A Sum Greater Than the Parts: What States Can Teach Each Other About Charter Schooling

States with a significant charter sector know firsthand that the success or failure of a charter school is not a matter of chance, but subject to variances in state laws and a state's educational, political, and regulatory climate. In this report, Sara Mead and Andrew J. Rotherham draw on the experiences of 12 states, proposing those lessons that are necessary for charter school quality and growth

Challenged Index: Why Newsweek's List of America's 100 Best High Schools Doesn't Make the Grade

Some schools on Newsweek's list of America's Top 100 high schools have large achievement gaps, grossly shortchange disadvantaged groups, and have a substantial number of drop-outs

Tariff Rate Quotas and New Zealand’s Meat and Dairy Trade

The tariff rate quota (TRQ) system was formalised in the Uruguay Round with the aim of maintaining and improving market access for agricultural products. Under this system, a lower tariff rate is applied to imports up to the quota limit, with a higher (and often prohibitive) tariff rate levied on products imported beyond this quota. However, the success of the TRQ system has been limited, with dairy and meat products in particular still facing relatively high barriers to international trade. In this paper, we examine the impact of the TRQ system on New Zealand’s meat and dairy trade. We draw together theoretical and empirical insights and present preliminary findings arising from interviews with key stakeholders. In particular, we examine whether the TRQ system has achieved its objectives from the perspective of the dairy and meat sectors in New Zealand and we analyse problems that appear to exist with the system. We also examine implications of reform of the TRQ system, including lower in- and over-quota rates, increased quota limits and more transparent and efficient administration methods.Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, International Relations/Trade, Land Economics/Use, Livestock Production/Industries,

Performance of carrot and onion seed primed with beneficial microorganisms in glasshouse and field trials

Beneficial microorganisms (Clonostachys rosea IK726, Pseudomonas chlororaphis MA342, Pseudomonas fluorescens CHA0, Trichoderma harzianum T22 and Trichoderma viride S17a) were successfully applied to carrot and onion seed during a commercial drum priming process. Applied microorganisms were recovered above the target of at least 1 × 105 cfu g−1 seed following subsequent application of pesticides to the seed according to standard commercial practices of film-coating carrot and pelletting onion seed. Two glasshouse experiments consistently showed that priming improved emergence of carrot seed and that C. rosea IK726 further improved emergence time. Priming improved emergence of onion seed in one glasshouse experiment, but had an unexpected negative effect on emergence in the second experiment, possibly due to the proliferation of an unidentified indigenous microorganism during priming, becoming deleterious in high numbers. In this experiment, the application of beneficial microorganisms during priming negated this effect and significantly improved emergence. For each crop, a series of field trials was also carried out over three years, at two different sites each year. Although some positive effects of different seed treatments were seen on emergence or yield in individual field trials, no consistent effects were found for primed or microorganism-treated seed across all sites and years. However, a combined analysis of data for all years and sites indicated that pesticide application did consistently improve emergence and yield for both carrot and onion. This is the first comprehensive study assessing glasshouse and field performance of carrot and onion seed primed with beneficial microorganisms during a commercial process of drum priming in the UK

Remembering Ed Muskie: His Commitment and Contributions to Civil Access to Justice

It is a special honor and pleasure to speak to you today about Ed Muskie and his enduring contribution to the cause of equal access to justice. I am the current Chair of Justice Action Group, an organization that traces its roots directly to Senator Muskie’s efforts in the late 1980s. JAG, as it is known, continues to keep his vision alive. I will speak more about JAG in a moment, but first some brief reminiscences. In the late 1980s, I was a member of the Commission chaired by Senator Muskie that conducted the first comprehensive legal needs study in the State of Maine and issued a report, commonly referred to as the Muskie Commission Report, in 1990. It was a groundbreaking and sobering survey that underscored the profound need for legal assistance for Maine’s neediest citizens. I had never met the Senator before serving on the Commission. My mother, who is a Rumford native, was quite thrilled that I would be serving with him and regaled me with stories of him serving as a substitute teacher in her classes at Stevens High School quite a few years ago. I knew him only by reputation and looked forward to meeting him. He was, as you might expect, gracious and firm, generous and demanding, and a most effective leader for this group. He and his wife hosted the group on a couple of memorable occasions at their home. I met the Senator late in his life, and my initial perception was one of frailty. He moved slowly and carefully, and spoke in very hushed tones. His imposing will was omnipresent, his mind was sharp as a tack, but he left the impression of being physically weak. When the Report was issued, a major press conference was organized. A large podium was set up in the Hall of Flags at the Legislature, and a large crowd and media representatives assembled for the event. The Senator appeared at the appointed hour, stride briskly and confidently to the podium, and proceeded to address the group in positively stentorian tones. His rich baritone filled the hall—no public address system necessary. His important message was delivered in powerful, compelling terms, and all in attendance responded with an enthusiastic and prolonged ovation

Abuse of Discretion: Maine\u27s Application of a Malleable Appellate Standard

It is not unusual for an appellate court to simply announce: “In the circumstances of this case, the trial justice did not abuse his discretion ....” No further clarification or elaboration is offered by the learned justices of the court. The parties are left with a final judgment, but little understanding of the appellate court\u27s review process. Although the objective of finality is satisfied, the objective of clarity is ignored. When litigants and counsel are faced with similar factual or legal circumstances in the future, they remain without guidance or insight into the factors that the appellate court deemed to be of importance in deciding the issue. An appellate court\u27s bald statement that a trial court did—or did not—abuse its discretion accomplishes nothing beyond the conclusion of a pending appeal. There is no unique legal process that is invoked by the unadorned reference to the appellate standard of review known as “abuse of discretion.” It is a highly flexible and malleable term that is applied to widely differing circumstances with equally differing results. Scholars, lawyers, and judges have struggled mightily with the concept over the years. Some have suggested that the appellate courts have failed to create a cohesive line of reasoning in cases citing abuse of discretion and have simply invoked the concept as a sort of blunt instrument to be used in dispatching the decisions of trial judges and substituting those of the appellate court. Trial judges often feel quite severely chastised or rebuked by a finding that they have “abused their discretion.” After all, the term “abuse” tends to connote some dark act of malfeasance. It suggests that the trial judge has done something that is terribly out of line. This unfortunate choice of language has been noted by legal scholars. In response to this, the New Hampshire Supreme Court has abandoned the language altogether in favor of the term “sustainable exercise of discretion.” As of this writing, the Maine Law Court has utilized this language on several occasions

Lawyers in Libraries: A New Approach to Justice in Maine

Andrew Mead describes the emerging partnership between libraries and lawyers, whereby lawyers provide pro bono legal advice in libraries both in person and through remote teleconferencing capability

Remembering Ed Muskie: His Commitment and Contributions to Civil Access to Justice

It is a special honor and pleasure to speak to you today about Ed Muskie and his enduring contribution to the cause of equal access to justice. I am the current Chair of Justice Action Group, an organization that traces its roots directly to Senator Muskie’s efforts in the late 1980s. JAG, as it is known, continues to keep his vision alive. I will speak more about JAG in a moment, but first some brief reminiscences. In the late 1980s, I was a member of the Commission chaired by Senator Muskie that conducted the first comprehensive legal needs study in the State of Maine and issued a report, commonly referred to as the Muskie Commission Report, in 1990. It was a groundbreaking and sobering survey that underscored the profound need for legal assistance for Maine’s neediest citizens. I had never met the Senator before serving on the Commission. My mother, who is a Rumford native, was quite thrilled that I would be serving with him and regaled me with stories of him serving as a substitute teacher in her classes at Stevens High School quite a few years ago. I knew him only by reputation and looked forward to meeting him. He was, as you might expect, gracious and firm, generous and demanding, and a most effective leader for this group. He and his wife hosted the group on a couple of memorable occasions at their home. I met the Senator late in his life, and my initial perception was one of frailty. He moved slowly and carefully, and spoke in very hushed tones. His imposing will was omnipresent, his mind was sharp as a tack, but he left the impression of being physically weak. When the Report was issued, a major press conference was organized. A large podium was set up in the Hall of Flags at the Legislature, and a large crowd and media representatives assembled for the event. The Senator appeared at the appointed hour, stride briskly and confidently to the podium, and proceeded to address the group in positively stentorian tones. His rich baritone filled the hall—no public address system necessary. His important message was delivered in powerful, compelling terms, and all in attendance responded with an enthusiastic and prolonged ovation

Herbicide mixtures at high doses slow the evolution of resistance in experimentally evolving populations of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

The widespread evolution of resistance to herbicides is a pressing issue in global agriculture. Evolutionary principles and practices are key to the management of this threat to global food security. The application of mixtures of herbicides has been advocated as an anti-resistance strategy, without substantial empirical support for its validation. We evolved experimentally populations of the unicellular green chlorophyte, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, to minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of single-herbicide modes of action and to pair-wise and three-way mixtures between different herbicides at various total combined doses. Herbicide mixtures were most effective when each component was applied at or close to its MIC. When doses were high, increasing the number of mixture components was also effective in reducing the evolution of resistance. Employing mixtures at low combined doses did not retard resistance evolution, even accelerating the evolution of resistance to some components. At low doses, increasing the number of herbicides in the mixture tended to select for more generalist resistance (cross-resistance). Our results reinforce findings from the antibiotic resistance literature and confirm that herbicide mixtures can be very effective for resistance management, but that mixtures should only be employed where the economic and environmental context permits the applications of high combined doses