[Review of] William H. Turner and Edward J. Cabell, eds. Blacks in Appalachia

The editors are a civil rights worker (Cabell) and an academician (Turner) who evidence a longstanding interest in the Appalachian region and especially in the place and history of black people there. The articles are grouped into eight parts: Basic Approaches, Historical Perspectives, Community Studies, Race Relations, Black Coal Miners, Blacks and Local Politics, Personal Anecdotal Accounts of Black Life, and Selected Demographic Aspects. According to Turner\u27s article on the demography of Black Appalachia, he defines Appalachia as the Appalachian Regional Commission counties in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia

[Review of] Stephen Glazier, ed. Caribbean Ethnicity Re visited

Like marine life washed up on a beach, most Caribbean peoples have been brought where they are by powerful forces outside their control. These forces include colonialism, slavery, and revolution, processes in the seventeenth and eighteenth century that convulsed Europe and whose effects spread to much of the rest of the world. Just as tidepools a few feet apart can have completely different sets of animal and plant life, Caribbean islands just a few miles apart can have completely different histories and mixtures of peoples. Mirroring the complexity of the life in these tidepools, there are myriad interpretations of the effects of different historical, structural, cultural and other factors on the region. Stephen Glazier has selected a set of articles received from a call for papers placed in newsletters of the Caribbean Studies Association and the American Anthropological Association

School Grades: Identifying British Columbia's Best Schools

Standardized testing is a controversial subject, particularly in British Columbia. However, as this Commentary argues, standardized test results can be a valuable resource as long as they are placed into the proper context. It is no surprise that students who have parents with more education or speak English as a first language do far better on standardized tests than otherwise disadvantaged students. This Commentary compares outcomes in British Columbia schools where students come from similar backgrounds.education papers, social policy, standardized testing, elementary schools, Foundation Skills Assessment

British Columbia’s Best Schools: Where Teachers Make the Difference

This study compares student outcomes at British Columbia elementary schools where students come from similar socio-economic backgrounds, thus revealing "good" schools where principals, teachers and staff are making a positive difference to student performance. This alternative means of identifying the best schools in the province shows that there are both public and independent schools among the top performers. The resulting school ratings by percentile are useful not only to parents, but also to teachers, school board administrators and education officials who wish to identify schools whose practices deserve imitation.Education Papers, British Columbia elementary schools, socio-economic and education environments, Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA)

Ontario's Best Public Schools: An Update to Signposts of Success (2005)

How do parents, teachers, taxpayers and school administrators know if their children attend a good school? Parents, in particular, deserve more information than they can glean from parent-teacher nights or award-filled graduation ceremonies. More meaningful information would allow them to fairly compare their children’s school with others in similar neighbourhoods throughout the province. This study is designed to provide exactly those answers for Ontario schools over the last three years, with a view to identifying schools worthy of I21emulation, or in need of improvement.social policy, socio-economic factors

School Grades: Identifying Alberta's Best Schools, an Update

This study compares student outcomes at Alberta elementary schools where students come from similar socio-economic backgrounds, thus revealing “good” schools where principals, teachers and staff are making a positive difference in student performance. The study screens out the influence of socio-economic factors on how a school’s students perform on Alberta’s Provincial Achievement Tests for grades 3, 6 and 9. This identifies those schools that perform better or worse than other schools with students of similar backgrounds.Education Papers, Alberta elementary schools, Provincial Achievements Tests (PATs), socio-economic factors

School Grades: Identifying Albert's Best Public Schools

The study identifies which Alberta elementary schools are worthy of emulation, as well as those where large improvements are possible, by removing the influence of local socio-economic factors on a school's performance.social policy, education, Alberta

Manpower and project planning

The purpose was to study how manpower and projects are planned at the Facilities Engineering Division (FENGD) within the Systems Engineering and Operations Directorate of the LaRC and to make recommendations for improving the effectiveness and productivity ot the tools that are used. The existing manpower and project planning processes (including the management plan for the FENGD, existing manpower planning reports, project reporting to LaRC and NASA Headquarters, employee time reporting, financial reporting, and coordination/tracking reports for procurement) were discussed with several people, and project planning software was evaluated