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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sat27jul27,1,1810756.story?coll=la-home-headlines   College Board Scores With Critics of SAT Analogies By Paul Pringle Times Staff Writer July 27, 2003 The SAT is to college admission ... " ... As a root canal is to a dentist?" said Peter Lee, 16. He and several other weary-looking high school students had just emerged from a four-hour SAT prep class in Glendale. "As a root canal is to a patient?" suggested Emin Gharibian, 17. Neither of those worked for Anthony Kwon, 16. "As a root canal is to pain," he said. Pain is typically the refrain when college-bound youngsters jaw about the SAT....

We will start testing nuclear bombs, says defiant N Korea (Filed: 27/07/2003) US fears that declaration could be prelude to an atomic attack, writes Julian Coman North Korea has raised the stakes dramatically in its confrontation with the United States by privately threatening to conduct its first underground nuclear test, it emerged yesterday. A senior official of the hardline Communist regime warned in New York that his country would take counter-measures, "for example, a nuclear test", if the US did not ease pressure on his isolated country. The warning, by Han Sung Ryol, North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United...

<p>The District's schoolchildren are the worst writers in the country, a national report says a month after the same students were ranked the nation's worst readers.</p> <p>D.C. fourth-graders scored 18 points below the national average of 153 points on writing assessments last year, with more than one-fourth lacking even basic writing ability, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) said in "The Nation's Report Card: Writing 2002."</p>

A decade after Florida began focusing on writing skills, the state's fourth-graders are among the nation's best young writers. Florida had the fifth-highest percentage of fourth-graders writing proficiently, according to results of the 2002 National Assessment of Educational Progress. The state's eighth-graders ranked 11th. Florida showed some of the biggest increases over time, and some of the biggest gains among minority students. The scores, released Thursday, were touted by Education Commissioner Jim Horne as evidence that Florida's school reforms are working, and that the focus on writing skills is paying dividends. Still, only a third of Florida's students are proficient...

<p>California high school seniors will not need to pass a high school exit exam to earn their diplomas in 2004 and 2005, but state officials have promised the new requirement will return for the Class of 2006.</p> <p>The state Board of Education decided unanimously Wednesday to put the exam, a key element of the state's accountability system, on hiatus for two years.</p>

US identifies nuclear testing range in North Korea By David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 02/07/2003) American spy satellites have found what looks like an advanced nuclear testing range in North Korea, it was reported yesterday. An intelligence assessment, which has been shared with Japan, South Korea and other East Asian nations, identifies a previously unknown range of the type needed to produce a nuclear missile warhead, the New York Times said. The satellite images from the Youngdoktong area appear to show tests of sophisticated conventional explosives, designed to simulate a compact nuclear detonation. Intelligence officials in the United States have...

Every child born in the UK could be genetically screened and the data stored to plan their future healthcare under government proposals for a massive expansion of genetic testing. John Reid, the new Secretary of State for Health, said the UK was on the threshold of a revolution in healthcare. "Increasing understanding of genetics will bring more accurate diagnosis, more personalised prediction of risk, new gene-based drugs and therapies and better targeted prevention and treatment," he said. The controversial proposal for testing newborn babies was announced in a White Paper that promised £50m to expand the ability of the NHS...

DUMBING DOWN OUR SCHOOLS A Public Agenda 2001 survey that found 86 percent of parents thought there should be a basic skills or more challenging test in order to receive a high school diploma, while only 12 percent thought it a bad idea. Yet, sensitivity to social injustice has led to a fear of failure and to a policy of minimal measurement in our nation's schools, says Pete du Pont (National Center for Policy Analysis). This in turn has led advocates to attempt to block high school graduation tests. o In New York, 25 different organizations, from the teachers unions...

Parents hearing recent news reports about ''exit exams'' that high school seniors must pass to earn a diploma probably assume they're a bad idea doomed to a well-deserved death. In Massachusetts, where 4,800 seniors were denied diplomas for failing the mandatory tests, state authorities had to quash a rebellion among superintendents planning to give out diplomas anyway. This month in California, state school officials retreated from a plan that would have denied diplomas to tens of thousands of students likely to fail exit tests, which now won't be used until 2006. And Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has been hounded by...

<p>Reading skills of Arizona's fourth- and eighth-graders are scraping bottom compared with the rest of the nation, according to a national report released Thursday.</p> <p>Results from the 2002 Nation's Report Card on reading show Arizona's fourth-graders trailing the national average by 12 points.</p>

School administrators across New York State are charging that the Regents exam in mathematics offered this week was far too difficult, and that a huge number of high school seniors may be barred from graduating next week because they failed it. Though many districts have not finished tabulating their scores, superintendents, principals and math department heads are reporting preliminary results that some described yesterday as "abysmal," "disastrous" and "outrageous." "Kids have walked out of the exam in tears knowing they are just not graduating," said one veteran assistant principal in Brooklyn, adding that officials from other schools had been deluging...

The NAEP (National Assesment of Educational Progress) 2002 Reading results were released yesterday. Department of Defense Schools are very good indeed, and seem to almost eliminate the racial gaps in reading, particularly the Hispanic one. It should also make it clear that members of the armed forces seem to be either peculiarly intelligent, or they breed intelligent children. California does very badly, BTW, and Texas does quite well, particularly for Hispanics. % over basic DOD schools 8th grade - Black - 80 Hispanic - 85 White - 92 US 8th grade Black - 54 Hispanic - 56 White - 83...

<p>Editorial: Delay the exit exam But keep the pressure on high schools Bee Editorial Staff Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Tuesday, June 17, 2003 The 90,000-some students in the Class of 2004 who were expected to fail the high school exit exam can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. State schools chief Jack O'Connell has opted to cancel the planned July administration of the test, which students have been able to take at various times throughout the year, and will likely cancel the September and November administrations as well. His sensible action will save the state more than $1 million and save the schools the grief of administering a test that would very likely have had no consequence for students. That's because the state Board of Education is almost certain to vote next month to delay the passage requirement to 2006 or maybe even 2007. O'Connell proposes to begin administering the test again next January, when the Class of 2006 will be halfway through its sophomore year.</p>

MIAMI -- The graduation ceremony for Miami Edison High School's class of 2003 seemed normal enough. The band played "Pomp and Circumstance." Platitudes were uttered about the future. Parents cheered and cried as their children's names were read aloud. What made this commencement ceremony different, though, was that most of Miami Edison's 480 seniors didn't actually graduate. Most of the students who didn't graduate haven't yet passed the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, the Sunshine State's high-stakes exam. This year, for the first time, seniors must pass the FCAT in order to graduate. So, instead of diplomas, most students...

Is-ness Is All A New York Times reporter, Tamar Lewin, tries grading SAT II essays and discovers that she's out of step with the veteran graders. What they think is a top-scoring 6, she thinks is empty blather. Our instructions don't help me much: Ignore the handwriting. Read holistically, not analytically. Do not reread. Read supportively, and grade what's there, not what's missing. If the paper is absolutely illegible, or completely off-topic, give it to your table leader. Read the whole thing before making any judgment, since some papers improve greatly once the student gets going ... What is most...

BOSTON (AP)--Four attempts. Two points shy. The numbers plague Karl Kearns, a senior at Burke High School in Boston. This was the first year in which seniors statewide were denied diplomas if they failed the state's high school test, the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam, or MCAS. Kearns was one of some 4,800 seniors who didn't make the cut. Despite maintaining a ``B'' average, winning an award for ``most improved'' in his class, being captain of his football team and overcoming the challenges of a broken home and a reading disability, he didn't score high enough to get a diploma...

TRUCKING and mining companies are using random, 12-minute saliva tests that can reveal workers' drug use. The new, quick method of screening for marijuana, amphetamines, opiates, cocaine and benzodiazepine is being taken up by companies in Queensland and other states, including national trucking company Linfox. Michael Bull, the Queensland representative of Integrity Sampling, which conducts the screening using mouth swabs, said it was not acting as "lifestyle police". The saliva test detected only drugs used in a timeframe when workers would be considered potentially under intoxication, he said. The test showed a positive or negative result for marijuana used within...

California's high-school exit exam, once heralded as a sure-fire way to ratchet up achievement and make a diploma worthwhile, will be postponed amid concerns about high failure rates and the political and legal backlash from denying thousands of students the right to graduate next year. A majority of the members of the California Board of Education said they would vote next month to delay implementing the exit-exam policy. By pushing back the requirement for passing the exam at least two years to the Class of 2006, board members said they would give students more opportunity to master the necessary English...

2 + 2 = ? On Number 2 Pencil, Kim Swygert rounds up the controversies over graduation and promotion exams. Basically, everyone wants to blame the test instead of blaming the school for not teaching algebra or the student for not learning. Or they just blame racism: “I call it a testocracy,” said Ron Walters, the director of the African-American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland. He said that the tests used for high school graduation in Florida are culturally biased, as are most tests across the country now being used to measure the performance of schools, teachers and...

<p>Home-schooled students no longer would have to take periodic achievement tests under a bill that won final legislative approval Tuesday, but Gov. Ted Kulongoski warned that he may veto the measure.</p> <p>Senate Bill 761 cleared the Senate on a 21-9 vote after supporters said it would free parents from an unnecessary state requirement that doesn't apply to children in private schools.</p>