51,758 research outputs found
Christian Initiation: Ethics and Eschatology
(Excerpt)
I did not choose the three terms of my assignment: initiation , ethics and eschatology. It would take a degree of arrogance that I do not have, to select the universe for one\u27s subject in this fashion. While I did not choose them, I am fortunate in your committee having chosen them. For in fact, as it turns out, the three terms nestle beautifully together and define a field of reflection that I have found enjoyable. Baptism is initiation into the Christian church, an ethical community. And baptism is initiation into the kingdom of God, the eschatological community. And it does both these things at once, thereby setting up a dialectic. What more could any systematic theologian ask for? That baptism does doubly initiate, is, I take it, dogma. It could be argued; but on this occasion I will assume it, and go on
Low-density series expansions for directed percolation II: The square lattice with a wall
A new algorithm for the derivation of low-density expansions has been used to
greatly extend the series for moments of the pair-connectedness on the directed
square lattice near an impenetrable wall. Analysis of the series yields very
accurate estimates for the critical point and exponents. In particular, the
estimate for the exponent characterizing the average cluster length near the
wall, , appears to exclude the conjecture . The
critical point and the exponents and have the
same values as for the bulk problem.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur
Dispersive estimates for Schrodinger operators in dimensions one and three
We prove L^1 --> L^\infty estimates for linear Schroedinger equations in
dimensions one and three. The potentials are only required to satisfy some mild
decay assumptions. No regularity on the potentials is assumed.Comment: 20 pages. Corrected typos and improved explanatory remarks at the en
Low-density series expansions for directed percolation III. Some two-dimensional lattices
We use very efficient algorithms to calculate low-density series for bond and
site percolation on the directed triangular, honeycomb, kagom\'e, and
lattices. Analysis of the series yields accurate estimates of the critical
point and various critical exponents. The exponent estimates differ only
in the digit, thus providing strong numerical evidence for the
expected universality of the critical exponents for directed percolation
problems. In addition we also study the non-physical singularities of the
series.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figure
Updated Analysis of Racial Segregation in Pulaski County Charter and Traditional Public Schools
In September of 2009, the Office for Education Policy (OEP) released a report titled âAn Analysis of Charter Schools on Desegregation Efforts in Little Rock, Arkansas.â In this report, we presented data from the 2005 to 2009 schools years for students who transferred to open-enrollment charter schools in Pulaski County from the Little Rock School District (LRSD). The aim of this report was to show what impacts â if any â these transfers were having on the desegregation efforts of the LRSD. The motivation for this report was an ongoing legal debate about how charter schools impact desegregation, in which critics of charter schools argued that these schools lead to greater segregation, whereas charter proponents suggested that there was no necessary link between charters and segregation
The Value of Value-Added Measures
The concept of value-added measures of teacher or school effectiveness is prompting a great deal of discussion in K-12 Education policy circles. This debate reached a boiling point last year when the Los Angeles Times published a database of the value-added scores for all teachers in the nation\u27s second largest school district. Proponents argue value-added measures provide important information on school and teacher effectiveness. Opponents argue value-added measures are imprecise instruments which measure student background instead of teacher or school quality. The purpose of this policy brief is to provide the reader with a general understanding of the concept of a valueadded measure as well as the potential benefits and perils of more widespread use of such value-added measure
Big Changes in How Students are Tested
For the past decade, school accountability has relied on tests for which the essential format has remained unchanged. Educators are familiar with the yearly testing routine: schools are given curriculum frameworks, teachers use the frameworks to guide instruction, students take one big test at yearâs end which relies heavily upon multiple-choice bubble items, and then school leaders wait anxiously to find out whether enough of their students scored at or above proficiency to meet state standards. All this will change with the adoption of Common Core standards. Testing and accountability arenât going away. Instead, they are developing and expanding in ways that aim to address many of the present shortcomings of state testing routines. Most importantly, these new tests will be computer-based. As such, they will potentially shorten testing time, increase testsâ precision, and provide immediate feedback to students and teachers
Quality Counts 2011
On January 11, Education Week released its 15 th annual Quality Counts report. Since 1997, Education Week has been releasing yearly report cards for each state and the nation as a whole. These report cards attempt to measure educational progress and success in several areas as well as assign an overall letter grade to each state. Some of the grades assigned in the report cards measure the strength of statesâ policies, while others measure educational inputs (school funding, job markets) or outputs (K-12 achievement
Act 35, New School Performance Ratings, and School Choice
Act 35 was a product of the Lakeview v Huckabee case and the related Extraordinary Legislative Session. The law § 6-15-2101 of the Arkansas code required the establishment of three school ratings: a rating of the schoolâs current academic performance (or status), a rating of the schoolâs academic improvement (see the OEP policy brief on the new improvement rating) 1 , and a rating based on the schoolâs fiscal practices. The first set of improvement scores were reported based on the standardized tests administered in spring of 2007 and 2008. The first ratings based on current academic performance are to be based on the 2009-2010 school year, but these ratings have not yet been released to the schools or public as of this writing. In this policy brief, we describe the guidelines shaping this new school rating
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