NCLB Reauthorization: Prospects and Opportunities for the Afterschool Field

Provides an introduction to No Child Left Behind legislation and the NCLB reauthorization debate. Highlights the links to afterschool policy and opportunities for advocacy

Raising standards in American schools: the case of No Child Left Behind

In January 2002, President George W Bush signed into law what is arguably the most important piece of US educational legislation for the past 35 years. For the first time, Public Law 107-110 links high stakes testing with strict accountability measures designed to ensure that, at least in schools that receive government funding, no child is left behind. The appropriately named No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) links government funding to strict improvement policies for America’s public schools. Much of what is undertaken in NCLB is praiseworthy, the Act is essentially equitable for it ensures that schools pay due regard to the progress of those sections of the school population who have traditionally done less well in school, in particular, students from economically disadvantaged homes, as well as those from ethnic minority backgrounds and those who have limited proficiency to speak English. However, this seemingly salutatory aspect of the Act is also the one that has raised the most objections. This paper describes the key features of this important piece of legislation before outlining why it is that a seemingly equitable Act has produced so much consternation in US education circles. Through an exploration of school level data for the state of New Jersey, the paper considers the extent to which these concerns have been justified during the early days of No Child Left Behind

How Will No Child Left Behind Improve Student Achievement? The Necessity of Classroom-Based Research in Accountability Reform.

No Child Left Behind (2001) legislation emphasizes the use of large-scale assessments in evaluating student proficiency in core academic areas. Classroom-based measures of proficiency, such as research projects, classroom assessments, and homework assignments, also provide rich data regarding students’ academic progress. This article articulates three areas where classroom-based measures can complement the large-scale assessment data used in NCLB reports of school, district and state progress: 1) Alignment of curriculum to state standards, 2) Assessment of student achievement, and 3) Identifying strategies for teaching in a diverse classroom. Making links between classroom instruction, student work, and large-scale assessment will be critical to understanding the mechanisms behind gains in proficiency. The article concludes with an example of possible methods for classroom-based research in the context of NCLB

The Valley White with Mist A Cape Cod Colony in Maine, 1770-1820

The dramatic influx of southern New Englanders into the District of Maine in the 1770s is widely recognized but poorly understood. This article traces migration routes from Cape Cod to the Penobscot River valley. By 1770 farmlands on the Cape could no longer sustain an agrarian way of life that was important to many inhabitants. Choosing to change locations rather than occupations, families moved eastward and on the lower Penobscot River reproduced, as best they could, the world they left behind. This article explores the reasons for the uprooting, and the cultural, ideological, familial, and architectural links that bound the Cape Cod settlers to the “old country.” Maps were provided by the author

A Taxonomy of Hyperlink Hiding Techniques

Hidden links are designed solely for search engines rather than visitors. To get high search engine rankings, link hiding techniques are usually used for the profitability of black industries, such as illicit game servers, false medical services, illegal gambling, and less attractive high-profit industry, etc. This paper investigates hyperlink hiding techniques on the Web, and gives a detailed taxonomy. We believe the taxonomy can help develop appropriate countermeasures. Study on 5,583,451 Chinese sites' home pages indicate that link hidden techniques are very prevalent on the Web. We also tried to explore the attitude of Google towards link hiding spam by analyzing the PageRank values of relative links. The results show that more should be done to punish the hidden link spam.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

How TRAF-NETSIM Works.

This paper describes how TRAF-NETSIM works in detail. It is a review of the TRAF-NETSIM micro-simulation model, for use in the research topic "The Development of Queueing Simulation Procedures for Traffic in Bangkok". TRAF-NETSIM is a computer program for modelling of traffic in urban networks. It is written in the FORTRAN 77 computer language. It uses bit-manipulation mechanisms for "packing" and "unpacking" data and a program overlay structure to reduce the computer memory requirements of the program. The model is based on a fixed time, and discrete event simulation approach. The periodic scan method is used in the model with a time interval of one second. In the model, up to 16 different vehicle types with 4 different vehicle categories (car, carpool, bus and truck) can be identified. Also, the driver's behaviour (passive, normal, aggressive), pedestrians' movement, parking and blocking (eg a broken-down car) can be simulated. Moreover, it has the capability to simulate the effects of traffic control ranging from a simple stop sign controlled junction to a dynamic/real time control system. The effects of spillbacks can be simulated in detail. The estimation of fuel consumption and vehicle emissions are optional simulations. Car following and lane changing models are incorporated into TRAF-NETSIM. The outputs can be shown in US standard units, Metric units, or both

Visualising Discourse Structure in Interactive Documents

In this paper we introduce a method for generating interactive documents which exploits the visual features of hypertext to represent discourse structure. We explore the consistent and principled use of graphics and animation to support navigation and comprehension of non-linear text, where textual discourse markers do not always work effectively

Do domestic dogs learn words based on humans’ referential behaviour?

Some domestic dogs learn to comprehend human words, although the nature and basis of this learning is unknown. In the studies presented here we investigated whether dogs learn words through an understanding of referential actions by humans rather than simple association. In three studies, each modelled on a study conducted with human infants, we confronted four word-experienced dogs with situations involving no spatial-temporal contiguity between the word and the referent; the only available cues were referential actions displaced in time from exposure to their referents. We found that no dogs were able to reliably link an object with a label based on social-pragmatic cues alone in all the tests. However, one dog did show skills in some tests, possibly indicating an ability to learn based on social-pragmatic cues

Reminiszenzen der Erinnerung

Coutts made Reminiscences of Memory during a six-month International Fellowship at Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral at Bad Ems, Germany. Famous for its healing waters, Bad Ems was frequented by Caspar David Friedrich and Fyodor Dostoevsky, and was a magnet for artists and musicians seeking cures. With her accumulative, layered method to writing and filmic narrative, Coutts explored the visualisation of memory through film, drawing upon literary texts and artworks from the time of the town’s heyday to the present. The film re-maps and overlays fragments of re-appropriated works that examine the mechanisms of memory and decay. Focusing on the historical relationship between the environment and mental health at this location, Coutts produced a work wherein the visual is overlaid with a text – as with subtitles – telling the story of a woman’s uncertain memory of a man losing his mind. Reminiszenzen der Erinnerung contains re-fashioned excerpts from Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain (1924), re-enactments of scenes from Hollis Frampton’s film (nostalgia) (1971) and Fellini’s Amarcord (1973), the latter filmed twice to involve non-professional actors and musicians sited in Germany and the UK. Reminiszenzen der Erinnerung was first shown at Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral (2010) as part of a group show of the eight selected Fellows and was featured and reviewed on the German TV channel Mittelrhein (2010). It was screened in the group show ‘Doris’ at StedeFreund, Berlin (2010), and included in Coutts’s solo exhibition, ‘Millions Like Us’ at Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, London (2011). The work was selected for the Salon Video Prize at Matt Roberts, London (2011). Accompanying the show at Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral, Coutts’s bookwork Thought Sequence (Argo Books, Berlin, 2011) introduced an additional narrative layer to her research, retelling Walter Benjamin’s story ‘The handkerchief’ (1932)