What's Wrong With I.T.?

Here's an interesting piece regarding the shortage of IT workers in this country from eSchoolNews (free registration required for full article).

Continuing a recent trend that has many business leaders worried, the Computing Research Association's annual survey of universities with Ph.D.-granting programs found a 20-percent drop this year in students completing bachelors degrees in professional IT fields.

The trend--which comes at a time when demand for computer-related skills is increasing, and thousands of baby boomers are retiring from technical jobs--has many business leaders concerned that they won't find enough workers to maintain expected growth.

I'm really not surprised by this. With our school systems not graduating half of the students who start 9th grade, and with the lack of emphasis on actual learning rather than test-taking, is it any wonder that of those who do graduate, few are actually prepared for college? And of that few, what incentive do they have to choose the IT field when IT is always the first budget item cut or outsourced? It is a problem though, and will likely get worse before it gets better.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 854,000 professional IT jobs will be added between 2006 and 2016, an increase of about 24 percent. When replacement jobs are added in, total IT job openings in the 10-year period is estimated at 1.6 million.

The bureau estimates that one in 19 new jobs created during the 10-year period will be professional IT positions.

Technology is central to everything these days, and it's really unfathomable that this country is not doing more to help fill the IT pipeline. There is no data that anyone can show me that can conclusively prove that American kids of all backgrounds just don't want to, or can't compete in this field. I've worked with hundreds of them that do, especially the ones introduced to the information technology field early in their school lives. However most of those kids are "from the wrong side of the tracks," and there are not many resources allocated towards the curriculum and programs that sparks their interest and places them on a higher education path in the information technology field.

But the bottom line in industry is profit, and the corporate world seems to be awakening to the reality they've helped to create.

Microsoft has begun working with teachers to hold annual math camps and has launched programs such as DigiGirlz High Tech Camps, designed to provide girls in the ninth to 12th grades a better understanding of technology careers. Girls listen to executive speakers, participate in technology tours and demonstrations, network, and learn with hands-on experience in workshops.

Microsoft also has lobbied state lawmakers to boost math requirements in schools and has promoted a Math Matters program to raise awareness in schools about raising the level of math understanding

In many respects we have been squandering our greatest resource, our kids, and leaving them dependent on others to meet the future needs of this society. And not just in the IT field. The story is the same for nurses, petroleum engineers, and even teachers.

What will they be able to do for a living if all of the essential jobs are filled by people from outside the country? Sell each other hamburgers? We've got to do better than that.

Spelling Bee y Certamen De Ortograficá

Anybody out there ever watch the National Spelling Bee? It is as intense as any major sporting event, and this year was no exception. If you haven't ever taken the time to indulge, do. From the Associated Press:

...13-year-old (Sameer Mishra) from West Lafayette, Ind., who often had the audience laughing with his one-line commentaries, was all business when he aced "guerdon" — a word that appropriately means "something that one has earned or gained" — to win the 81st version of the bee Friday night.

Sameer, appearing in the bee for the fourth time and a top 20 finisher the last two years, clenched both fists and put his hands to his face after spelling the winning word. He won a tense duel over first-time participant Sidharth Chand, 12, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., who finally stumbled on "prosopopoeia," a word describing a type of figure of speech.

...The first-place finish won him $35,000 in cash and more than $5,000 in other prizes.

So who knew spelling could be so lucrative? You might want to point this out to your kids as they're practicing for their weekly tests. Here's a short video.

And then there's this, from the Chronicle:

As if spelling obscure, multisyllabic words in a single language wasn't difficult enough, 25 students from schools in Houston and Mexico competed Saturday in a bilingual spelling bee.

...The third- through sixth-grade competitors in the Maseca Bilingual Spelling Bee at Houston Baptist University were asked to spell words in Spanish, including the accent marks. They then had to translate the word and spell it in English.

...The bee originated 13 years ago in Ricardo Paras' fifth-grade bilingual class at Mission West Elementary School in the Fort Bend school district. He was disappointed when he learned that his Hispanic students were leery of participating in the school's regular spelling bee.

They were intrigued when he promised to start up a bilingual bee. From there, the idea flourished and in 1997, he organized his first regional spelling bee. Soon, students from other countries, including Mexico and Costa Rica, were attracted to the bee. Eight of the competitors in Saturday's bee were from schools in Mexico.

"I want not only Hispanic kids, but I want all of our children to be bilingual ... to have that global advantage," Paras said. "We want the kids to be proficient in both languages."

...The winner breezed through her last two words. Eleven-year-old Bianca Jun Im of Mexico City accurately spelled "rehén," which means "hostage," and "cocinero," or "cook."

I think that's a pretty cool idea. I took quite a few years of high school and college level Spanish and can communicate but am nowhere close to fluent. I wish I would have started learning the Spanish language and others a lot earlier in life.

With so many Spanish speakers here in Texas and literally a whole Spanish speaking world just across the Rio Grande stretching to the tip of South America, I think it would be a smart thing if our kids could all communicate with so many more people who inhabit our world.

Both stories show that academics are cool and can be pretty competitive, a lesson all of our kids should be taught.

Summer Enrichment Programs for Students of Color

If your high schooler is moping around already and grumbling about nothing to do this summer, you might as well help them prepare for college.

Below is a list of summer programs primarily for students of color. As with any other useful resource, please pass this information on to someone who may be able to take advantage of it.

P.S. I received this list via Adrian at Black Women in Europe. Thanks Adrian, I'm sure some kids in America will be able to make good use of this list of resources.

Diversity Summer Programs

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Black Excel

Summer Programs and Internships for High School and College Students: 2007

100-Plus Summer Enrichment Programs

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Dedicated Engineers

Dow Jones Newspaper Fund

INROADS

Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network

WECAAARE Education Foundation

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College Horizons

Target: Native American students; rising sophomores & juniors

College sites change each year (2008 programs at Duke Univ. and Lawrence Univ.)

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College-Specific:

California Institute of Technology

Young Engineering and Science Scholars

Target: Historically under-represented students in science and engineering; rising sophomores and juniors

Carleton College

Liberal Arts Experience

Target: African American students; rising juniors

Cornell University

CURIE Academy

Target: High school girls interested in engineering; rising juniors and seniors

CATALYST Academy

Target: African American/Latino or Native American students interested in science, technology, engineering and math; rising sophomores, juniors and seniors

Howard University

Summer Enrichment Program and Recruitment

Target: African American/Hispanic students applying for admission to health professions in the CPNAHS at Howard University

Lehigh University

Students That Are Ready (S.T.A.R.) Academies

Target: Economically and academically disadvantaged and/or at-risk middle/high school aged students

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MITES

Target: First-generation, historically under-represented in science and engineering; rising seniors

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

PREFACE Summer Program

Target: Historically under-represented students in science/technology; rising sophomores & juniors interested in engineering and technology

University of Notre Dame

African American Scholars Program

Target: Catholic African American high school students

Latino Community Leadership Seminar

Target: Catholic Latino students; rising seniors

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

STRIVE

Target: African American/Latino/American Indian students interested in engineering; rising juniors and seniors

Go Ahead Then

Here's a nice story about academic achievement from today's Chronicle.

Super-student twins offered $3.58 million in scholarships

...the brothers received a combined $3.58 million in scholarship offers, in addition to $67,000 in outside scholarships.

"I'm happy for them, that the hard work they've put into their education — I'm happy to see them get results," said their mother, Lana Dawson, an auditor for the city of Birmingham who raised her twin sons as a single mom.

She watched Thursday as her only children walked across the stage as honor graduates of the Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School. Logan and Ryan, with respective 4.6 and 4.5 GPAs and 33 and 32 ACT scores, were ranked in the top 20 of their class. They both are National Achievement, Coca-Cola and Elks scholars.

While the natural focus is on the boys themselves for putting in the hard work to be academically successful, I think the spotlight really needs to shine on their mother and grandparents, who laid the foundation for their success, and made them stick to it. It takes a village.

The article didn't mention the status of their father, and I hope he's not of the deadbeat variety. His omission doesn't give you much hope on that front though. Imagine how many more success stories of this type we'd have if Dad was in the picture?

Finally, as usual when you read the Houston Chronicle, the comments beneath the story tell a whole different story. There do seem to be an awful lot people out there who slam every story of African-American achievement as racist against White folks; evidence that prejudice and discrimination don't exist; is an example of affirmative action; or just plan not worthy of the news. We can't win for losing in other words.

Talk about bitter and clinging to stuff.

Can I Get A Job?

It's becoming a rare thing to go into a fast food restaurant these days and find teenagers working manning the crews. I suppose there's a lot of reasons for that; the sagging economy has led grown folks to get work where they can, the fast food serving as entry point employment for new immigrants, or maybe kids these days are just lazy and only want to play video games.

Ok, that last item was out of line, but the reality is that kids who are looking for employment are having a hard time making that happen this summer. From the Wall Street Journal:

More teens will be looking for summer jobs this year than last -- but fewer will be getting them.

After sinking to a new low in 2007, teen summer employment is expected to fall again, to the lowest rate in the 60-year history of government jobs data. Working teens ages 16 to 19 will slide to 34% of the population, from 34.5% last year, predicts Andrew Sum of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. That's down from 45% in 2000 and a high of 48.5% in 1989.

When I was a teenager almost every kid I knew eagerly awaited the summer because that was when we could work and earn money to do things we wanted to do but couldn't afford to because our families were poor. Not to mention being able to help Mom out with a little change here and there. The jobs we worked were all entry level: fast food, lawn mowing, etc. Jobs that most adults weren't trying to do. Now however, as this article goes on to say:

More adults, including unemployed college grads, older workers, former welfare recipients, immigrants and working adults seeking second jobs, are competing for low-skilled hourly posts. Teens are increasingly confined to jobs in the service and retailing sectors, and many employers have raised minimum hiring ages to 18 or 19.

There used to be summer jobs programs almost everywhere for high school kids. These programs, funded through federal and state grants, provided students with opportunities to make some money, learn responsibility, and stay out of trouble. By and large, most of these programs are gone, and to the detriment of society as a whole. Their disappearance, and the difficulty gaining employment through regular channels, again has me wondering, "What exactly does this country have against it's own kids?"

With the educational system producing 50% dropout rates, and fewer and fewer opportunities for gainful employment, what options are our kids going to be left with? More importantly, what options will this country have as our competitiveness continues to decline, due to an increasingly uneducated, unskilled, workforce?

How we plan to address this problem is an issue I'd like to see on the political radar, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for it.

Family Feud - Windows Vista vs XP

Since the 'build it and they will come' paradigm hasn't exactly work in the case of Windows Vista, Microsoft is taking a different approach. From eSchool News:

Microsoft will stop offering Windows XP in retail stores June 30, but at least two major computer manufacturers say school districts, colleges, and universities will be able to buy machines with the older operating system until January 2009, as Windows Vista—released last year—remains unpopular with many consumers.

Windows XP, the seven-year-old predecessor to Vista, continues to be a preferred option for many schools, because it allows them to run applications that don't always work with Vista.

I suppose I feel Microsoft's pain. Even though they've sold a lot of copies of Vista, it still has to grate on them that customers prefer the 7 year old clunker versus the shiny new model. I understand where schools are coming from though too.

Officials in Virginia's Fairfax County Public Schools, one of the largest school districts in the country, said last summer that Vista worked "automatically" with only half of their existing computer programs—meaning IT managers would have to make adjustments for the other half of the school system's programs.

If I were considering upgrading, that statement alone would cause me to really think twice about it. But to be fair, I'm an operating system agnostic. On any given day, I might use Windows 2000, Linux/Kubuntu, and Windows XP. For the work I do, I like the Windows XP operating system since it provides a stable platform, and the hardware drivers for all different types of computer systems are readily accessible. I simply haven't used Vista heavily enough to really give an informed opinion on it. Here's a good comparison from an enterprise perspective.

Either way it goes, Microsoft is still making their money. Any thoughts out there from you folks who've used both operating systems?

Linux Anyone?

Any of y'all know anything about Linux, especially Kubuntu? If so, I have a request. In the real world I refurbish computers and right now have a bunch of Fujitsu Stylistic ST4110 Tablet PC's that I'm trying to prepare for an educational project.

The problem? There's no after market version of the Windows Tablet PC operating system available, and VISTA is too big and too expensive for use in this project. So, I'm turning to Linux, and while I've installed the Kubuntu kernel on desktops before, this is a completely new scenario.

If anyone has any experience with this sort of thing, or just want to tinker with something like this, I'd love to hear from you in the comments or via email at therealready@gmail.com.

Thanks in advance.

Who's Securing Your School's Network?

Maybe they were just doing their part to boost the dismal graduation rates of Houston area schools, or preparing for future careers in network security. Or corporate espionage. In either case;

Four high school students are being investigated on suspicion of breaking into the Fort Bend Independent School District's computer network and changing the grades of at least 60 students, according to court documents and school officials.

Now that raises some troubling issues about network security doesn't it? I mean if a few kids can get in to change grades, what happens when someone with more skills and more nefarious purposes takes a crack at hacking in? And apparently this is a recurring problem on multiple campuses.

"Fort Bend ISD has reported numerous unauthorized breaches of the network which have resulted in alteration and destruction of data including grade changes," the documents said.

...The probe also revealed that Dulles, Bush and Travis high schools also lost computer data, although the type of information was not disclosed.

Don't worry though, as the article goes on to inform us that

The case is the latest school hacking incident across the United States in recent years. Students from almost every corner of the country at high schools and universities have been caught, and in many cases charged, with crimes for tapping into computer systems and changing grades.

So everybody's doing it, everywhere. I don't know about you, but I feel a whole lot better now.

As much as I preach that our kids need to really understand technology, how it works, and its affect on their lives, this isn't what I mean. We know these kids were paying attention during their programming class, but unfortunately they learned some of the wrong lessons too.

Thank God For The Scientific Method

I've been on the road a little so posting has been light, but I did want to weigh in on this:

With virtually no discussion, the state's Higher Education Coordinating Board voted unanimously Thursday to deny a request by a Bible-based school and research institute to offer a master's degree in science education.

The issue was whether the institute, whose leaders believe in creationism, or that the world was literally created as recounted in the Bible, could adequately prepare its graduates to teach science in middle schools and high schools. Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes had found — and board members agreed — that it could not.

And I would have to agree, although I think they should have allowed discussion on the issue. You know the levels of faith-based foolishness would've been off the charts, which is usually good for a few laughs.

I've written about this stuff before, and as I said then

I don't have an issue if some folks want to hang their hat on intelligent design as our reason for being here, but to teach it as science is ridiculous. It is theology.

But I digress. In my opinion, this issue is about politics. And religion. Once combined, the results are usually inflammatory and this case is no exception. Creationism has it's place; especially in the church. However to teach it as science without applying the scientific method would be a tremendous disservice to students, who are already suffering from an educational system that is not meeting their needs.

With fifty percent dropout rates, the fact that our education system isn't producing the graduates needed by our industries, and that our students are falling further behind others in the developed (and developing) world, wouldn't it be nice to have a conversation about actually fixing the problem instead of promoting political and religious agendas?

A man can dream can't he?

Talented Tenth Redux

Almost missed this one.

An 18-year-old Sugar Land student sued the University of Texas at Austin on Monday, challenging the school's use of racial preferences in its admissions policy.

Abigail Noel Fisher, a senior at Stephen F. Austin High School in Sugar Land, was named in the lawsuit filed on her behalf by the Project on Fair Representation.

Project director Edward Blum, an activist against race preferences... ...said Fisher, who is white, will graduate in the top 12 percent of her class next month but learned in late March that she was not accepted at UT-Austin.

The lawsuit doesn't challenge the top 10 percent law, which guarantees admission to those who finish in the top 10 percent of a Texas high school's graduating class. Instead, it contends that UT-Austin unlawfully uses racial and ethnic criteria to select other students.

Where to start? Well how about here. The University of Texas is overwhelming Caucasian, who make up 55 percent of the student body. Hispanics make up 15.6 percent, and Asians comprise another 15 percent. African-Americans? 4.2 percent.

The 10 percent rule was put in place because of activists who felt that UT's and other Texas schools use of race-based admissions to increase campus diversity was unlawful.

The top 10 percent law was adopted after a 1996 court ruling stopped Texas colleges and universities from considering race and ethnicity in deciding admissions; UT-Austin's minority enrollment is higher now than at any time since the law passed.

So far it's worked although you'd be hard pressed to tell based on those percentages. Now apparently these activists have a problem with the solution devised. From their website we learn that it's not the 10 percent rule that they have a problem with, but rather that the University uses other criteria to round out their admission policy.

For those students not in the top-10% of their graduating class, UT-Austin considers SAT scores and a variety of other factors. The UT web site states:

“We consider many factors as we review applications and make admissions decisions. In particular we’re looking for insight into two aspects of each applicant: academic achievement and personal achievement.“

Their argument is that UT's 10 percent policy has worked and to use race in any way towards determining the remaining applicants is unconstitutional.

Now I feel for Ms. Fisher because obviously she really wants to go to UT. However somewhere in this great state of ours, there are other students who worked just a little bit harder to make it into the top 10 percent. Additionally, there are also students who have achieved both personally and academically that UT warranted as worthy of admission. In all likelihood, some of those students are minorities.

That's the university's choice and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of room for interpretation of that by activists. At least I haven't seen the evidence that Caucasian kids are being excluded to bring in more Black or Hispanic students, which is what this case is all about.

I suppose we'll see how it plays out in court, but until then I say Go UT!

What???

A friend alerted me to this Houston Chronicle article dated April 3, 2008, in which we learn that

Houston eighth-graders posted a five-point gain on the writing portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, but still lagged behind many of their classmates in urban school systems across the country.

...The sampling of 139,000 eighth-graders across the country who took the exam — dubbed the Nation's Report Card — posted an average score of 154 out of a possible 300. Texas students earned a 151, down one point from 2002, the last time the writing exam was given.

...Only middle-schoolers in Cleveland and Los Angeles posted scores lower than HISD's 143 average, according to 2007 results released Thursday.

Well that's bad news, but it's delivered in a pretty straightforward manner. Until you get to this sentence, which she, and I, have a problem with. Can you tell why?

...And the 11 percent of HISD test-takers who are either Anglo or Asian scored 171 points, well above Hispanics' 138 and blacks' 140. Hispanic and black students in Houston did see six- and four-point gains, respectively.

Hmmm. I have some questions.

1. Why are Anglos and Asians linked together? Who's scores were highest?
2. Why are "Anglo," "Asian," and "Hispanic" all capitalized, but "black" isn't?
3. Most importantly, why, even though Blacks have higher scores, are we listed dead last?

Why do we always have to be at the bottom, even when we're not? And identified with a lower case letter? Come on now. As Fannie Lou Hamer said, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. If you are too, drop the author a line to let her know how you feel. jennifer.radcliffe@chron.com

H1B(S)

I don't know about you, but I have a problem with this: High-tech firms playing visa lottery.

On Tuesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services opened the five-day application period for the H1-B program for the 2008-09 fiscal year. ...The program is designed to import educated and skilled workers for jobs that American companies cannot fill. The visas are generally issued for three years, and renewable for another three.

Nothing against workers from anywhere, but someone please tell me that if this country is importing literally hundreds of thousands of technology workers, engineers, nurses, and teachers from around the world to fill in "gaps," why are there basically no efforts underway to increase the numbers of graduates in those specific fields from within U.S. high schools, universities, and colleges? Apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Some white-collar American workers have protested the proposed expansion of H1-B. John Miano, a 45-year-old programmer who owns a New Jersey software consulting company, testified in Congress in March 2006 that the program lets companies replace Americans with foreign workers at lower wages.

"The H1-B statutes are the best legislation money can buy," he said in an interview Tuesday. "This law has been deliberately written to allow abuse to go on with impunity. This program is a cheap labor program. It contains loopholes that allow employers to legally pay H1-B workers ... significantly less than U.S. workers."

Really? No wonder so many of the major U.S. companies are all for it then. But while their profits soar, we're writing off American kids who should be more than capable of filling these jobs with the right education and training. Obviously, that's not the case. Not to mention that the end result of this process will eventually simply push more and more U.S. jobs and companies overseas, further limiting the options for our kids futures.

There are worthy programs that prepare young people for employment in the technology workforce that are basically being starved to death due to lack of funding. For those students that do things the right way and complete their educations, what assurances do they have that the industries in which they plan to work will hire them if the abundance of cheaper talent from overseas continues to be offered as basically a government subsidized alternative?

I'd sure like for someone to tell me how this ultimately benefits the American economy. The day may soon arrive when workers from this country will have to emigrate in large numbers to other places in order to sustain their families at home, much like what's happening here now.

Talk about the flipping the script.

Chitlin Testing

I had a conversation a while back with That Girl Boo about the cultural bias of aptitude tests like the SAT, and how folks use the results of such tests to disparage our people as a whole. If the situation were reversed and the questions asked of students were based on the Black experience, history, and events, I'm sure that we would be writing a whole lot of articles about why White (and other) kids aren't as smart as their black counterparts. Then I saw this today:

As soon as she heard her classmates giggle and utter the word "Negro," 17-year-old Kayla Thomas started thumbing ahead in the test that had been handed out to her psychology class.

Thomas, a student at Klein Collins High School in the Klein district, says she was stunned to find that her Advanced Placement class had been given a copy of the so-called "Chitling Intelligence Test."

The multiple-choice exam, which includes references to "handkerchief heads," welfare mothers and how long chitlings should be cooked, was written almost 40 years ago to illustrate how intelligence tests could be culturally biased.

I've got to be truthful here y'all, I didn't know this test even existed, but apparently it's been around for 40 years. And apparently it has proven over the years that aptitude tests ARE biased. But my question is what other tests are still used in the exact same form they were originally written, without updates, for 40 years? I mean, I don't think most of us could answer these questions nowadays, although I'm not sure if that link is to a real example of the so-called Chitlin Test, particularly due to the title (Black Intelligence Test for Cultural Homogeneity), but you get the point. Ms. Taylor was understandably upset:

...Thomas says the materials, developed after the 1960s race riots in Los Angeles, aren't appropriate for a modern-day high school class. In addition to an apology from the teacher, she wants the Klein district to remove the material from its curriculum.

"It's not right," the senior said. "It's not acceptable. This is the 21st century."

The district says it's all a big mistake and everything would be fine if the regular teacher would have been there to prepare students for the materials they were about to see. What do y'all think? Are these tests still relevant?

Are African Americans Still Mis-Educated?

HISTORY shows, then, that as a result of these unusual forces in the education of the Negro he easily learns to follow the line of least resistance rather than battle against odds for what real history has shown to be the right course. A mind that remains in the present atmosphere never undergoes sufficient development to experience what is commonly known as thinking. No Negro thus submerged in the ghetto, then, will have a clear conception of the present status of the race or sufficient foresight to plan for the future; and he drifts so far toward compromise that he loses moral courage. The education of the Negro, then, becomes a perfect device for control from without. Those who purposely promote it have every reason to rejoice, and Negroes themselves exultingly champion the cause of the oppressor.

...[T]he lack of confidence of the Negro in himself and in his possibilities is what has kept him down. His mis-education has been a perfect success in this respect.

The Mis-Education of the Negro
Chapter 10: The Loss of Vision
Carter G. Woodson

Since my introductory post I have been anguishing over what topic I should delve into first. Although DP has given me the privilege to talk about anything, I am fixated on techno-social issues. So over the past few weeks I was trying to sort through a deluge of topics that seemed important but I was feeling like Michael Jackson trying to follow up “Thriller”… good material but not good enough to be a follow up.

So over the past month I have just been basically functioning in this daze – which if you ask some people is somewhat my normal state – because DP is telling me all the stuff I need to put in writing. During this time I happened upon three events that were not the least bit unusual. In fact, I would even consider them to be rather commonplace occurrences. Then late the other night I thought about these three events collectively for the first time and all I could hear was Denzel (Malcolm X) “we’ve been bamboozled… hoodwinked… led astray!”

The first event was the guy selling CDs and DVDs at the corner store. I live in the hood so there is always someone at the corner store selling their wares, especially on Friday and the first of the month. What made this event unique was not his entrepreneurial talents – which were rather good if I do say so myself – but the praise for his product. My neighbor came over looking for my wife to tell her that “The DVD Man” (this is the moniker he goes by) was at the store. “The DVD Man” is purported to have the best quality movies to ever grace “the hood”!

**NOTE**: Let me go on record here and say that we do not own any bootleg movies in my house.

The second event occurred at a technology forum that I attended last week. The topic was broadband access and the concern that the current network infrastructure is going to soon be overtaxed because of the emergence of new multimedia delivery options, the bundling of television, voice and data packages, High Definition television, and an ever growing user community. One of the keynote speakers, Larry Irving, talked about the “EXAFLOOD”. During his presentation he introduced the audience to several products that had the potential of revolutionizing our lives. Among these were the Slingbox – this device allows you to view and control your cable/satellite, TiVO, and DVD Player from your laptop and/or mobile phone via an internet connection; the Amazon Kindle and iTunes. Mr. Irving spoke briefly about an innovative feature of iTunes called iTunes-U, more about this later.

As I spanned the crowd of attendees I couldn’t help but count the number of African Americans in attendance. Although I already knew that the number would be small, I always like to pick a number and then see how close my prediction was… for the record the number was 9. My number was 15... boy was I wrong!!

The third and final event was when I viewed my credit card account. I have a pre-paid credit card that my children and I use for online purchases. I encourage them to put some of their allowance in the account, although they rarely do. I monitor the account on a regular basis but for the first time I decided to view the account with a little more detail. To my surprise my kids and I had purchased over $150 worth of music and videos from iTunes over the past month. When I asked them why were they downloading so much music they told me that some of the music was being used for ringtones on their cell phones and other music was being mixed and burned to CD for trading with (and selling to) their friends.

As I thought about these events the other night I thought about the above text from Carter G. Woodson’s book, The Mis-Education of the Negro.

Is it just me or are we taking the path of least resistance to become a part of the information technology community? It appears that the message is one of African Americans being relegated to a role of spectator, and to make matters worse it appears that African-Americans only want to be entertained!

Are we telling our children that we have taken them as far as we can while refusing to acknowledge that we have neglected to equip them with the intangible tools to sufficiently develop their ability to think beyond the here and now?

The cost for attending a college or university is rising to the point that getting a degree is luxury afforded to the wealthy or the gifted and talented. Added to the fact that many African American parents have failed to save or to establish a college fund for their children causes me to really wonder how our children will survive in this new global workforce.

While a degree may be expensive, an education is available for those seeking to learn. As I mentioned earlier iTunes has a program called ITunes-U. According to Apple’s website:

“[iTunes U] is designed to be completely intuitive, iTunes U is based on the iTunes Store, where millions of people already get their music, movies, and TV shows. Now there’s an area of the iTunes Store devoted entirely to education, where it’s easy to search thousands of audio and video files from schools across the country.”

The site goes on to say:

“Just like the iTunes Store, the popularity of iTunes U has exploded. Already, more than half of the nation’s top 500 schools use it to distribute their digital content to students — or to the world. Any school can open all or part of its site to the public, from alumni to parents to anyone with a love of learning. iTunes U is transforming the way people learn on campus, off campus, and where there’s no campus at all.”

With society in general and the internet in particular offering people so many things to dull their senses it’s imperative that we provide our children with tools that have meaningful, positive and lasting results in their lives.

Now it might sound like I'm shilling for iTunes but trust me I'm not. But if your middle or high school student is having trouble with algebra, isn't it good to know that in addition to the latest Pimp C tribute jam, he/she can also download a course from a leading mathematics professor, or learn physics/chemistry from a professor at MIT?

Can you get with me? `Cuz I'm There... Already!!

@p.buzz

Intelligent (Or Not) Design

It's going to take a lot more than faith to get our education system on track, especially with partisan nonsense like this occuring:

After 27 years as a science teacher and 9 years as the Texas Education Agency’s director of science, Christine Castillo Comer said she did not think she had to remain “neutral” about teaching the theory of evolution.

“It’s not just a good idea; it’s the law,” said Ms. Comer, citing the state’s science curriculum.

But now Ms. Comer, 56, of Austin, is out of a job, after forwarding an e-mail message on a talk about evolution and creationism — “a subject on which the agency must remain neutral,” according to a dismissal letter last month that accused her of various instances of “misconduct and insubordination” and of siding against creationism and the doctrine that life is the product of “intelligent design.”

Her departure, which has stirred dismay among science professionals since it became public last week, is a prelude to an expected battle early next year over rewriting the state’s science education standards, which include the teaching of evolution.

Look, I don't have an issue if some folks want to hang their hat on intelligent design as our reason for being here, but to teach it as science is ridiculous. It is theology.

Why?

For one it hasn't been subjected to the Scientific Method. Remember that? Basically it states that if you have a theory regarding why something is, like intelligent design, you're forced to test it against various hypothesis until it is proven or disproved. For a step by step guide, refer to the diagram above or go here.

How exactly can you do that with intelligent design? It's either you believe or you don't.

Which means it's not science.

Which means it shouldn't be taught as science.

Which means science teachers with 27 years of classroom and 9 years of administrative experience, shouldn't be getting fired for forwarding...

...to a local online community an e-mail message from the National Center for Science Education, a pro-evolution group, about a talk in Austin on Nov. 2 by Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University, a co-author of “Inside Creationism’s Trojan Horse” and an expert witness in the landmark 2005 case that ruled against the teaching of intelligent design in the Dover, Pa., schools.

With faith-based foolishness like this going on, we have the nerve to wonder why our students aren't competing with everyone else in science and technology.

Dropout Factories

A wise man (my brother) once said that "America might be the only great power to fall because its citizens weren't educated enough to maintain it." I'm starting to realize the truth in that statement. From the Chronicle and multiple other news outlets today:

AUSTIN — Texas has 185 high schools, including 42 in the eight-county Houston area, that are hemorrhaging students fast enough to be called "dropout factories" in a new national report.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, who conducted the study for The Associated Press, applied that label to high schools with an attrition rate of 40 percent or higher — which amounted to one in 10 high schools across America.

The report's release coincides with a Texas study by the San Antonio-based Intercultural Development Research Association showing a 34 percent statewide attrition rate for the 2006 graduating class.

No matter how you look at it, this is a travesty that exposes policy initiatives like "No Child Left Behind" as just so much empty rhetoric. No child is left behind - by themselves anyway. They've got nearly half of their classmates with them. The schools are applying a different spin to the issue of course.

While they don't think the study is solid, Houston ISD officials acknowledge the district's dropout rate is too high. They've tried to tackle the issue by holding an annual door-to-door walk in the fall to look for students who haven't returned to school. The district also has a team of specialists who do a similar job year-round.

(Spokesman Terry) Abbott echoed the mobility issue, citing a ninth-grader who starts in one school and graduates in another can count as a dropout, and HISD has many transfers within the district.

"Calling them 'dropout factories' is just wrong. It's offensive to the many great men and women who give their lives to teaching children every day," he said.

He's right, there are many excellent teachers in the district who are dedicated to helping their students succeed. I'm sure that there are others just drawing a paycheck. But the issue isn't so much about teachers as it is about the allocation of resources, as evidenced by the "dropout factories" overwhelmingly being located in poor, inner city communities. Of course this issue affects African-Americans and Latinos disproportionately, especially here in Texas.

Maria Cuca Robledo, director of the Intercultural Development Research Association, said the term is "accurate" and noted that about 70 percent of the 2.7 million Texas students who left school during her group's study period were Hispanic or black.

But here's the money quote:

Schools plan for a 30 percent student attrition rate when hiring teachers, developing curriculum and building new schools, she said.

Planning for a 30 percent dropout rate? Like I said earlier, anyway you look at it this is a travesty.

Academy Awards for Education

You only need to look at the numbers of students who are NOT graduating within our major urban districts to recognize that there is a real problem. From The Disputed Truth Afrosphere Blog:

"I recently came across some statistics that seemed unbelievable to me in America. It appears that in 10 of our largest cities the public school systems are graduating less than half of their students. That is correct they will graduate less than 50% of their students. According to the report compiled by EPE Research and published in the USA Today, there are 14 school districts that graduate less than 50% of their students. This should be a national emergency; except for one small caveat the majority of students in these schools are minorities."

He's right, it should be a national emergency, but since it's not, it should at least be on our radar as an issue worthy of African-Americans collective attention. The graduation rate for students entering 9th grade in Houston is 48.9%! That's appalling any way you look at it, but many of us aren't looking at it at all.

The issue is that many of our students are so far behind, especially in regard to reading comprehension, math, science, and technology that it is simply not possible to get them caught up through your typical school day format. However, computer and internet technology provides a means to increase students time on task, both during and after school, giving them a chance to catch up, in addition to providing alternative educational delivery vehicles for those students who, for whatever reason, have difficulty learning in the traditional classroom setting.

So while I know it's usually all about marketing when a big multinational like Intel promotes an effort of this sort, I can't help but think they're doing the right thing in spite of themselves.

It's not often that educators are hailed as celebrities, escorted by limousine from the airport to a black-tie reception, and given an awards banquet held in their honor.

But for one night, at least, winners of the 2007 Intel Schools of Distinction Awards--which recognize K-12 schools for their exceptional use of technology to enhance math and science education--got a taste of what it's like to be treated as royalty.

"We want them to feel like stars, because they are," said Craig R. Barrett, chairman of the board for Intel Corp. "This is the Academy Awards for education."

We need more activities and honors of this sort highlighting innovation and achievement in education. I'd really like to hear in particular about innovations in minority districts and schools. This issue is near and dear to me because these kids are our future, and at this point, we are failing them.