position:superintendent

  • Silicon Valley Came to Kansas Schools. That Started a Rebellion. - The New York Times
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/technology/silicon-valley-kansas-schools.html

    Silicon Valley had come to small-town Kansas schools — and it was not going well.

    “I want to just take my Chromebook back and tell them I’m not doing it anymore,” said Kallee Forslund, 16, a 10th grader in Wellington.

    Eight months earlier, public schools near Wichita had rolled out a web-based platform and curriculum from Summit Learning. The Silicon Valley-based program promotes an educational approach called “personalized learning,” which uses online tools to customize education. The platform that Summit provides was developed by Facebook engineers. It is funded by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, a pediatrician.

    Many families in the Kansas towns, which have grappled with underfunded public schools and deteriorating test scores, initially embraced the change. Under Summit’s program, students spend much of the day on their laptops and go online for lesson plans and quizzes, which they complete at their own pace. Teachers assist students with the work, hold mentoring sessions and lead special projects. The system is free to schools. The laptops are typically bought separately.

    Then, students started coming home with headaches and hand cramps. Some said they felt more anxious. One child asked to bring her dad’s hunting earmuffs to class to block out classmates because work was now done largely alone.

    “We’re allowing the computers to teach and the kids all looked like zombies,” said Tyson Koenig, a factory supervisor in McPherson, who visited his son’s fourth-grade class. In October, he pulled the 10-year-old out of the school.

    “Change rarely comes without some bumps in the road,” said Gordon Mohn, McPherson’s superintendent of schools. He added, “Students are becoming self-directed learners and are demonstrating greater ownership of their learning activities.”

    John Buckendorf, Wellington High School’s principal, said the “vast majority of our parents are happy with the program.”

    The resistance in Kansas is part of mounting nationwide opposition to Summit, which began trials of its system in public schools four years ago and is now in around 380 schools and used by 74,000 students. In Brooklyn, high school students walked out in November after their school started using Summit’s platform. In Indiana, Pa., after a survey by Indiana University of Pennsylvania found 70 percent of students wanted Summit dropped or made optional, the school board scaled it back and then voted this month to terminate it. And in Cheshire, Conn., the program was cut after protests in 2017.

    “When there are frustrating situations, generally ki

    ds get over them, parents get over them, and they all move on,” said Mary Burnham, who has two grandchildren in Cheshire’s school district and started a petition to end Summit’s use. “Nobody got over this.”

    Silicon Valley has tried to remake American education in its own image for years, even as many in tech eschew gadgets and software at home and flood into tech-free schools. Summit has been part of the leading edge of the movement, but the rebellion raises questions about a heavy reliance on tech in public schools.

    For years, education experts have debated the merits of self-directed, online learning versus traditional teacher-led classrooms. Proponents argue that programs like Summit provide children, especially those in underserved towns, access to high-quality curriculums and teachers. Skeptics worry about screen time and argue that students miss out on important interpersonal lessons.❞

    When this school year started, children got laptops to use Summit software and curriculums. In class, they sat at the computers working through subjects from math to English to history. Teachers told students that their role was now to be a mentor .

    Myriland French, 16, a student at Wellington’s high school, said she had developed eye strain and missed talking to teachers and students in class. “Everyone is more stressed now,” she said.

    #Facebook #Education #Summit

  • Israeli Police Kills A Palestinian After He Reportedly Stabbed Two Israelis
    May 31, 2019 2:07 PM - IMEMC News
    https://imemc.org/article/israeli-police-kills-a-palestinian-after-he-reportedly-stabbed-two-israelis

    Israeli police officers killed, Friday, a Palestinian teen in occupied East Jerusalem, after he reportedly stabbed and injured two Israelis, and attempted to attack a police officer.

    The Palestinian was later identified as Yousef Wajeeh , 18, from Abwein village, northwest of the central West Bank city of Ramallah.

    Israeli sources said the Palestinian came from the West Bank to attend Friday prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque, on the last Friday of Ramadan.

    Israeli online daily, The Jerusalem Post, said an Israeli man, in his fifties, suffered critical wounds, and added that a teen, 16 years of age, suffered moderate-to-severe wounds.

    It quoted the Superintendent of the Israeli Police in Jerusalem Micky Rosenfeld telling its reporter that one Israeli was stabbed and critically injured at Damascus Gate, and that the second Israel was stabbed and moderately injured when the Palestinian managed to make his way to the Old City, before the officers shot him dead.

    Following the incident, the Israeli army and police significantly increased their deployment in the Old City, and all areas leading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

    #Palestine_assassinée

  • The National Atlas of the United States

    http://www.codex99.com/cartography/128.html

    Part I - The Statistical Altas of the United States

    Francis Amasa Walker (2 Jul 1840 – 5 Jan 1897) graduated from Amherst College and practiced law before joining the Union Army where he eventually rose to the rank of Brevet Brigadier General. In 1869 he became the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics and on 7 Feb 1870, at age 29, was appointed the Superintendent of the Ninth Census.1

    The census began on 1 Jun 1870 and the first collated results were completed by 23 Aug 1871. Using this advance data Walker “had caused to be laid down in color upon outline-maps of the United States, the proportions disclosed by the enumeration as existing in the several sections of the country, between the aggregate population and its principal constituent elements.” In other words – a statistical population map.

    #états-unis #cartographie #atlas

  • The Evolving State of American Policing - Pacific Standard
    http://www.psmag.com/politics-and-law/the-evolving-state-of-american-policing

    “Never at any time in the world’s history has it been possible for so many people to know, so promptly, of the dereliction of one police officer in such lack of context as to cause distrust and lack of respect for all,” Police Chief Frank Ramon tells his colleagues. It’s the annual conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and hundreds of law enforcement executives from around the country are gathered together to talk about recent and troubling publicity around police forces pretty much across the country—California, New York, South Carolina, Maryland. Reflecting on the crisis in policing, he continues, “the law enforcement image is dependent on the professional, competent performance of the men and women who protect and serve their community.”

    But Ramon, the chief of police of the Seattle Police Department, isn’t talking about viral videos shot by bystanders with cell phones, or about footage from dashboard cameras. All of that is still many years away. Ramon is speaking in the year 1965.

    Yet Ramon’s comments could just as easily have been made in 2015—and, in fact, they sort of were. Over the course of the 2015 IACP, many speakers echoed the sentiments expressed at the conference opening by Chicago Police Department Superintendent Garry McCarthy (who resigned a month later when the Laquan McDonald cover-up was brought to light). “We’re in a tough time for policing right now,” McCarthy said. “And I believe we’re at a crossroads. I don’t think this climate has ever existed in the history of American policing.... Never have we been going through the scrutiny of every single action that we deal with like we do today, in the digital age.”
    If police have been made responsible for measures both punitive and provisional in many low-income communities, this is not entirely by accident.

  • LAUSD threat : Los Angeles schools cancel classes - CNN.com
    http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/15/us/los-angeles-schools-closed-threat

    Classes were canceled Tuesday for the Los Angeles Unified School District after what the superintendent called a “rare” threat that came amid new concerns about security nationwide.

    An “electronic threat” received early Tuesday prompted the decision to close facilities to nearly 700,000 students, school district police Chief Steve Zipperman said, adding that the threat “is still being analyzed.

    Superintendent Ramon Cortines said the “message” referred to backpacks and “other packages.” He said many schools were threatened, though none by name. The threat was toward students in schools (as opposed to on buses).
    […]
    The superintendent said he’s asked authorities to search all of the roughly 900 charter and K-12 schools in his district “before the day is over.” He promised a statement that could offer more information about what prompted his decision and lay out what will happen next, including whether classes will be in session Wednesday.

    That won’t happen, Cortines insisted, “until I know it’s safe.

  • The Abandoned Plan That Could Have Saved America From Drought - BuzzFeed News
    http://www.buzzfeed.com/nijhuis/pipe-dreams-the-forgotten-project-that-could-have-saved-amer

    Today, it’s easy to see NAWAPA as a grotesque manipulation of the landscape. But in 1964, when Ralph Parsons’ engineers proposed the project, the environmental movement was just beginning to gain national momentum; to many people, in fact, dams were an environmentally benign way to both produce power and turn unproductive deserts green.

    #eau #projet_pharaonique #californie #canada #histoire #états-unis #sécheresse #barrages

    • On avait évoqué ces projets avec Frédéric Lasserre dans un papier et des cartes parues dans .. ..... en 2005. Il n’est pas du tout sur que ce fût une bonne idée et même que ça ait pu sauver quoique ce soit. Et les Canadiens n’ont jamais été très chaud pour cette solution :) On se demande bien pourquoi

    • A good joke :

      As journalist Marc Reisner observed in his book Cadillac Desert, the project had only two major drawbacks: It would destroy anything still resembling nature in western North America. And it might require taking Canada by force.

      btw :

      Chinatown (1974 film)
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown_(1974_film)#Background

      Chinatown is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery film, directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay by Robert Towne, starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. The film was inspired by the California Water Wars, a series of disputes over southern California water at the beginning of the 20th century, by which Los Angeles interests secured water rights in the Owens Valley.
      ...
      Chinatown is set in 1937 and portrays the manipulation of a critical municipal resource—water—by a cadre of shadowy oligarchs.
      ...
      The character of Hollis Mulwray refers to the career of William Mulholland (1855–1935),[citation needed] the superintendent and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. He was the designer and engineer for the Los Angeles Aqueduct,[citation needed] which brought Owens Valley water to Los Angeles. For reasons of engineering and safety, Mulwray opposes the dam that Noah Cross and the city want, arguing he will not repeat his previous mistake as when his dam broke, resulting in the deaths of hundreds. This alludes to the disaster of the St. Francis Dam, personally inspected by Mulholland on the day of its catastrophic failure just before midnight on March 12, 1928.[11] As many as 600 people (including 42 school-aged children), died that day and the Santa Clara River Valley, including the town of Santa Paula, was inundated with flood water, the result being the end of Mulholland’s career.

      #mafia #usa #eau

  • Philadelphia schools to lay off nearly 4,000 teachers - World Socialist Web Site

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/11/phil-j11.html

    Philadelphia schools to lay off nearly 4,000 teachers
    By Nick Barrickman
    11 June 2013

    On Friday, the superintendent of the Philadelphia School District (SDP), William Hite, Jr., announced plans to lay off nearly 4,000 educators in the coming months. The destruction of teachers’ jobs comes as part of a “doomsday” austerity budget in the public school system that was passed several weeks ago by the School Reform Commission (SRC), which is appointed dually by the state and the city to oversee its public schools.

    #états-unis #éducation #école #philadelphie

  • 42 Years Later, School Apologizes For Calling Man ‘Fag’ in Yearbook « MasterAdrian’s Weblog
    http://masteradrian.com/2012/10/25/42-years-later-school-apologizes-for-calling-man-fag-in-yearbook

    42 Years Later, School Apologizes For Calling Man ‘Fag’ in Yearbook
    The North Vancouver school district formally apologized on Monday to Robin Tomlin for printing the word “Fag” next to his photo in the 1970 yearbook.
    BY Sunnivie Brydum
    October 24 2012 6:47 PM ET

    It took more than four decades, but Robin Tomlin finally got some closure to the antigay bullying that haunted him since childhood. On Monday, Canada’s North Vancouver school district Superintendent John Lewis apologized, in person, for allowing the word “fag” to appear next to Tomlin’s name in his 1970 high school yearbook.

    “They just said how sorry they were and how it slipped through the cracks,” Tomlin, now 60, told The Vancouver Sun. “And they’ll institute remedies so that it won’t happen again.”

    Tomlin said he was satisfied with the apology, which concludes a four-year campaign to reconcile the hideous antigay bullying codified in the Argyle Secondary School yearbook of 1970. Originally, the school agreed to reprint the yearbook page, but until recently refused to issue an in-person apology, according to the Sun.

    Tomlin, who has been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer, said he was often bullied in Argyle’s halls, most often by a group of jocks who would shove him and say, “You little faggot, get out of the way.”

    The bullying was so severe that Tomlin did not attend his high school graduation for fear of harassment.

    That’s another wrong that was righted on Monday, when Tomlin’s friends arranged a “graduation ceremony” for him, complete with a cap and gown in front of the high school. Later in the day, Tomlin spoke to students in a social justice class at nearby Sutherland secondary school about the ways bullying has changed since he was a target.

    While Tomlin is satisfied with the district’s apology, he said neither the yearbook editor nor his former bullies have contacted him. “I hope it bothers them,” Tomlin said. “It doesn’t bother me.”

  • Fukushima: “The scale of the accident was beyond my imagination”
    http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/energy/nuclear/the-scale-of-the-accident-was-beyond-my-imagination

    When I was superintendent, I could not have imagined that all electricity including battery power for units 1 through 4 would be completely lost at the same time, and would not be restored for more than 9 days. (...)
    At first, I thought that the diesel generator for each reactor automatically started, so I was sure that they could bring the plant to a cold shut down, although there would be many difficulties.
    When I watched TV reports of the huge tsunami attacking the coast of the Tohoku area, I thought that major equipment like the condensate water pumps and the residual heat removal sea water pumps, which are on the ground lower than 10 meters above the sea level, must be damaged. That sent a chill down my spine.
    However I could not imagine that both the diesel generators and the power centers in the turbine buildings were completely covered with seawater by a tsunami that was over 14 meters high

    #ingénieurs #nucléaire #accidents