Free Republic

Some Garden State parents are furious after learning their 3rd graders were asked during the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge exam, NJ ASK, to disclose a secret about their lives – and why it’s hard to keep. Dr. Richard Goldberg – a Marlboro father of twin boys in the 3rd grade – says the youngsters were asked “The Secret” question, and ” I was kind of shocked because it was just a very – it was an outrageous question…to ask an 8-year-old, a 9-year-old to start revealing secrets in the middle of an exam – I thought was...

A study by Penn State researchers is being revised after test results apparently linking increased bromide in some water wells to Marcellus Shale gas drilling were traced instead to a lab error. An error notice was published on Nov. 22 on the website of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, which funded the study and released it in late October. According to the notice, an accredited laboratory contracted by the researchers incorrectly reported the bromide concentration data that was used in the original report. Updated data showed that increased bromide levels were recorded in one of 42 water wells, not seven...

The stress was overwhelming. For years, this veteran teacher had received exemplary evaluations but now was feeling pressured to raise her students' test scores. Her principal criticized her teaching and would show up to take notes on her class. She knew the material would be used against her one day. "My principal told me right to my face that she — she was feeling sorry for me because I don't know how to teach," the instructor said. The Los Angeles educator, who did not want to be identified, is one of about three dozen in the state accused this year...

RESEDA, LOS ANGELES -- The scores are in for Southern California students who took the annual STAR exam. Despite cutbacks and layoffs, scores are up for the ninth straight year. They're at their highest levels since the testing began. At a 10th-grade physiology class at Reseda High School, reading and language skills are combined with mathematics, and there are improved results in the latest statewide Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) examinations given to nearly 5 million students in grades 2 through 11. "Despite the cuts we are seeing that kind of significant progress. It's been steady over the last nine...

According to a declassified 2005 report released last week, China had been testing the effects of an electromagnetic pulse attack–the detonation of a nuclear device at high altitude to maximize the area affected by the EMP–possibly meant for Taiwan. According to the report, China was actually testing two kinds of nuclear blasts and the effects the resulting radiation would have on humans. (China was testing them on animals, which experienced “high mortality rates.”) The point of an EMP attack (all nuclear explosions result in an EMP), however, is to disrupt the electronics devices within range of the blast.

Should we require people who receive taxpayer money welfare handouts to submit to random drug testing? As with most social-fiscal issues, this is a divisive one. Opponents claim this would be a violation of Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable search, and of course, some of them play the race card as well and insist that this would be a racist thing to do (do they understand how very old the race card is?). Supporters claim this would save millions in taxpayer dollars and help people get off drugs. We already see that many employers require their employees to submit to...

Ed Wood is on a mission to change state laws regarding drugged driving. Wood has a very personal stake in the issue. His son, 33-year-old Brian Wood, was among three people killed in a Sept. 3, 2010, car crash on North Whidbey last fall. Evidence introduced at trial showed the two Oak Harbor women responsible for the collision had illegal drugs in their systems. Wood, a Colorado resident, wasn't happy about the sentences handed down this month to the women. But he hopes his story of loss and injustice will spur a law change in this and other states. "It...

We don’t buy tickets or recordings of mediocre or worse musicians but we keep paying for and sending our kids to exactly such teachers; the No Child Left Behind mandated testing shows it. Of course, the teachers’ unions object and the Obamans intend to satisfy them by dumping such effective testing. In Part (1) of this article, the questions were: the necessity of locking up all the kids every day and were it found necessary, should it be done by the government or could the private sector do it better? We postponed looking much at the means for delivering education....

We don’t buy tickets or recordings of mediocre or worse musicians but we keep paying for and sending our kids to exactly such teachers; the No Child Left Behind mandated testing shows it. Of course, the teachers’ unions object and the Obamans intend to satisfy them by dumping such effective testing. In Part (1) of this article, the questions were: the necessity of locking up all the kids every day and were it found necessary, should it be done by the government or could the private sector do it better? We postponed looking much at the means for delivering education....

A long-anticipated conflict between the FCAT and Passover starts on Tuesday, but local public schools are accommodating observant students by offering alternative test times and makeup exams. The Jewish holiday begins at sundown on Monday and ends on April 26. In Palm Beach and Broward counties on Tuesday, fifth-grade students are scheduled to take the first of two days of the science portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Jewish students usually do not miss school throughout Passover, but some may be absent for a couple of days. When the testing schedule was published last year, some parents complained that...

Some Maricopa County workers are burned up about a new health-plan requiring them to submit saliva for nicotine analysis.

Come April, Illinois 11th-graders will need to sweat through two days of state testing before they can advance to the senior class. Illinois education officials approved the new rules Thursday, taking aim at a loophole some schools used to keep academically weak juniors from taking the test, thereby avoiding accountability for their scores under federal law. The new regulations would allow local schools to continue to determine what it means to be a junior, whether by counting a student's years at high school or the number of academic credits earned. But students must sit for the Prairie State Achievement Exam...

Nine years into the war in Afghanistan, a handful of U.S. soldiers have a new weapon in hand, a lethal combination of technology and explosives that the Army has called a "game changer." Looking like it came straight out of a sci-fi movie, the XM-25 fires highly specialized rounds that can be programmed to explode at the precise location where the enemy is hiding behind cover. (Snip) Though the XM-25 has tested well in the United States, military brass will be watching the weapon's performance in real-life combat to assess not only how well it performs, but also what weapons

They risked their lives to capture on film hundreds of blinding flashes, rising fireballs and mushroom clouds. The blast from one detonation hurled a man and his camera into a ditch. When he got up, a second wave knocked him down again. Then there was radiation. While many of the scientists who made atom bombs during the cold war became famous, the men who filmed what happened when those bombs were detonated made up a secret corps. Their existence and the nature of their work has emerged from the shadows only since the federal government began a concerted effort to...

Multimedia artwork "2053" - This is the number of nuclear explosions conducted in various parts of the globe.*Profile of the artist: Isao HASHIMOTO Born in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan in 1959. Worked for 17 years in financial industry as a foreign exchange dealer. Studied at Department of Arts, Policy and Management of Musashino Art University, Tokyo. Currently working for Lalique Museum, Hakone, Japan as a curator. Created artwork series expressing, in the artist's view, "the fear and the folly of nuclear weapons": "1945-1998" © 2003"Overkilled""The Names of Experiments" About "1945-1998" ©2003 "This piece of work is a bird's eye view of...

TRENTON — The U.S. Department of Education today awarded a total of $330 million to two coalitions of states — both of which include New Jersey — to create a new generation of standardized tests that will assess national standards for what students should learn in school. The U.S. DOE is awarding funding for the new assessments through its $4.35 billion Race to the Top competition. The federal government awarded nearly all of its Race to the Top funding through an education reform competition that New Jersey narrowly lost last week. But $425 million was left over to create better...

NEW ORLEANS – BP is delaying critical tests on a new well cap designed to finally stop the flow of oil in the Gulf of Mexico after government officials said more analysis was needed on the plan. ... National Incident Commander Thad Allen said in a statement Tuesday night the process "may benefit from additional analysis" that would be performed overnight and Wednesday. He did not say when the tests would start.

NOTE: The original article is in Danish; since not too many FReepers speak Danish, I've included a link to, and excerpts from, the Google translation of the page. "Its never been done before. And its really cool engineering.” And its really cool engineering. "How Steve Jobs introduced the metal frame on the new iPhone because the phone the other day was revealed to the wondering world. The frame serves as the phone antenna. But the fact is the principle behind the iPhone 4-antenna system is far from new. And possibly it is even so problematic that it will reduce the...

Gov. Rick Perry, reiterating his concerns about a federal takeover of education, gave the final word today that Texas will not apply for the second round of a federal grant worth up to $700 million for local schools. Perry refused to compete for the first round of the Race to the Top grant in January, but had not definitively said the state would sit out round two. The Republican governor repeatedly has criticized President Barack Obama's education grant because it favors states that adopt common curriculum standards. “This administration's attempt to bait states into adopting national standards is an effort...

WASHINGTON – For all the primaries testing tea party clout and veteran senators' ability to survive, a special House election in southwestern Pennsylvania is the multimillion-dollar battleground of choice Tuesday for the two political parties, previewing themes for a fall campaign shadowed by recession and voter discontent. Competing economic prescriptions, the appeal of President Barack Obama's health care legislation, the Republicans' ability to woo crossover support from independents and Democrats all are at issue, according to officials in both parties, in a race that also features a struggle for the political high ground as Washington outsider. The House race features...