PISA

First I heard of this group was in Pat Buchanan's The Sky is Falling book where he cites a study of the PISA results published by virginiadare.com.
Like the video, it states that US schools ain't bad. But that author breaks things down by ethnicity & points out the US average core is weighed down by African Americans and Hispanics while Euro Americans & Asian Americans have very good scores. He also points out that Hispanics in the US schools did better than Hispanics in Central & South American countries.
So, maybe our schools are doing something right?
Here's one of the graphs that is missing on the site.As the vdare guy says, there's a ton of data and he does not cite a lot of factors like student wealth or if the kid lives in a rural or urban area. You could break it down to poor rural Asians v. wealthy urban Hispanics, single parent v. double parent, ethnicity of adopted parents & see where it gets you, but the bottom line is not the initial, overall national scores.

State of Ohio School Board, District 4

This episode of newsmakers looks at the candidates for the school board of the state of Ohio candidates Patricia Bruns - D and Zachary Haines - R.
Bruns comes off not real great as a communicator but appears to have a grasp on teaching with 30+ years experience. Haines seems to have no experience in education, running a janitorial supply store, but he does seem to be a strong partisan Republican who likes to regurgitate their talking points right or wrong.

Come Again, Willie ?
Back when John McCain was running against Barak O'Bama for president, Cincinnati's bombastic radio fool, WLW's Willie Cunningham, predicted that if O'Bama was elected he would soon be sitting around singing Kumbaya with Islamo-terrorists who wanted to kill us all.

It appears the "Great American" was a little off.
While O'Bama continues 2 wars against predominantly Muslim States, he has just engaged in a third. Meanwhile, Ohio governor, John DICK Kasich has upped Ohio's support for school vouchers. This lets Ohio parents divert money from the public school system & give it to charter schools & private schools. In Ohio and the nation one of the fastest growing segments of charter schools is Islamic oriented. That is, madrassas. Ohio is alredy up to 19. Is that where John DICK Kasich's beloved heartland wants to invest it's education dollars?
It seems the one most likely to be sitting around singing Kumbaya with Al Quaeda won't be O'Bama but John DICK Kasich.

Growth v. Ed
The Fishwrap has reported a listing of states' educational performance & policies by EdWeek . Interestingly newly released census data compiled by The Urbanophile tells us which states are growing the fastest & slowest. Are people moving to states with the best educational facilities? Not exactly. States are listed with the worst population performers from worst to 40th worst and from best to 10th best with their educational report on the right. States in the top 10 are listed in blue & states in the bottom 10 are listed in red.

Least population growth.

• Michigan - 24
• Rhode Island - 31
• Louisiana - 21
• Ohio - 11
• New York - 2
• West Virginia - 10
• Vermont - 12
• Massachusetts - 3
• Illinois - 40
• Pennsylvania - 9

Greatest population growth.

• Nevada - 45
• Arizona - 42
• Utah - 41
• Idaho - 44
• Texas - 13
• North Carolina - 19
• Georgia - 8
• Florida - 5
• Colorado - 39
• South Carolina - 15

What's a House ?
About a hundred years ago an automobile manufacturer name of Burton Westcott commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build him a house on Springfield, Ohio's prominent High Street. Subsequent owners let the building fall apart & it became a bit of an "ruin". It was rescued & restored by the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and The Westcott House Foundation but nobody lives there. They have meetings and receptions there & that pays the bills, but....
Wright designed homes for families. He wanted the house to positively effect the adults and the children who lived there.
For the second summer The Westcott Foundation hosts Design Studio with The Now Device to give kids the opportunity to learn audio / video & graphic design stuff.
If Burt were around today, well he wouldn't be making cars, but his kids would probably have all the audio / video gizmos money could buy today. Great to see the place used as more of a home than a hall.

The Westcott House

Noose Son story here.