Monthly Archives: May 2014

A colleague who focuses much of his effort on recruiting minority students into physics and engineering took a look at my recent analysis of the achievement gap in Florida’s high school science and engineering pipeline and asked me for a … Continue reading →

Given Arne Duncan’s comments on racial inequities in access to high school math and science courses and the rather striking results of an analysis of disparities in AP science and math courses in Florida’s schools, it seems appropriate to quote from … Continue reading →

How do Florida’s black and Hispanic students do in the K-12 science and engineering pipeline?   As well as other students?  Or does the pipeline leak more for these minority students? Arne Duncan’s comments about access to advanced math and … Continue reading →

From the NMSI blog: Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke at the Education Writers Association’s 67th Annual Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, where he asserted that despite the 60-year-old ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, there … Continue reading →

In my 28 years at Florida State, I’ve served only one academic year in the Faculty Senate. That was 2002-2003, the year of the presidential search that resulted in the hiring of TK Wetherell, who was then President of Tallahassee … Continue reading →

If one more parent tells me how proud she or he is of her high school son or daughter for taking a college math course which turns out to be College Algebra, I will probably not be able to stifle … Continue reading →

This speech was given by the Salutatorian at Chiles High School in Tallahassee at the school’s 2007 graduation.  The Salutatorian was my eldest child, Catie, who is now an associate at a law firm in Chicago.  The speech was one … Continue reading →

Originally posted on Bridge to Tomorrow:
The American Physical Society’s Forum on Education, which I presently chair, publishes a newsletter three times per year that includes research and position articles in addition to announcements.  The Spring 2014 issue, which was…

Youngstown State University has hired its most popular former football coach to be its new president. It’s probably not as bad as it may seem at first blush.  Jim Tressel, whose highest academic degree is a master’s in education, is … Continue reading →

This weekend, the New York Times published a feature on the rise of computer programming in the K-12 schools, which has been driven by the tech industry-supported organization code.org. Code.org has led a misguided effort to allow computer programming courses to substitute … Continue reading →