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Helping STEM Grow
One of the endless parade of edu-acronyms is STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), otherwise known as “stuff with numbers”. Everyone agrees that STEM is important; almost no one has figured out how to help more kids do better at it. One person making a difference on that front is U of M professor Gillian Roehrig.
Roehrig, the focus of a recent MinnPost profile that you should read in full if you haven't yet done so, has put a lot of energy into STEM education at the 10,000-foot level (she helped develop Minnesota's science standards) and at ground level (she's helped develop and implement summer science programs for kids on the White Earth reservation in northwestern Minnesota).
A strong believer in cross-pollinating STEM concepts between classes, Roehrig has also done exemplary work involving communities in the advancement of STEM education that's more meaningful to kids. Much of traditional science and math education was developed by science and math enthusiasts for science and math enthusiasts. Now that we're trying to expand STEM's appeal beyond its historical demographic, we need to consider a blend of traditional and newer routes to learning.
At White Earth, Roehrig spent time becoming familiar with the community before jumping in to push the new science programming. She involved community leaders in the creation and delivery of key concepts and framed those concepts around experiences that would be familiar to kids.
This isn't just touchy-feely pablum, however. MinnPost quotes Roehrig as saying, “Fun can overtake the learning if you are not careful.... You've got to make sure [kids] know why they are doing what they are doing.”
A strong focus on context-based, experiential learning around a solid core of interdisciplinary content is rare and significant. We would all do well to remember the amount of hard work and local awareness it takes to develop a truly effective approach to learning. At the end of the day, education is about more than federal, state, or local policies. It's about good educators working hard to do right by their students. It's worth taking some time to celebrate when that happens.
Posted in Education | Related Topics: K-12 education Classroom Methods
How about jobs FOR the environment?
I’m just a little sick of this whole “jobs versus the environment” thing. First thing, the goal of good public policy should be to have both good jobs and a clean environment, not one or the other. Second thing, what about all those jobs that are actually FOR the environment?
Despite the bits of snow on the ground, summer is just around the corner for organizations in Minnesota that provide critical services to our parks, trails and natural areas. Groups like Conservation Corps are ramping up their hiring for summer workers.
If you know a teenager, let them know about Conservation Corps. Youth ages 15-18 spend four weeks learning about natural resources and then working hard building trails, clearing brush, and generally making Minnesota an even better place to live. Kids from all over Minnesota participate. Unlike some fancy summer camps, the Corps actually gives its members money, in the form of a small stipend. Applications are due in April.
Young adults, ages 18-25, have a huge range of opportunities in the Conservation Corps’ AmeriCorps program, and not just for summer. In fact, they’re hiring now for spring field crews in northern Minnesota.
Conservation Corps was originally known as Minnesota Conservation Corps, or MCC. It was a program housed inside the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. In the last ten years, the program was spun off from the DNR into a private, nonprofit organization, but it’s never been more critical to getting the state’s natural resource work done.
Jobs versus the environment? Hah! Conservation Corps has jobs for the environment, and they’re hiring.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Environment Job Growth Youth Programs
It’s Spelled Bemidji
Dear Conservative Presidential Candidates,
Welcome to Minnesota!
The moment was bound to happen but it doesn't make it any more fun: The reality TV show that some are charitably calling your 2012 presidential primary season has reached Minnesota. We're glad to have you and your traveling cohorts spending time (and money) here, but I wanted to clear up a few things because, just like in Iowa, the picture of Minnesota that you are trying to paint in order to fit us into your conservative rhetoric is not the real Minnesota.
For one thing, it's spelled Bemidji.
If you are going to insist on bringing your hateful rhetoric and deeply flawed policy proposals to Minnesota (not to mention those super stylish sweater vests) you can at least have the dignity to spell the name of our cities right. Chief Bemidji didn't bring his tribe to the banks of a beautiful lake and struggle through harsh winters only to have your race baiting candidacy misspell his name not once, not twice, but 6 times.
For another thing, don't come to a state that has historically been on the forefront of smart health care policy that increases affordable, effective coverage to its citizens and tell us that a new national law that expands coverage to millions of people using progressive and conservative policy proposals is "socialism."
Now, I get it. Watching conservatives in our state legislature this past year might make you think that divisive politics sells in Minnesota. After all, we're the state that shutdown government so conservatives wouldn't have to compromise on a balanced approach to balancing the state budget. But they're wrong and you're wrong. Minnesota became a national model for good government, attracting numerous Fortune 500 companies to our state with a well educated workforce and world-class quality of life because, for decades we were "the state that worked." Divisiveness might win conservative primaries but it hasn't made Minnesota great and it won't put America back to work.
We've got enough problems in Minnesota with conservative members of our legislature favoring divisive amendments over honest solutions without you coming in and giving them more bad ideas.
I hope you enjoy your visit, I really do, if you want to stop by a few more restaurants and spend a bit more money please feel free to do so. But when you leave, please know that nothing will have changed. Most Minnesotans will still know the truth about the immensely positive impact that progressive policy has had for our state. And you better believe that we'll still know how to spell Bemidji.
All the best,
Jake
Posted in News & Notes | Related Topics: 2012 Election Minnesota Elections Progressive Community
Why Test Score Incentives Aren’t Motivating
A few days ago, I outlined three reasons why paying teachers for test scores is a bad idea. The first of those reasons was that incentivizing test scores misunderstands the science of motivation. As a primer, I'd like to recommend again this video featuring Daniel Pink on what we know about motivation.
One big critique of seniority as the basis for teacher retention is that senior teachers have no reason to keep trying. In other words, this is about motivation. If we were to replace seniority with test scores, the argument goes, teachers would always be motivated to be good at their jobs.
However, simplistic incentive schemes linked to outcomes don't actually improve performance. We have decades' worth of research showing that performance actually drops when such approaches are applied to cognitively complex tasks. If there's one thing we know about teaching, it's that it's a cognitively complex task.
So if teachers aren't just cold-blooded profit seekers, what does research say would motivate them? After securing an adequate base salary, three factors are critical: autonomy, purpose, and mastery. Teachers need to have the freedom to direct their own classes, a compelling mission for which to work, and ways to monitor and improve their skill at their craft. The first can be secured given reasonable school leadership, the second is woven into the fabric of the profession, and the third can be achieved through multi-faceted evaluations using observations, in-class data, and high-quality instructional coaches. It cannot be achieved with test scores.
Many of the people campaigning against seniority have their hearts in the right place – they want a fair system for retaining teachers that's good for kids. Given the uncertainty about what would replace seniority, however, as well as the test score fetish common to conservative proposals, there's a very real danger that we'd replace seniority with a system that is actually less motivating for teachers.
Posted in Education | Related Topics: K-12 education Teacher Assessment
Smoother Transit, Just a Click Away
In a temporarily enthusiastic effort motivated by past New Year’s Resolutions gone awry, I recently set out to create a personal budget—an overzealously organized grid displaying exactly which needs, activities, and extras I allocate my income toward.
Therein lie the usual suspects like rent, bills, and food, but the most interesting for me to configure was my transportation budget. As a public transportation user, exactly how much had I been spending on the bus?
Not all that much, it turns out.
But had I been saving?
More than I realized, it turns out.
According to the most recent “Transit Savings Report,” a monthly feature released by the American Public Transportation Association, individuals who ride public transit could save, on average, $816 dollars this month, and $9,790 annually compared to the January 10, 2012 average national gas price ($3.34 per gallon, as reported by AAA) and the national unreserved monthly parking rate of $155.22.
In Minneapolis that number is even higher, as analysts estimate that local transit riders can save $864 per month and $10,365 annually. Although the city ranks in the nation’s top 20 in terms of transit ridership, why is the number of transit riders relatively low given these figures, the environmental and fiscal benefits to Minnesota, and the convenience of the transportation system?
Perhaps the last benefit isn’t as clear: Convenience. To non-bus-riders, the idea of a long commute intermittently interrupted by transferring buses in the sometimes bitter cold can probably seem like the least desirable way to spend a morning. Add to this the fear of getting lost or delayed, and people are less likely to ride transit, according to the Department of Transportation (DOT).
The DOT is working on reducing these and other information-centric barriers to busing by working to make transit information more accessible—or a hand click away, literally, through smartphones. So far only 45 of 276 national transit agencies offer information about arrival and departure times on mobile devices, and only 15 of those 45 provide real-time information, a key piece of information that the DOT believes will help Americans access the bus with confidence and ease.
“In America, we do big things. We solve problems. And if the transit community leverages the momentum we generated with last week's meeting (regarding developing apps to make real-time transit information more accessible via cell phone), I know we'll find solutions that expand transit use and get people where they're going more effectively,” states DOT.
Posted in Transportation | Related Topics: Public Transportation Busing Technology
Stay CLASS-y, Washington
The US House of Representatives voted to repeal the CLASS Act. Conservatives are touting the vote as a first step into the destruction of the Affordable Care Act, which they hope to fully “repeal and replace.”
As part of the ACA, CLASS would set up a voluntary, affordable insurance program, run by the federal government, to support those in need of long-term care. The White House originally scrapped the program in October after Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that HHS would not be able to make the program fiscally solvent due to several problems with the bill’s setup.
First, the repeal by the House is a waste of time—the Obama administration has already discontinued implementation of the CLASS Act, and the repeal is unlikely to pass the Senate anyway. Second, and more importantly, repealing the bill outright is irresponsible. Despite its problems, the CLASS Act stands as one solution to a significant issue. We should be working within the CLASS Act or investigating alternatives in order to find a workable solution.
Even though the CLASS Act in its current state isn’t viable, simple repeal is not the answer. Long-term care remains an important issue because, though 70% of those 65 and up will need long-term care, only 2.8 percent have insurance that covers it*. Medicare covers barely any of these costs, so those who need long-term care will have to pay out-of-pocket or deplete their resources until they are eligible for Medicaid. Growing numbers of retirees and rising health care costs will be a significant issue for the federal government and Medicaid in coming years,
During the debate, Sen. Charles Boustany Jr. (R-La.) said, "I believe beyond CLASS repeal, we should make it easier for disabled Americans to save for their future needs. We can expand access to affordable private long-term-care coverage, we can better educate Americans on the need for retirement planning." Retirement planning is a nice thought, but the average lifetime spending on long-term care is $47,000 – and some Americans will pay upwards of $250,000*. Most people won’t be able to plan for those figures.
Helping Americans save for long-term care is not enough. We need solutions that control costs and support people who need care, and one of these solutions should be federal long-term insurance. The CLASS Act might not be this solution, but its repeal without an attempt at amendment or a feasible alternative is thoughtless. We should all recognize that working on a viable plan for long-term care is more important than scoring political points.
*These numbers come from an October HHS memo (PDF) advising Secretary Kathleen Sebelius against continuing CLASS implementation.
Posted in Health Care | Related Topics: Health Insurance Health Care Reform Federal Government
Graph of the Day: Oklahoma After Right-to-Work
It's difficult to prove much of anything when it comes to right-to-work laws. Most states that have such laws have had them for decades, making it hard to figure out what effects the laws have. Just about the only available contemporary example of a new right-to-work law that can give us any data is Oklahoma, which implemented a right-to-work law in late September of 2001.
Let's see how that worked out for them.
(Data from Bureau of Labor Statistics)
The blue line on top is the total number of jobs in Minnesota. The red line is the total number of jobs in Oklahoma. The relative position of the two lines isn't too important; Minnesota has more people, so it has more jobs.
What is interesting is how quickly each line changes. In particular, Oklahoma's job count after right-to-work flattens out. Minnesota's does, too, in part because we'd all started to weather the first Bush recession. The point to remember is that right-to-work didn't actually increase Oklahoma's number of jobs in any meaningful way.
There are plenty of other factors that affect jobs in a state beyond right-to-work, of course. That's kind of the point of this graph – the claims of right-to-work proponents that the law would drive up employment don't actually have a basis in reality.
There will be plenty of graphs thrown around on both sides of this debate as the legislative session proceeds. Just remember that the burden of proof is on those advocating for right-to-work. They're the ones claiming that it will increase jobs, so they're the ones that should offer the data to support that claim. Unfortunately for them, the real data don't give them much to work with. And we can always come back to the question, “What about Oklahoma?”
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Job Growth Union Working / Middle Class Issues Graphs
Why LIFO Exists
The following quotation comes from G.K. Chesterton, and (believe it or not) is immediately relevant to the debate around seniority-based teacher policies:
In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."
There's a lot of passion around Last In, First Out (LIFO) policies that retain teachers based on seniority rather than other measures. Many self-described education reformers want to do away with them, and they'll be one of the big targets during Minnesota's next legislative session. If we are to avoid the Fallacy of Chesterton's Fence, we must consider why LIFO exists in the first place.
Linking teacher retention to seniority reflects the industrial economy of the time the policy began. Seniority was a commonly accepted proxy for quality in many lines of work. More importantly, having such a clear-cut proxy for quality meant increasing the fairness of the system.
According to Brown University's Annenberg Institute [PDF], “Seniority rules were established during a time when teachers could be fired for almost any reason (like getting pregnant) or for no reason whatsoever (like getting on the wrong side of their principal).” In other words, the original intention of LIFO was to increase the fairness of the system.
While linking teacher retention to test scores might seem just as fair as LIFO, it's actually more susceptible to manipulation. An abusive principal could reassign teachers to difficult classes, grades, or groups of students to set the teacher up for failure.
LIFO began as a good thing. We must make sure that, if it's replaced, whatever comes next retains those good protections.
Posted in Education | Related Topics: Teachers Teacher Assessment
All Politics is Local
If all politics is local, policies, laws and regulations pertaining to state and local government information are hyperlocal.
What matters to most citizens is the right to access to information by and about state, regional and local government information—state agencies, county boards, advisory committees and regulators, every entity from the Governor’s office to the local school board. A citizen who wants to know about a dump sight or school bullying or a state agency budget doesn’t—and should not—have far to go.
The spirit, if not the letter, of the state statute that establishes state information policy is clear:
All government data collected, created, received, maintained or disseminated by a government entity shall be public unless classified by state, or temporary classification.... The responsible authority in every government entity shall keep records containing government data in such an arrangement and condition as to make them easily accessible for convenient use. Photographic, photostatic, microphotographic, or microfilmed records shall be considered as accessible for convenient use regardless of the size of such records.
The twin pillars of access in Minnesota are the Data Practices Act and the Open Meeting Law. Essential guides to each include these: Open Meeting Law, Government Data Practices Act. The Legislative Reference Library also offers a comprehensive list of guides and information about parallel laws and regulations in other states.
Still, real life agencies have a way of setting their own procedures in light of the laws and regulations on the books. Concerned citizens need to be aware of the agencies’ responsibilities to assure compliance with the spirit and the letter of the law. In this day of rapidly changing technologies, access can be determined by everything from the assumption that everyone has web access to outright bureaucratic resistance to officials’ failure to know either their responsibilities or the public’s right to know. Many local officials and state agency staff have had no orientation to the ways in which state access regulations relate to their work.
As the legislators unpacked their laptops, there was talk among bureaucrats and advocacy groups of review and possible revision of state statutes relating to information practices. A draft prepared by the Information Policy Advisory Division (IPAD), the state office that addresses such matters, is generating blog reaction before it goes on stage.
Prognosticating what will happen during any legislative session is ill-advised; this season it is downright foolhardy. Still, open discussion of open government may shed light on the law, its implementation, the need for clarification, simplification or more stringent sanctions and ways to assure that Minnesotans know and exercise their information rights.
During the legislative session the place to go for information on the status of legislation relating to information policy and practice is the Bill Search and Status site fed diligently by overworked legislative staffers. In addition to the latest information on the status of individual bills the site provides excellent guides including “How to Follow a Bill” and “How a Bill Becomes a Law” as well as a handy look-up feature if you want to reach your representative.
Posted in News & Notes | Related Topics: Government Policy Minnesota Legislature
Business and Government: A Workable Partnership
As the November election approaches we hear more attacks on government, and that government is the enemy of business. This is great election rhetoric, but from my experience it is not true. We live in Carver, MN a small city along the Minnesota River just west of Chaska. From 2001 to 2011 I served as the Mayor of Carver, and will relate some of my experience with government investment and business.
Carver was settled in the 1850’s and became an important city in the area because it was the limit of steamboat traffic on the Minnesota River. Over the years as other means of transportation became more important, Carver was left behind as the region grew. In 1990 Carver had a population of 744. In 2000 the population was1,266. In the 2010 census we counted 3,724. In the decade I was Mayor, Carver was one of the fastest growing cities in the State. I could tell you it was the good looking Mayor; however, the reality was the main connection to the metro: Highway 212, was improved from two-lanes to four-lanes between Eden Prairie and Carver. The new section of highway, which had been discussed for decades, resulted in a building boom in Carver as soon as the building plans were announced. Multiple years of double digit growth went by before housing crash, but Carver is still experiencing growth of close to 5 percent a year; the highest in Carver County.
The highway is only part of the story since both the City and the County also had to invest in its infrastructure to prepare for this influx of residential growth and down-the-road commercial investment. When we moved to Carver in 1997 the historic downtown was looking its age. The water was usually either reddish or beige. There was one well and a small water tower for storage. Some homes still had their own wells and septic systems. Carver had its own Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP), but with limited capacity. Some City roads were still unpaved.
The City invested in its water system, adding a water treatment plant, wells, and increased storage by 7.5 times. The result is an adequate supply of good clean water. The City is joining the Met Council waste water treatment system, and in a few years the WWTP will be history, resulting in increased capacity and lower rates. The historic downtown received a street facelift that resulted in many property owners also improving their homes and businesses. The outcome is an attractive historic downtown, which is inviting to both visitors and businesses.
Historically, Carver has lacked commercial property, with it making up less than 2 percent of the total City property value. Today Fleet Farm is building a store in the City along the new highway. This adds over 240,000 square feet of commercial space. Fleet Farm will be joined by other businesses as the economic recovery continues. The City and County are improving roads in the area improving access to Carver.
Carver is a good example of government making investments to infrastructure that creates an environment for private investment. Carver is not the exception: You often see private investment following government investment in infrastructure. We often see residential and business growth along transportation improvements like the light rail line in Minneapolis, the NorthStar rail in the northwest suburbs, or Highway 169 improvements in Shakopee. Government is the partner, not the enemy of business.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Economic Growth Roads & Highways Transportation Funding