Remedying School Segregation: How New Jersey's Morris School District Chose to Make Diversity Work

Beyond the districtwide numbers, the Morris district has achieved remarkable diversity at the school building level. Since the district has only one middle school and one high school, these are not where the diversity rubber meets the road. Rather, the test is the elementary school populations. There, the Morris district shines. Despite the fact that students live in relatively homogeneous, segregated neighborhoods, the elementary schools they attend defy that pattern. For example, to achieve perfect racial balance between black and white students at the elementary school level, only about 2.6 percent would have to change their school assignments.The Morris district still struggles with two aspects of diversity, however. First,—in common with virtually every diverse school district in the country—it is still attempting to bring meaningful diversity to every program and course within its school buildings, from higher-level Honors and Advanced Placement courses to special education classifications and rosters of disciplinary actions. Second, in common with some but hardly all diverse districts across the country, the Morris district is trying to cope with the explosive growth of Hispanic students, many of them in recent years economically disadvantaged students from Central American countries where they often failed to receive a solid educational foundation in their own language and culture. Understandably, these students tend not to score well on standardized tests, especially in their early years in MSD. This contributes substantially to the Morris district's record of relatively poor achievement levels in three substantially overlapping student categories—Hispanic, English Language Learners (ELL), and economically disadvantaged students—as compared to its relatively strong achievement levels for white and black students.As to both challenges, the Morris district is manifesting a remarkably can-do spirit and a palpable will to succeed.In all these respects, the study of the Morris district reported on here is designed ultimately to extract lessons for other school districts in New Jersey and the rest of the nation. This report begins by exploring briefly the historical, political, and legal context of educational integration in New Jersey, and how that led to the creation of the Morris School District. It then analyzes and discusses the successes—and the challenges—of MSD's integration efforts. Along the way, it contrasts the successes of MSD with two other districts in New Jersey—Plainfield and New Brunswick—that attempted integration by district merger, but failed. It concludes by making recommendations not only for improvements in MSD's approach, but for school districts across New Jersey and the country that are seeking to integrate their schools and classrooms

Students Investigate 1600s DePue Massacre

DEPUE — South and east of DePue, near the remaining vertebrae of a former railroad bridge, an ordinary cornfield shows no sign of the massacre that may once have taken place on its soil, long before the nearby town was founded. Clay Skinner, a teacher at Illinois Math and Science Academy, Aurora, and a handful of his students hope to change that

Can You Spot the Fake?

The ability to correctly interpret smiles is a skill that can be helpful in many aspects of life. One key feature that people look at is a smile, but smiles may not always be genuine. In our study, we focused on the detection of genuine and fake smiles and trained subjects to detect deception. The first training group was given applicable information, through PowerPoint, on distinguishing between smiles along with two videos presenting a genuine and fake smile. The second group viewed a PowerPoint with applicable information without videos. The third group viewed a PowerPoint containing just videos. Our control group was asked to think about situations where a fake or genuine smile would be used. Before training, participants viewed 10 smile videos and indicated whether each smile was genuine or fake. Following training, the participants viewed 10 new videos and again indicated whether each smile was genuine or fake. We hypothesized that the training groups would identify more smiles correctly than the control group. One week later, all groups viewed the same 20 videos again to determine whether the training had a lasting effect

EXPLORING THE GAP BETWEEN TEACHER CERTIFICATION AND PERMANENT EMPLOYMENT IN ONTARIO: AN INTEGRATIVE LITERATURE REVIEW

The following integrative literature review illuminates the perceptible time gap that currently exists for new Ontario teachers graduating and moving from teacher preparation programs to permanent members of the Ontario teaching community. At a time of oversupply of teachers, many new teachers within Ontario and beyond its borders become occasional teachers and must wait several years before gaining permanent teaching employment. Due to this extended wait time for a permanent contract position, it is important to explore just how occasional teachers remain prepared. Herein the question of whether new teachers are prepared for a permanent position after a period of occasional teaching is addressed.

The Spectroscopic Properties of Ly{\alpha}-Emitters at z ≈\approx 2.7: Escaping Gas and Photons from Faint Galaxies

We present a spectroscopic survey of 318 faint $(R\sim 27$, $L\sim0.1L_*)$, Ly{\alpha}-emission-selected galaxies (LAEs) at 2.5<z<3. A sample of 32 LAEs with rest-frame optical spectra from Keck/MOSFIRE are used to interpret the LAE spectra in the context of their systemic redshifts. We find that the Ly{\alpha} emission of LAEs is typically less spectrally extended than among samples of more luminous continuum-selected galaxies (LBGs) at similar redshifts. Using the MOSFIRE subsample, we find that the peak of the Ly{\alpha} line is shifted by +200 km/s with respect to systemic across a diverse set of galaxies including both LAEs and LBGs. We also find a small number of objects with significantly blueshifted Ly{\alpha} emission, a potential indicator of accreting gas. The Ly{\alpha}-to-H{\alpha} line ratios suggest that the LAEs have Ly{\alpha} escape fractions $f_{\rm esc,Ly{\alpha}} \approx 30$%, significantly higher than typical LBG samples. Using redshifts calibrated by our MOSFIRE sample, we construct composite LAE spectra, finding the first evidence for metal-enriched outflows in such intrinsically-faint high-redshift galaxies. These outflows have smaller continuum covering fractions $(f_c \approx 0.3)$ and velocities $(v_{\rm ave} \approx 100-200$ km/s, $v_{\rm max} \approx 500$ km/s$)$ than those associated with typical LBGs, suggesting that gas covering fraction is a likely driver of the high Ly{\alpha} and Ly-continuum escape fractions of LAEs. Our results suggest a similar scaling of outflow velocity with star formation rate as is observed at lower redshifts $(v_{\rm outflow} \sim {\rm SFR}^{0.25})$ and indicate that a substantial fraction of gas is ejected with $v > v_{esc}$

Surface Positioning Sensor For Contact Between Unrestrained Objects

The device of this invention is a flexible, adaptable, accurate system for detecting surface positioning data during physical contact between multiple objects. For any pair of objects, the technology records where a fixed location on the surface of the first object (striker object or Striker) makes contact within the perimeter of a positioning sensor on the surface of the second object (target object or Target)

WISCO special waste landfill : site location northwest 1/4 of section 26, township 154 north, range 104 west, Williams County, North Dakota

The WISCO Special Waste Landfill was developed to meet the need for a waste disposal site for the growing oilfield industry in western North Dakota. The design report was prepared on behalf of the North Dakota Department of Health - Division of Waste Management to demonstrate that the site meets the geological and hydrogeological requirements set forth in the North Dakota Century Code. The report details the site analysis utilized in design, the assumptions made in regards to contamination prevention, and the execution of the landfill design. The WISCO Special Waste Landfill was designed to accept special and small volume industrial waste for at least 25 years while remaining economically feasible, socially acceptable, and environmentally safe for the surrounding area. The design report focuses on environmental concerns of waste leakage and groundwater contamination that are a major concern at landfill sites. The landfill design provides adequate assurance that the overall liner and containment system will prevent contamination of groundwater in the vicinity. Measures taken to protect local plants and wildlife include daily cover and fencing, and monitoring programs are put into place to ensure these safety standards are achieved. The design report details these systems and programs, as well as the execution of the WISCO Special Waste Landfill

U.S. vs. Stewart: Two Opinions

Lynne Stewart was counsel for Sheikh Abdel Rahman during his 1995 trial when he was convicted of “seditious conspiracy to wage a war of urban terrorism against the United States” and of “soliciting crimes of violence against the United States military and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak” (Stewart 4). Rahman was considered to be a leader of the Islamic Group (IG), which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department in 1997. Stewart continued to act as Rahman’s counsel after his trial. In 1998, Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) were imposed on Rahman to halt his communication with IG. The SAMs included restrictions on Rahman’s access to mail, the telephone, and visitors, and prohibited him from speaking with the media. Stewart was asked to abide by and sign these SAMs, which she did in May 1998. In doing so, she agreed “not to use ‘meetings, correspondence, or phone calls with Abdel Rahman to pass messages between third parties (including, but not limited to, the media) and Abdel Rahman’” (Stewart 5). In April 2002, Ahmed Abdel Sattar,Yassir Al-Sirri,Mohammed Yousry and Lynne Stewart were charged with a five-count indictment. Stewart was charged on Counts One (“conspiring to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization (FTO)”), Two (“providing and attempting to provide material support and resources to an FTO”), Four (“conspiring to defraud the United States”) and Five (Stewart alone was charged with “making false statements”). These charges held that the defendants had violated the SAMs as well as the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) which made it illegal to provide, or attempt to provide,“material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization” (AEDPA). Professor Simeone’s assignment for his Constitutional Law II class was as follows: “Write a 650-800 word essay on the following topic: Lynne Stewart stands convicted in U.S. District Court of violating the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) by providing ‘material support’ to the Islamic Group, a State Department designated terrorist organization.You are an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court and have been given the task of writing the opinion of the court by the chief justice.

Too Cool for School? The Relationship between Coolness and Academic Reputation in Early Adolescence

The relationship between peer‐nominated coolness and academic reputation was examined at two time points spanning the first year of middle school (N = 807; 52 percent female; 52 percent African‐American; 48 percent European American). Students predominantly nominated peers who were from their same gender and ethnic group as being cool. Associations between coolness and academic reputation differed across subgroups, were contingent upon level of disruptive behavior, and changed over time from fall to spring of the academic year. In the fall, patterns differed by gender, not by ethnicity. For both white and African‐American boys, hierarchical regressions evidenced a null association between coolness and academic reputation; for both white and African‐American girls, this association was positive. In the spring, findings for white girls were similar to findings from the fall. For the three remaining groups—white boys and African‐American boys and girls—conditions worsened over time, albeit in slightly dissimilar ways. For white boys, fall coolness did not predict significant declines in academic reputation over time; nonetheless, as a group, the coolness–academic reputation was negative by the end of the year. For African‐American boys and girls, fall coolness significantly predicted declines in academic reputation from fall to spring, although the concurrent coolness–academic reputation association was not significantly negative for either group in the spring.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110861/1/sode12097.pd

Stroke-related Effects on Maximal Dynamic Hip Flexor Fatigability and Functional Implications

Introduction: Stroke-related changes in maximal dynamic hip flexor muscle fatigability may be more relevant functionally than isometric hip flexor fatigability. Methods: Ten chronic stroke survivors performed 5 sets of 30 hip flexion maximal dynamic voluntary contractions (MDVC). A maximal isometric voluntary contraction (MIVC) was performed before and after completion of the dynamic contractions. Both the paretic and nonparetic legs were tested. Results: Reduction in hip flexion MDVC torque in the paretic leg (44.7%) was larger than the nonparetic leg (31.7%). The paretic leg had a larger reduction in rectus femoris EMG (28.9%) between the first and last set of MDVCs than the nonparetic leg (7.4%). Reduction in paretic leg MDVC torque was correlated with self-selected walking speed (r2 = 0.43), while reduction in MIVC torque was not (r2 = 0.11). Conclusions: Reductions in maximal dynamic torque of paretic hip flexors may be a better predictor of walking function than reductions in maximal isometric contractions