Happy Holidays Edition
And also the newsletter's first anniversary! Plus charity art, internships, and jade plants!
I tried to keep this issue short, but there’s a lot going on. As a result, you’ll see a lot of short items. We’ll be taking a break over the holidays, so the next issue will be January 15th.
First, and most importantly, the recent shooting at Brown University hit very close to home, as our son is a sophomore there. Fortunately, he arrived home just as the shooting occurred, and his close friends all quickly connected with each other and communicated to the group that they were safe.
Tragically, that was not the case for two students who were killed, both of whom my son and his friends knew. Please keep those families in your thoughts and prayers as they experience every parents’ worst nightmare. I can’t write much more about this, as I’ll get too angry and upset. But folks, we need to get control of our gun problem. If that means changing the Constitution, then so be it. This can’t be who we are as Americans. It just can’t be.
On a happier note, I was honored to participate in Animal Rescue New Orleans annual Badly Drawn Pets fundraiser. For a small donation, you can send your pet’s photo to ARNO and they’ll have someone paint or draw your pet. It may be a masterpiece, it may be a stick figure drawing - that’s part of the excitement! I was honored to be included this year, and my painting of Toby is the photo above. ARNO’s no-kill shelter is overflowing with animals, and they need support more than ever. Although the deadline for pet photos has passed, they just extended it to next Monday! Email them for the deets at adopt@animalrescueneworleans.org. You can also participate in their virtual silent auction. Let’s help some animals this holiday season!
If you’d like to be added to the distribution list for our new National Research Center on Advanced Education, use the QR code below to be taken to the form. I plan to send the first update out later this week. We have such exciting projects underway!
Tomorrow (Dec. 16, 3:00PM ET) I’ll be participating in an online discussion about Stephane Lavertu’s new study, The Leaky Pipeline: Assessing the college outcomes of Ohio’s high-achieving low-income students, published recently by the Fordham Institute. You can register here.
Something Short
This issue’s featured short item is an interview that Rick Hess recently published with my Hopkins colleague and friend, Ashley Berner. Ashley is one of the world’s experts on educational pluralism, and you can find her excellent book on this topic here. I love Ashley’s perspective on this issue: More, diverse forms of schooling are better than fewer, and accountability is a non-negotiable. IMO, this is a pragmatic, reasonable position on choice that most people can rally around.
Something Long
I once served on a National Academies of Science working group that looked at “non-cognitive” factors that helped explain college STEM learning (report available here). I distinctly remember two of our conclusions: (1) conscientiousness is among the most valuable personality traits (if not the most valuable), which is problematic because we don’t know how to increase it (it appears to be a you-have-it-or-you-don’t thing) and (2) the research on growth mindsets, grit, and related “psychosocial” constructs was not convincing. Regarding this second point, several subsequent studies provided similar evidence, and two more were just published (here and here). The studies suggest very weak relationships between growth mindset and student learning; one of the papers finds evidence that, in some countries, growth mindset is negatively correlated with student learning!
Some Things that Intrigued Me
Charter enrollment. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released their annual enrollment report. These data are interesting to me because they somewhat run against the narrative that charters are a stalled education reform strategy. Maybe, maybe not, but parents and students continue to pursue this educational option. Yes, 4-5 million is a little less than 10% of our K-12 population, but that’s still a lot of students in quasi-public schools.
Internships matter. A lot. I have no idea if the Burning Glass Institute analysis of the Lightcast Career Histories Database is reputable. Assuming for the moment that it is, check out these underemployment rates by college major for students who did/didn’t have internships. How can we assure that all deserving students get high-quality internship opportunities?
Charts! I love a good figure, and this end-of-year summary of key education data is pretty interesting. Some high points for me: (1) yes, the student test result slide started before COVID, (2) what is up with those pre- AND post-pandemic vaccination rates in Wisconsin?!?, and (3) critical race theory absolutely was present in schools of education and K-12 schools, despite what people have said (I’m not convinced that matters at all, but I was surprised when people said it didn’t exist; it did and does).
Some Things That Interested Me
Alley cat art. I ran the St. Jude Marathon just over a week ago, and about halfway through I tossed my gloves and hat to the side of the road. After the race, I drove over and picked up my gear. On the way from the parking spot to my stuff, I walked down a back alley and stumbled across this small painting. It struck me as a unique piece of street art. I reassembled the broken frame and placed it on the side of the alley, in the hope of brightening others’ days. Art is good!
Museum people are characters. Spotted this sign at the Woodruff-Fontaine House in Memphis last weekend. The staff were fun and unique, and this sign reflects that. The signage clearly works, as no one even touched the various chairs and sofas, let alone sat in them!
Jade Plant of the Month
A big thank you to those who have sent jade plant photos recently! I endeavor to feature all of them in future issues. For now, check out these two green beauties! The first two photos show a Shrek ear jade at a DC plant shop. I’ve never seen one so big and dense! You can see in the second photo that it was just about to flower! If it weren’t so pricey (a fair price, but pricey nonetheless), it would have had a new owner!
This next beauty belongs to my friend Tim Green, a professor at Cal State-Fullerton and an amazing ed tech expert. This plant started as a large ornamental planted in their yard but was damaged beyond repair when they had work done on their house. Tim rescued a piece of it and grew this large, symmetrical beauty over the past 14 years. Look at those dense, symmetrical leaf clusters!
Where to Find Me
email: jplucker@jhu.edu
http://Amazon.com/author/jonathanplucker