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April 2001 No drones However, her Princeton friends tell her Brooks got the social life wrong by talking to professor-recommended drones. The average undergrad isn't that eager an academic beaver. Brad Simmons, a Princeton sophomore,
agrees that 98 percent of students don't fit Brooks' studyaholic stereotype.
Nobody sets dates to chat with friends. And those who complain they don't
have time to read the newspaper seem to find time to "go out, play
pool, watch movies, sit around do nothng, etc. Simmons has a sensible
theory on how Brooks got his quotes: Of course, Simmons and two Princeton friends have founded StudentDiscourse.com, a web site for news analysis and commentary by students. Animal House it isn't. -- 4/2 It's the poverty, stupid Not true, says a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Maternal cocaine use is only one of many risk factors that affect a baby's development before and after birth. Problems blamed on cocaine exposure "can be explained in whole or in part by other factors, including prenatal exposure to tobacco, marijuana, or alcohol, and the quality of the child's environment,'' researchers wrote in JAMA. Ten years ago, (check the San Jose Mercury News archives for July 27 and 28, 1991), I talked to researchers who'd reached the same conclusions: Women who use crack also use other drugs, including alcholic and nicotine. They don't eat their veggies; they don't get prenatal care. And they make terrible mothers. Their kids may be cycle between relatives and foster homes while mom tries to get her act together. Compared to children from stable middle-class homes, crack users' children do poorly. Compared to the children of poor, single mothers who didn't use cocaine, the crack kids look . . . pretty much the same. My attack on the crack baby myth generated little response. People wanted to believe it, so they did. They kept on believing it. My clip files include reports on research in 1992 ("New diagnosis for cocaine exposed infants"), 1996 ("Studies suggest little effect from prenatal cocaine exposure"), 1997 ("Slow development in 'crack babies' may be caused by conditions of urban poverty, says new study"), 1999 ("Poverty impacts mental development of children exposed to cocaine before birth"). The new study analyzed 36 previous studies. The Washington Post summarized: "As a generality, the studies found that when a woman used alcohol and tobacco, or alcohol and marijuana, cocaine use had little or no "incremental impact" on her child's risk of problems after birth. Specifically, cocaine had no lasting effect on physical growth; it generally did not affect the cognitive ability of infants or young children; it did not affect language skills (although few studies looked at this question); and a deleterious effect on motor skills that some researchers had found seemed not to extend beyond the first six months of life.'' While several studies concluded cocaine-exposed children show "less joy, sadness or interest in learning tasks," overall, "children of cocaine-using mothers have no clear-cut behavioral problems," compared to children from similarly disadvantaged homes where mom didn't use crack. All this is both encouraging and sad: Crack kids aren't doomed because Mom used crack. They're doomed because Mom's poor, Dad's gone and all the other ills of urban poverty. They're not born to lose. But they usually do. -- 4/6 Da to SATs The test will be piloted in four republics, then rolled out nationwide in 2004. Bonus question: Which of these is not the name of a Russian Republic: Chuvash, Marii El, Mordoviya, Yakutiya and Borschtiya? -- 4/6 Surprise! Experts are wrong In the April 9 New Yorker, Katherine Boo writes about a former welfare mother who's now a D.C. police officer struggling to support her three children, to get them into decent schools, to keep her daughter away from predatory boys, to keep going on very little sleep. I'd provide the link, but I can't figure out how to find anything on the New Yorker's site. -- 4/9 Safety first Strategy 1: Test random samples for defects. Strategy 2: Require suppliers to use a process that eliminates the risk of defects. American manufacturers learned from the Japanese, who learned from American Edward Deming, that the way to improve quality is to focus on improving the process, not on inspecting for mistakes. If we want a quality food supply -- salmonella-free beef for school lunches, for example -- we won't get it by testing for salmonella in a fraction of the beef sold for kids' consumption. We'll get it by requiring that meat be irradiated, killing salmonella and other dangers. Of course, that would mean putting the safety of children first, ignoring the fears of the ignorant. The Agriculture Department's proposal to rely on on a Deming-style approach to meat safety died a quick death. Irradiation is "controversial,'' though there's no controversy among people who know how it works. The "no testing'' people were painted as the ones who didn't care about kids. Actually it's the "no irradiation'' people who are putting kids at risk. And what about adults? The nervous nellies -- always nervous about the wrong things -- are denying us the chance to buy germ-free food. -- 4/9 Poor schools subsidize rich
schools Roza proposes that the new Title I bill forbid salary averaging for federal funds. Districts really should be shamed into ending it for all funds. Equalizing teacher quality could make a real difference in student achievement. -- 4/17 Good reads Interesting point. But the individual achiever remains suspect. All these shows are about functioning well in a group. No Crusoes need apply. Mickey Kaus, a fan of welfare reform, points out the good news on the teen birth rate: It's down to the lowest level in 60 years, 49.6 for every 1,000 girls 15 to 19 years old. (In the old days, teen moms were much more likely to be married.) In particular, the black teen birth rate dropped by 30 percent in the '90s. Out-of-wedlock births are down for teens as well, says a government study. Less sex, more contraception is the answer, researchers say. When adults are factored in, the unwed birth rate is down slightly for blacks -- though still very high -- and up a bit for whites and Hispanics. Earlier, Kaus heralds the comeback of the traditional Mom-and-Pop family: The percentage of children living in families consisting of a mother, father and their biological children rose from 51 percent in 1991 to 56 percent in 1996, says the Census Bureau. In addition, more stepparents, grandparents and adoptive parents are raising children. -- 4/18 Negative action In one study, female students
were told different stories about why they'd been chosen as "team
leader" in a future research project. One group thought they'd been
chosen due to merit, another group thought it was a coin toss and the
third group thought that all women who signed up had been chosen. Then
all were given 15 problem-solving questions from the Graduate Record Exam.
In another study, black and Latino students earned lower grades at the University of Texas than comparable whites and Asians -- if they believed they'd been admitted on the basis of race or ethnicity. Researchers controlled for SAT scores and other variables that might have influenced performance. Finally, Brown and a colleague wondered whether Hispanic high school students were psyched out by Massachusetts' achievement tests, known as MCAS, on which minority students are expected to do poorly. One group took an unidentified test; the other took the same test, labeled as "MCAS Version 2." Mentioning MCAS lowered Hispanic scores by 20 percent; it had no effect on white students' scores. -- 4/19 First grade lite This could be the secret of the success of scripted programs, such as "Success for All,'' which requires elementary schools to set aside 90 minutes a day for reading and tells teachers how to teach at each skill level. Teachers teach a clearly defined program for a substantial amount of time. Kids learn. Fewer teachers are shortchanging
math these days, thanks to the much-maligned state tests. But, in most
states, science and social studies aren't tested in elementary school.
-- 4/23 Good reads Affleck said recently he's thinking of a political career -- once he's independently wealthy. He's into "oration,'' he said. Just remember, Ben: Every vote counts. If it's cast. My darkest suspicions about the black-bereted, self-esteeming "Army of One'' are confirmed by Matt Labash in an April 30 Weekly Standard piece headlined "The New Army: Be whatever you want to be.'' -- 4/25 Defining poverty up Press coverage of a new study of "Wisconsin Works,'' stressed that half of ex-welfare families remain below the poverty level. Hein points out they're doing a lot better than they were on welfare, and a lot better than anyone predicted with average income of almost $12,000 -- more than $16,000 with state and federal earned income credits. "This glass half full is quite satisfying considering that absolutely zero of these families were above the poverty threshold when receiving a welfare check. In the span of one year, the majority members of the most entrenched welfare population group in the nation exchanged a $673 monthly W-2 check for more than $1,000 per month in earned income." -- 4/27 SAT II |
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