States Ranked: Smartest to Dumbest

[Joseph Dalessandro]

I was sent the education article by a friend in another state. I'm
disappointed, and a little surprised. I had heard from multiple sources
that New Mexico ranked very low in education and healthcare, but I never
realized how low. Yikes.

******* FIRST YIKES *******
States Ranked: Smartest to Dumbest

The smartest state in the union for the second consecutive year is
Massachusetts.

The dumbest, for the third year in a row, is New Mexico.

ARTICLE:
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/package.jsp?name=fte/smartstates/smartstates


******* SECOND YIKES *******
Healthcare rankings:

            2005   2004   2003   2002    2001
New Mexico   48     49    46      48      45

ARTICLE:
http://www.morganquitno.com/hc93-05.htm

[Parks, Raymond]

Joseph Dalessandro wrote:
> I was sent the education article by a friend in another state. I'm
> disappointed, and a little surprised. I had heard from multiple sources
> that New Mexico ranked very low in education and healthcare, but I never
> realized how low. Yikes.

   Well, take comfort in the likelihood that Mississippi and Alabama
should displace us, once again, after this hurricane season.

   If you really want to be depressed, check out where Los Alamos and
Bernalillo County rank, nation-wide, for education and realize how bad
the other counties must be to drag the state down to #50.  The variance
in quality of education in this state is exceptionally large.

--
Ray Parks                   rcparks at sandia.gov
IDART Project Lead          Voice:505-844-4024
IORTA Department            Fax:[phone]
http://www.sandia.gov/idart Pager:800-690-5288

[Michael Gizzi]

What I found interesting was that with the exception of the West coast, the
top ten were almost entirely "Blue" states. Heck, they were pretty much the
only blue states. What does that tell us? Anything?

I don't live in NM, but there really must be huge disparities to cause that
ranking. Where does NM rank in poverty? Is it one thing bringing it down?

I am surprised too that Colorado ranked as high as it did, given our
pathetic funding of education (where we rank around 48 - 49 depending on the
poll).

Michael Gizzi

On 10/10/05, Raymond Parks <rcparks at sandia.gov> wrote:

>
> Joseph Dalessandro wrote:
> > I was sent the education article by a friend in another state. I'm
> > disappointed, and a little surprised. I had heard from multiple sources
> > that New Mexico ranked very low in education and healthcare, but I never
> > realized how low. Yikes.
>
> Well, take comfort in the likelihood that Mississippi and Alabama
> should displace us, once again, after this hurricane season.
>
> If you really want to be depressed, check out where Los Alamos and
> Bernalillo County rank, nation-wide, for education and realize how bad
> the other counties must be to drag the state down to #50. The variance
> in quality of education in this state is exceptionally large.
>
> --
> Ray Parks rcparks at sandia.gov
> IDART Project Lead Voice:505-844-4024
> IORTA Department Fax:[phone]
> http://www.sandia.gov/idart Pager:800-690-5288
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9:30a-11:30 at ad hoc locations
> Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.:
> http://www.friam.org
>

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[Owen Densmore]

There is at least an urban legend here that the kids of many of the  
older families are loath to excel academically.  They want to live  
here.  There are very few jobs here for college graduates.  Thus  
getting a degree is basically opting to exile yourself from the state.

     -- Owen

Owen Densmore
http://backspaces.net - http://redfish.com - http://friam.org


On Oct 10, 2005, at 7:52 PM, Michael Gizzi wrote:

> What I found interesting was that with the exception of the West  
> coast, the top ten were almost entirely "Blue" states.  Heck, they  
> were pretty much the only blue states.  What does that tell us?  
> Anything?
>
> I don't live in NM, but there really must be huge disparities to  
> cause that ranking.  Where does NM rank in poverty?  Is it one  
> thing bringing it down?
>
> I am surprised too that Colorado ranked as high as it did, given  
> our pathetic funding of education (where we rank around 48 - 49  
> depending on the poll).
>
> Michael Gizzi

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[Roger Critchlow-2]

On 10/10/05, Joseph Dalessandro <joe at nan0.com> wrote:
> I was sent the education article by a friend in another state. I'm
> disappointed, and a little surprised. I had heard from multiple sources
> that New Mexico ranked very low in education and healthcare, but I never
> realized how low. Yikes.
>

What is to be done?

The annual Supercomputing Challenge (http://www.challenge.nm.org/)
kickoff is coming up October 22-25.  This is a New Mexico
computational science fair for high and middle school students.  Kids
bus in to Glorieta Conference Center (about 20 min from Santa Fe) to
get introductions to computational science, Java, StarLogo, and to
tune up their proposals.  They work on their projects through the year
and then present them at Los Alamos in the spring in a competition for
scholarships and other prizes.

We need a few people to help give introductions to Java at the
kickoff.  It would be an hour or two per class working in teams from
an outline prepared by a seasoned veteran of teaching Java to the
young.  Your students may range in preparation from "what am I doing
here?" to "can you find me a Beowulf cluster?"  Your compensation will
be in chicken nuggets, or whatever else the cafeteria is dishing out.
Neo Martinez is coming to give the keynote address on Monday

Drop me a line if you're in the neighborhood and inclined to help.

-- rec --

[Dede Densmore-2]

On Oct 10, 2005, at 7:52 PM, Michael Gizzi wrote:

> What I found interesting was that with the exception of the West
> coast, the top ten were almost entirely "Blue" states.? Heck, they
> were pretty much the only blue states.? What does that tell us??
> Anything?
>
>  I don't live in NM, but there really must be huge disparities to
> cause that ranking.? Where does NM rank in poverty?? Is it one thing
> bringing it down??
>
> I don't know the exact ranking but it's very high, i.e. New Mexico is
> one of the poorest states in the country.

>
>  I am surprised too that Colorado ranked as high as it did, given our
> pathetic funding of education (where we rank around 48 - 49 depending
> on the poll).
>
>  Michael Gizzi
>
> On 10/10/05, Raymond Parks <rcparks at sandia.gov> wrote:
>  Joseph Dalessandro wrote:
> > I was sent the education article by a friend in another state. I'm
> > disappointed, and a little surprised. I had heard from multiple
> sources
> > that New Mexico ranked very low in education and healthcare, but I
> never
> > realized how low. Yikes.
>
> ?? Well, take comfort in the likelihood that Mississippi and Alabama
> should displace us, once again, after this hurricane season.
>
> ?? If you really want to be depressed, check out where Los Alamos and
> Bernalillo County rank, nation-wide, for education and realize how bad
> the other counties must be to drag the state down to #50.??The variance
> in quality of education in this state is exceptionally large.
>
>  --
> Ray Parks?????????????????? rcparks at sandia.gov
> IDART Project Lead??????????Voice:505-844-4024
> IORTA Department????????????Fax:[phone]
> http://www.sandia.gov/idart Pager:800-690-5288
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9:30a-11:30 at ad hoc locations
> Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.:
> http://www.friam.org
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9:30a-11:30 at ad hoc locations
> Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.:
> http://www.friam.org

[Fred Seibel]

Roger,

Is the need here just for the kickoff or are mentors for the projects
needed?

Fred
On Oct 11, 2005, at 9:40 AM, Roger Critchlow wrote:

> On 10/10/05, Joseph Dalessandro <joe at nan0.com> wrote:
>> I was sent the education article by a friend in another state. I'm
>> disappointed, and a little surprised. I had heard from multiple
>> sources
>> that New Mexico ranked very low in education and healthcare, but I
>> never
>> realized how low. Yikes.
>>
>
> What is to be done?
>
> The annual Supercomputing Challenge (http://www.challenge.nm.org/)
> kickoff is coming up October 22-25.  This is a New Mexico
> computational science fair for high and middle school students.  Kids
> bus in to Glorieta Conference Center (about 20 min from Santa Fe) to
> get introductions to computational science, Java, StarLogo, and to
> tune up their proposals.  They work on their projects through the year
> and then present them at Los Alamos in the spring in a competition for
> scholarships and other prizes.
>
> We need a few people to help give introductions to Java at the
> kickoff.  It would be an hour or two per class working in teams from
> an outline prepared by a seasoned veteran of teaching Java to the
> young.  Your students may range in preparation from "what am I doing
> here?" to "can you find me a Beowulf cluster?"  Your compensation will
> be in chicken nuggets, or whatever else the cafeteria is dishing out.
> Neo Martinez is coming to give the keynote address on Monday
>
> Drop me a line if you're in the neighborhood and inclined to help.
>
> -- rec --
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9:30a-11:30 at ad hoc locations
> Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.:
> http://www.friam.org
>

[Roger Critchlow-2]

The immediate need, weekend after this, is for 3-5 more people to teach
java.

But the teams will need mentors through the year.  There's a [Mentors]
button at the top of the http://www.challenge.nm.org page which will
explain how to do it.

-- rec --


Fred Seibel wrote:
> Roger,
>
> Is the need here just for the kickoff or are mentors for the projects
> needed?
>
> Fred

[Owen Densmore]

Hi Roger.  I noticed that StarLogo was mentioned, but not NetLogo.  
Is there a desire to use StarLogo exclusively?  Makes sense to have a  
single focus and StarLogo may be better for their purposes, but I  
thought I'd check.

     -- Owen

Owen Densmore
http://backspaces.net - http://redfish.com - http://friam.org


On Oct 12, 2005, at 12:39 AM, Roger E Critchlow Jr wrote:

> The immediate need, weekend after this, is for 3-5 more people to  
> teach
> java.
>
> But the teams will need mentors through the year.  There's a [Mentors]
> button at the top of the http://www.challenge.nm.org page which will
> explain how to do it.
>
> -- rec --
>
>
> Fred Seibel wrote:
>
>> Roger,
>>
>> Is the need here just for the kickoff or are mentors for the projects
>> needed?
>>
>> Fred
>>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9:30a-11:30 at ad hoc locations
> Lecture schedule, archives, unsubscribe, etc.:
> http://www.friam.org
>