First Blog

Riddle of the Day I am an opportunistic omnivore, numbering in the millions nationwide. I can personally dig down three feet looking for food. I carry disease. I erode soil. To me a lawn is just like a salad. I have a huge presence in southern Texas. I weigh about 165 pounds on average. What am I? (Scroll down for the answer.) ------------------------ Expression of the day:  As a judge, he/she proved to be the sphincter of justice.  ---------------------- Feral Pigs (Look it up. Scary)

In this note we are most interested in a singularly important aspect of American education, that of our corps of mathematics teachers.    We look at numbers.   Included in this report are the numbers of new teachers and the all important retention/attrition rates.    Teacher Certification – New Teachers As reported by the Texas State Board for Educator Certification, we consider numbers of candidates who received initial Mathematics and Science certifications over the ten fiscal years, 2000-2009.   Important conclusions are Mathematics teachers remained predominantly female and white in all the years under consideration, despite substantial year-by-year changes. About 70% of all newly certified math teachers are female correspondingly 30% are male. By ethnicity, the data reports that 8.76% are African American, 68.33% are white, 16.48% are Hispanic,    5.10% are Asian, 1.05% are Native American, and 2.12% are Other.   The percentage of white Mathematics teachers declined pr