Saturday, February 21, 2009

Marijuana More Popular Than Republicans?

From the Daily Kos.

The Republican Party has a favorable rating of 31% (unfavorable: 62%).  While the two survey questions can't be directly compared, it is instructive that people view current marijuana prohibition more "unfavorable" than the GOP:

CBS News/New York Times Poll. Jan. 11-15, 2009. N=1,112 adults nationwide



"Do you think that the use of marijuana should be made legal or not?"



Should not 52%, Should 41%, Unsure 7%

Friday, February 20, 2009

Standardized Tests & Progress Reports ==> Less Challenging, Enriching Curriculum?

This dovetails really nicely with the more general critique I posted of curricular standards a month or so ago:

Getting an F or a D led schools to assign fewer essays, projects

When the Bloomberg administration announced it would assign every public school a letter grade, based largely on test scores, critics worried the grades would lead to a “drill and kill” approach to teaching. Forced to raise test scores, they said, schools might avoid teaching creativity and problem-solving in favor of focusing on basic skills. New research suggests that the critics worries may have come true — but the researchers don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.