Friday, November 5, 2004

No Child Left Behind: Testing, Reporting, and Accountability. ERIC Digest.

No Child Left Behind: Testing, Reporting, and Accountability. ERIC Digest. This is a good article on NCLB testing. I like the general idea of No Child Left Behind but don't you think that the government should fund this?



From the site:



In a major expansion of the federal role in education, the NoChild Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requires annual testing, specifies a method for judging school effectiveness, sets a timeline forprogress, and establishes specific consequences in the case of failure. As the use of standardized testing to measure school accountability has expanded, so has the list of arguments for excusing the low achievement of whole categories of students. While special education law provides for testing with “accommodations,” in practice it has pushed educators to focus more on procedural compliance. The achievement of language-minority students has often been overlooked or mismeasured as school districts lacked the skill or will to administer appropriate assessments.



This digest reviews how testing and reporting requirements will operate with respect to different groups of students and examines factors that could delay or dilute the guarantee of educational accountability in the academic achievement of all children.

Wednesday, November 3, 2004

George W. Bush

George W. Bush. Well, Bush won. I voted for Kerry but as a Texan I am happy the President came through. I don't like his politics but he is a good man. Here is a nice resource to point students towards for Bush information.



From the site:



George Walker Bush (born July 6 , 1946 ) is the 43rd and current President of the United States , succeeding Bill Clinton in 2001 . He was first elected President in 2000 and his term began in January 2001. He was re-elected in November 2004 and his second term will expire in 2009.



Bush was the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 and is a lifelong Republican .



In 1978 Bush ran for the House of Representatives and was defeated by the Democratic State Senator Kent Hance .



Bush began his career in the oil industry in 1979 when he began active operations of Arbusto Energy , an oil and gas exploration company he formed in 1977 with leftover funds from his education trust fund. The oil crisis of the late '70s hurt Arbusto Energy and, after a name change to Bush Exploration Co., Bush sold the company in 1984 to Spectrum 7, another Texas oil and gas exploration firm. Under the terms of the sale, Bush became CEO of Spectrum 7. History was repeated as the oil crisis of 1985-1986 bankrupted Spectrum 7. Spectrum 7 was subsequently saved by a buyout from Harken Energy Corp in 1986 with Bush becoming a director of Harken.



Bush was accused of using insider knowledge when selling stock while serving on the board of directors of Harken Energy Corp. in 1990 . After his sale of the stock, Harken reported a $23.2 million quarterly loss. An SEC investigation, alleged to be influenced by the fact Bush's father was President of the United States, declared "the investigation has been terminated as to the conduct of Mr. Bush, and that, at this time, no enforcement action is contemplated with respect to him." but noted that this did not mean that he was exonerated on that future charges might not brought. No further action has resulted, despite the fact that Bill Clinton, of the opposing political party, had been President for eight years between the administration of Bush and his father. As President, Bush has refused to authorize the SEC to release its full report on the investigation.

Monday, November 1, 2004

CONSTELLATIONS

CONSTELLATIONS. This is an interesting astronomy lesson plan for elementary school students.



From the site:



OVERVIEW: Astronomy provides practice in those skill that areprerequisite to the scientists of tomorrow: observation,graphing, recording, and predicting. Basic to many astronomicalobservations are the North Polar Constellations. The followingactivities provide our young scientists with success-orientedpractice in locating and recognizing these stars in the sky.



PURPOSE: The purpose of the following activities is to strengthenthe skills of visual perception, observation, and recording byusing repetition of visual bulletin board displays of the NorthPolar Constellations and graphing those star patterns.