A Path to Alignment: Connecting K-12 and Higher Education via the Common Core and the Degree Qualifications Profile

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which aim to assure competency in English/language arts and mathematics through the K-12 curriculum, define necessary but not sufficient preparedness for success in college. The Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP), which describes what a college degree should signify, regardless of major, offers useful but not sufficient guidance to high school students preparing for college study. A coordinated strategy to prepare students to succeed in college would align these two undertakings and thus bridge an unfortunate and harmful cultural chasm between the K-12 world and that of higher education. Chasms call for bridges, and the bridge proposed by this white paper could create a vital thoroughfare. The white paper begins with a description of the CCSS and an assessment of their significance. A following analysis then explains why the CCSS, while necessary, are not sufficient as a platform for college success. A corresponding explanation of the DQP clarifies the prompts that led to its development, describes its structure, and offers some guidance for interpreting the outcomes that it defines. Again, a following analysis considers the potential of the DQP and the limitations that must be addressed if that potential is to be more fully realized. The heart of the white paper lies in sections 5 and 6, which provide a crosswalk between the CCSS and the DQP. These sections show how alignments and differences between the two may point to a comprehensive preparedness strategy. They also offer a proposal for a multifaceted strategy to realize the potential synergy of the CCSS and the DQP for the benefit of high school and college educators and their students -- and the nation

Municipal Corporations - Financial Powers - Power to Expend Public Funds in Aid of Industry

Taxpayers and voters of Frostburg, Maryland, sought to restrain the holding of an election under enabling legislation to obtain authority both to issue municipal bonds and to devote the proceeds to acquiring a site and contributing to the cost of construction of a building for sale to a private manufacturing company. The chancellor issued an injunction against the holding of such election on the ground that the enabling act, in authorizing the use of public funds for private purposes, was unconstitutional. On appeal, held, reversed. The location of new industry in furnishing employment and increasing the financial well being of the community serves a public purpose. City of Frostburg v. Jenkins, (Md. 1957) 136 A. (2d) 852

Paul to Jim, 11 July 1962

Personal correspondenc

Paul to Jim, 2 July 1963

Personal correspondenc

Real Property - Adverse Possession - Between Cotenants

C. V. James and his wife and children owned certain property as tenants in common. In 1931 defendant Fallon recovered a judgment against C. V. James, and the land was sold by a sheriff under execution. Fallon became the purchaser at the sheriff\u27s sale and was issued a sheriff\u27s deed purporting to convey the entire interest in the property. Thereafter he was in the actual, visible, distant, hostile, exclusive, continuous and uninterrupted possession of the land and paid all taxes thereon. Plaintiffs, the wife and children of James, brought this action to determine the ownership of the property. Fallon claimed title by adverse possession under an eighteen-year statute of limitations. The lower court held that the plaintiffs, as tenants in common, were the owners of a ¼ interest in the land and that defendant had claim only to the ¾ interest formerly owned by the judgment debtor. On appeal, held, affirmed. The sheriff\u27s deed passed to defendant only such interest as was owned by the judgment debtor, making him a tenant in common with plaintiffs. The statute of limitations does not begin to run against cotenants until an ouster of the cotenants has been established, and under the facts presented Fallon did nothing amounting to an ouster. Fallon v. Davidson, (Colo. 1958) 320 P. (2d) 976

Paul to Jim, 29 October 1961

Personal correspondenc

Future Interests - Rule Against Perpetuities - Recent Statutory Amendment in New York

After 128 years of criticism and confusion and enormous amounts of litigation, New York has amended its statutory rule against perpetuities. The old rule provided that the absolute power of alienation could not be suspended for longer, than two lives in being at the creation of the estate plus a minority exception in some cases. Under the new rule the absolute power of alienation can be suspended for a period measured by any number of lives in being at the creation of the estate so long as they are not so designated or so numerous as to make proof of their end unreasonably difficult. There is, however, still no period in gross provided for in the New York statutes. N.Y. Sess. Laws 1958 (McKinney) chapters 152 and 153

Nesting Success and Mortality of Nestlings in a Coastal Alabama Heron - Egret Colony, 1976

A heronry at Cat Island, Alabama was surveyed throughout the 1976 breeding season to determine colony structure and survivability of young Ardeidae during varying weather conditions. A total of 155 nests were tagged and the clutch of each monitored until the nestlings abandoned the nests. Offspring of herons nesting during unfavorable weather conditions of late Spring suffered significantly higher mortality than birds nesting in mid-summer. Species nesting on Cat Island include the Louisiana Heron, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Cattle Egret, Little Blue Heron, Green Heron, and Glossy Ibis

Mapping biodiversity value worldwide: combining higher-taxon richness from different groups

Maps of large-scale biodiversity are urgently needed to guide conservation, and yet complete enumeration of organisms is impractical at present. One indirect approach is to measure richness at higher taxonomic ranks, such as families. The difficulty is how to combine information from different groups on numbers of higher taxa, when these taxa may in effect have been defined in different ways, particularly for more distantly related major groups. In this paper, the regional family richness of terrestrial and freshwater seed plants, amphibians, reptiles and mammals is mapped worldwide by combining: (i) absolute family richness; (ii) proportional family richness; and (iii) proportional family richness weighted for the total species richness in each major group. The assumptions of the three methods and their effects on the results are discussed, although for these data the broad pattern is surprisingly robust with respect to the method of combination. Scores from each of the methods of combining families are used to rank the top five richness hotspots and complementary areas, and hotspots of endemism are mapped by unweighted combination of range-size rarity scores

The size, concentration, and growth of biodiversity-conservation nonprofits

Nonprofit organizations play a critical role in efforts to conserve biodiversity. Their success in this regard will be determined in part by how effectively individual nonprofits and the sector as a whole are structured. One of the most fundamental questions about an organization’s structure is how large it should be, with the logical counterpart being how concentrated the whole sector should be. We review empirical patterns in the size, concentration, and growth of over 1700 biodiversity-conservation nonprofits registered for tax purposes in the United States within the context of relevant economic theory. Conservation-nonprofit sizes vary by six to seven orders of magnitude and are positively skewed. Larger nonprofits access more revenue streams and hold more of their assets in land and buildings than smaller or midsized nonprofits do. The size of conservation nonprofits varies with the ecological focus of the organization, but the growth rates of nonprofits do not