Update on CESE Method Now Available
CESE board member Kim Johnson has been hard at work refining our presentation on the CESE Method for determining how New Mexico's schools, students and teachers are faring. While the method was originally developed to provide clear paths to school improvement, it can also be used to make teacher merit evaluations much, much fairer than the proposed PED A-F method of assigning scores for performance.
You can peruse the updated presentation here. Questions about the CESE Method should be directed to board member Kim Johnson.
2013 Annual Meeting Minutes are Posted!
Click here to read the 2013 Annual Meeting (June 29). Comments from out-going president Ken Whiton, and from in-coming president Terry Dunbar; election of slate for 2013-2014; keynote speaker Zack Kopplin, on "Why we need a Second Giant Leap."
Zack Kopplin addresses the CESE 2013 Annual Meeting.
Want more Annual Meeting Minutes? Click here!
Teachers Deserve EFFECTIVE Evaluations
Kudos to CESE Past President Ken Whiton for a stirring editorial in the August 10th, 2013 issue of the Albuquerque Journal (link). Ken's op-ed was titled "Teachers deserve effective evaluations: PED’s new teacher review system is wrong as are school grades."
Here is a snippet:
An editorial in the Aug. 3 Journal characterizes all opposition to a new teacher evaluation scheme as, “dedicated to the status quo.”
Is defense of “the status quo,” really the reason for opposing the New Mexico Public Education Department’s plan? Look at the track record of the previous “school reform” scheme in New Mexico. The plan for grading schools met with widespread legitimate criticism by dedicated teachers, principals, administrators, parents, legislators and a prestigious organization of scientists and mathematicians who perform statistical analysis for a living.
The Public Education Department was wrong about school grades and it is wrong about evaluating teachers. Even after training sessions, the plan is still not understood by those who will be using it. It is still statistically indefensible. The evaluation plan still does not take into account the complexities, subtleties and realities of teaching in New Mexico. It seems to pull evaluation categories and percentages out of thin air.
Read the entire article here. Well said, Ken!
Videos of Annual Meeting are On-Line!
Courtesy of CESE board member Jack Jekowski, we are pleased to provide several videos from our June 29th, 2013 Annual Meeting.
CESE Annual Meeting 2013 - Zack Kopplin Talk (30 minutes)
CESE Annual Meeting 2013 Zack Q&As (24 minutes)
CESE Annual Meeting 2013 Zack Q&As #2 (7 minutes)
Dave Magic Trick - CESE Annual Meeting 2013 (6 minutes)
CESE thanks Zack Kopplin for an inspiring talk!
New Mexico, Brace for a Zack Attack!
It's just a few days until our 2013 Annual Meeting! We hope you will join us to hear young dynamo Zack Kopplin, who will be speaking on the topic "Why we need a Second Giant Leap."
The Time: Saturday, June 29th, 1:00 PM.
The Place: the main lecture hall at Northrop Hall, Room 122, on the University of New Mexico campus.
Zack has led a vigorous opposition to that state's anti-science legislation, the so-called “Louisiana Science Education Act,” which was introduced by Governor Bobby Jindal. He has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. You can be sure he'll have some interesting things to say Saturday.
Click here for a map to Northrop Hall, and here for a one-page flyer to post on bulletin boards and such.
Bring a friend!
The June Beacon is Here!
The June 2013 Beacon (Vol XVII, No 1) is online!
Contents Preview: Editor’s Message – Kim Johnson; Darwin and Wallace, What did they really think of religion? - Dr. Paul Braterman; School Testing – Lisa Durkin; Cartoon - Dave Thomas; Meeting Announcement at the NM Museum of Natural History – Announcing the CESE 2013 Annual Meeting with a special guest, Zack Kopplin.
The Elephant in the Classroom - Too Many Tests!
You can browse previous issues of the Beacon here.
Kopplin to Speak on “Why we need a Second Giant Leap”
Our Annual Meeting will be held on Saturday, June 29th, 1:00-4:30 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the main lecture hall at Northrop Hall on the University of New Mexico campus. Our speaker is noted Louisiana activist Zack Kopplin, who will be speaking on the topic "Why we need a Second Giant Leap."
Zack's efforts to overturn Louisiana's pro-creationist "Science Education Act" were discussed by Phil Plait in a May 5th blog at Slate.
More details about June's Annual Meeting will be forthcoming in the new Beacon.
Stay tuned!
Download this handy one-page flyer to give to your friends and social networks!
MAP TO NORTHROP HALL
The Elephant in the Classroom
The Elephant in the Classroom - Too Many Tests!
This cartoon is a sneak preview of the upcoming Beacon, which should appear in the next few weeks. We're releasing it early because it resonates all-too-well with an article by Hailey Heinz in the Albuquerque Journal for Thursday, May 9th entitled "Some N.M. students face dual final exams." And, we should mention that CESE's very own Lisa Durkin is prominently featured in the article!
A snippet:
Teachers, parents, students and school board members around New Mexico have pushed back in recent weeks against new state end-of-course exams being given in certain core high school classes.
Chief among their complaints are that the tests are taking more time away from instruction and that students who already spend much of the spring semester taking exams are now being tested twice on the same content.
“At some point, we’re losing so much instructional time that we don’t have time to instruct for the subject that they’re being tested on,” said Lisa Durkin, who teaches biology at Valencia High School in Los Lunas. “And the kids aren’t taking the test seriously, because they’ve had to take so many tests that it just doesn’t mean anything to them anymore.”
State education chief Hanna Skandera said this week she never intended for students to take the end-of-course exams in addition to their existing finals, and agrees that is too much time spent on testing.
Well said, Lisa!
Zack Kopplin to be Keynote Speaker for Annual Meeting
CESE is pleased to announce that our keynote speaker for this year's Annual Meeting (to be held on Saturday, June 29th, 1:00-4:30 in Albuquerque, New Mexico) will be none other than Louisiana activist Zack Kopplin. Kopplin has led a vigorous opposition to that state's anti-science legislation, the so-called "Louisiana Science Education Act."
Read Zack's March 22nd 2013 op-ed in the Guardian (UK) here. Stay tuned to the CESE website for details of the annual meeting are finalized; click here for descriptions of previous annual meetings.
Also, read some of Zack's work at the "Creeping Creationist Vouchers" website.
CESE Webmaster Goes on Speaking Tour
It's the Spring Break 2013 Climate Change Speaking Tour!
It's Spring Break at New Mexico Tech, and CESE webmaster Dave Thomas is taking a road trip to give a series of talks on the topics of science, pseudoscience, climate change and global warming denial. Here is the schedule. There is a small fee for the Lifelong Learning classes.
- LifeLong Learning for New Mexicans: Science, Pseudoscience and the Battle over Global Warming
Instructor: David Thomas, $14/2 sessions; Monday, March 11 & 18, 10 am – 12N;
Faith Lutheran Church, 10000 Spain Road, NE, Albuquerque, NM
The first of these two lectures will examine what makes science unique among human endeavors. While political, religious and legal arguments all involve making one's case by cherry-picking facts,science proceeds by cherry- picking those hypotheses that best explain all facts. We will consider the role of scientific consensus and peer review, Cargo Cult science, cognitive illusions and more. At the second meeting, we will consider how these concepts apply to climate change and global warming. Why is carbon dioxide more worrisome than other greenhouse gases? How can we tell man-made warming from natural climate change? Has the "Climategate" scandal really disproved global warming? Has science found human-caused global warming to be real, or do we need more data? - New Mexico Chapter of the Air and Waste Management Association (AWMA), March 12, 2013
Dave Thomas on "Climate Change: Just Nature, or are Humans the Problem?" The AWMA March meeting will be in the Banquet Room at the Golden Corral Buffet and Grill, (10415 Central Avenue NE, northeast corner at Eubank) in Albuquerque on Tuesday, March 12, 2013, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Dave, a New Mexico physicist and teacher, will talk about how can we tell man-made warming from natural climate change, why carbon dioxide is more worrisome than other greenhouse gases, whether the "Climategate" scandal really disproved global warming, if more data are still needed to decide, and more.