Robinson v. Cahill: The “Thorough and Efficient” Clause

In Robinson V. Cahill, the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously affirmed a trial court invalidation of the state\u27s school finance statute on the basis of the thorough and efficient education clause of the state constitution. This article reviews this case in detail, its genesis, its legal theories, its constitutional guidelines, and its implications for New Jersey and possibly other states

A case of web-based collaborative inquiry learning using OpenLearn technologies

We describe and discuss the implementation of “WOPP in Cyberculture”, an elective discipline of the Erasmus Mundus’ European Master Program on Work, Organization and Personnel Psychology (WOPP), offered by the Faculty of Psychology, University of Coimbra, in 2008. We adopted a web-based collaborative inquiry-learning model supported by UK Open University’s OpenLearn technologies: a community-led virtual learning environment based on Moodle called LabSpace, and a knowledge mapping software called Compendium. Rubrics were used to assess students’ maps and presentations. To assess students’ satisfaction and opinion, at the end of the course we applied an evaluation questionnaire. Results indicate that the implementation of the web-based inquiry-learning model we have proposed was relatively successful and adequate to the learning setting. Rubrics’ scores point to an overall improvement of students’ maps and presentations. Reports on students’ satisfaction with different aspects of the course were positive. Nevertheless, further investigation on the validity and reliability of the rubrics is required

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

Efeitos da separação materna nos comportamentos tipo ansiedade em camundongos adultos

Introduction: Exposure to early life stress (ELS) has been considered an environmental factor that is able to shape the brain development, leading to negative and long-lasting consequences. It is believed that ELS, in addition to the recognized structural and functional deleterious effects, may be involved in the increase vulnerability to develop specific behavioral phenotype, such as anxiety and stress-responsiveness. Several molecular and neurobiological targets have been investigated and identified as potential mediators of these effects due ELS. Objectives: The present thesis aims to investigate the maternal separation (MS) effects in the development of anxiety-like behaviors in adult mice. Methods: Here, we presented an experimental study with male Balb/c mice separated from the dam during the first two weeks of life for a daily period of 180 min. MS mice were tested in postnatal day (PND) 60 in multiple anxiety tasks and had their performance were compared to non-separated mice. Results: MS affected different anxiety parameters, especially in the Open-field Test and Light Dark Test. We also found MS effects in physiological measures, such as the number of fecal boli produced during the tasks. Additional measures assessed by the anxiety-related tasks, for example, exploration/gathering information and risk assessment behaviors seem to be affected by exposure to early life stressors. Conclusion: Our findings corroborates prior studies suggesting that ELS, through MS paradigm, could be a risk factor for the development of behavioral phenotypes underpinning mental disorders, manly related to anxiety and stress-responsiveness spectrum.Introdução: A exposição a estressores no início da vida vem sendo considerado um fator ambiental capaz de moldar o desenvolvimento cerebral, levando a consequências negativas e duradouras que se estendem a vida adulta. Acredita-se que o estresse precoce para além de alterações estruturais e funcionais pode estar associado ao aumento da vulnerabilidade para apresentação de fenótipos específicos, como ansiedade e responsividade ao estresse. Diversos mecanismos moleculares e neurobiológicos têm sido investigados e apontados como possíveis mediadores dessas alterações. Objetivo: A presente dissertação objetiva investigar os efeitos da separação materna (SM) no desenvolvimento do fenótipo tipo ansiedade em camundongos adultos. Método: Trata-se de um estudo experimental com camundongos, machos, da linhagem Balb/c, separados precocemente durante as primeiras duas semanas de vida do cuidado mãe por um período diário de 180 minutos. Os animais separados foram testados no dia pós-natal (PND) 60 em uma bateria de tarefas comportamentais relacionadas ao fenótipo de ansiedade e tiveram seu desempenho comparado a animais controle. Resultados: A SM afetou diferentes parâmetros de ansiedade, principalmente nas tarefas de campo aberto (Open-field Test) e teste claro e escuro (Light Dark Test). Também foram encontrados efeitos da SM em medidas fisiológicas, como o número de bolos fecais produzidos durante a realização das tarefas de comportamento tipo ansiedade. Outras medidas avaliadas por essas tarefas como, por exemplo, comportamentos de exploração/coleta de informações e avaliação de risco parecem também sofrer influência da exposição a SM no início da vida. Conclusões: Nossos resultados reforçam alguns achados da literatura que sugerem o estresse precoce, através da SM, como um fator de risco para o desenvolvimento de fenótipos comportamentais subjacentes a transtornos mentais principalmente relacionados ao espectro da ansiedade e responsividade ao estresse

Taxation - Federal Income Tax - Capital Gain Treatment of Amount Received from Sublessee by Lessee-Sublessor for Surrender of Lease to Lessor

The lessor and the sublessee of a valuable piece of business property sought to remove the intervening interest of petitioner, the lessee-sublessor. Petitioner agreed to release to the lessor all his right and interest in the leasehold and in consideration therefor petitioner received a sum of money from the sublessee. The Tax Court decided in a deficiency proceeding that the entire amount should be taxed as ordinary income on the ground that it was merely a substitute for future rental payments. On appeal, held, reversed. Since the substance of the transaction was the transfer of the leasehold from the lessee to the lessor there was a sale of a capital asset and the sum was taxable as capital gain under the predecessor of section 1231 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. Metropolitan Bldg. Co. v. Commissioner, 282 F.2d 592 (9th Cir. 1960)

Federal Courts-Choice of Law-Refusal to Apply State Limitation to Federally-Created Right

Plaintiffs, two corporations and a joint venture, brought suit in a federal district court in California for damages arising from alleged unfair labor practices by defendant unions. Jurisdiction was based primarily on section 303(b) of the Labor-Management Relations Act which creates a private right of action in persons injured by unlawful secondary boycott activities. Defendants moved to dismiss, contending that the action was barred by the applicable statute of limitations, which, in the absence of any federal limitation specifically pertaining to actions under section 303, was the appropriate California statute. Plaintiffs, on the other hand, maintained that the pervasiveness of Congress\u27 coverage of the labor field indicated an intent to make diverse state statutes inapplicable, arguing that either an analogous federal statute must be used or the federal courts should apply no period of limitations until Congress has acted. Ruling on defendant\u27s motion to dismiss, held, motion denied. A state statute of limitations will not be applied to a federally-created cause of action if the effect is to defeat the legislative purpose. Fischbach & Moore, Inc. v. International Union of Operating Engrs, 198 F. Supp. 911 (S.D. Cal. 1961)

Review of \u3cem\u3eInequality in the Promised Land: Race, Resources, and Suburban Schooling\u3c/em\u3e. R. L\u27Heureux Lewis-McCoy. Reviewed by Paul L. Tractenberg

R. L’Heureux Lewis-McCoy, Inequality in the Promised Land: Race, Resources, and Suburban Schooling. (2014). Stanford University Press. $24.95 (hardcover), 232 pages

Learning Outcomes supporting the integration of Ethical Reasoning into quantitative courses: Three tasks for use in three general contexts

This paper gives a brief overview of cognitive and educational sciences' perspectives on learning outcomes (LOs) to facilitate the integration of LOs specific to ethical reasoning into any mathematics or quantitative course. The target is undergraduate (adult) learners but these LOs can be adapted for earlier and later stages of learning. Core contents of Ethical Reasoning are: 1. its six constituent knowledge, skills, and abilities; 2. a stakeholder analysis; and 3. ethical practice standards or guidelines. These are briefly summarized. Five LOs are articulated at each of three levels of cognitive complexity (low/med/high), and a set of assignment features that can be adapted repeatedly over a term are given supporting these LOs. These features can support authentic development of the knowledge, skills, and abilities that are the target of ethical reasoning instruction in math and quantitative courses at the tertiary level. Three contexts by which these can be integrated are Assumption (what if the assumption fails?), Approximation (what if the approximation does not hold?), and Application (is the application appropriate? what if it is not?). One or more of the three core contents of Ethical Reasoning can be added to any problem already utilized in a course (or new ones) by asking learners to apply the core to the context. Engagement with ethical reasoning can prepare students to assume their responsibilities to promote and perpetuate the integrity of their profession across their careers using mathematics, statistics, data science, and other quantitative methods and technologies.Comment: 21 pages; 8 tables, 1 Figur

Stewardship of Mathematics: Essential Training for Contributors to, and Users of, the Practice of Mathematics

A steward of the discipline was originally defined as an individual to whom “we can entrust the vigor, quality, and integrity of the field”, and more specifically, as “someone who will creatively generate new knowledge, critically conserve valuable and useful ideas, and responsibly transform those understandings through writing, teaching, and application” [8]. Originally articulated for doctoral education, in 2019 the construct of stewardship was expanded so that it can also be applied to non-academic practitioners in any field, and can be initiated earlier than doctoral education [18]. In this paper, we apply this construct to the context of mathematics, and argue that even for those early in their training in mathematics, stewardly practice of mathematics can be introduced and practiced. Postsecondary and tertiary education in mathematics — for future mathematicians as well as those who will use math at work — can include curriculum-spanning training, and documented achievement in stewardship. Even before a formal ethical practice standard for mathematics is developed and deployed to help inculcate math students with a “tacit responsibility for the quality and integrity of their own work”, higher education can begin to shape student attitudes towards stewardly professional identities. Learning objectives to accomplish this are described, to assist math instructors in facilitating the recognition and acceptance of responsibility for the quality and integrity of their own work and that of colleagues in the practice of mathematics

Training Lawyers to Be More Effective Dispute Preventers and Dispute Settlers: Advocating for Non-Adversarial Skills

After briefly recounting some milestones in the history of legal education, and especially efforts to train lawyers in non-Langdellian techniques, I will explore re-orientation of lawyer training, first globally and then more specifically. Most of the ideas in this article are not new. Many of them date back 50 years and more. Articles by Llewellyn and Frank in the 1920\u27s and 1930\u27s could be reprinted with modest changes and seem totally relevant. 3 This in itself bears serious pondering. We do have the advantage of some relatively recent studies which, in the main, tend to support Llewellyn\u27s and Frank\u27s intuitions. In the final portion of this article, I will describe some legal educational ventures I have been developing which represent a further step toward the kind of legal education which I believe must be embraced into the core of American legal education if we are to respond to the needs of lawyers and to the broader society