Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
outtamojo
ParticipantTrying sooo hard to hold the Mendoza line at 38 – do they have enough muscle to keep this from being broken? Methinks not…
Participant[quote=Hobie]Outta: Me too. Must be the over 30 thing again. But… why people are so willing to give up their privacy? Everyone now checks out future employees, dates, via FB, blog, public records. Nothing is private anymore and its forever![/quote]
Time to make me a faked super hyped page for myself then : )
ParticipantJust opened at 42…
Participant[quote=Hobie]Flu; Brilliant post to Nina and spot on.
I won’t be buying FB for those exact reasons.
However, one thing that is really interesting about FB is the data. Realtime, self described, lifestyle info, personal demographics on tons of people. Best marketing research avail. Put conspiracy hat on and that data would be valuable to insurance co, medical policies, government, etc. And very targeted ads which we haven’t seen yet ( i believe). So while not a Google, it will prove to an evolving co. And volital stock.[/quote]
I don’t get this social networking myself, but I could see how it could be a sort of family archive that one could access a few generations later so one could see what the life of a grand parent was like or something like that.
ParticipantDon’t take incredible school ranking to the bank
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/may/15/dont-take-incredible-school-ranking-bank/?page=1#article
🙁
ParticipantTwo of ’em were African-American, 1 Hispanic. Their SATs were barely over 1K.
Participant[quote=flu][quote=poorgradstudent]School rankings are always goofy. It’s like college or pro sports rankings, except schools don’t actually play games against each other and rankings can shift a lot depending what you put a premium on. Five teams could take the same data and come up with five quite different sets of rankings.
As for flu’s comment on “wasting resources”, I don’t think it costs the district that much more to have 200 vs. 50 students all take the same AP test. The material covered in AP vs. non-AP Calculus isn’t that different, although in AP you might try to cram a couple topics into the last week or so if the class is behind schedule while non-AP might focus more on mastering what is possible and leaving it at that. I could be wrong about costs associated with pushing middle of the road students to take AP tests.
I’m a pretty firm believer that for the vast majority of students, the difference between a good vs. “great” school is pretty small. There’s a huge downside to going to a bad school. Of course, as I’ve stressed before, I have a friend who teaches at Lincoln, and I would imagine if you took her students and traded them with San Marcos students, their scores wouldn’t shift drastically. That doesn’t mean I want my kids going to Lincoln; there are obvious social issues and potential distractions of attending a school with a large number of under motivated pupils.
Anyways, good for San Marcos. Clearly they are at least doing some things right.[/quote]
Again, I’m not trying to ditch SMHS as not being a good schoo. It definitely is a good school. I’m just curious about these reports and rankings and how they come to be. Just funny imho…
Anyway, I really don’t care because like I said before.
You can belong the the best schools and best school districts, but if your kid is a moron, it really doesn’t matter…And vice versus…Have fun folks. I really don’t care…[/quote]
Hey, schools, prostitutes, stocks, RE- all better topics than politics : )
Participant[quote=flu][quote=outtamojo][quote=ocrenter]I agree with flu. something’s off.
I’ve always been an advocate that San Marcos High is up and coming and I am happy to see the improvement.
But I really wonder about the number.
How in the world do they get 100% of the kids to take the AP test. someone has been tweeking their policies to maximize their ranking.[/quote]
100% participation? Hard to imagine ANY high school without a few stoners lol. That school ranked #8 in La Jolla has a 100% participation rate also, but with a 32% pass rate. I think if they SMHS were to do some culling the pass rate would be higher, but then again, shouldn’t your public schools make every possible attempt to at least expose the less gifted/disadvantaged kids to the higher echelons of academia?[/quote]
No it shouldn’t because AP is not a prerequisite for getting into college. It’s more like a “GATE” program than a required curriculum….At least that was when I went through the public education system.
In our AP classes..People that took AP classes passed with 3 or better near 90%… And it was simple why. The teacher of AP clases basically flunked everyone first (ok gave everyone a C based on the teaching program), and if you did a 4 or better would go back and retroactively update your grade based on how you did on your exam…That way, the first two weeks of class, people who couldn’t make the cut opted not to do the AP class.
But folks that didn’t take AP didn’t mean they didn’t get into college…
AP classes are just that….. “Advanced Placement”…
A school that reports 100% participation in an “Advanced Placement” is just ridiculous… Because not everyone is “advanced”…
and it’s funny that U.S. News and World Report forgot about this key concept..[/quote]
I guess you and Flu both agree that AP classes should not be taught to everyone but I think it is better to find out how gifted you are while school is free than flame out in college. I know of more than a few high school classmates who never took AP classes, got into places like Berkely and Yale on what must have been, ahem, ethnic quota fulfillment, and then flunked out after 1 year. Which is more of a waste?
Participant[quote=ocrenter]I agree with flu. something’s off.
I’ve always been an advocate that San Marcos High is up and coming and I am happy to see the improvement.
But I really wonder about the number.
How in the world do they get 100% of the kids to take the AP test. someone has been tweeking their policies to maximize their ranking.[/quote]
100% participation? Hard to imagine ANY high school without a few stoners lol. That school ranked #8 in La Jolla has a 100% participation rate also, but with a 32% pass rate. I think if they SMHS were to do some culling the pass rate would be higher, but then again, shouldn’t your public schools make every possible attempt to at least expose the less gifted/disadvantaged kids to the higher echelons of academia? Keep in mind SMHS is 41% economically disadvantaged.
For comparison, that school in Fremont ranked #13 has about 4% econ disadvantaged, 85% participation, 88% pass rate(AP).ParticipantI pity those trying to purchase a place to get moved in before next school year starts.
ParticipantSilicon wafer maker WFR down to 2.80, was about 80 bucks a few years ago, imo starting to look interesting Chinese competition notwithstanding.
Participant[quote=flu]Interesting….The AP pass rate though isn’t it 55%?
versus say westview which is 83%?
I don’t know but the numbers don’t seem to tell the entire story…
For instance San Marcos indicates 100% of the student body participates in AP classes. But if 55% only pass,
Westview, only 67% participate in AP but 83% pass…
To me, this seems that SM is doing a lousy job culling kids that shouldn’t be taking AP in the first place, wasting resources on kids that are taking AP that shouldn’t be, at the expense of other kids who would do well…. It sounds cool to send ever kid to AP Calculus, but if 45% aren’t gonna make it, what’s the point besides looking good on paperv that you sent 100% of the students to AP? It seems more like a misappropriation of resources, because you’re spending time on kids that had no shot at passing AP…
Versus I think other schools that already have weeded out kids that wouldn’t have passed and not placed them into the AP program to begin with, allowing the school the focus resources more effectively….
Seems like just a numbers game to me to make things look better.[/quote]
Here is what they use to rank schools
http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2012/05/07/best-high-schools-methodology
“…is based on the key principles that a great high school must serve all of its students well, not just those who are college-bound….” so it appears that you are correct in that SMHS does try to pull the less gifted up by their bootstraps, which I find somewhat commendable.
This is what you would be more interested in I think: http://www.usnews.com/best-high-schools/rankings/math-science
Participant[quote=flu][quote=outtamojo]Local company Sequenom seems to be getting traction
for its Down’s Syndrom test http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/09/sequenom-idUSL4E8G98Q920120509?feedType=RSS&feedName=rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews&rpc=43%5B/quote%5Dimho too unpredictable to play….
Need something that’s predictable that moves up and down in more or less a consistent way…Something boring.Waiting for Nasdaq to turn positive after dumping this morning.[/quote]
You sound like an advertisment for Channelingstocks.com
ParticipantLocal company Sequenom seems to be getting traction
for its Down’s Syndrom test http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/09/sequenom-idUSL4E8G98Q920120509?feedType=RSS&feedName=rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews&rpc=43 -
AuthorPosts
