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A Game of Life and Death
With clear winners and losers…played every day! If you answered, “the twelve year old boy, of course!” then you are pre-qualified for a position on the Cleveland Police Department. Read more
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On Oak Trees and High Stakes Testing
And selling what everyone knows to be a bad idea Some time ago my school district showed us an interesting video and sent representatives around to explain the new Value Added Model (VAM) that they were using for assessing teachers. The goal, of course, was to sell this woefully inadequate system and to convince us Read more
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Implicit Bias, the Thomas Theorem and Police Violence
Fear and Prejudice in Police Decision Making Two articles that appeared in Vox, taken together, were very revealing with regard to the ongoing debate and protest on police violence. The first had to do with explaining the violent responses of police in the field. The second elaborated on a psychological phenomenon referred to as implicit Read more
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Discriminatory or Wanton Police Violence is Dangerous
To the Police Note: I was planning this post for a few days, but in light of the despicable murder of two police officers in New York I feel that a caveat is in order. Violence is only justified in terms of self-preservation or protection of the innocent. And this only if no other options Read more
The Mad Sociologist Blog 