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<p>September 6, 2003 -- Score a big one for the kids.</p> <p>And maybe a small one, too, for the cause of competence over excusehood.</p> <p>Federal Judge Constance Baker Motley's decision Thursday to toss out charges that teacher certification tests were "culturally biased" marks a notable - and all too rare - step forward for public education in Gotham.</p>

<p>September 5, 2003 -- A federal judge yesterday upheld the state's license exams for teachers as appropriate — tossing out complaints from minority instructors that the tests were culturally biased.</p> <p>Manhattan Judge Constance Baker Motley said the bottom line is that the state has the right to expect aspiring teachers to be able to write a clear and cogent essay on an exam as a condition of employment.</p>

ALBANY, N.Y. -- State officials have regraded a standardized math test that most New York high-schoolers failed this year, transforming failing marks into passing ones for thousands of students. Rather than rescoring all the math Regents exams, the state Department of Education released tables Friday to regrade the tests to more closely match the 2002 test results. For example, a ninth- or 10th-grader who received a 47 percent or 48 percent score in June now has a passing grade of 65.

Sue Friedman has seen the future of medicine -- and it's her life. About six years ago Friedman, then in her early 30s, tested positive for a genetic mutation that signals a higher-than-normal probability of developing breast and or ovarian cancer. ''It was kind of an undiagnosis, youre diagnosed with this risk,'' recalls the Coral Springs resident. Having lost a breast to cancer the previous year, Friedman took no chances. She had her other breast and her ovaries surgically removed as a precaution. Friedmans actions might seem radical, but in the future many of us may base our critical health...

Citizenship tests for immigrants JAMES GOFFIN September 3, 2003 20:09 Immigrants who want a UK passport will have to improve their English and prove their knowledge of the British way of life, under proposals revealed today. The proposals by Home Office advisor Sir Bernard Crick say would-be British citizens should take evening classes on UK culture and history and practical skills like paying bills and getting jobs. Candidates would also have to brush up their written and spoken English, although there would be no minimum level of literacy. Home Secretary David Blunkett jointly unveiled the proposals, part of Government plans...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - State officials have regraded a standardized math test that most New York high-schoolers failed this year, transforming failing marks into passing ones for thousands of students. Rather than rescoring all the math Regents exams, the state Department of Education released tables Friday to regrade the tests to more closely match the 2002 test results. For example, a ninth- or 10th-grader who received a 47 percent or 48 percent score in June now has a passing grade of 65. The recalculations mean the number of students passing rose from 28 percent to 55 percent for 12th-graders, from...

Question: When is 39 a passing grade? Answer: When it's the Math Regents exam. A new scoring system announced yesterday suddenly transformed hundreds of failing grades on June's Math A Regents into passing grades. So many students flunked the test that state Education Commissioner Richard Mills threw out the scores, allowing schools to substitute coursework grades for the Regents scores. A new scoring table was released yesterday that establishes a grading curve based on the June 2002 test. "It holds this year's students to the same standards as the ones to which the June 2002 students were held," Mills said....

Mukwonago - Home-schooled students could have to take tests so high school officials can confirm that the teenagers have done the work their parents say they have. A proposed policy before the Mukwonago School Board would require any high school student who is not coming from "a recognized or accredited public/private educational institution" to take a semester final exam or achievement test for a report card grade in certain subjects. Students would be required to pay $20 for each test taken, with a maximum $160 charge. Requiring a test also would allow the district to properly place the students in...

New Test Scores, Old B-S.By Tom ReevesNational Association of Scholars | August 29, 2003 Recently announced SAT scores for 2003 prompted the College Board's president and others to rejoice at the progress being made in the nation's high schools.  The gains were modest, to be sure.   Verbal scores for women increased by only one point, and men's scores rose three points.  Both men and women enjoyed a gain of three points in mathematics.  Still, the math scores were the highest in more than 35 years.  A record 1.4 million high school students took the examination.Not everyone was jubilant.  The Center...

Something else positive to post. Math SAT scores in 2002 were 516. That matches the 1967 value of 516. But, most importantly, 46% of students now take the SAT whereas much fewer did in 1967. Also way more minorities take the SAT now (whites scored 533 in 2002, which is way above the mostly white 1967 crowd). All things considered, I think it is fair to say this is the best SAT result ever!! Congratulates students.

The study found that public schools whose students were eligible for vouchers made significantly larger test-score gains than other public schools in the state. Even public schools that had only one failing grade but faced the threat of vouchers if they failed again made exceptional improvements. Similar low-scoring schools that did not face the prospect of voucher competition, however, did not make similar gains. In Florida, vouchers have provided public schools with powerful incentives to improve. If schools don't improve, they stand to lose students - and the funding they generate - to other schools. WASHINGTON - Few question...

<p>This year's crop of college-bound high school graduates had the highest average mathematics scores in more than three decades on the SAT.</p> <p>The national average math score on the SAT this year was 519 &#8212; three points higher than last year and 14 points higher than in 1974 &#8212; according to the College Entrance Examination Board, which administered the test to 1.4 million students in the class of 2003.</p>

<p>The College Board, which owns the nation's most popular college entrance exam, said Tuesday that this year's high school graduates had an average cumulative score of 1,026 points on the SAT, up six points from 2002. Both the average math (519) and verbal (507) scores were up three points from last year.</p>

Parasoft CEO Blames SoBig On Arrogant Software Industry Leadership August 22, 2003 (3:29 p.m. EST) By Keith Ferrell , TechWeb News Sharply criticizing complacency, arrogance and immaturity in software industry leadership, and blaming those qualities for the SoBig virus's successful march through the world's computers, Parasoft CEO Adam Kolawa delivered a rant Friday that included an offer to show the industry how to cure its errors. The head of the privately held software development solutions company said that the industry's policy of tackling program bugs at the latter stages of development cycles is self-defeating. By that point in the development...

<p>August 21, 2003 -- Hundreds of Chinese immigrants are under investigation for allegedly hiring imposters - with far better English skills - to take their graduate-school admissions tests, Manhattan prosecutors said yesterday.</p> <p>Five students - the tip of the iceberg - are already in custody in the alleged scam, facing identity theft and forgery charges that could put them behind bars for up to seven years.</p>

<p>The chilling reality is that children who have trouble reading at the end of third grade will continue to have difficulty through school. The question is how to help them.</p> <p>Twenty Upper St. Clair elementary pupils, 10 from the fifth grade at Boyce Middle School and 10 from the third grade at Eisenhower Elementary, will be part of a countywide project to answer that question.</p>

(CNSNews.com) - When both school teachers and even a local school superintendent cannot pass legally required English fluency tests, as was the case in Massachusetts recently, taxpayers and students end up the losers, critics told CNSNews.com Thursday. "It's obviously a ridiculous situation. Here's the guy in charge of education (in Lawrence, Mass.), and he can't even pass an English literacy test," James Lubinskas, communications director for U.S. English, Inc., a group dedicated to making English the official U.S. language, said. Jim Boulet, executive director for a similar-minded group, English First, agreed, saying the situation highlights what has been wrong with...

<p>In New York City and other large cities, high school students are increasingly being expelled &#8212; not for bad behavior, but because administrators think they will fail standardized tests. These students are not considered dropouts. That would look bad for the public school system. Rather, they are called "pushouts." The students are usually offered alternative programs, where they can earn a General Educational Development (GED) diploma. However, GED teachers have said that most pushouts never even get a GED. Such developments are the antithesis of modern public education goals that seek to leave no child behind.</p>

School tests breach UN convention, envoy claims Will Woodward, education editor Monday July 14, 2003 The Guardian The government is breaching the United Nations convention on children's rights by imposing a targets and testing regime in English schools that ignores their needs, a UN representative has warned. In an interview with the Guardian, Katarina Tomasevski, special rapporteur on the right to education for the UN commission on human rights, said she believed the British government was in technical breach of the convention. Article 29 says education should be "directed to the development of the child's personality, talents and mental and...

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. But some...