Some Small Thoughts

Two more interesting points about education. First, the New Yorker has a fascinating story about employers cannot predict whether teachers, and quarterbacks, will succeed. This is all very much on my mind as we look at kindergartens for Li. (I know, *yawn*). I came across an interesting set of numbers in my search, though. The Oakland Unified School District keeps track of Parent Satisfaction at its elementary schools. What's interesting about it is that high rates of parent satisfaction do not necessarily correlate to high Academic Performance Index. In other words, crappy schools have high numbers of satisfied parents, and so do some good schools. Some high achieving schools have low parent satisfaction (you can sort of picture how this would go if the survey day was on the same day a snippy head lice letter went out or something). I know nothing about stats, but if you want to look at the OUSD Enrollment Options on your own, go wild.

In other news, kudos to the people who figured out that branding is very effective with two year olds. I showed Junior Jr. this,
And he said, "Obama!" Which is creepy.

Nine days left at my job.

I realized today that Antarctica probably does not export anything. What other continent can boast that?