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I am being hassled by my prof. about the evils of standardized testing. I am wondering if you can point me to anything about rebuttals to common liberal talking points on standardized testing. Also I would be interested in details on the NEA's position on NCLB (aka ESEA reauthorization) when it was up for passage in Congress in (I think) 2001.

Viagra, which treats a common but decidedly nonfatal male malady, might soon have a new role treating a rare but life-threatening disease that strikes mainly women. Doctors said yesterday that sildenafil citrate, the ingredient in Pfizer's impotence pill, had proven effective in a clinical trial as a treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension - extremely high pressure in the artery carrying blood to the lungs. "It is a very promising new therapy for the treatment of a very severe disease," said H. Ardeschir Ghofrani, an assistant professor at the University of Giessen in Germany, who presented the results at the annual...

I am a 15 -year-old student at Fox Chapel Area High School, and I am writing in regard to the bout of standardized testing that is currently pervading our educational systems. I must admit, there are some benefits to such an exercise, but, in the reality of our world, intelligence cannot be objectively measured. In fact, the very nature of our educational system is a dire reflection of its ideal state; instead of instructing students about ideas that actually have value in this world, teachers are told to edify for the test and to make students needlessly memorize a plethora...

For a prime example of medical screening that has proliferated beyond reason, consider the alarming case of full-body computed tomography scans to detect cancer, cardiovascular disease and other conditions. Narrowly targeted C.T. scans aimed at particular organs are undeniably valuable when used by doctors to pin down a diagnosis in sick patients. But full-body scans to screen healthy individuals for hidden disease have never been shown to be effective, and now there is evidence that the scans may be harmful. A new study finds that the scans impart radiation doses comparable to those received by atomic-bomb survivors in Hiroshima and...

Like members of two different religions, doctors and patients may disparage each other's rituals, but they still worship the same god. In medicine these days, that would be the god of the laboratory, a creature with red-stoppered tubes for fingers and cathode-ray eyes, in whose capacious lap rests the infrastructure of modern health care. Doctors complain that lab tests hypnotize patients to the exclusion of everything else. They want P.S.A., C.E.A., C.R.P. and cholesterol levels checked on a monthly basis. They demand brain scans, lung scans, body scans and bone scans, but when it comes to duller projects, like quitting...

Iran said yesterday that it had restarted the building of uranium enrichment centrifuges which the United States says are part of a bid to develop an atomic bomb. American officials claim that Iran intends to enrich weapons-grade uranium, but Tehran insists it only wants to develop its ability to produce electricity. 'We have started building centrifuges,' said Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi in a press conference. Iran's move goes back on a pledge last year to suspend all its uranium enrichment activities, secured by Britain, France and Germany. The European strategy was criticised in the US as being too soft...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Six years ago, Sister Mary Andrew Matesich was 59, the president of Ohio Dominican University, chairwoman of the Ohio Ethics Commission and a member of a half-dozen other public service and educational groups. She loved her work, her school, her students, her life. But she had reached a crossroad. Breast cancer, first treated when she was 54, had come back and begun to spread. The doctor's words are still clear in her mind: "Treatable but not curable." Another round of standard therapy might help, he said, but not for long. She wanted more time - time enough,...

When Karen Coveler and her husband began trying to have a child, she told her obstetrician that she wanted to take all the DNA tests she could to determine whether she was at risk of passing on a genetic disease to her child. Based on her Ashkenazi Jewish background, Ms. Coveler was offered 10 tests, all of which were negative, and went on to have a normal pregnancy. It was not until her son, Benjamin, was born that she discovered he was deaf. And it was not until a few weeks later that she learned a simple blood test could...

NEW YORK - A new bill has passed the New York state legislature that would prevent state or city university systems from requiring SAT or other "high stakes" as major criteria in determining who gets accepted. College officials are urging a gubernatorial veto. Their argument is that it then makes state politicians in charge of admissions policy - as opposed to objective testing standards. Officials are arguing that the decision on admissions and standards should be left in the hands of the trustees. The law would directly impact the debate over the use of standardized tests in also determining promotion...

Thousands Of Teacher Candidates Mistakenly Flunked WASHINGTON -- About 4,100 people who passed teacher licensing tests were incorrectly told they failed, delaying or preventing some from getting jobs, the testing company says. The Educational Testing Service, a private company that administers more than 12 million tests worldwide, is tracking down each person who received a faulty score to apologize and refund the $115 test fee and other expenses. The company is also notifying the 19 states that use the Praxis exam in question, one that tests teaching and content knowledge for prospective educators of grades seven to 12. As part...

On of my daughters is in first grade at a local Christian school. She just took her first standardized test, the Stanford Achievement Test.She scored fifth, sixth, and seventh-grade equivalent in all subjects (except one), and was at or above the 99%ile in all subjects (except one).That one is called "environment", and she was below average for grade."Environment" has sub-categories, two of which are "political science" and "economics", in which she did especially poorly.Now, she is actually pretty knowledgeable for a seven year old about both politics and economics (except that she is more of a Bushbot than her Dad).What...

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Immigrant children learning English wouldn't have to pass the state English Regents exam to graduate from high school under a proposal with strong Assembly support. Assemblyman Peter Rivera said the alternative route is needed for immigrant students living in the United States for five years or less because it takes more time than that to master English enough to pass the Regents exam required for graduation. Without the measure approved last week by the Assembly Education Committee, Rivera said more bright immigrant students will drop out and potentially lead less productive lives, when they just need more...

Bill would exempt English learners from exam Saturday June 12, 2004 By MICHAEL GORMLEY Associated Press Writer ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) Immigrant children learning English wouldn't have to pass the state English Regents exam to graduate from high school under a proposal with strong Assembly support. Assemblyman Peter Rivera said the alternative route is needed for immigrant students living in the United States for five years or less because it takes more time than that to master English enough to pass the Regents exam required for graduation. Without the measure approved last week by the Assembly Education Committee, Rivera said more...

China begins testing SARS vaccine on humans May 23 2004 at 10:42AM Beijing - China has started testing a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) vaccine on humans in the latest effort to find a way to protect people from the respiratory disease which killed nearly 800 people and wreaked havoc on the region's economy last year. Four people, aged between 20 and 40, on Saturday were given the vaccine, which has been jointly developed by China's Science and Technology Ministry and the Beijing Kexing Vaccine Company, the Beijing Youth Daily said. They became the first humans to be given the...

One cheater whispered answers in students' ears as they took the exam. Another photocopied test booklets so students would know vocabulary words in advance. Another erased score sheets marked with the wrong answers and substituted correct ones. None of these violations involving California's standardized tests were committed by devious students: These sneaky offenders were teachers. Since a statewide testing program began five years ago, more than 200 California teachers have been investigated for allegedly helping students on state exams, and at least 75 of those cases have been proved, according to documents obtained by The Times. Most cases have led...

"April is the cruelest month," wrote T. S. Eliot, and I found myself in complete agreement as the raison d'etre for education, the TAKS tests, reached its terminus this week. My despondency, however, must be small compared with the travails of some children in many parts of Texas, who found themselves, in the months leading up to the tests, ushered into special -education status or unceremoniously ejected from their host schools. I am convinced, albeit intuitively, that the pressures to produce stellar test results sets up a corresponding momentum to shield mediocre students from being folded into the accountability roster....

<p>People do badly on tests for different reasons. Some do badly because they're anxious or fear failure, others because they don't know how to answer the questions. How important are these factors? When it comes to the long-observed patterns of black-white differences on a range of academic measures, social science purports to know the answer. Journals and textbooks of psychology will tell you that the principal cause of black students' poor performance on tests is something called "stereotype threat." Black test-takers fall short because they're afraid that the results will be used to confirm negative views about their group's abilities. It follows that if some way can be found to dispel this "threat," group differences in scores will disappear.</p>

<p>Classroom routines are coming to a halt this month as teachers administer Arizona's annual statewide standardized tests, the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards and the Stanford 9.</p> <p>They have never been more important. The scores will be used to determine which schools will be labeled performing and which will be failing. Sophomores facing their first attempt at the AIMS math test know they will have to pass the test by their 2006 graduation day or they won't earn a diploma.</p>

A conservative organization is expressing outrage over a lawsuit that seeks to force the State of Massachusetts to administer its high school equivalency examination in Spanish for students more proficient in that language than in English. The Multicultural Education, Training, and Advocacy Coalition and two lawyers' groups have filed suit, claiming the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment (MCAS) test is unfair to Spanish-speaking students. The group claims the exam given to evaluate students in academic subjects such as math and history is unfair and should be offered to them in Spanish. But K.C. McAlpin of the Washington, DC-based group Pro-English believes the...

The Defense Department and other federal agencies may soon be able to implement new drug testing for its work force that will include testing hair, sweat and saliva to detect drug abuse. Army Col. Mick Smith, senior staff officer for drug demand reduction at DoD's counternarcotics office, said the new procedures will be permitted once the Department of Health and Human Services approves proposed guidelines for the test and DoD completes a subsequent internal approval process. Those guidelines awaiting DHHS approval will outline quality standards for new types of drug tests, specifically testing hair, oral fluid, sweat and urine, using...