent to OPD in January said that Anthony was responsible.

There's one tiny transposition error in the article: the robbery occurred on February 21st, not the 12th.

Resolved: Public high school students in the United States ought not be required to pass standardized exit exams to graduate.

The September/October NFL Lincoln-Douglas debate resolution has been released:

Resolved: Public high school students in the United States ought not be required to pass standardized exit exams to graduate.

Some questions to get you started in your casewriting:

• What are the core values, tenets, or missions of public education? (Some potential answers, while I'm thinking about it: civic preparation / democratic principles, academic rigor, social equality, socialization, fairness, social justice, diversity, economic strength / job preparation, industry, truth, social sorting, preparation for the "real world")
• Is it fair to judge one's entire academic career on a single slice in time?
• Is it fair to have different standardized exit exams across different states?
• What uniquely American educational features (i.e., local control) come into play?
• Do standardized exit exams have to be tied to graduation to be meaningful?
• Does it matter what kind of "standardized exit exams" we're talking about? In other words, what does "standardized" mean? Norm-referenced? Criterion-referenced? Either? Both? Neither?
• When it comes to this issue, which figures have the most authority? Politicians? Teachers? Parents? Students? Educational experts? Think tanks?
• Do "multiple intelligences" play a role?

I'll add links and analysis to this post throughout the rest of summer. Feel free to ask questions or promote arguments in the comments.

1. FairTest doesn't like standardized tests. Not at all. (And here's a good research starting point.)

2. Some of the best available empirical research, and its implications for the debate.

3. Joe Nusz goes looking for values in the resolution, by examining a typical school vision statement. A good way to approach the subject.

4. I offer some ideas for negating the resolution.

5. By request: Albert Einstein on the relative value of knowledge and imagination.

6. Back by popular demand: Value / criterion pairs for the resolution--a work in progress.

are you a true believer?

Eugene Volokh, earlier this week, passed along some thoughts from an anonymous writer familiar with American immigration law. The subject: how some immigration officials determine whether folks who seek asylum religious persecution are, in fact, sincere in their faith.

Some standard questions asked by TAs to establish Christian bonafides:

Who is Jesus Christ?

What is your favorite story from the Bible?

What is your favorite prayer? Can you recite that prayer or a part of that prayer?

These seem like rather basic questions, but it is astounding how often Christian claimants cannot answer them. It is also fairly easy to spot the respondents who have been coached since they know one and only one story from the Bible, which is inevitably short-handed as: "water to wine." This is a reference to Jesus' first public miracle at a wedding in Cana and is considered an anti-Shibboleth by TAs and many IJs. Most frequently, Chinese applicants can name only this Bible story, as a result of being coached by the smugglers they use to enter the United States. Similarly, applicants who have been coached will say "the Lord's Prayer" is their favorite, and then recite some variation of the traditional Catholic grace before a meal (i.e. not the Lord's Prayer). The smugglers abroad and "immigration consultants" here in the United States are not very imaginative and have no real interest in their victims, so these responses do not change that often.

Worth reading in full; many of the comments are insightful as well. Fascinating on cultural, linguistic, legal, epistemological, and theological levels.

word to principals: you are not cops

The drug war has apparently driven an East Hartford, Connecticut administrator to distraction--and resignation.

A middle school assistant principal facing charges related to sending a student to buy drugs in order to catch another student selling them has agreed to resign.

Amy E. Watson, 37, of Ellington, will step down effective Friday, according to school board Chairwoman Mary Alice Dwyer Hughes....

Watson has been on administrative leave pending an investigation into whether she paid a student to buy drugs from a suspected drug dealer March 11.

Edwin Soto, 50, of Suffield, also was arrested in the case. He was the school security officer.

Watson surrendered to police May 8 and was charged with risking injury or impairing the morals of a child and tampering with a witness.

The last time we had a drug-related story this silly, the Supreme Court had to weigh in. Are some principals spending all their free time watching The Shield?



[via Obscure Store]