Friday, September 17, 2010

Today's Random Thoughts

-The results from the Nashville incentive pay experiment are being released on Tuesday, so keep your eyes open . . . and check back here for some more pre- and post-release thoughts.

-Hopefully everybody read this post entitled "Can Exercise Make Kids Smarter?".  The short answer: yes, it can. There's a fast-growing body of literature linking academic performance to all sorts of social conditions and environmental factors that I think we should start paying more attention to.  In the end, though, the bigger question will be what we do with this knowledge (e.g. figuring out how to get kids to exercise more is probably harder than figuring out how exercise affects brain development, body function, and academic performance).

-There seems to be an awful lot of gnashing of the teeth over Fenty's loss and how it proves that mayors that tackle education reform can't get re-elected.  Isn't it instead possible that the objections of the public were more over style than substance?  Maybe people like Rhee's reforms but don't like the way she implemented them (or maybe they would just rather she implemented different reforms).  I think we'd need a heck of a lot more analysis before we could conclude that Fenty lost simply because he tried to change schools -- and that any other mayor who tries will share a similar fate.

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