Building a Firm Foundation: Recommendations for New York City's Job Training System

In late 1998, the New York City Department of Employment (DOE) decided to develop a technical assistance plan for its contracted employment and training providers. The goal of this initiative was to help providers transition to a new performance-based contracting system and improve their overall performance. This report describes P/PV's evaluation of the New York City Job Training Partnership Act adult training providers; discusses challenges faced by providers; and recommends strategies for improving the performance of New York City's employment and training system

WAC in FYW: building bridges and teachers as architects

Students entering the first-year writing classroom directly out of high school often tell me that they had to 'write differently for each teacher and class.' Imagine their confusion and apprehension when they are told that one of the objectives of FYW is to prepare them for academic writing across all disciplines! How can teachers incorporate cross-curricular skills into their lessons? More importantly, amongst the already-complex demands on the purposes and goals of FYW courses, how do students learn these techniques that teachers deem 'easily-transferrable'? I argue, first, that the FYW classroom is an ideal location to present students with the individual tools for writing in any discipline. We discuss elements of writing like organization, idea development, thesis statements, citation, and the writing process within our courses as part of the standard curriculum. Therefore, I argue that the multi-faceted roles of FYW teachers include the characteristic of architect, and assert that transforming our lessons into WAC lessons involves the incorporation of examples, standards, and formats from outside disciplines. Mentioning how thesis statements tie together English and Religion papers or how dividing a paper into sections enhances the organization of Biology lab reports and Business reports establishes connections for students. With some simple additions to teachers' lessons, students will find that the writing techniques they learn are just as crucial and useful in both core and major classes. Building these bridges reinforces the lifelong importance of writing and helps students continue to develop their writing skills across and through the college curriculum

Symposium: Brown v. Board of Education and Its Legacy: A Tribute to Justice Thurgood Marshall, Learning Together: Justice Marshall\u27s Desegregation Opinions

In this Article, Professor Marcus examines the influence of Justice Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court\u27s current school desegregation agenda. Justice Marshall was part of the majority in desegregation cases during his earlier years on the high Court subsequently, however, his role became one of dissenter. Professor Marcus analyzes the divisive issues facing the Court in desegregation litigation, Marshall\u27s positions on such issues, and his legacy to the Court in this area. Finally, the Article assesses the vitality of this legacy in light of two Supreme Court decisions issued after Justice Marshall\u27s retirement

Forward: Is There a Threat to Judicial Independence in the United States Today?

This foreword gives a brief background on the panel discussion to ensue, which illustrates the dilemma surrounding the external pressure public criticism places on judges and how it affects judicial independence

A Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method for Poroelasticity Problems I: Linear Problems

In this paper, we consider the numerical solution of poroelasticity problems that are of Biot type and develop a general algorithm for solving coupled systems. We discuss the challenges associated with mechanics and flow problems in heterogeneous media. The two primary issues being the multiscale nature of the media and the solutions of the fluid and mechanics variables traditionally developed with separate grids and methods. For the numerical solution we develop and implement a Generalized Multiscale Finite Element Method (GMsFEM) that solves problem on a coarse grid by constructing local multiscale basis functions. The procedure begins with construction of multiscale bases for both displacement and pressure in each coarse block. Using a snapshot space and local spectral problems, we construct a basis of reduced dimension. Finally, after multiplying by a multiscale partitions of unity, the multiscale basis is constructed in the offline phase and the coarse grid problem then can be solved for arbitrary forcing and boundary conditions. We implement this algorithm on two heterogenous media and compute error between the multiscale solution with the fine-scale solutions. Randomized oversampling and forcing strategies are also tested.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1309.6030 by other author

Brownian distance covariance

Distance correlation is a new class of multivariate dependence coefficients applicable to random vectors of arbitrary and not necessarily equal dimension. Distance covariance and distance correlation are analogous to product-moment covariance and correlation, but generalize and extend these classical bivariate measures of dependence. Distance correlation characterizes independence: it is zero if and only if the random vectors are independent. The notion of covariance with respect to a stochastic process is introduced, and it is shown that population distance covariance coincides with the covariance with respect to Brownian motion; thus, both can be called Brownian distance covariance. In the bivariate case, Brownian covariance is the natural extension of product-moment covariance, as we obtain Pearson product-moment covariance by replacing the Brownian motion in the definition with identity. The corresponding statistic has an elegantly simple computing formula. Advantages of applying Brownian covariance and correlation vs the classical Pearson covariance and correlation are discussed and illustrated.Comment: This paper discussed in: [arXiv:0912.3295], [arXiv:1010.0822], [arXiv:1010.0825], [arXiv:1010.0828], [arXiv:1010.0836], [arXiv:1010.0838], [arXiv:1010.0839]. Rejoinder at [arXiv:1010.0844]. Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AOAS312 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org