Just the way the Republicans planned it.
The numbers aren’t as bad as some early projections; Virginia, Maryland and D.C. lost about 1,700 spots total.
Year: 2013
Categories
The Common Core Follies
This points to the problem inherent in using test scores to evaluate…anybody. Teachers didn’t have the time, or the training, to fully implement the standards into their lessons. Students didn’t have time to learn the material and were tested on material they didn’t learn in a format that was alien to many of them. It was also the first year of the tests, and in most first years, scores drop.
The assumption, though, is that the Common Core standards are testable, or at least worthy of teaching. Why is it that every student has to go to college, or be college-ready? Clearly, and it is crystal clear to educators, not all students will go to college, and many who are there won’t finish because higher education is not for them. I understand that this is educational heresy and that I am swimming in dangerous waters. After all, the classes that I teach are considered college preparatory. My standards are based on the assumption that students should be analytical learners who can write coherently and synthesize what they’ve learned. In that sense, the Common Core has caught up to me. But unlike the Core, I understand that not all students will reach readiness by the time they graduate from high school and that many of them will not succeed in an institution of higher learning. So, in a sense, I am preparing them for something they will not use. That’s a waste of time and resources.
In addition, the tests will be administered on computers and only computers, the assumption being that all students have the same competency with technology. What of students who don’t (and I know of plenty of them)? What happens when it is the technology itself, and not the student’s knowledge, that is the problem? And what happens when it is the school district’s inability to purchase technology equipment or schedule adequate rooms or provide quiet places for testing that is part of the problem? These concerns have been waved off by some states, including New Jersey where I have been the wavee. How does that help evaluate students and teachers.
The Common Core Standards, like other previous attempts at measuring student growth, are devoted to the essential education problem: that of trying to have every student master the same material by the same date and to be evaluated in the same way at the same time. When are we going to realize that this has not worked and will not work adequately in the future? It’s even more vital that we get this right now, because teachers’ jobs are on the line. Politicians don’t understand this. Teachers do, but unfortunately, we are being shut out of the system for reasons that have nothing to do with pedagogy and everything to do with union politics and the unending search for those terrible teachers we keep hearing about.
There will be more about the Common Core in the school year to come, but keep in mind that any lockstep program is going to have problems. We are experience the latest one.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest
The White House said Monday that it was not involved in the British government’s decision to detain the partner of Glenn Greenwald at Heathrow Airport over the weekend.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the detainment of David Miranda, who lives with Greenwald in Brazil, was “a law enforcement action that was taken by the British government.”
“The United States was not involved in that decision or that action,” said Earnest, who acknowledged the British government did inform the United States that the detention was likely to occur.
“There was a heads up that was provided by the British government,” Earnest said.
The White House spokesman said that he was unaware of any conversations Miranda had with British authorities.
Earnest said that he could not “provide any insight” into whether the U.S. would be briefed on information gleaned during Miranda’s detention, and refused to comment more broadly about whether the White House was concerned by his detention.
“This is a decision they made on their own,” Earnest said.
Earnest did not rule out that the U.S. had obtained information from Miranda’s electronic devices.
Miranda was held for nearly nine hours, and had electronic equipment, including his cellphone, laptop, camera and memory sticks, confiscated by British authorities.
On Sunday, Greenwald, the journalist who revealed top-secret National Security Agency surveillance programs, called the detainment of Miranda “a profound attack on press freedoms and the news gathering process.”
Judy Quest, past president of Clowns of America International: It was a sad day in the clown world when a “clown” at the Missouri State Fair put on a mask in the likeness of President Barack Obama and wore a broomstick attached to his behind to perform in a rodeo in America’s Heartland. …
As someone who has performed as a “real” clown for 32 years and has taught the craft to hundreds of clowns, I would like the world to know that we have a code of ethics that we adhere to so that our life of making the world smile goes on without hurting people. …
What of the children who were in the audience and being taught to respect our president and government? What of every person in the audience who hates racism?
“Lee Daniels’ The Butler” is serving up success at the box office.
Starring Forest Whitaker as a longtime White House butler and Oprah Winfrey as his boozy wife, the Weinstein Co. biopic debuted in the top spot with $25 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. But the weekend’s three other major new releases, including the action romp “Kick-Ass 2,” failed to find traction with fans.
“We expected to do well, but we didn’t expect to do this well,” said Erik Lomis, president of distribution and home entertainment for Weinstein Co., adding that “The Butler” is the company’s first No. 1 debut since 2009’s “Inglourious Basterds.”
Even with a full slate of newcomers, last week’s top movies claimed the second and third spots in the box-office race. The Jason Sudeikis-Jennifer Aniston Warner Bros. comedy, “We’re the Millers,” held onto second place in its second week of release with $17.78 million, while last week’s No. 1, Sony’s “Elysium,” dropped to third with $13.6 million.
“It was tough if you were any other film opening other than ‘The Butler,'” said Paul Dergarabedian of box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
Facebook has a bounty program where it pays people to report bugs instead of using them or selling them on the black market. In this case, instead of fixing the bug and paying the researcher the $500+ fee, Facebook told him “this was not a bug,” according to an email that Shreateh shared.
Shreateh says he tried a second time to warn Facebook and when that didn’t work, he used the bug to post a message to Mark Zuckerberg’s Wall.
The message said, “Sorry for breaking your privacy … but a couple of days ago, I found a serious Facebook exploit” and explained that Facebook’s security team wasn’t taking him seriously.
Here’s a photo of the message from Shreateh.
In a post on Hacker News, Matt Jones from Facebook’s security team said that once the team understood the bug they acted quickly, “We fixed this bug on Thursday.”
They also temporarily suspended Shreateh’s account and said they wouldn’t pay him the bounty fee because, by posting to Zuck’s account, he violated Facebook’s terms of service.
Read more: Business Insider
’90s R&B figurehead Toni Braxton is ending her musical hiatus with the release of a collaborative album, Love, Marriage And Divorce, on 3rd December with fellow genre-pioneer Babyface and as a taster of the relationship-themed record to come, one of the album cuts, “Hurt You”, has hit the net.
After issuing this tweet, Michael Grunwald, Senior National Correspondent at TIME quickly deleted it. But it was already too late. Here’s a screen shot of Michael’s Tweet.
Grunwald has apologized and TIME released a statement: “Michael Grunwald posted an offensive tweet from his personal Twitter account that is in no way representative of TIME‘s views. He regrets having tweeted it, and he removed it from his feed.”
And like TMZ said, the malfunction exposed Toni’s “perfectly voluptuous ass to the crowd!”
Perfectly voluptuous? Yea, I’ll have to agree with that!
President Obama used his Weekly Address to address the eventual full implementation of ObamaCare or the Affordable Care Act – a law that will allow millions of Americans to be finally able to afford healthcare. And again, he pointed out the fact that there are still Republicans hell bent on making sure these Americans don’t get healthcare.
Many Members of Congress, in both parties, are working hard to inform their constituents about these benefits, protections, and affordable plans. But there’s also a group of Republicans in Congress working hard to confuse people, and making empty promises that they’ll either shut down the health care law, or, if they don’t get their way, they’ll shut down the government.
Think about that. They’re actually having a debate between hurting Americans who will no longer be denied affordable care just because they’ve been sick – and harming the economy and millions of Americans in the process. And many Republicans are more concerned with how badly this debate will hurt them politically than they are with how badly it’ll hurt the country.
A lot of Republicans seem to believe that if they can gum up the works and make this law fail, they’ll somehow be sticking it to me. But they’d just be sticking it to you.
US First Lady Michelle Obama says in remarks published Friday that America is ready for a woman president, but would not comment on prospects for Hillary Clinton getting the job.
Obama’s comments came in an interview with Parade magazine, excerpts of which were published on its website.
Asked if she thinks the country will see a female president in her lifetime, the wife of President Barack Obama said: “Yes, I think the country is ready for it. It’s just a question of who’s the best person out there.”
She declined to comment on the prospects for Clinton running to succeed Obama in 2016.