Christopher Ferguson: Dear American Psychological Association: It is with a heavy heart that I write to officially resign my membership in the American Psychological Association (APA) at this time effective when my current year’s membership expires. I do so because I increasingly feel the APA has lost its way as either a science organization or … Continue reading The American Psychological Association No Longer Represents Good Science or Clinical Practice: An Open Letter on My Resignation from the APA →

Kate Hirzel: Campus Reform has covered various instances of colleges, faculty, and students fighting back against leftist ideology in 2021. Below are the top 10 examples of sanity prevailing this year.  10. Hillsdale’s ‘1776 Curriculum’ is a patriotic response to the ‘1619 Project’ Hillsdale College announced its ‘1776 Curriculum’ that helps K-12 students appreciate America. Hillsdale’s curriculum … Continue reading 10 times universities said no to the woke mob in 2021 →

Alexander C. Dowell, Megan S. Butler, …Shamez Ladhani SARS-CoV-2 infection is generally mild or asymptomatic in children but a biological basis for this outcome is unclear. Here we compare antibody and cellular immunity in children (aged 3–11 years) and adults. Antibody responses against spike protein were high in children and seroconversion boosted responses against seasonal … Continue reading Children develop robust and sustained cross-reactive spike-specific immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection →

Scott Girard: A Jefferson Middle School teacher is on administrative leave after planning a Colonial-era reenactment lesson that asked students “to assume stereotypical roles which brought racialized harm,” according to an email from the school’s principal. The incident comes 10 months after officials in the nearby Sun Prairie Area School District apologized to parents for … Continue reading Jefferson Middle School teacher on leave after planned reenactment lesson →

We need an education system that extolls the facts about our nation. We ARE undoubtedly the greatest nation on the planet and in the history of the world. Leaders need to make sure young people know that too. https://t.co/pGbZtXMnFf — Robin Vos (@repvos) December 17, 2021 The data clearly indicate that being able to read is … Continue reading Wisconsin K-12 Practice vs Governance Climate →

Adam Andrzejewski: So, why wasn’t transparency already mandated? The California state government has 269,000 employees and a $21 billion payroll. The controller’s office itself has 1,382 employees for a $101 million payroll.  Since 2005, California invested $1 billion into FI$Cal, an accounting and transparency platform. However, 20 major units of state government will never be in the system or are … Continue reading Do we have a representative republic if the representatives get to hide all transactions from the people—and claim that it’s for their own good? →

Elizabeth Beyer: Madison School Board member calls for action on COVID-19 paid time off for teachers, staff A Madison School Board member is calling for the full board to address a lack of access to COVID-19 sick leave for district teachers and staff during the next board meeting. As district policy stands, teachers and staff … Continue reading Madison School Board member calls for action on COVID-19 paid time off for teachers, staff →

Dave Cieslewicz That one demonstrated some of the dysfunction of the district. Their spokesperson denied that anything had happened at the school because, technically, the incident, which involved students enrolled at West, occurred on a sidewalk that wasn’t part of school property. The data clearly indicate that being able to read is not a requirement for … Continue reading “And third, I’d like to see a candidate who can actually win.” →

“If half the kids can’t read without paying for outside tutors, you don’t have an ‘intervention problem’ – you have a core instruction problem.” An official told me that was “deep” My respnse: It’s really not. We just abandoned common sense to justify practices and outcomes. — Kareem Weaver (@KJWinEducation) November 27, 2021 The data clearly … Continue reading Commentary on taxpayer supported k-12 reading practices →

Sean CL Deoni, Jennifer Beauchemin, Alexandra Volpe, Viren D’Sa, the RESONANCE Consortium: Since the first reports of novel coronavirus in the 2020, public health organizations have advocated preventative policies to limit virus, including stay-at-home orders that closed businesses, daycares, schools, playgrounds, and limited child learning and typical activities. Fear of infection and possible employment loss … Continue reading Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Early Child Cognitive Development: Initial Findings in a Longitudinal Observational Study of Child Health →

Pedro Gonzalez As parents militated, the school district issued a weak statement that copped to stupidity rather than malice: “There was no indication from the book’s description that it contained graphic illustrations.” In other words, not a single librarian and or administrator had actually peeked at the pages. Little wonder why “I don’t think parents … Continue reading K-12 Curricular activism →

Amy Norton: Where did the droplet/airborne distinction come from? It was based on observations regarding proximity. Most respiratory viruses, including the flu, are usually passed among people in relatively close contact. But then there are pathogens like the measles virus, which can also infect people at greater distances: A U.S. measles outbreak in the 1990s, … Continue reading COVID-19 pandemic puts spotlight on ‘outdated’ infection control practices →

Amy Norton: Where did the droplet/airborne distinction come from? It was based on observations regarding proximity. Most respiratory viruses, including the flu, are usually passed among people in relatively close contact. But then there are pathogens like the measles virus, which can also infect people at greater distances: A U.S. measles outbreak in the 1990s, … Continue reading COVID-19 pandemic puts spotlight on ‘outdated’ infection control practices →

Michael Edge Jeanna Neefe Matthews Advocates of transparency in science often point to the benefits of open practices for the scientific process. Here, we focus on a possibly underappreciated effect of standards for transparency: their influence on non-scientific decisions. As a case study, we consider the current state of probabilistic genotyping software in forensics.

Teresa Watanabe: In the throes of World War II, weeks after a 1942 presidential executive order forced the removal of all persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast, then-UC Berkeley President Robert G. Sproul sprung into action. He sent an impassioned letter to university presidents across the country, asking them to accept his displaced … Continue reading USC to apologize for WWII actions that derailed education of Japanese American students →

William Jacobson: For the first decade of Legal Insurrection, we documented and did our best to oppose the “gradually” phase of societal collapse, what in 2017 on our 9th anniversary I described as the continuing loss of institutions: Imagine living in a repressive country in which the government blocked access to and suppressed internet content. You … Continue reading What better wake up call do you need than the fact that you have to worry about your kindergartener being ideologically manipulated at school by teachers and administrators? →

Bradley Thompson: Garland’s letter is a moral, political, and constitutional abomination. To say there are serious problems with the Attorney General’s Orwellian letter would be an understatement. The letter asserts, for instance, that “there has been a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.” It … Continue reading Civics: Lawfare, Citizen Activism and taxpayer funded schools →

Callie Peterson: “It’s just a few pieces of information about individual bank accounts, nothing at the transaction level that would violate privacy,” the secretary said.  The collected information would ostensibly help the Treasury Department determine which high-income wealthy individuals may be concealing transactions and income, and “these would be helpful indicators of where it would … Continue reading K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: Yellen defends IRS rule requiring banks to report all transactions over $600 →

Dominic Cummings: In Washington as in London, the golden rule of Government is — the government does not control the government and anybody who tries to change this is seen as the enemy by the bureaucracies that actually control ~99% of the government. Politicians talk as if the government controls the government and fundraise as … Continue reading Civics: The goal is not ‘reform’ but a government that actually controls the government →

Arthur Gron: It found the book interesting because it’s reads like a popular introduction into astronomy but has some mathematics, to make the book feel more sub- stantive. Even out the outset of the book the author tries to quantify even the simplest things.The number of stars visible to the unaided eye is very deceptive. … Continue reading 1910 Astronomy Textbook →

Deoni, S., Beauchemin, J., Volpe, A., D’Sa, V. Since the first reports of novel coronavirus in the 2020, public health organizations have advocated preventative policies to limit virus, including stay-at-home orders that closed businesses, daycares, schools, playgrounds, and limited child learning and typical activities. Fear of infection and possible employment loss has placed stress on … Continue reading Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Early Child Cognitive Development: Initial Findings in a Longitudinal Observational Study of Child Health →

Katharine Dommett: Digital platforms, such as Google and Facebook, are under increased scrutiny as regards their impact on society. Having prompted concerns about their capacity to spread misinformation, contribute to filter bubbles and facilitate hate speech, much attention has been paid to the threat platforms pose to democracy. In contrast to existing interventions considering the … Continue reading Platforms, democracy and inter-institutional impacts →

Alina Dizik: Emily Porche swears by one holdover from her family’s life under lockdown: her children’s learning space. Ms. Porche initially designed the room as a virtual classroom for her young daughters, but now it is a favorite hangout. With both girls back in school, the hanging chair is a spot for reading and the … Continue reading As students prepare for a return to in-person learning, parents are keeping the learning areas they built during the pandemic intact →

Fordham Institute: Is America a racist country? Or the greatest nation on earth? Or both or neither or some of each?For the sake of our children’s education (and for any number of other reasons), we need a more thoughtful and balanced starting point for the whole conversation—one that leaves space for nuance, mutual understanding, and … Continue reading At the bottom, 10 states earned Fs, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Alaska. →

Adelle X Yang, Christopher K Hsee: To entice new donors and spread awareness of the charitable cause, many charity campaigns encourage donors to broadcast their charitable acts with self-promotion devices such as donor pins, logoed apparel, and social media hashtags. However, this voluntary-publicity strategy may not be particularly attractive because potential donors may worry that … Continue reading Obligatory Publicity Increases Charitable Acts →

Maximilian Forte: The documentary itself establishes its lead questions at the outset. Nico Sloot, described as an international entrepreneur, acts as the main voice in the film and our lead detective. What struck me from the start was how he framed the central problem that provoked his investigative journey: when would herd immunity be achieved? … Continue reading “Facts” were facts, until the facts suddenly changed. →

Julie C. Driebea and Ruben C. Arslang Self-reported mate preferences suggest intelligence is valued across cultures, consistent with the idea that human intelligence evolved as a sexually selected trait. The validity of self-reports has been questioned though, so it remains unclear whether objectively assessed intelligence is indeed attractive. In Study 1, 88 target men had … Continue reading ntelligence can be detected but is not found attractive in videos and live interactions →

Emily Oster, Rebecca Jack, Clare Halloran, John Schoof, Diana McLeod This paper reports on the correlation of mitigation practices with staff and student COVID-19 case rates in Florida, New York, and Massachusetts during the 2020-2021 school year. We analyze data collected by the COVID-19 School Response Dashboard and focus on student density, ventilation upgrades, and … Continue reading COVID-19 Mitigation Practices and COVID-19 Rates in Schools: Report on Data from Florida, New York and Massachusetts →

Samantha West: Experts say educators should only physically restrain or isolate a student as a last resort, when there’s no other way to stop their dangerous behavior, but a new annual state report shows half of Wisconsin schools used those measures at least once last year. Some schools reported hundreds of incidents of seclusion and … Continue reading First-ever report shows half of Wisconsin schools secluded or restrained students last year — some more than 100 times →

Glenn Greenwald: Few issues highlight Barack Obama’s extreme hypocrisy the way that Bagram does. As everyone knows, one of George Bush’s most extreme policies was abducting people from all over the world — far away from any battlefield — and then detaining them at Guantanamo with no legal rights of any kind, not even the … Continue reading Civics: (2010) Obama wins the right to detain people with no habeas review →

Mike Anotunucci: Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, raised some eyebrows March 19 during an interview on the Black News Channel. While discussing her union’s response to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention distancing guidelines for students, she said, “We’ve been trying to reopen schools since last April.” Her choice of month … Continue reading Randi Weingarten Says Her AFT Has Been ‘Trying to Reopen Schools Since Last April.’ What the Union’s Locals Actually Did →

Mengchen Dong: Status holders across societies often take moral initiatives to navigate group practices toward collective goods; however, little is known about how different societies (e.g., the United States vs. China) evaluate high- (vs. low-) status holders’ transgressions of preached morals. Two preregistered studies (total N = 1,374) examined how status information (occupational rank in … Continue reading Culture, Status, and Hypocrisy: High-Status People Who Don’t Practice What They Preach Are Viewed as Worse in the United States Than China →

Scott Girard: The Madison School Board is expected to vote Monday on a controversial proposal that would minimize the importance of seniority in layoff and reassignment decisions. Madison Metropolitan School District administrators have pushed for the change, which would prioritize culturally responsive practices and student learning outcomes instead of the experience-based system in place now. They see it … Continue reading Commentary on the taxpayer supported Madison School District’s hiring and layoff practices →

University of Michigan: For teens, pandemic restrictions may have meant months of virtual school, less time with friends and canceling activities like sports, band concerts and prom. And for young people who rely heavily on social connections for emotional support, these adjustments may have taken a heavy toll on mental health, a new national poll … Continue reading National poll: Pandemic has negatively impacted teens’ mental health →

Glenn Greenwald: While I share the ostensible motive behind the bill — to stem the serious crisis of bankruptcies and closings of local news outlets — I do not believe that this bill will end up doing that, particularly because it empowers the largest media outlets such as The New York Times and MSNBC to dominate the process and … Continue reading Civics: The Leading Activists for Online Censorship Are Corporate Journalists →

Alan Borsuk: This means her children have been learning virtually for a year now while she has been teaching in person. As a generalization, most suburban schools have been open for in-person education, in some cases for the whole school year, in some cases since around mid-year. Also as a generalization – and almost no one disputes this – in-person … Continue reading How long will students be feeling the impact of COVID, especially those who are still not in classes? →

Nick Triggle: The impact of NHS Test and Trace is still unclear – despite the UK government setting aside £37bn for it over two years, MPs are warning. The Public Accounts Committee said it was set up on the basis it would help prevent future lockdowns – but since its creation there had been two … Continue reading Covid-19: NHS Test and Trace ‘no clear impact’ despite £37bn budget →

Bion Bartning: We started to ask questions. I have always felt a strong connection with Martin Luther King Jr. ’s dream of an America where people “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” I advocate genuine antiracism, rooted in dignity and humanity. But the ideology … Continue reading Dividing by Race Comes to Grade School: Students, ages 5 through 11, are urged to ‘check each other’s words and actions’ and become committed activists. →

Betsy Morris: Will two hours in the park become the next 10,000 steps? As people spend more time indoors, a mountain of scientific research says spending time in nature is critical to health and increases longevity. That means being in fresh air, under trees and away from cars and concrete—on a regular basis. And, no, … Continue reading For Better Health During the Pandemic, Is Two Hours Outdoors the New 10,000 Steps? →

Cathleen O’Grady: As Samuel West combed through a paper that found a link between watching cartoon violence and aggression in children, he noticed something odd about the study participants. There were more than 3000—an unusually large number—and they were all 10 years old. “It was just too perfect,” says West, a Ph.D. student in social … Continue reading Research linking violent entertainment to aggression retracted after scrutiny →

Santeri Liukkonen: The book is exciting and the story is funny. In fact, I’m learning something new. So much so, that I keep writing down my ideas and shuffling their implications. And suddenly, I realize something. In the past 15-minutes, I’ve only managed to cover three pages and I’m already thinking about next things I’m … Continue reading Age of distractions →

Retraction Watch: A publisher is retracting five papers from one of its conference series after discovering what it says was “clear evidence” that the articles were generated by a computer. The five papers were published from 2018 to 2020 in IOP Publishing’s “Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science.” According to an IOP spokesperson, the retraction … Continue reading Publisher retracting five papers because of “clear evidence” that they were “computer generated” →

George Will: On Feb. 16, a joint committee of the state legislature will decide whether to turn into a legal requirement the State Board of Education’s recommendation that — until a slight rewording — would mandate that all public-school teachers “embrace and encourage progressive viewpoints and perspectives.” If the board’s policy is ratified, Illinois will … Continue reading K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: “The worst-governed state — Illinois had triple the population loss of the state with the second-highest out-migration between 2010 and 2020 — is contemplating another incentive for flight” →

University of Sydney: Astronomers have for the first time used distant galaxies as ‘scintillating pins’ to locate and identify a piece of the Milky Way’s missing matter. For decades, scientists have been puzzled as to why they couldn’t account for all the matter in the universe as predicted by theory. While most of the universe’s … Continue reading Student astronomer finds missing galactic matter →

John Hindraker: The thing I will tell you: However bad/sad/depressing I thought it would be, it was worse Let me start by saying, this is a wealthy district. Maybe one of the top 5 in the state. The parents are almost all white professionals. To be honest, I almost discounted it. I thought, They’re fine! … Continue reading “They said their kids are being sacrificed. Which is 100% true.” →

Tory Linnane: Former Milwaukee County Supervisor Dan Sebring is planning to sue Milwaukee Public Schools over a policy that allows certain staff members to take up to 10 days of paid leave each year for union activity.    The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a conservative firm representing Sebring, argues the MPS policy violates his freedom of speech … Continue reading Former county supervisor to sue Milwaukee Public Schools over paid leave for union activity →

Violet Blue: The same day Ms. Ward launched her fundraising campaign, reports emerged detailing Airbnb’s new “trait analyzer” algorithms that compile data dossiers on users, decides whether you’ve been bad or good, gives you a score, and then “flag and investigate suspicious activity before it happens.” The Evening Standard reported on Airbnb’s patent for AI that crawls and scrapes … Continue reading Your online activity is now effectively a social ‘credit score’ →

WILL: The News: The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) filed a lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court, on behalf of two Dane County residents, challenging the Dane County health department’s legal authority to issue sweeping restrictions on all aspects of life in Dane County. This lawsuit is substantially similar to an original action WILL filed with … Continue reading WILL Files Lawsuit Challenging Dane County Health Department’s Authority to Enact COVID Restrictions →

Colin Dickey: In his 1964 Harper’s Magazine article on fact-checking, “There Are 00 Trees in Russia,” Otto Friedrich related the story of an unnamed magazine correspondent who had been assigned a profile of Egyptian president Mohamed Naguib. As was custom, he wrote his story leaving out the “zips”—facts to be filled in later—including noting that … Continue reading The Rise and Fall of Facts →

Michael Lind: What has made California so repulsive that many of its star companies and most talented individuals are making like East Germans trying to scramble over the Berlin Wall? We can begin with the squalor of San Francisco with its streets littered with needles and human feces and its public parks turned into homeless … Continue reading “a wave of woke education policy aimed at the ritual leveling of Bay Area’s few actual meritocratic institutions” →

Megan McArdle: If you watch the YouTube video of the now-infamous November meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, you’ll hear Chairman José Romero thank everyone for a “robust discussion.” Shortly thereafter, the committee unanimously agreed that essential workers should get vaccinated ahead of the elderly, even though they’d been told this would … Continue reading Public health bodies may be talking at us, but they’re actually talking to each other →

Carrie Sheffield: School choice advocates are upset that the new stimulus package adopted by Congress provides $54 billion for K-12 schools that governors are prohibited spending for “vouchers, tuition tax credit programs, education savings accounts, scholarship programs, or tuition assistance programs for elementary and secondary education.” Studies, including one highlighted by the Brookings Institution, show … Continue reading School choice activists upset COVID-19 stimulus bans governors from funding vouchers →

Anna Saavedra: At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers at USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR) began tracking social, economic, and education outcomes among Americans through its nationally-representative online panel, the Understanding America Study (UAS)  with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Science Foundation. Between April and October 2020 we … Continue reading Evidence of COVID-19’s Impact on K-12 Education Points to Critical Areas of Intervention →

Byron Tau: A new survey found widespread concern among Americans about government tracking of their whereabouts through their digital devices, with an overwhelming majority saying that a warrant should be required to obtain such data. A new Harris Poll survey indicated that 55% of American adults are worried that government agencies are tracking them through … Continue reading Most Americans Object to Government Tracking of Their Activities Through Cellphones →

Joseph Cox: The IRS was able to query a database of location data quietly harvested from ordinary smartphone apps over 10,000 times, according to a copy of the contract between IRS and the data provider obtained by Motherboard. The document provides more insight into what exactly the IRS wanted to do with a tool purchased … Continue reading Civics: IRS Could Search Warrantless Location Database Over 10,000 Times →

Megan Kuhfeld: As the COVID-19 pandemic upended the 2019–2020 school year, education systems scrambled to meet the needs of students and families with little available data on how school closures may impact learning. In this study, we produced a series of projections of COVID-19-related learning loss based on (a) estimates from absenteeism literature and (b) … Continue reading Projecting the Potential Impact of COVID-19 School Closures on Academic Achievement →

Stephen McDonell: It’s only when you sit back and ask yourself, “What has Tony Chung actually done?” that you realise just how draconian Hong Kong’s state security law is. Among the accusations against Mr Chung: that he posted on social media advocating independence for Hong Kong. According to Joshua Rosenzweig, the head of Amnesty International’s … Continue reading Civics: What has 19 Year Old Tony Chung Actually Done? →

Jessica Murray: Schools which teach pupils that “white privilege” is an uncontested fact are breaking the law, the women and equalities minister has said. Addressing MPs during a Commons debate on Black History Month, Kemi Badenoch said the government does not want children being taught about “white privilege and their inherited racial guilt”. “Any school which teaches … Continue reading Teaching white privilege as uncontested fact is illegal, minister says Kemi Badenoch →

Phil Morgan: Taking a kid camping? Intimidating, yes—but if you equip yourself with a bit of know-how, mitigate risk, and practice overall good judgement, a night in the woods with a tot in tow is not only possible but also actually rollicking good fun. share this article flipboard For years, my wife, Ella, and I … Continue reading 10 Tips for Camping With Kids and Babies →

Addison Lathers: To thwart the continued transmission of COVID-19, the Madison Police Department began instituting measures to limit social gatherings in the downtown area with the support of UW-Madison leadership.  In a letter sent to downtown apartment buildings, Madison Police Department Acting Chief Victor Wahl said students attending gatherings may be fined a minimum of … Continue reading Madison police tell UW-Madison students they could be fined at least $376 for attending indoor gatherings of more than 10 people →

Richard P Phelps: Ten years ago, I worked as the Director of Assessments for the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). My tenure coincided with Michelle Rhee’s last nine months as Chancellor. I departed shortly after Vincent Gray defeated Adrian Fenty in the September 2010 DC mayoral primary. My primary task was to design an … Continue reading Looking Back on DC Education Reform 10 Years After, Part 1: The Grand Tour →

Emily Rauscher: The U.S. Department of Education made recent technical changes reducing eligibility for the Rural and Low-Income School Program. Given smaller budgets and lower economies of scale, rural districts may be less able to absorb short-term funding cuts and experience stronger negative achievement effects. Kansas implemented a state-level finance change (block grant funding) after … Continue reading Does Money Matter More in the Country? Education Funding Reductions and Achievement in Kansas, 2010–2018 →

Scott Girard: The budget vote this summer took place in a June 29 public meeting, and district spokesman Tim LeMonds pointed to a mention in the June 26 staff newsletter, which he called “the primary mechanism used for communicating to all staff.” In that newsletter, a “Budget Update” section on page two includes a mention … Continue reading Commentary on Taxpayer supported Madison Schools’ compensation practices (and budget) →

Statesman: What Biden says about school choice The Biden campaign said he’s firmly against using public money for private K-12 schools. Here’s the full statement we received: “Joe Biden opposes the Trump/(Betsy) DeVos conception of ‘school choice,’ which is private school vouchers that would destroy our public schools. He’s also against for-profit and low-performing charter … Continue reading Fact-check: Does Joe Biden want to end school choice? →

Emily Hamer: Grayson also consistently fights for Madison’s Black community on smaller stages. At a recent City Council meeting, Grayson urged council members to pass police oversight measures to hold the city’s law enforcement accountable, something protesters have pushed for. She said voting in support would be to “do what’s right in the lives of … Continue reading Activist Brandi Grayson says she’s an ‘agitator,’ fighter for Black lives →

Tax Foundation: What You’ll Learn 1 Identify some of the most common tax policy misconceptions and how to separate fact from fiction. 2 Discover why tax refunds shouldn’t be celebrated, why you should pay your income tax bill, and why certain deductions are wrongly labeled “loopholes,” among other useful facts. 3 Improve your ability to … Continue reading 10 Common Tax Myths, Debunked →

Will Cioci: “I am particularly unhappy about the fact that Dane County has chosen some very low numbers of case limits to decide whether to allow K-12 to start back up again in person,” she said. “I have asked that the county should revisit some of those K-12 limits.” One particular area of concern with … Continue reading “I am particularly unhappy about the fact that Dane County has chosen some very low numbers of case limits to decide whether to allow K-12 to start back up again in person” →

Rabail Chaudhry, George Dranitsaris, Talha Mubashir, Justyna Bartoszko and Sheila Riazi: Increasing COVID-19 caseloads were associated with countries with higher obesity (adjusted rate ratio [RR]=1.06; 95%CI: 1.01–1.11), median population age (RR=1.10; 95%CI: 1.05–1.15) and longer time to border closures from the first reported case (RR=1.04; 95%CI: 1.01–1.08). Increased mortality per million was significantly associated with … Continue reading A country level analysis measuring the impact of government actions, country preparedness and socioeconomic factors on COVID-19 mortality and related health outcomes →

Maxine McKinney de Royston and Erica O. Turner: Let’s be clear: an uncontrolled COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Black racism, xenophobia, climate crises and economic collapse are deepening existing inequities. A large body of research, including our own, shows that students of color are systematically denied access to safe and high-quality education. Maxine’s article, “I’m a Teacher, I’m … Continue reading Acting collectively and systemically for equity in pandemic schooling →

Dane County Madison Public Health: The Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ (DHS) Activity Tracker, Harvard guidance, COVID-local and COVIDActNow served as the main sources of the targets used for determining in-person instruction by grade level. Related: Catholic schools will sue Dane County Madison Public Health to open as scheduled Notes and links on Dane County Madison Public … Continue reading Dane County Madison Public Health Slides (late Friday) on Schools; “activity tracker” →

Shanzeh Ahmad: A 2018 graduate of West High School, Obuseh comes from a military family and moved to Madison in 2016 after having lived in Germany for some six years. Her younger brother is about to start his sophomore year at West. Before Germany, they lived in Delaware, Alabama and Georgia, where Obuseh was born … Continue reading 19-year-old activist helps spearhead youth-led Black Lives Matter movement →

Eugene Volokh: Before I get into the specifics of the various state and local statutes, let me flag some questions that different legislatures have answered differently (and, in some instances, that some legislatures haven’t expressly addressed). [1.] Criminal Liability, Civil Liability, or Both? Some of the statutes expressly provide for civil liability, some for criminal liability, … Continue reading Laws Protecting Private Employees’ Speech and Political Activity Against Employer Retaliation: Cross-Cutting Questions →

Emily Hamer: Breaking away from Madison’s recent decision to remove police officers from its schools, the Middleton-Cross Plains School Board on Monday voted to extend its contract for school resource officers. Citing the need for relationship building between officers and students and protection from school shootings, the board voted unanimously to re-approve the contract with … Continue reading Middleton-Cross Plains School District extends contract for police in schools →

David Randall: In 1996, Californians overwhelmingly approved Proposition 209 that prohibited all state agencies from using anyone’s race, ethnicity, or gender to discriminate against them or give them preference in university admissions, public employment, or competition for a state contract. Those who opposed Proposition 209 predicted that ending racial or gender favoritism would result in … Continue reading National Association of Scholars – The Effects of Proposition 209 on California: Higher Education, Public Employment, and Contracting: 2020 Update →

Logan Wroge: The Madison School Board approved a contract Monday to hire a Minnesota school administrator as the next superintendent before releasing details of the agreement to the public. That’s a change from how the board handled the hiring process for its first choice for superintendent — who later backed out of the job — … Continue reading “We know best”: Madison School Board approves superintendent contract before it becomes public →

Jason Stein: Estimates for WI general school aids are out from DPI – not surprisingly given its increases in property values, Madison schools will see max 15% decrease (largest decrease in raw $s in the state). Milwaukee Public Schools expected to get a 2% increase: bit.ly/38lfSWQ Budget Brief, via the Wisconsin Policy Forum: But for … Continue reading K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: Madison to receive 15% reduction in redistributed state tax dollars (property tax values and referendum spending are factors) →

Scott Girard: The Madison School Board will vote Monday on continuing or ending early its contract with the Madison Police Department to have officers stationed in its four comprehensive high schools. Based on public statements from board members this spring and previous votes, it’s likely the board will vote to end the contract early, though … Continue reading Madison School Board will vote on police contract Monday →

Alan Borsuk: First, success in reaching proficiency in reading is shockingly low among students from low-income homes and those who are black or Hispanic. The Wisconsin gap between white kids and black kids has often been measured as the worst in the United States.  Only 13% of black fourth through eighth graders in Wisconsin were rated as proficient or … Continue reading On the education front, one way to move from anger to action would be to make sure all youngsters are proficient in reading →

Karl Leif Bates: Hundreds of published studies over the last decade have claimed it’s possible to predict an individual’s patterns of thoughts and feelings by scanning their brain in an MRI machine as they perform some mental tasks. But a new analysis by some of the researchers who have done the most work in this … Continue reading Studies of Brain Activity Aren’t as Useful as Scientists Thought →

Patrick Jaicomo and Anya Bidwell: The Supreme Court created qualified immunity in 1982. With that novel invention, the court granted all government officials immunity for violating constitutional and civil rights unless the victims of those violations can show that the rights were “clearly established.” A virtually unlimited protection Although innocuous sounding, the clearly established test … Continue reading Civics: Police act like laws don’t apply to them because of ‘qualified immunity.’ They’re right. →

Kelly Meyerhofer: The System took a new approach for this study, contracting with Equifax, which identified employment records of UW graduates and sent the confidential, anonymized data to the System’s Office of Policy Analysis and Research for analysis. Among the findings: Graduates earned a median annual salary of nearly $50,000 a year out of college, … Continue reading University of Wisconsin uses Equifax Credit Bureau data to evaluate Graduate activity →

Steven Levitt: Little is known about whether people make good choices when facing important decisions. This article reports on a large-scale randomized field experiment in which research subjects having difficulty making a decision flipped a coin to help determine their choice. For important decisions (e.g. quitting a job or ending a relationship), individuals who are … Continue reading Heads or Tails: The Impact of a Coin Toss on Major Life Decisions and Subsequent Happiness →

Scott Girard: Ethan Yang had to recopy his essay into unfamiliar software as the clock ran down on the Advanced Placement U.S. Government and Politics exam Monday. The Memorial High School senior hit submit with seconds left, but the “Congratulations” screen never popped up — instead, he saw a message about the test being over … Continue reading ACT online testing commentary →

Kelly Ho: Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has claimed that students should be protected from being “poisoned” as she said that “false and biased” information had spread on campuses. She also rejected criticism on her administration’s Covid-19 measures and warned against legislative filibustering and “foreign interference.” In an interview with state-run newspaper Ta Kung Pao published … Continue reading Students cannot be ‘poisoned’ with ‘false, biased’ information says Hong Kong’s Carrie Lam, vowing action →

Yvonne Kim: As of April 30, over 70 institutions of higher education had adopted some form of test-optional policies this spring, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Board’s vote extends an interim policy, which suspended the requirement through June 17, through the 2021-2022 academic year. UW-Madison “may continue to require ACT or SAT scores from … Continue reading No ACT/SAT required at UW schools (except UW-Madison) →

Scott Girard: The Greater Madison Writing Project was set to celebrate its 10-year anniversary on March 21. Ten days before that, the University of Wisconsin-Madison closed most of its facilities and social distancing practices went into effect amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, forcing GMWP to cancel its celebration and shift its work with teachers and students online. … Continue reading In lieu of celebration, Greater Madison Writing Project shifts online for 10th anniversary →

AnnaMaria Andriotis and Orla McCaffrey: Robert Rodriguez and Migdalia Wharton, a married couple in Orlando, Fla., have been out of work for more than a month and can’t afford to pay their credit-card bills. When they called Capital One Financial Corp. to explain, the bank told them they could skip their April payments. But they … Continue reading K-12 Tax, Referendum & Spending Climate: Millions of Credit-Card Customers Can’t Pay Their Bills. Lenders Are Bracing for Impact. →

Tony Room: More than 2,100 U.S. cities are anticipating major budget shortfalls this year and many are planning to slash programs and cut staff in response, according to a survey of local officials released Tuesday, illustrating the widespread financial havoc threatened by the coronavirus pandemic. The bleak outlook — shared by local governments representing roughly … Continue reading K-12 Tax, Spending & Referendum Climate: More than 2,100 U.S. cities brace for budget shortfalls →

Ross Anderson: There have recently been several proposalsfor pseudonymous contact tracing, including from Apple and Google. To both cryptographers and privacy advocates, this might seem the obvious way to protect public health and privacy at the same time. Meanwhile other cryptographers have been pointing out some of the flaws. There are also real systems being built by governments. Singapore has already deployedand open-sourced one that uses contact tracing based … Continue reading Contact Tracing in the Real World →

Manner Thelua: A large number of artifacts held in Western museums and libraries are known to have been appropriated over the ages through conquest and colonialism. The looting of African objects anthropologists, curators and private collectors took place in war as well as in peaceful times. It was justified as an act of benevolence; as … Continue reading Should western museums return colonial cultural artifacts from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific? →

Jacob Kastrenakes: Google’s chief internet evangelist, Vint Cerf, suggests that privacy is a fairly new development that may not be sustainable. “Privacy may actually be an anomaly,” Cerf said at an FTC event yesterday while taking questions. Elaborating, he explained that privacy wasn’t even guaranteed a few decades ago: he used to live in a small town … Continue reading Google’s chief internet evangelist says ‘privacy may actually be an anomaly’ →

CJ Szafir and Libby Sobic: The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act provides $2.2 trillion of relief for those impacted by COVID. Of this, CARES allocates about $30 billion for K-12 schools and higher education institutions. Soon, Wisconsin will need to make decisions on how to spend the huge influx of federal funds on … Continue reading The CARES Act and Wisconsin’s K-12 Climate →

Kevin Carey: Nobody planned for an abrupt mass migration of traditional college courses to the internet. But because of coronavirus, that’s where we are. Hundreds of thousands of students have been told to clear out their belongings and head home, many through the end of the semester. In nearly every case, colleges have said that … Continue reading Everybody Ready for the Big Migration to Online College? Actually, No →

Theresa Harrington: The Oakland School District is prepared to cut its workforce by up to 100 workers starting July 1 and may consider eliminating its police force in the future. Both issues came before the school board on Wednesday night, ensuring that the district is likely to face months of turmoil as it cuts $18.8 … Continue reading Oakland school board votes $18.8 million in cuts, up to 100 layoffs →

Charlie Savage: A National Security Agency system that analyzed logs of Americans’ domestic phone calls and text messages cost $100 million from 2015 to 2019, but yielded only a single significant investigation, according to a newly declassified study. Moreover, only twice during that four-year period did the program generate unique information that the F.B.I. did … Continue reading Civics: N.S.A. Phone Program Cost $100 Million, but Produced Only Two Unique Leads →

Kyle Stokes: Independent expenditure groups are spending at record-setting levels on next month’s Los Angeles Unified School Board primary — which you could’ve probably guessed from all the ads filling your mailboxes. And an unusual number of those mailers ask LAUSD voters to vote against a candidate, rather than for one. So far this year, charter school proponents have spent … Continue reading Those Nasty LAUSD School Board Campaign Ads: What’s Fact? What’s Opinion? →

Scott Girard: A $35,000 contract not initially up for discussion at the Madison School Board meeting Monday night ended up the most hotly debated topic among board members. The contract with the city of Madison provides for up to $35,000 paid to the Madison Police Department in 2020 for officers to provide security, safety and crowd control … Continue reading $35K contract for police at school events turns into heated debate, protests Monday →

Elizabeth Dohms: Late last month, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction took a stand on a long-debated method of teaching reading to students, ruling that phonics has a place in literacy education after all. An approach that teaches students how written language represents spoken words, phonics got its endorsement from state schools Superintendent Carolyn Stanford Taylor during the 2020 Wisconsin … Continue reading Phonics Gains Traction As State Education Authority Takes Stand On Reading Instruction →

Scott Girard: The contract runs from June 1 to May 31 of the following year. The agreement would allow Gutiérrez 25 vacation days each year, 10 holidays off and up to 13 personal illness days. It will provide up to $8,500 for moving expenses as Gutiérrez and his family move from Seguin, Texas, and cover … Continue reading New Madison Schools superintendent’s $250K+ contract up for vote Monday →

Rich Kremer: The share of Wisconsin high school students deemed to be college-ready has declined since the 2014-2015 school year according to a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum. While the state leads most others that test 100 percent of high school students, the data also shows significant gaps in college-readiness based on race … Continue reading Wisconsin ACT Test Scores Have Declined Since 2014 →