Archive for October, 2010
Agribusiness conference to address domestic, international issues
October 21st, 2010
Economic uncertainties, international market instability, changing water supply policies and health care reform are among the agricultural industry issues to be explored Nov. 9 at 29th annual Agribusiness Management Conference in Fresno.
The conference is presented by California State University, Fresno’s Center for Agricultural Business and cosponsored by the Bank of America and California Agricultural Technology Institute at Fresno State.
The event is planned from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center (2233 Ventura St.). Registration costs $100 before Nov. 5 and $125 thereafter. Lunch is included.
Opening remarks will be delivered by Justin T. Brough, senior vice president of marketing and global commercial banking, for bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Mechel Paggi, director of the Center for Agricultural Business.
“It seems every year we face a world of opportunities and challenges in the agricultural
Industry, and 2010 has not disappointed us,” Paggi said. “The conference is a chance to examine where we have been and where we might be headed, and to help identify where our opportunities lie.”
Among the presenters are:
- Dr. John B. Penson Jr., an award-winning economics professor at Texas A&M University.
- James Christie, president and managing partner of Bryant Christie Inc., which works with agricultural, food and beverage companies and organizations on international marketing.
- George H. Soares, managing partner with Khan Soares & Conway, LLP, which lobbies for and represents agricultural interests.
Water issues will be the focus of the panel presentation, “No Water Bond – What Now?,” moderated by David Zoldoske, director of Fresno State’s Center for Irrigation Technology and executive director of water resources and policy initiatives for the California State University.
Joining him will be Mario Santoyo, assistant general manager of the Friant Water Authority, and Jim Verboon of Laton, a farmer, former chair of the California Farm Bureau’s Water and Natural Resources committees.
Other panels will explore the impact on agriculture of health care reform, food safety and traceability initiatives and quarantine programs.
Linnea Finley contributed to this copy.
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Tags: Domestic International, Issues
Posted in University Business | No Comments »
Nick Holt expected to play against O’Dea
October 21st, 2010
Nick Holt, Seattle Prep’s star quarterback and linebacker, is expected to play tonight when the Panthers take on O’Dea for the Metro League Mountain Division title.
Holt, who twisted his knee against Rainier Beach last week and watched the second half on crutches, didn’t practice this week to rest his knee for tonight.
“He’s going to give it a go,” said Seattle Prep coach D.R. Clawson.
Clawson said that Holt “tends to sublux (or partially dislocate) his kneecap a little bit,” which requires rest to heal.
Clawson said with a little adrenaline from such a big game, Holt should be able to play. If not, Jackson Clough will start at quarterback.
Both teams are tied for first place in the division with 3-0 records and are 6-1 overall.
Tags: Nick Holt, Play
Posted in Education Sport Notes | No Comments »
Go Kaya!
October 19th, 2010
Kaya Henderson is the new leader of Washington DC Public Schools, promoted from her job as a deputy to Michelle Rhee. From her interview with The Root:
TR: Are there any plans to rehire any teachers who were let go?
KH: If the teachers were let go for performance reasons, no. Absolutely not. We continue to believe that if you can’t perform in the classroom, you cannot work here. So there is no backing off of that. IMPACT, the [teacher] evaluation system that we rolled out, came out of my shop, so for me to then turn around would be crazy. That being said, for people who were let go for budgetary reasons, they are welcome to reapply, and have been, even under the Rhee administration.
TR: Teacher quality is one of the benchmarks of your education reforms. It’s been said that DCPS is one of the primary employers of middle-class blacks. How do you reconcile the economic role that a teaching job plays with the school system’s commitment to excellence?
KH: For me personally, the point of an education system is to educate students, and I am going to ensure that that happens. Period. The end. An education system is not a jobs program. I think that the presumptive mayor-elect has an agenda around economic development, and that’s great, but the moment we start prioritizing jobs for people on the backs of our children, we are making a significant mistake.
Love it love it LOVE it. People, it’s not the answers. It’s the zip! “Absolutely not.” “Period. The end.” Kids and teachers of DC, you lucked out. You got a tiger.
It’s an Obi-Wan moment, now that I think about it. Obi-Wan is Rhee. Luke Skywalker is Kaya. Darth is Achievement Gap. The key line is at 56 second mark.
Tags: Kaya
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Third party politics.
October 19th, 2010
Last night I had the pleasure of listening to Ralph Nader deliver a speech to Union College students. Prior to the speech I always thought of Ralph Nader as “that crazy guy who runs for president every four years, with no shot of winning”. I figured he was some whack job, who just liked to screw with elections. I thought any real politician had to be a Republican or Democrat, since Independent’s never won. Instead of reinforcing these ideas, Ralph Nader made me seriously reconsider everything I knew about politics.
Ralph Nader is best known for attempts at the Presidency, running as a member of the Green Party in 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008. Nader is an advocate for the environment, consumer protection, and a noted humanitarianism. Nader is willing to take on any person, agency, or program that he finds fault with. His most famous work came during the 1960′s when he took on the automobile industry, and forever changed the way cars would be made.
Throughout his speech Nader stressed the fact that America is dominated by the two party system. He believes that Democrats and Republicans preach their reform ideals on the campaign trail, but when they actually obtain office, reform often goes out the window, and we are stuck in the same dreary situation we were in prior to their election. Nader believes that if America was open to independent parties such as the Green party, true reform could take place. Decisions would be made on a basis of what is best for the country, not what would benefit major cooperations. And with many candidates to choose from, Americans could select a candidate that they truly believed in. Not just the candidate that they hate less.
Ralph Nader is a brilliant man. He embodies the true independent. A man completely unchained from party obligations. After listening to his speech I am surely not ready to declare myself a Green Party member. But his words made me think about belonging to a political party and the strings attached to such a commitment. Do I really want to be associated with everything that a party embodies? Ralph Nader certainly doesn’t.
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Team Merit Pay
October 11th, 2010
Back on March 31, I blogged about Jaime Escalante.
We love the individual success story. Not so much the more complex story of an excellent department. For example, I haven’t heard anyone trumpeting merit pay for excellent teacher departments.
Yet part of the Escalante legacy was his building a math department (and ultimately having it, to his great dismay, unwound into the usual crappy morass).
Boom. Here is someone trumpeting merit pay for excellent teacher departments. Kim Marshall is a very thoughtful retired Boston principal. And the publisher of a little gem called The Marshall Memo. And a gentleman.
In 2009, he wrote an essay arguing that merit pay was a bad idea.
More recently, seeing that merit pay is not a matter of if, but simply how it will work — he wrote a new essay, arguing for small teacher team merit pay.
Who gets rewarded. Should it be individual teachers? Teacher teams? Or the entire school staff? I believe the most productive choice is teacher teams. Rewarding teams promotes collaboration where it counts—among the three or four kindergarten or Algebra 1 teachers who teach the same content to different students. Rewarding teams avoids the problems of individual rewards (idea-hoarding and silo-dwelling) and large-group rewards (freeloading by lazy and ineffective colleagues).
Team rewards encourage colleagues to push all students to high achievement—and create a dynamic in which peers hold each other accountable. As University of California, Los Angeles, professor James W. Stigler has written, team accountability in Japanese schools was a key factor in the steady improvement of teaching and learning there in recent decades.
I wonder if Marshall’s idea could create more of the Escalante-like math departments (and history, science, and English departments).
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