The October 2014 Phi Delta Kappan/Gallup Poll says the following about what the public thinks about teachers. The big news here, in my view, is the dramatic shift in public opinion from favoring to opposing the use of standardized test scores to evaluate teachers. Only 1% was undecided on this question. Those favoring such a policy dropped from 61% to 38%. The public, if this poll is right, understands that value-added measurement is not working and is hurting the teachers in their community's public schools. The bad news for Teach for America is that the public wants well-prepared, highly-trained teachers in their schools, not inexperienced young college graduates who have not passed through rigorous preparation and screening.

Efficiency Report Has Many Problems  by James Mathis  on the National Education Policy Center 

A recent report purporting to score and rank national education systems on efficiency has drawn extensive media attention in both Europe and North America. But a new review published today explains that the report has serious problems and generates extreme conclusions and unrealistic policy proposals.

The Efficiency Index ranks 30 countries on their educational system "efficiency" through a model that compares national test scores, national teacher wage rates, and pupil-teacher ratios. The test scores used are from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

To determine the Most And Least Educated Cities In America, financial siteWalletHub took a look at the 150 largest metros in the U.S. and ranked them according to nine weighted metrics, including percentage of adult residents with a high school diploma, associate's degree, graduate or professional degree, or above; number of doctors per capita; percentage of workers with jobs in "computer, engineering, and sciences fields;" quality of public schools and universities; and the number of students enrolled in the top 200 universities in the U.S., per capita.  "Research has shown that skilled workers who are also degree holders tend to pump the most money into their local economies over time," states the report.

1. They admit their flaws.

No one is perfect. As much as we hear this trite nugget, a lot of us do not take it to heart. (Nudge, nudge.)

Self-assured women not only admit their imperfections, they applaud them. They know where their strengths lie, where they can improve and when to get the heck outta dodge and let others take the lead. Trying to be perfect at everything is inefficient, and confident women ain't got no time for that. They love themselves for who they are -- and for who they're not.

And 8 more.

One of the most hilarious talking points coming from far-right Republicans and the Tea Party is that when "red states" like Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana are asked to bail out California or Massachusetts, that's when they will finally become "fed up with socialism" and secede from the Union once and for all.  The problem with that meme is that it has no basis in reality: the more prosperous and Democrat-leaning areas of the United States are likely to be subsidizing dysfunctional "red states," many of which are suffering from insufficient tax revenue and an abundance of low-wage workers who don't have much to tax.