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IAMI, May 12 — A small group of minority politicians and prominent religious leaders in Florida is threatening a boycott of some of the state's largest industries in the hope of forcing the suspension of an achievement test that thousands of high school seniors recently failed.State education officials announced last week that about 13,000 seniors in Florida public schools had failed the exam, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, leaving them ineligible to graduate. The state said that it did not immediately have the number of students who took the test but that it would release more information on Thursday. Opponents...

MIAMI -- The furor over the FCAT is intensifying this morning. Community leaders say that the statewide academic skills assessment test is unfair to blacks and Hispanics. They also say they will boycott the state's tourism, sugar, and the citrus industries if things don't change. "We will not continue to support this government economically that will not support our children," said boycott organizer Bishop Victor Curry (pictured). Curry says Gov. Jeb Bush has 10 days to rescind the latest FCAT scores or the boycott will begin.

Dozens of South Florida's community activists and politicians on Sunday threatened a boycott of several major industries if Gov. Jeb Bush doesn't rectify recent FCAT results that could keep thousands of high school seniors, mostly blacks and Hispanics, from graduating.The targets: the state's tourism, sugar and citrus industries.The plan: to spend the next 10 days traveling the state and informing communities, then begin a boycott May 22 if Bush doesn't find a way to scale back the numbers of students who may not graduate.On Sunday, community elders and elected officials, from former Miami City Commissioner Athalie Range to House Minority...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites) has voted to lift a ban on research and development of low-yield nuclear weapons in the United States. A provision repealing the 10-year-old ban was included in the 2004 national defense authorization bill, which the Senate committee passed Friday. The bill must still pass through the US House Armed Services Committee, the full House and the Senate and can be amended at each stage. US President George W. Bush (news - web sites), whose administration had requested the repeal, would then have to sign the bill to...

Arizona public schoolers are taking statewide tests this week to see if their schools are meeting state academic standards. Like everything else with K-12 education, so-called education experts are bitterly divided on the value of such tests and standards. As a parent who is not a pedagogical expert, I only know one thing for certain: that of all the courses my sixth-grade son has taken since kindergarten, there is only one in which my wife and I feel in control of his learning and know on a daily basis how he is performing. It is a course in which he...

House Votes to Drop High School Exit Exam By Scott Mooneyham, AP Writer An exit exam required that would have been required of North Carolina's high school seniors beginning in 2005 would be dropped under legislation adopted by the state House on Thursday. The bill, approved in a 75-34 vote, also prohibits state education officials from adding standardized tests unless they are called for by federal law. It now goes to the Senate for consideration. Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, one of the bill's sponsors, said it is time to stop inundating schools, teachers and students with standardized tests. Students...

<p>Arizona's new emissions test is failing cars at three to five times the rate of the old test, an Arizona Republic analysis shows.</p> <p>Cars built in the 1996 model year failed the new computer-based test at a rate of nearly 15 percent last year, the first year it was used. That's almost five times the failure rate of the 1996 cars under the former test, which relies on actual measurements of a car's tailpipe emissions.</p>

Cathy Duffy is one of the best-known and most respected names in homeschooling. She is the author of the Christian Home Educators' Curriculum Manual and Government Nannies and a frequent convention speaker. To visit her web site, click on her name above. The Standards/Testing Movement States have been forced by federal legislation to participate in the standards movement - developing lists of skills and content required at each grade level. The weapon of enforcement is testing. New tests are being developed that reflect the content of the standards. These tests are supposed to judge student mastery of what is actually...

S'no JokeDate Thursday, April 17 @ 20:59:56 Topic School-Public  Thousands of fourth-graders in Boston will be re-taking the state’s standardized MCAS test because a question involving snow days on the original was perceived as culturally biased against kids from warmer climates who have never seen snow, reports the New York Times. Wilfredo T. Laboy, superintendent of the predominantly Spanish-speaking Lawrence district, said: "I believe it is culturally biased. For kids from Santo Domingo, Southeast Asia or other warm climates, what do they say about snow?" The URL for this story is:http://www.gohotsprings.com/school/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=174

<p>Eight versions of the Stryker infantry carrier are to be evaluated at Fort Knox.</p> <p>FORT KNOX, Ky. -- A new generation of light armored vehicles will soon be rumbling across Fort Knox's rolling terrain as the Army transforms itself into a more mobile fighting force.</p>

OSTON, April 16 — Many fourth graders at Hernandez Elementary School here do not remember what they did on their last snow day, which was two years ago. Others like Gabriel Prado, 10, remember just the painful parts, like being hit by a snowball thrown by his older brother.Although the students cross their fingers and hope for the big morning announcement every time the sky becomes gray, two years, they say, is a long time to think back on their last lucky break. And that has become a problem for the students, who have to retake part of the state's...

Caddo probes alleged testing violations Melody Brumble / The Times Posted on April 16, 2003 Walnut Hill Elementary/Middle School Principal Albert Hardison is on leave while Caddo school officials investigate alleged standardized test security violations. Officials learned of the possible problem March 9, the Sunday before testing, and sent monitors to ensure nothing inappropriate occurred to void student scores, said Marlene Ritter, Caddo schools general education director. Now officials are looking into what led to the allegations. "We are not now considering voiding the tests of a single (Walnut Hill) student. If we void tests, it will be for the...

Model school cheated, officials say Test scandal ousts Caldwell principal By Aimee Edmondson edmondson@gomemphis.com March 13, 2003 Caldwell Elementary was a shining star in the troubled Memphis city school system, working academic wonders in a tough environment. But school officials say much of Caldwell's success was a sham, and widely lauded principal Lirah Sabir has retired amid allegations she cheated to boost test scores. Sabir excluded the weakest students on test days, answer sheets were doctored and monitors were banned from the classroom, school officials say. Educators say the case illustrates the dark side of the nation's intense focus on...

Just how tough is the FCAT? Sun-Sentinel Ever wonder just how tough the dreaded FCAT really is? To give you a glimpse of what your child needs to know, the Florida Department of Education has assembled a collection of sample tests that you can browse -- or take, if you dare.... To see the sample FCAT questions and answer links for reading, math and science in grades 3-10, scroll down to the end of the article after clicking here.

The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education. -- Plutarch A major education bill signed on Jan. 8, 2002, by President Bush is about to create havoc across the land. The No Child Left Behind Act is the most sweeping reform since the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was enacted in 1965. The No Child Left Behind Act redefines the federal role in K-12 education and aims to close the achievement gap between disadvantaged and minority students and their more privileged peers. It has several basic principles that conservatives like: stronger accountability for results, increased...

Lead Levels Linked to Male Infertility MANHASSET, New York, February 6, 2003 (ENS) - Fertility experts today published the first conclusive evidence that lead is linked to male infertility. A report a European medicine journal, "Human Reproduction," concludes that exposure to lead damages sperm function and may be one cause of unexplained male infertility cases. The findings have led principal investigator Dr. Susan Benoff to urge doctors to measure lead in semen samples when evaluating men from couples with unexplained fertility. She said she also believes there is a case for health and safety authorities to continue reevaluating environmental...

TRAVERSE CITY - At a copy shop recently, LaVern Broughton was busy making copies of a recall petition he had drafted when another customer noticed it and asked him what it was.Broughton planned to circulate a petition in Grand Traverse, Antrim and Leelanau counties requesting an election to recall embattled District Judge Thomas Gilbert, he told the man."When he seen what it was, he wanted to sign it right away," Broughton said.But Broughton's plan was destined to fail even before it had begun.With a little more research, Broughton learned that judges - even though they are elected officials - cannot...

From Japan (based on Kyodo News reports in Japanese from Beijing, China), report on statement by North Korean Ambassador to China regarding additional threats toward the United States, this time on resumption of missile testing and launch (photo, above, of DPRK Ambassador to China Che Jin Su, making provocative threat on Saturday at press conference).Synopsis from Japanese text by AIT:DPRK Ambassador to China Mr. Che Jin Su States: "We Will Now Resume Missile Launches, and Further, We Will Take Nuclear Measures On Our Own to Protect Against US Nuclear Threats"Ambassador to China from North Korea Che Jin Su gave...

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Educators from nearly a dozen local districts, along with others statewide, are awaiting results from a second round of state teacher tests, but the controversial program soon might be kicked out of school. Former Gov. Tom Ridge had hoped to test the state's 125,000 teachers in mathematics and reading over the next five years under the initiative launched in the fall of 2001. But the future of the Professional Development Assistance Program looks shaky with Democratic Gov.-elect Ed Rendell set to take office Jan. 21. Critics of the program — including the state teachers unions, which poured more than $400,000...