Web 2.0 For Scholars

Organize, Record and share notes, create movies, teach a class using these tools in Part 1 of what is supposed to be a 3 part series on identifying and using the latest web applications for both students and teachers.

What They Don't Teach You In School

Ride shotgun forever once you learn the tricks to winning Rock Paper Scissors. Study hard because there is $10,000 on the line at the RPS World Championship this Novermber in Toronto.

This Plane Needs A Snake On It

An Austrian Airliner was forced to make an unscheduled landing and it is currently grounded until an escape hampster can be located. Good Luck With That. details

Brandywine Fife, Drum And Bugle and New Citizens

In Reading Wednesday seventy people from 29 different countries took the oath of citizenship. Helping to make this special day even more special was Brandywine's Fife and Drum Corp playing several songs along with the national anthem. It is one thing to take classes in social studies but to share in the joy our newest citizens makes it real.

Want To Improve Test Scores And Discipline

The easiest way would just send then boys home.

Boys get most of the D’s and F’s in school and boys make up 80 percent of an average school’s discipline problems. About 80 percent of children diagnosed with learning disabilities are boys, and over 80 percent of schoolchildren on Ritalin or similar drugs are boys. “Lost,” “confused,” “slackers,” “directionless,” — these are the labels teachers now apply to adolescent boys. They call adolescent girls “smart,” “motivated,” “mature,” “focused,” even “fireballs.”

Why the emphasis in the past few years has been ensuring that the girls have equal treatment in the schools, the real problems have beeen the boys. The problems from educational experts say its is not the sex but race and class. This is just turning a blind eye at the problem.

At the end of high school, almost a quarter (23 percent) of the white sons of college educated parents scored “Below Basic” in reading achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, in contrast to only 7 percent of their female counterparts. In writing, the gender gap among the “advantaged” was even wider.

A young man who scores “below basic” in reading and writing at the end of high school is essentially illiterate. He cannot read a newspaper article and get the main point. He will be in real trouble when he hits the job market in the global, information-age economy.

In the rush to ensure that the sexes are all equal in the classroom the easiest way has been to to make the boys fit the norm of girls even if it means making them sit there in a drug induced haze. Not a problem just in this countryone school in Norway they made a rule that boys had to sit on the toilet to urinate because some of the boys didn't have the best aim.

The Supply Side Of School Choice

“If the schools are not teaching children, then something has to happen. We cannot continue to pour money into schools that won’t teach. As opposed to subsidizing failure, we ought to free the parent to make a different choice. It could be a public school. It could be a charter school. It could be a tutorial. It could be anything other than the status quo.” - President Bush 2000

The demand for excellence in education has been demonstrated the article There's Got To Be A Market looks at the other side of the equation. The state of education today is similar to people looking for reliable fuel efficient cars and the manufacturers are only producing Humvees. A lot of articles this week have been posted from National Review Online they are having education week.

Dress Code

Since there has been some discussion on student attaire here is a link to an article first published in 1959 on the subject WHAT TO DO ABOUT SLOPPY DRESS? Forbid It.

(From a question and answer booklet issued by The Alumni Council of
Princeton University, June 1, 1958.)

QUESTION: Why don't Princeton undergraduates look as glossy as they used
to? Is it because the admissions people frown on well dressed, social-looking
young men?

ANSWER:
Certainly not. Since the war, Princeton undergraduates, like those in other colleges, have gone out of their way to wear beat-up clothes. It’s a fad the GI’s started.

Family 2.0

A study by Yahoo! an OMD shows that families are using technology to help keep in touch and achieve a more balance life.

Nearly three quarters (73 percent) of families with children said it is important to eat dinner together each day. Eight out of 10 adults said they "enjoy spending time with their family." This number increases to nine out of 10 among those married with children.

"The study shows that regardless of their size or composition, today's families value time-honored traditions like dining together, and they're using technology to help manage busy, family-centered lives," said Wenda Harris Millard, Yahoo! chief sales officer. "Technology is essential to family life, not because people love gadgets, but because it helps them do what they want to do."

The only TV show they ever watch is PBS because people always tell the truth to survey takers. Technology has helped these families so much that now they can do 43 hours worth of activies in any 24 hour day.

5 Years Later No Child Left Behind

The No Child Left Behind Act has been something of an anomaly during the Bush years. Enacting it was a central pledge of Bush’s 2000 campaign. When it passed the House in 2001, however, it drew more Democratic votes than Republican ones. George Miller and Ted Kennedy, the leading Democrats on the House and Senate education committees — and both proud liberals — had at least as much say over the final bill as Bush did.

....

The No Child Left Behind Act is due to be reauthorized in the next Congress. Nobody in Congress seems interested in President Bush’s proposal to extend its testing regime to high schools. But nobody seems interested in making substantial changes soon, either. Most education staffers on the Hill expect action to be delayed until after the 2008 election. (In this scenario, Congress would renew the law as is for a year or two, to prevent it from expiring altogether.) In short: Nobody is all that happy with the law, but nobody wants to make any real reforms, either. As a result, any significant improvements will have to wait until later — which makes the law much like American education as a whole.

Before Soccer Was Popular

In the 19th century before organized sports were available for kids they particpated in other activities like organized warfare.

John Clem from Newark, Ohio joined the Twenty-Second Michigan volunteers when he was 9 years old after being rejected by various Ohio and Michigan regiments. His drum was hit at the battle of Pittsburg Landing earning him the name of Johnny Shiloh. Later he was at the battle of Chickamauga where his hat ended up with 3 bullet holes. A prisoner of war for a short period in Georgia. By the age of 12 he was promoted to Sargeant after killing a rebel Colonel.

He retired from the Army as a Major General in 1916 the last War of Northern Aggression veteran still on active duty. Clem died in 1937 in San Antonio, TX and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

This picture is part of the extensive collection of historical photographs at picture-history.com

Appropriate

Popeye Battles Islamic-Fascism

U.S. military sources report that Osama Bin Laden has been killed. Bin Laden apparently died after eating E.coli tainted spinach that had been given to him as part of a cunning assassination plot spearheaded by the CIA.

...
News of Osama's death or grave illness first appeared over the weekend and have now been verified by lawyers from America who have signed up the Bin Laden family as part of a class action lawsuit against the spinach processor.

The IQ War

Rocket scientists, long considered the gold standard in intelligence among all professionals, are not nearly as smart as originally thought, according to a controversial new study published today by the American Association of Brain Surgeons.

The study, which appears in the organization's monthly publication, Popular Brain Surgery, is entitled "The Intelligence of Rocket Scientists: Myth Versus Reality," and suggests that rocket scientists' reputation for smartness is largely undeserved.
...

The article drew an immediate rebuke from a spokesperson for the American Society of Rocket Scientists, who blasted the study as "state-of-the-art pro-brain surgeon propaganda."
...
Professor Davis Logsdon, a University of Minnesota expert who studies the turf wars between rocket scientists and brain surgeons, said that he believes the latest controversy between the two groups has been overplayed.

"The fact of the matter is, the smartest people in the world have always been, and will always be, University of Minnesota experts," he said.

In case you have a bad day next week

Cheer up you could be this poor guy

More On School Choice

A policy paper on US experience with school choice from New Zealand. [Link doesn't appear to be working this morning.]

The summary is:

• Supply flexibility, which means that schools should have the ability to open where there is demand for them, expand with increased demand and contract with reduced demand


• Money should follow students, which means that funding policies must be designed so that schools that are in demand have the funds to expand and those that are not in demand lose funds and must contract; and


• Independent management of schools, which means that schools must be free to innovate in a range of areas, including pedagogy, teacher pay, budget allocation, and the way the school is organised.

The author stresses that the major problem with school choices is that these three elements are rarely found together. Since yesterday article was from San Francisco showing the improvements that comes with school choice here is a blog NOT really sold on the idea.

San Francisco of All Places

Is showing that public education can work when the money follows the child, giving each school the ability to spend the meney to make it more attractive to the customer. More

Be Still My Heart

Fall is upon us and this Saturday you can take a break from the humdrum of college football and concentrate on the World Chess Championship. May be hard to believe but some people may not be familar with the players, so here is a summary . Maybe Brandywine can't afford a football team but surely we could afford a kick ass chess team. A team who one day might visit Europe's only Buddhist republic (who knew) beautiful and unspoiled Kalmykia.

Latin Phrases and Spam Filters Don't Mix

Latin and other common phrases can send your resume to the delete file instead of the hiring manager. Article in Wall Street Journal proving there is still no artificial intelligence just simulated stupidity when it comes to software interpreting the written word.

If like some of us who didn't let attending classes interfere with our education and graduated "Thank You Lordy" you will be OK but if you graduated Magna Cum Laude consider changing it to "with high honors" Be careful putting in dollar figures as in increased sells by $45,000 the dollar amount looks like another work at home scam for the spam filter. Mention of countries like Nigeria also trigger this response due to the old 419 scam.

Hard to test to see if your resume or other communication will pass muster because of all the different programs and how they can be set up by individual companies.

Homework for 3rd Graders Can Be Educational

Contrary to a previous posting on homework that in lower grades it does more harm then good, this teacher found a way to educate both the stdents and a lot of the parents.


MONROE, N.Y. (AP) - School officials apologized after an X-rated font was used on a third-grade spelling packet handed out to parents. The font showed male and female stick figures in provocative poses to form the letters of the alphabet.
Officials with the Monroe-Woodbury School District in Orange County apologized last week after parents at Pine Tree Elementary School were given the spelling packet at an open house.
Administrators said the teacher did not use the font intentionally.
Monroe is about 45 miles northwest of New York City.

OK Back To Normal

Hope everyone had their share of plundering today and now have a good pirateatude. Thought a nice theme day was in order especially one not created by Hallmark and FTD.

Why Schools Don't Change

From the blog of Seth Godin the author of "Small is The New Big"

"Top Ways To Defend The Status Quo"
(with a few minor modifications in blue)

1. "That will never work."
   
2. "... That said, the labor laws make it difficult for us to do a lot of
   the suggestions [you] put out. And we do live in a lawsuit oriented
   society.""


3. "Can you show me some research that demonstrates that this will work?"


4. "Well, if you had some real-world/Educational experience, then you would understand."


5. "I don't think our teachers/parents/students/taxpayers will go for that, and without them we'd never be able to afford to try this."


6. "It's fantastic, but the teachers/parents/students won't like it."


7. "There are government regulations and this won't be permitted."


8. "Well, this might work for other schools, but I think we'll stick with what we've got."


9. "We'll let someone else prove it works... it won't take long to catch up."


10. "Our staff doesn't have the training to do this."


11. "Maybe in the next budget cycle."


12. "We need to finish this initiative first."


13. "It's been done before."


14. "It's never been done before."


15. "We'll get back to you on this."


16. "We're already doing it."

Parents Conduct At Game Topic

from the discussion in the Topic Section. Since some people don't have the Reading paper it wasn't an editorial but a letter to the editor.

A Generation of Kids Trained To Please Adults

The article is about college admission but it goes further then that. When do kids today have time to make mud pies, dig up a few worms and go fishing or just daydream. Everything is so organized for them from scouts, sports, dancing, music. Do we really do it for them or for us fullfilling some of our own desires. Now with pressure not only for full day kindergarten, sans nappy time, but pre-K just so they will know enough to pass a stupid test whose results aren't worth a smashed bullet.

The quest for perfection "is making our children sick," the MIT dean of
admissions told a recent gathering of college admissions professionals in
Boston. She means it literally, snapping off statistics on the increase in
ulcers, anxiety disorders and control disorders such as cutting and
anorexia.

"Kids aren't supposed to be finished," she said. "They're partial.
They're raw. That's why we're in the business."
.....

"That's when I realized there's what we say and what they hear, and
they're really different," Jones says. "We're raising a generation of kids
trained to please adults. Every day kids should have time when they're doing
something where they're not being judged. That's the big difference with this
generation. They're being judged and graded and analyzed and assessed at every
turn. It's too much pressure for them." MORE

More Help

If you can't get the hang of International Talk Like A Pirate Day here is a high school film strip that should help.

School Taxes At Work

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A woman who ran away as a teenager and lived for a decade with a school security guard sued the city and school district Thursday, claiming they failed to fully investigate her disappearance.
Tanya Nicole Kach, 24, came forward March 21 and told police that she had been living in Thomas Hose's house for 10 years. Kach told police that Hose, 48, kept her in a bedroom in the small, two-story home where he lived with his parents.
Kach also claims in the lawsuit that Hose assaulted her and threatened to kill her and dump her body in a river.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, claims police and city officials involved in the case were incompetent. It also alleges school officials knew or should have known Kach and Hose were having an improper relationship before her disappearance and did nothing to stop it. More

If government agencies are allowed to be sued because they are incompetent she had better get in line.

Shoot Didn't Make The List

PC World published the list of the 25 worst web sites and once again this site was overlooked. Don't bad grammer, worstest spelling and nonsesical post count for nothing no more. Come on people if we really try should be able to make it next year, especially if someone would donate a few million we could blow in a few months. Will be hard to beat out the number one Worst Site on the Web MySpace.com where every kids best buddies are at best generators of spyware and worst pedophiles. Don't ever never go there.

While on the topic of bad publications, best of luck to Brandywine's favorite Reading Eagle reporter Phobe Sweet who is headed out to Vegas to work for the Las Vagas Sun. Guess covering Brandywine meetings and nakid students was not enough.

Rent Not To Own

If you have relatives or friends that still have a rotary phone they should check their phone bill but don't expect a thank you.

CANTON, Ohio (AP) - A widow rented a rotary dial telephone for 42 years,
paying what her family calculates as more than $14,000 for a now outdated phone.
Ester Strogen, 82, of Canton, first leased two black rotary phones - the
kind whose round dial is moved manually with your finger - in the 1960s. Back
then, the technology was new and owning telephones was unaffordable for most
people. Until two months ago, Strogen was still paying AT&T to use the
phones - $29.10 a month. Strogen's granddaughters, Melissa Howell and Barb
Gordon, ended the arrangement when they discovered the bills. Strogen says she's not a big fan of her new push-button phone. "I'd like to have my rotary back," she said. "I like that better."

Thou obscene pox-marked lewdster!

Time to class up the topic section when attacking another poster in the topic section extra credit will be given when using insults from Shakespeare

"[Thou art] a most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly
promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality" - Taken from: All's Well
That Ends Well

Here is another good site.

A post for the Pre-Net Generation

A refresher course How To Use A Slide Rule Slide rules are not for girlie-boys, have to keep track of the decimal in your head and it doesn't add or subtract. Great survivor tool in case the grid breaks down you can still do logarithms and trig. "Slide rules make math tactile. Using a slide rule makes you understand how certain kinds of math work; and not just a theoretical understanding, but an understanding on a very concrete, physical level. "

Classroom Of the Future

The old dog of "you kids sit down shut up and I will learn you something" should be left sleeping under the porch because it not going to hunt anymore with the Net generation. The following pyramid from the National Training Laboratory show various teaching methods and how much of the information is actually retained.

In a 45 minute lecture 42 minutes of it is forgotten when the bell rings. The old adage you really don't know a subject until you teach it to others holds true with 99% retention. The Net generation can't learn by passively watching a film strip they need to actually MAKE the movie. Learning Latin can be more then just conjugating verbs we have the ability now to call up a school in Latin America over the internet and visit a classroom there communicating with both video and audio .

If you would take a doctor from only 50 years ago and teleport them to an operating room today they would be totally lost. Take a teacher from 150 years ago beam them into today's classroom and they would be perfectly at home. This country cannot be the technological leader of tomorrow by training the leaders of tomorrow using methods of the past.

"We are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one knew yesterday and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet." - Margaret Mead

Promoting the end of social promotion

New studies from Florida and Illinois indicates that "social promotion" can be harmful to the student, while being retained and additional year can be beneficial. Past studies showed that students that were held back did worse as they progerssed. These studies didn't take into account two things, 1) students held back in general would do worse because of the myraid of reasions they were held back in the first place. 2)A teacher may have 2 students with similar test scores one may be passed to the next grade and one held back because knowing the students he/she was better able to judge their abilities then could be readily measured.

The point is that we have strong evidence from Florida that test-based promotion requirements can significantly enhance the achievement of low performing students. If those positive results continue and can be replicated in New York or Texas, where similar programs also exist, we may have to rethink the widespread idea that students have to be grouped in grade-levels
by age rather than by skill level. Perhaps more students will benefit by being taught at a level appropriate to their skills. And perhaps school systems will be motivated to ensure that students acquire the required skills if they can’t simply pass students along regardless of their achievement.

What is Success?

If you are in school someone is always telling you what to do, what major in college, what job after high school, all well meaning but it is something you have to determine for yourself. The following image from Creating Passionate Users sums it up rather nicely.

Your success and future happiness doesn't depend where you end up on the corporate ladder as much as how much what you relly want to do corresponds with what you actually do. Your vocation should be your advocation. Won't always be 100% overlap because sometimes you have to do what you have to do but just try to maximize it.

High School Open House

If you can navigate the school calendar clicking in the right order the open house at the high school is scheduled for 6:00 PM Tuesday. Now according to one of my gentle readers, who actually remembered how to do the 20th century act of making a phone call to the school it is at 6:30 PM Tuesday. In summary it is definately on Tuesday, if you get there at 7:00 you will be late. Arrive between 6 and 6:30 you should be OK.

Autism And Dad Guilt

Not satisfied with making moms feel guilty about every thing wrong with their child, researchers have now found a significant link between the age of the father and autism in their offspring. This link accelerates with increasing age of the dad. More Since scientist do not know the cause of autism, instead of the age could well be that fathers that have a higher risk are also the type to have children at a later date.

In a related story microbiologist in Scotland may have found a probiotic bacteria that improved the concentration and behaviour in austic children. The study ended when parents of children recognized then improvements so much that they refused to switch to a placebo.

Autistic children often suffer bowel conditions and Prof Gibson said a previous study had found high levels of a "bad" bacteria called clostridia in the gut. The probiotic was then designed to reduce the levels of clostridia and promote "friendly" bacteria instead to see what effect this would have. Prof Gibson, from Reading University, said the children appeared to
show fewer signs of autism when taking the probiotic supplement, which was given
in a powder once a day. "Very subjectively, we asked the parents to fill in diaries about the mood of the children. We got very positive feedback generally," he said. He said that certain kinds of clostridia produced neuro- toxins, which potentially could be the cause of autism or a contributory factor. However, he said this was speculation and the apparent improvement
could also simply be because the children had felt better. "If your gut is not behaving yourself, you feel rough," Prof Gibson said. >

What causes autism is still a mystery one author in Slate speculates on maybe it is TV/VCR/DVD use as a baby sitter triggering the apparent rise.

Homework Too Much Or More Coddling

Article by Alfie Kohn author of new book The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing. Probably has a point especially in the early grades but did he really need to write a whole book on it? Sometimes it does look like worthless busy work but some subjects like math do require practice to become proficient and reach an understanding. Ok maybe not for everyone but some of us still have trouble when it comes to subtracting negative numbers. Then there was always real numbers versus imaginery numbers that is when you just imagine you did your home work and imagined you got an "A". If you didn't do your reading homework you can watch an interview with the author on the CBS Early Show.

Pirates In The Classroom

Everyone is probably well aware that Tues. Sep. 19th. International Talk Like A Pirate Day is fast approaching. Only 10 more days to Get pirattitude!

But students and teachers there is now a resource page for educators. A recent check of the Brandywine dress code does not ban puffy sleeve shirts.

Tax Committee

Nine people were selected last night to make recommendation on the shift from how schools are financed from property tax to a mixture of property and earned income or personal income. Their recommendation will be on the ballot in May for voter approval. You may not like their solution but don't blame them the state gave them a very tightly controlled agenda. Just so they won't be able to say it is a thankless task. Thank You.

Nearer Then Napa

After the Bowers Chili peppers cool off your tongue on the Leigh Valley Wine Trail

The Lehigh Valley Wine Trail

PresentsHarvest Weekend 2006
The Butcher, The Baker, The Winemaker

Saturday September 9th 10 to 5 and Sunday September 10th 12-5

Hot Time In Bowers This Weekend

This weekend is the eleventh annual Chili Festival in Bowers.

PSAA Scores And Comparison

Brandywine compared to average county scores. Reading District was excluded because why they lower the average and make us look better they have a whole other set of issues. Below are the percentage of students taking the test that scored either Advance or proficient.

Grade	Math	Reading
	BHASD/County Avg	BHASD/County Avg
3rd	90/88.6	74.0/74.9
4th	79.3/82.9	77.8/75.0
5th	71.4/70.0	65.4/64.0
6th	74.5/74.7	73.8/72.4
7th	70.3/76.1	75.8/76.7
8th	68.1/69.6	79.0/79.0
11th	52.8/56.3	76.4/71.8

Looking to see if any school really excelled and where we fit in out of the 17 districts.
Math Scores
3rd Daniel Boone 95 Antietam 75 BHASD #5
4th Fleetwood 92.7 Antietam 57.4 BHASD #13
5th Twin Valley 79.6 Antietam 52.3 BHASD #9
6th Boyertown 89.4 Hamburg 58.2 BHASD #10
7th Twin Valley 91.6 Antietam, 65.3 BHASD #14
8th Twin Valley 87.8 Antietam 49.5 BHASD #11
11th Wyomissing 69.9 Muhlenberg 45.1 BHASD #10

Reading Scores
Highest Lowest
3rd Oley Valley 87 Antietam 50 BHASD #11
4th Oley Valley 84.3 Hamburg 79 BHASD #4
5th Kutztown 73.5 Tulpehocken 46 (the strike should really help) BHASD #7
6th Wyomissing 83.4 Hamburg 52 BHASD #11
7th Oley Valley 84.5 Hamburg 67.2 BHASD #10
8th Schuykill Valley 90 Antietam 84.5 BHASD #8
11th Wyomissing 83.9 Hamburg 60.4 BHASD #4

When Mr. Gillmartin was here often talked how Hamburg spent less per child then any other districts. Results seem to be catching up with them. Then again Antietam the highest taxed district didn't do so well either.

Need to find out what Oley is doing in their early reading program, what Twin Valley is doing in math and how did Wyomissing actually get their 11th graders to take the test seriously. By that time they know that the PSSA does nothing for them unlike the S.A.T. test so why bother with trying to excel.

The Net Generation 24/7 Learning

As was posted on August 23 how you see and react to the world depends on your experiences as you mature. At the pace of today technology someone born in the 1950's has a totally different outlook then someone born in the 1980's. If fact if you were born in the 1950's your grandparents really had more in common with people from 500 years previous then they did with you.

One of the things that really hasn't changed is the average classroom which resemble something out of 1906 then 2006. Continuing to try and teach a generation that thinks an ipod is standard equipment using the "Sit down shut up and I will tell you what you need to know" model. That old dog should stay on the porch because it won't hunt anymore.

The Net Generation student is used to working in groups, multi-tasking, and
flexibility. Even simple classroom changes can enhance learning, such as a
U-shaped table rather than desks, or a restaurant-style booth in a library that
fosters group work.

They expect their education information to be delivered in
technologically savvy ways as well, Fitzwater said. Today's students want to be
quickly immersed in information from multiple media -- not the "controlled
release" of a traditional lecture, she said.

Fitzwater spoke to about 30 University of Wisconsin-La Crosse educators
Tuesday at the educational technology department's workshop on ways to
integrate technology into classrooms. "It's become essential," said Jim
Jorstad, UW-L director of educational technology. "Students are not learning 8 to 5, they're learning 24-7." More

Employment Opportunity At Google

No experience required earn valuable Google Points. Ok not sure what you do with Google points. But if on Tuesday you become tired of playing Solitare at work give Google a hand labeling images.

You'll be randomly paired with a partner who's online and using the
feature. Over a 90-second period, you and your partner will be shown the same
set of images and asked to provide as many labels as possible to describe each
image you see. When your label matches your partner's label, you'll earn some
points and move on to the next image until time runs out. After time expires,
you can explore the images you've seen and the websites where those images were
found. And we'll show you the points you've earned throughout the session.

Cool concept and it is addicting except when you are paired with someone that may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Followup this game is based on the work of Luis Von Ahn on human computation using people in their spare time to easily solve problems currently impossible for computers. For a fascinating and often funny look into his modern day Tom Sawyer lets all paint the fence games watch his presentation.

There are a lot of wasted human cycles out there 9 Billion Human-Hours were spent playing solitare in 2003. It only took 7 million to build the Empire State Building and a misery 20 million human-hours to create the Panama Canal. If someone could come up with a game to fight cancer it could be easily cured in an afternoon.

Pluto Makes A Comeback

Weeks after being down graded from a planet disgruntled astronomers are pushing for it to be returned to its former glory. Pluto: Down But Maybe Not Out If the distant orb doesn't fit the definition of a planet then just change the definition. At least we won't have to change textbooks, which are actually one of the driving forces behind the controversy that is rocking the astronomy community.

Elite Liberal Arts Schools Drop SAT Requirements

As public schools start relying on standardized test more heavily small private colleges are beginning to drop requirements when it comes to the big one. NY Times More likely a case of trying to get more people to pay their fees to obtain their B's then the nice warm and fuzzy reasons they list.

Since Bowdoin and Bates dropped their testing requirements decades ago,
more than a fourth of U.S. News & World Report’s Top 100 liberal arts
colleges have made admissions exams optional, and new ones are joining the list
at a quickening pace.

The new colleges include Mount Holyoke, Middlebury, Hamilton, Union and
Dickinson. In recent months, George Mason, Providence College and Hobart and
William Smith Colleges have also become test-optional.

Admissions officers said eliminating the testing requirement had
increased both the size and diversity of their applicant pools, and bolstered
their reputation as places personal enough to consider each applicant
individually.