So I passed pt. 2 of the CSET math test now. Not sure how since I was a bit of a slacker this time around as far as studying but however it happened, it's a done deal. I now have everything I need to send in to Sacramento for a foundational math certificate.
I did it all with old used textbooks and accompanying solution manuals bought on E-bay for just a few bucks, I used free down-loadable ebooks and videos, and other web resources. No money spent on test-prep classes, university courses, tutoring, fancy new books, what have you. The $4 billion test-prep industry is entitled to make their money of course and I'm sure they are also helpful, but as I'm all about value for money, in the current climate where Wikiversity is a click away, I would advise they take a hard look at what value they are adding.
On eBay you can buy a good college algebra book, plus solution manual, plus shipping, plus tax, for $15 or less total. Plus the aforementioned free sites and videos which can help you hone into exactly what's going to be on the test. The test prep books & courses cost $100's. It isn't an exaggeration that some people are spending $1000 on help for these tests. Now I'm a wacko in that I get off on getting the most value for money, while most won't be as extreme as me, we are talking about students and teachers taking these tests after all who aren't known for throwing their money around. Looks like Kaplan will go the same way as their founder, who recently died if they don't get with the new program. Wired did an article on Knewton which is trying a new cheaper online model.
It's so nice that the internet and podcasting got their start prior to iPhones/iPod Touch/iPads. The new Apple Store model is completely restricted and nickels and dimes you for everything. The devices are locked down and everything has got to go through the manufacturer. I enjoy the wide open model we've had with computers and the web up to now. It has brought us all sorts of accessible knowledge free of any gatekeepers. You already know the stories of the industries it has shaken up, but adult education doesn't seem to be one of them.
For kids the traditional model of the classroom and teacher still is really the best thing out there and can't be replaced, but for anybody age 16 and over I'm not sure if most really need it. Some programs more than other need interaction with a cohort of students of course, but even those could have their 'scheduled class time' greatly diminished in favor of online options.
Well I could go on forever about how education has always been sluggish to adapt to technology but I really just popped on to give you the update on my test. In fact I finished those tests quicker than I thought and considering I'm still funemployed I'm now going to tackle CSET math Part 3, in order to get a full-math credential! Should be fun, I've already got my giant Calculus book off ebay for $4 including shipping. Plus my hero Gilbert Strang of MIT has put out a new short series called Highlights of Calculus.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Monday, February 01, 2010
Seems to me $4.6 million could hire a few people
Nothing like a total waste of our tax dollars here in California to prompt me out of my slumber and write another post.
AS you may or may not know, I continue to be a funemployed teacher in the Golden State. Except for the typical shortage areas of Math, Science and Spec. Ed. there are no teaching jobs in the state right now. Even those shortage areas are much tighter than normal. I'm in the process of trying to obtain a Math certificate by studying for and taking tests on my own as I look for work. I'm not expecting to get so much as a phone interview until I have finished the process. So at the current moment my wife pays her hard earned money to the state, and I get a little bit of it back through bi-weekly checks from the state.
When I first signed on to the dole in September, there was apparently a question about my claim, I think because my former school told them they had 'offered me a job.' However they must have failed to mention to the state that the job they offered me was all the same hours for 1/2 the pay & no benefits. Plus I didn't even really consider it an offer, the newly revised position was just verbally described to me with no real expectation that I would take it. This also all happened late in June, giving me virtually no heads-up considering the major teacher hiring season is nearly over by that time.
So after I filed, I got a claims form in the mail and filled it out. Then nothing came. A letter came a few weeks later saying I needed to be ready to take a phone call from them about 6 weeks later at a certain time and answer a few questions. That's it, didn't say I was ineligible until I answered the questions or any more information at all about what was delaying things. So I guessed it was probably being delaying for the reason above but I wanted to check for sure to see what the story was.
I called the phone number on the letter, just a message saying their phone lines were overbooked, tried again, same thing, tried dozens of times to the same result. The web page also had no answers at all of course. There is an unemployment office about a mile from the house so I figured it would be faster just to drive there and perhaps get an answer.
Well what does the unemployment office consist of? Do you think it might have people with computers who can check on your case and answer questions? No, it only has a bulletin board with a few jobs posted, a bank of phones, a few public computers and a guy at the desk who is apparently only there to teach people how to use the offices resources. He told me that the phones there have a better chance of getting through and that if I hear one message versus another I need to punch in some odd sequence of numbers on the keypad and maybe I could get through to somebody. I tried calling with their phones maybe a dozen times before giving up on them as well. Some other office worker said he might be able to get me through to somebody. He pulled me to his cubicle in the back and called some secret number or another and handed me the phone so I could wait on hold. He told me when somebody answered to give them his name as a reference. I wonder if he gets a commission.
He left and then after about 20 minutes somebody picked up. This person, the first I ran into who presumably was at a computer with a connection to my information, was only able to tell me that yes my claim was on hold until I answered the phone interview questions in 6 weeks. Had no information on why it was being contested, and wasn't able to reschedule the phone interview for any earlier.
So I had no choice but to wait for the call over a month later. I answered the questions regarding the supposed 'offer' by the school and was told I would get an update within a few weeks. Well a few weeks later I got about 6 claim forms in the mail, all arriving the same day in separate envelopes. I never actually got a letter with an update so to speak, but I was finally in the system and got a bunch of checks after I mailed those in. So actually I consider myself a bit lucky, if my claim had been rejected I hear it would take over a year just to get an appeal scheduled.
This long story brings me to today's article in the Sacramento Bee. It turns out that the phone calls to the unemployment answering system, the one that never answers calls, cost the state $4.6 million last year! Remember we have heard so much about how state services have been cut because they just didn't have the money. Well with that kind of money you seem to have several wiser choices:
1. Maybe they could put local offices on the networks so they actually have information on people's cases.
2. Maybe they could hire more people to answer phones.
3. Maybe fund a better online information system.
Just close all the worthless local unemployment centers and have those people answer phones! Anything would be better than their current system. Even the unemployed have their own phones and at least a friend with the internet where they can look for jobs these days. So I won't listen to any complaints from the state now about budget cutbacks causing these service problems in the unemployment department. They have plenty of money apparently as this report shows, they have just wrongly allocated their own resources.
Then as if all this wasn't bad enough, it turns out the $4.6 million is going to Verizon, my least favorite phone company. When I lived in Tulalip WA a few years back and wanted to set up DSL service I had to spend hours waiting on hold trying to get through to them. They were a monopoly and it took weeks to get everything set up because of their ineptitude. Time to sell your VZ stock as I figure there will be some blow-back from this article. I do think CA will make some changes and this broken phone system will no longer be helping their bottom line. So long as we all write to our reps on this.
Normally I try to end my posts with a joke or fun spin but I'm so pissed about this I can't even bring myself to finding any humor in the situation. Plus there is no bigger joke than CA's government.
AS you may or may not know, I continue to be a funemployed teacher in the Golden State. Except for the typical shortage areas of Math, Science and Spec. Ed. there are no teaching jobs in the state right now. Even those shortage areas are much tighter than normal. I'm in the process of trying to obtain a Math certificate by studying for and taking tests on my own as I look for work. I'm not expecting to get so much as a phone interview until I have finished the process. So at the current moment my wife pays her hard earned money to the state, and I get a little bit of it back through bi-weekly checks from the state.
When I first signed on to the dole in September, there was apparently a question about my claim, I think because my former school told them they had 'offered me a job.' However they must have failed to mention to the state that the job they offered me was all the same hours for 1/2 the pay & no benefits. Plus I didn't even really consider it an offer, the newly revised position was just verbally described to me with no real expectation that I would take it. This also all happened late in June, giving me virtually no heads-up considering the major teacher hiring season is nearly over by that time.
So after I filed, I got a claims form in the mail and filled it out. Then nothing came. A letter came a few weeks later saying I needed to be ready to take a phone call from them about 6 weeks later at a certain time and answer a few questions. That's it, didn't say I was ineligible until I answered the questions or any more information at all about what was delaying things. So I guessed it was probably being delaying for the reason above but I wanted to check for sure to see what the story was.
I called the phone number on the letter, just a message saying their phone lines were overbooked, tried again, same thing, tried dozens of times to the same result. The web page also had no answers at all of course. There is an unemployment office about a mile from the house so I figured it would be faster just to drive there and perhaps get an answer.
Well what does the unemployment office consist of? Do you think it might have people with computers who can check on your case and answer questions? No, it only has a bulletin board with a few jobs posted, a bank of phones, a few public computers and a guy at the desk who is apparently only there to teach people how to use the offices resources. He told me that the phones there have a better chance of getting through and that if I hear one message versus another I need to punch in some odd sequence of numbers on the keypad and maybe I could get through to somebody. I tried calling with their phones maybe a dozen times before giving up on them as well. Some other office worker said he might be able to get me through to somebody. He pulled me to his cubicle in the back and called some secret number or another and handed me the phone so I could wait on hold. He told me when somebody answered to give them his name as a reference. I wonder if he gets a commission.
He left and then after about 20 minutes somebody picked up. This person, the first I ran into who presumably was at a computer with a connection to my information, was only able to tell me that yes my claim was on hold until I answered the phone interview questions in 6 weeks. Had no information on why it was being contested, and wasn't able to reschedule the phone interview for any earlier.
So I had no choice but to wait for the call over a month later. I answered the questions regarding the supposed 'offer' by the school and was told I would get an update within a few weeks. Well a few weeks later I got about 6 claim forms in the mail, all arriving the same day in separate envelopes. I never actually got a letter with an update so to speak, but I was finally in the system and got a bunch of checks after I mailed those in. So actually I consider myself a bit lucky, if my claim had been rejected I hear it would take over a year just to get an appeal scheduled.
This long story brings me to today's article in the Sacramento Bee. It turns out that the phone calls to the unemployment answering system, the one that never answers calls, cost the state $4.6 million last year! Remember we have heard so much about how state services have been cut because they just didn't have the money. Well with that kind of money you seem to have several wiser choices:1. Maybe they could put local offices on the networks so they actually have information on people's cases.
2. Maybe they could hire more people to answer phones.
3. Maybe fund a better online information system.
Just close all the worthless local unemployment centers and have those people answer phones! Anything would be better than their current system. Even the unemployed have their own phones and at least a friend with the internet where they can look for jobs these days. So I won't listen to any complaints from the state now about budget cutbacks causing these service problems in the unemployment department. They have plenty of money apparently as this report shows, they have just wrongly allocated their own resources.
Then as if all this wasn't bad enough, it turns out the $4.6 million is going to Verizon, my least favorite phone company. When I lived in Tulalip WA a few years back and wanted to set up DSL service I had to spend hours waiting on hold trying to get through to them. They were a monopoly and it took weeks to get everything set up because of their ineptitude. Time to sell your VZ stock as I figure there will be some blow-back from this article. I do think CA will make some changes and this broken phone system will no longer be helping their bottom line. So long as we all write to our reps on this.
Normally I try to end my posts with a joke or fun spin but I'm so pissed about this I can't even bring myself to finding any humor in the situation. Plus there is no bigger joke than CA's government.
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