Have had a few folks back here at home ask me what I did regarding the bicycle I bought in Lisbon and featured in roughly 2/3rds of the photos I shared here at Better Burque. A pretty bike, no? “Frankie Mitts” posing along with Gilles, who runs a fabulous country guest house outside Tarnos, France.… Read More Bike Tour: What About the Bike?

Keeping with longstanding tradition here at Better Burque (and formerly at Burque Babble), we’ll take another of our periodic looks at how many teaching job openings currently exist at Albuquerque Public Schools. The data collection is darn simple. We just add up the Elementary, Middle, High, and Special Education positions posted on the APS job… Read More Plenty of Stagnantly-Paid, Underappreciated Teaching Positions Available!

Kudos to Farmington Daily Times reporter Mike Easterling for his story on PARCC scores in the Four Corners area. Mr. Easterling goes beyond the NMPED-fed simplicity shown, so far, in Albuquerque Journal reports on scores, adding context to explain how Farmington schools are improving in this regard, and using quotes from school officials there and… Read More Farmington Newspaper Digs a Helpful Bit Deeper with PARCC Scores

So yesterday we in the general public were “informed” about 2017 New Mexico PARCC scores. As “explained” in graphics such as the following compiled by the Albuquerque Journal, we have been “informed” that a certain percentage of students in each district have been found to be “proficient” in ELA (English Language Arts) and Math. And… Read More PARCC and Baseball: How Do We Know Who’s Winning?

Hint I: We’ve been told ad nauseam it’s absolutely crucial to student success. Hint II: The old boss is a big-wig on its board.  

Below are a few of the many bike street, etc. improvements I rode across during my recent tour of Portugal, France, Germany and a wee bit of Spain. And, I forgot, New York City. I had a day there to start things off. Here’s a parking-protected two-way “cycletrack” in Washington Heights. How do you keep… Read More Bike Tour Cycling Infrastructure Photos