Nine Shift

Richard Arum Study Helps Confirm Anti-Male Bias

Additional research and data from Richard Arum, author of Academically Adrift, help confirm our research that males are not being treated equally in higher education.

Over the last few weeks, Dr. Arum has been kind enough to share some of his additional findings with NineShift.  Arum's study is not primarily concerned with gender. But his data is important because it is one of the first studies to measure both learning and knowledge coming out of college (using the Collegiate Learning Assessment) and later work achievement and success.

As we all know, male students are given significantly worse grades in college than female students. Now we have more evidence that those grades are gender biased.  Arum's study shows that male students were statistically as likely to be in the upper 20% of learners as females. And his study shows that males in that upper 20% of learners were as likely to be successful later as females.

More proof that keeping smart males out of college, failing to retain them, and giving them such lousy GPAs that they cannot get into graduate school is the primary source of our skilled worker shortage, the most serious issue we have in society right now.

Here's is a portion of Dr. Arum's communication with Nine Shift on his findings:

1) The relationship between GPA and CLA performance is not particularly strong in our data. 
2)  There were small differences by gender in our data (not likely statistically significant):

Bottom CLA quintile: women, 3.16; men, 3.10
Middle-3 CLA quintiles: women, 3.36; men, 3.31
Top CLA quintile: women, 3.52; men, 3.43

Numbers are GPA, once again demonstrating that males who learn as much and perform as well as females still get worse grades. Arum's study shows that students in the top quintile of college students, based on CLA, do better in the workplace than students in the bottom quintile. 

Thank you Richard Arum for your valuable and pioneering contribution to education.

Welcome August Nine Shift Readers!

Here's a guide to our top stories this summer.
Just click on the Month and click back to see them.
Then make a comment and tell us what you think.
We are glad you are here.

Only Old People Oppose Trains, July 25

Suburbs in Decline, July 2

Driverless Car Insane, July 7, June 21, June 20, June 19 and June 18

Generation War in Full Mode Now, June 27

Why Boys Get Worse Grades Than Girls

If he were in an American college today, Winston Churchill would probably never be allowed to graduate.

Boys learn as much as girls.
Boys' test scores overall are equal to girls' test scores.
Boys test at the same level as girls coming out of college.
Boys do just as well in the workplace as girls.

But boys are, well, males.  Males study 30% less than females.  Males turn their homework in late, especially when they are punished for doing so. Males fidget.  Males sometimes fight.

None of this has anything to do with learning, knowledge, preparing for the workplace, or being in the workplace. Boys are only bad in school, not in church, not in the military, not at work.

Teachers give boys worse grades than girls because boys have testosterone, lots of it.  Grading boys on their hormones is illegal, in violation of Title IX; worse still it is the source of our economic problems.  Stop your gender discrimination teachers!

Winston Churchill's report card.  He had really bad behavior.

Suburbs and Cars in Retreat

Two stories on the same day in The New York Times last month highlighted the retreat of both cars and suburbs.

Cars and suburbs go hand-in-hand.  You can't have one without the other.  We will soon have much less of both.

Story One: "Retailers' Idea: Think Smaller in Urban Push," by Stephanie Clifford
   How Wal-Mart, Target, and Office Depot (you can also include Best Buy in the list) are experimenting like crazy to find the key to smaller city stores to replace the big box suburban stores.

Story Two: "Europe's Automotive Pain. A Day of Reckoning for an Industry in Distress," by Jack Ewing and Bill Vlasic.
   With sales plunging, "For European carmakers, the day of reckoning may finally be at hand." And that includes the survival of GM's Opel unit.

Nine Shift predicted it all nine years ago.  We'll be celebrating our tenth anniversary of accurately predicting the 21st century next year in San Francisco.

Do Parents Hate Their Kids Today?

Seriously, parents oppose most everything necessary for their children's success today.

The latest proof is from a Sallie Mae/Ipsos study of undergrads and their parents printed in the liberal socialist Wall Street Journal.

On every one of the 5 questions about the value, financial and otherwise, of college, the kids far more valued higher education than their parents.

A whopping 89% of kids strongly agreed that college is an investment in the future, while only 77% - 12% fewer - of parents agreed.

On "It's better to borrow than not go,"  a majority, 62% of kids agreed; and a minority, just 47%, of parents agreed.

On the other questions:
I'm willing to stretch financially, 61% to 53%
A degree is more important now, 73% to 68%
It's good to go for the experience, despite earnings, 29% to 19%.

On every essential issue for their future prosperity- trains, healthcare, education- older people (unbelievably including parents) oppose young people.  Worse, baby boomers and older people are doing everything they can to prevent young people from having a prosperous life. Really, do parents hate their kids today?

 

Photo: A man, and great sax player (right) who loves his trombone playing boys, shown here playing hot blues in St. Germain, Wis., last week. Part of the Joe Bucher blues band.

Fox News Will Lie About This

A huge obstacle to Americans' understanding the 21st Century - - or anything really - - is that the U.S. media can, and does, lie about the facts. 

For example, last year during the Wisconsin recall rallies in February Fox News said the protesters were fighting, showing video footage of protesters somewhere (not Wisconsin) fighting.  The palm trees in the background, which are not found in snow covered Wisconsin, clearly illustrated the Fox News lie.

During the Reddit discussion of how media lying in the U.S. is legal, and prevalent, a Brit noted,

"In the UK we have Fox's other news network, Sky (NineShift note: both are owned by the same Murdoch company) . Because Sky is governed by UK news media laws, they are duty bound to tell the truth or else they face losing their broadcasting license. The net result is Sky reports the news nothing like how Fox reports the same story, despite being the same company.

Example:
Sky News: Global Warming is a Fact!

Fox News: Global Warming is a liberal communist atheist un-American conspiracy."

NineShift addendum:  97% of scientists agree global warming is a fact, a level of consensus unequaled on any other issue.

 

Fox News Banned in Canada

The above headline on another blog recently highlighted another huge problem in the United States: our media lie.

It also garnered a huge discussion among young people on Reddit, one of the most informative and fun sources of information today.

Fox News is distributed by cable in Canada (like U.S.). Fox cable news might cost money and be little watched by Canadians. But it's not really banned in Canada.

What is, in fact, banned is Fox News' ability to broadcast over the air waves, like NBC or PBS in the U.S.  And what's important about that is:

1.News media in the U.S. can (and do) lie.  News media in the UK cannot lie.  And in Canada they are being discouraged to lie.

2.The Canadian public overwhelmingly does not want Fox-ish news that lie.  Here's what the GlobeAndMail story said on it:

"the proposal (to allow Fox TV-style news to be broadcast) resulted in a tidal wave of angry responses from Canadians who said they feared such a move would open the door to Fox TV-style news and reduce their ability to determine what is true and what is false."

Photo: Signs during last year's recall rallies in Wisconsin. Photyo by NineShift staff photographer Doyle Darvis.

California High Speed Train Game-Changer for America

The California high speed train, which got state legislative approval last month, is a game changer for America. 

It is a huge win for the 21st Century.
It is one of the top stories of the year 2012.
And it has moved trains forward for the rest of the country.

I first learned about it from the BBC, where it was a Page One story on their website. The New York Times buried the story on page A10.  I didn't hear any other news outside of California about it.  Like the American public, the American media is behind on the 21st Century.

A few points:

1.As California goes, so goes the nation.
Many if not most of the new initiatives in our country begin in California.  Of course, some things originating in California have caused great damage to our nation - - Sonny & Cher for example - - but the Cal. high speed train will create a nation-wide impact.

2.Gen Y will move there.
Gen Y already moving to SF and San Diego. But now watch how Gen Y moves to other cities along the route. Eventually states sending their best smartest young people to California will figure out where their children are winding up, and will want trains.

3.Economic revitalization will happen.
The Brits understand that trains create economic prosperity. Americans don't - - yet. But the certain eventual success and revitalization of cities on the route and California's economy as a whole will provide dates, data, facts and figures to demonstrate before-after economic impact of high speed rail. 

I've been celebrating for a month now. There will be obstacles, steps backward, hurdles, opposition - - just like with the Interstates 50 years ago - - but I will keep partying over the big news. 

When Republicans Will Support Trains - - in 2020.

Republicans will support trains beginning in 2020.

The reason will be entirely a recognition that trains are replacing cars. By 2020 Republicans will realize that:

1.Gen Y votes.
Generation Y, the largest generation in history, then aged 20 to 40, have too many votes, while Seniors have fewer votes.

2.Brain-drain devastating.
That the talented young professionals have all moved to cities with light-rail and trains, with "Brain drain" states such as Ohio, Wisconsin and others now desperate for college educated professionals to revitalize their state economies.

3.Business pro-trains.
That most Boomer CEOs have retired, replaced by younger business CEOs who will understand that trains boost employee productivity 25% and that only companies with train riders can be competitive.

4.For-profit trains a face-saver.
The for-profit train scenario will seem like a face-saving way to endorse the inevitable, what by 2020 will already be fact. For-profit train companies like SCNF already know that high speed rail in the U.S. can be very profitable - - they have publicly declared it. 

The 2016 election will likely be won by a 21st century advocate, with Republicans realizing in the 2020 elections they can no longer block the 21st century and that their backward-thinking is no longer politically feasible (votes and money).  Both big business and Gen Y will force Republicans to join us in the 21st Century.  And they will.

Photo: NineShift Co-Author Julie Coates teaching an online course while riding the train to Chicago. Across the aisle another passenger is also logged on to the Internet.  It's why trains are replacing cars.

Gas Prices and Support for Trains

Gas prices have had little to do with the transition from cars to trains. And moving forward, gas prices will continue to have little to do with the move to trains.

Train ridership levels have set records in 7 of the last 8 years, in times of high gas prices, low gas prices, and middle range gas prices.  Gas price is the holy grail for Boomers, the lingua franca, the gold standard on prices, etc. 

So gas prices will continue to be used as a symbol of the transition.  But 100 years ago the price of hay had nothing to do with the demise of the buggy and carriage. 

I'm in vacationland, northern Wisconsin, right now.  When gas prices are high, people tend to drive up here less frequently, so it's bad for the tourism business.  When gas prices are low, it means that the economy is doing poorly, so people tend to drive up here less frequently.

Gas prices play absolutely no role in Generation Y driving.  I have actually never heard a train riding young person say anything about gas prices.  Willie has had a car for two years now. He has never mentioned the price of gas.  He does take the train from Portland to Seattle, and he mentions the stress, parking hassle, and risk of being killed as reasons not the drive.  He also knows that cars are destroying the earth. 

Between 2008 and 2010, high gas prices helped sell federal government spending on trains. But now Boomer aged Americans, having rejected further train building for the forseable future, are stuck with their cars. High gas prices willl underscore the Boomer dilemna, but  won't impact public policy moving forward.

Photo: Me celebrating the last high gas prices in 2008.