Wednesday, January 13, 1999

The Fuzziest of Disciplines

Five years on, these programs are a universal educational disaster. In one California school district, the average standardized test score moved from the 86th percentile to the 55th in only the first two years after the New New Math curricula was implemented. The test scores quickly rose back to the 77th percentile after the school's old, traditional Math curricula were reinstated.

The New New Math, Applied

In spite of these errors, the author of the article about her said she was an "exemplary teacher." Sandra is praised for getting her students to enjoy their cooperative efforts to solve problems "in the context of real world situations." Finding a correct answer was less important than having fun working on the problem.

Dartmouth 2nd in Cultural Literacy

Name the three authors of The Federalist Papers. If you can, you are among an elite group of Dartmouth students — just 22.56% of the campus. Who wrote The Wealth of Nations? James Madison? Karl Marx? Plato? Wrong on all three; it was Adam Smith. Don't worry, though; 40.85% of Dartmouth students gave those and other wrong answers.

Doing It The Chicago Way

In the 1993-1994 year Chicago produced a $22.7 million deficit. Though budgetary prudence yielded a surplus the following year, a McKinsey and Company study cautioned that the University was in dire fiscal straits if it was to undertake its desired capital improvements while maintaining competitive salaries for its faculty and sustaining its physical plant.

Columbia's $200 Million Turtle Tank

Despite these problems, a second team entered only three months after the first had left. Their tenure in Bio2 was even less successful, however, and the second team was pulled out only six months after they had gone in.

Princeton: One Ugly Stadium

I don't think the new stadium is architecturally successful or sends the right message. The former Palmer Stadium at Princeton, which apparently could not have been salvaged (pieces of concrete were dropping off), sent a stern architectural message: "Football is played here. In particluar, Princeton football, serious football."

RAMAGEDDON! Ram Murali Muses on the Milennium

It's finally 1999. The year of my graduation. The last year of the Milennium. A word so huge, you have to Capitalize it. I for one am sick of hearing the grand analogies and cheesy metaphors. The only thing more annoying than people talking about how this is the last year of the Milennium are people who point out that the new Milennium is actually not until 2001.