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Three educators give their views on exams Susan Greenfield, professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln College, Oxford, and director of the Royal Institution "Back when I went to Oxford, the entrance exams for women were different. The one for Oxford I found most challenging was the general classics paper. It was a 3.5 hour paper – you had half an hour to think ,then one hour for each question. I still remember one of the questions – 'compare the ideas of empire in Greece and Rome'. That was a real high jump intellectually. Exams are good things. They prepare you...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House says its high-profile garden on the South Lawn has tested positive for lead although it is not at dangerous levels. White House spokeswoman Katie McCormick-Lelyveld said Thursday that tests on the soil in the White House garden detected lead levels of 93 parts per million. Soil is considered unsafe for growing vegetables when it reaches more than 500 parts per million.

Eight years after Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act, American 9- and 13-year-olds are doing measurably better on standardized tests. Good news? Not necessarily. The New York Times report on NCLB carries the headline " 'No Child' Law Is Not Closing a Racial Gap." Fair enough. If the law is helping white kids but doing nothing for blacks, that doesn't seem right. Only that isn't what's happening, as you learn from reading the actual report: The achievement gap between white and minority students has not narrowed in recent years, despite the focus of the No Child Left Behind...

The so-called stress tests will determine whether the banks need more government bailout money and the $700-billion rescue fund needs to be replenished. Releasing too much information could undermine the banks' health -- the very thing that the administration is trying to avoid, experts said. Revealing too little after weeks of buildup would cast doubt on the process and create a vacuum in which investors and depositors would make their own assumptions, possibly leading to runs on the weakest banks. ...Bert Ely, an independent banking analyst. "It's clear they didn't think through how this was going to play out." The...

Charleston, S.C. - ... Somehow, [Principal MiShawna] Moore had transformed one of Charleston’s worst schools into one of its best, a rare breakthrough in a city where the state has deemed more than half the schools unsatisfactory. It seemed almost too good to be true. It may have been. The state has recently started a criminal investigation into test scores at Ms. Moore’s school, seeking to determine whether a high number of erasure marks on the tests indicates fraud. Ms. Moore, who has denied any wrongdoing, has taken a job out of state, leaving behind hurt feelings and wounded pride...

Talking to [NPR], Melody Barnes, a spokeswoman for Mr. Obama’s campaign, said recently that Mr. Obama supports “portfolio assessment” of student performance. Portfolio assessment usually requires a student to perform various classroom assignments, like write essays, do individual projects, participate in group projects. These assignments are put into a portfolio for that student and evaluated. In a debate earlier this month, Linda Darling-Hammond, education adviser to Mr. Obama, pointed to other countries where students are assessed based on “kids doing science inquiries, research papers, technology products.” Portfolio-assessment supporters claim that this method gives a broader view of a student’s knowledge...

Teaching to students' minds, not just to the test VIRGINIA BEACH After two years of quiet planning, the superintendent of schools has unveiled his vision. Jim Merrill wants to overhaul teaching and focus on critical thinking instead of test preparation. For the past decade, the state's public schools have adjusted teaching to fit Standards of Learning tests, the yardstick used to measure school performance. "You could pass SOLs and still fail a kid," Merrill said. His new direction is the key idea behind a six-year plan. The School Board will consider a draft at its annual retreat this weekend. To...

DNA Tests Confirm IDs of Russian Tsar's ChildrenMike Eckel in Moscow, Russia Associated PressApril 30, 2008 DNA tests carried out by a U.S. laboratory prove that remains exhumed last year belong to two children of Tsar Nicholas II, putting to rest questions about what happened to Russia's last royal family, a regional governor said Wednesday. The bone fragments dug up are those of Crown Prince Alexei and his sister, Maria, whose remains had been missing since the family was murdered in 1918 as Russia descended into civil war, said Eduard Rossel, governor of the Sverdlovsk region (see map of Russia)....

The "safety" argument can be extended so that pretty much anything is justified. The New York Department of Agriculture and Markets has in the last few weeks helped demonstrate the problem more vividly than any of us ever could imagine, though. While the agency has been preparing its legal arguments over the last few weeks in preparation for trying to throw Barb and Steve Smith into jail for insisting on proper search warrant protection, Ag and Markets has quietly been playing another game with two other New York raw milk farmers, Jerry Snyder and Chuck Phippen—depriving them of their right...

The Oxford laboratory that declared the Turin Shroud to be a medieval fake 20 years ago is investigating claims that its findings were wrong.The head of the world-renowned laboratory has admitted that carbon dating tests it carried out on Christendom's most famous relic may be inaccurate.   Carbon dating tests carried out 20 years ago on the Shroud of Turin suggested that the relic was a forgery Professor Christopher Ramsey, the director of the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, said he was treating seriously a new theory suggesting that contamination had skewed the results. Though he stressed that he would...

So my downstairs neighbor is a rather elderly black woman originally from New Orleans. She apparently believes that when calling long distance she needs to go out on her balcony and shout. In the rare conversations that we have had in passing, I can tell that she is a fervent believer. And yet, whenever she talks on the phone about her life (nephew arrested again for selling crack, husband jailed on yet another DUI) she always ends her anecdotes with "I know the good Lord is just testing me, and that with faith I can get through it". While I...

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHARLESTON, a not-exactly-selective institution on the banks of the Kanawha River in the capital city of West Virginia, incoming students take a standardized test designed to measure reasoning and writing skills and then take the test again after sophomore year and once again as seniors — to see if their education is doing them any good. Courses are constructed around a series of defined “liberal learning outcomes” like critical thinking and creativity, and if the students’ work shows that many of them aren’t hitting the outcomes, the teachers go back to the drawing board. Ditto with...

Before Mayor Bloomberg starts shelling out money to high school juniors for passing their New York State Regents exams, he would do well to bring as much scrutiny to the content of these tests as he does to the quantity of trans fats in restaurant food. People who took their Regents exams 30 years ago assume that the current version of the tests is essentially the same. They would be stunned to learn how dumbed-down the tests have become. You might say that the American history Regents gives new meaning to the term “E-Z Pass.” The test has three components:...

A new study says that on average, more than half of the ink from inkjet cartridges is wasted when users toss them in the garbage. Why is that interesting? According to the study, users are tossing the cartridges when their printers are telling them they're out of ink, not when they necessarily are out of ink. The study by TÜV Rheinland looked at inkjet efficiency across multiple brands, including Epson (who commissioned the study), Lexmark, Canon, HP, Kodak, and Brother. They studied the efficiency of both single and multi-ink cartridges. Espon's printers were among the highest rated, at more than...

SDI: If missile defense technology is so "untested and unreliable," as Democrats keep telling us, why are the tech-savvy Japanese so hot for it? One of the major criticisms Democrats have of the various national missile defense programs is that the tests thus far allegedly have been scripted, not representing real-life missile combat conditions, with the results mixed and unconvincing. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says the operational testing is unconvincing. Over on the House side, seven Democrats, in a letter sent to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, complained of "tests that have been highly scripted...

Benefit cheats face telephone lie detector tests By George Jones, Political Editor Last Updated: 2:54pm BST 05/04/2007 What is voice-risk analysis? How to beat a lie detector test Lie detector technology will be used by the Government to help identify and deter benefit cheats, John Hutton, Work and Pensions Secretary, announced today. Lie detector test technology has moved on significantly in recent years Voice-risk analysis (VRA) software, already used by the insurance industry, will be used to monitor telephone calls by claimants. It can detect minute changes in a caller's voice which give clues as to when they may be...

How Important Are Tests? by Ed Snyder March 20th, 2007 Cheating Yesterday, I was on one of the OpenDiary boards where a public school teacher was lamenting that it seems to have become a socially acceptable practice for students to cheat. This got me thinking quite a bit about the topic of cheating. My actual reply was as follows: My opinion:It all depends on how you define cheating. As someone who has homeschooled and will homeschool again when my sons are of school age, it is difficult to cheat. Except for things like plagiarism, how does one cheat if one...

Got this in my email. Wanted to share it with those of you that may not have seen it already...

Don't help people sit on their butts I have a question, not only for Douglas County, but for the entire state of Oregon. Like a lot of folks in this state, I have a job. I work, they pay me, I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as they see fit. In order for me to get that paycheck, I am required to pass a random urine test, which I have no problem with. What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test....

US tests call-up system but denies return to conscription Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Saturday December 23, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The Bush administration is planning a test run of America's emergency military call-up, stoking speculation about a return to a draft at a time when the White House is considering sending more troops to Iraq. The secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, provided further evidence that the administration was leaning towards sending more troops to Iraq, acknowledging the high financial and human toll of the war so far, and indicating there would be further costs to bear. "A lot has been...

Every year in Israel some 70,000 people buckle down and study for the standardized Psychometric exam, a crucial step in their hopeful pursuit of higher education. Examinees from every sector in the country take the same exact test but when the results are analyzed the gap between the Jewish and Arab averages is significant. The National Institute for Testing and Evaluation reports a 94 point gap between the two sectors' averages, with the Arab average standing at 469 and the Jewish one at 563. Psychometric scores range between 200 and 800, and are curved based on the current year's scores...

This country was founded, settled, defined and furthered by people who left their homes for the unknown. Whether or not they were religious (in the conventional sense) is (and will be) debated by those with agendas. It is unarguable however, that the founders of this country were risk-takers -- and inherent in risk is belief. They were, in other words, believers. Appropriately, the fledgling country chose for their symbol the eagle, the Biblical metaphor for mercy, majesty and redemption. One of the presidents who personified the country's ethos -- so well they etched his face on a big rock --...

A MEDICAL journal in March published a study suggesting that drinking coffee can raise the risk of heart attack, but only for people with a gene that makes them slow metabolizers of caffeine. Experts called the finding intriguing, but said it needed to be validated by others and its health implications better understood. Still, Consumer Genetics, a company formed only a month earlier, is already advertising a genetic test that purports to tell consumers whether they can continue to enjoy their morning jolt. That is how fast things can move in the rapidly expanding, chaotic and largely unregulated world of...

More tests confirm low-path bird flu in Michigan Mon Aug 28, 2006 6:31pm ET U.S. News WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A second round of tests on swans in Michigan confirmed the birds have a low-pathogenic strain of H5N1 and not the deadly avian influenza virus that has killed more than 141 people in Asia, Europe and Africa, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Monday. Routine tests conducted in a Michigan gaming area earlier this month found two of about 20 swans had what was believed to be a low-pathogenic strain of H5N1. "Genetic testing confirms that these swans were not carrying...

‘Strong Angel III’ Tests Military-Civil Disaster Response By Donna MilesAmerican Forces Press Service SAN DIEGO, Aug. 25, 2006 – More than 600 military members, Defense Department employees and contractors, first responders, nongovernmental organization representatives and technologists are here this week exploring better ways to coordinate their disaster response. Members of the Disaster Relief and Strategic Telecommunications Infrastructure Co. demonstrate their satellite equipment during Strong Angel III in San Diego, Aug. 24. Strong Angel, hosted by San Diego State University, is a disaster response demonstration and exercise involving various nongovernmental and commercial organizations as well as the U.S. armed forces....

More than a decade after the city created a special institute to prepare black and Hispanic students for the mind-bendingly difficult test that determines who gets into New York’s three most elite specialized high schools, the percentage of such students has not only failed to rise, it has declined. The drop at Stuyvesant High School, the Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School mirrors a trend recently reported at three of the City University of New York’s five most prestigious colleges, where the proportion of black students has dropped significantly in the six years since rigorous admissions...

Ordered by the federal government to improve its testing of students who speak limited English, New York State said yesterday that all children enrolled in school in the United States for at least a year would be required to take the state’s regular English Language Arts exam. The test is given annually in the third through eighth grades. State officials said the decision would require about 90,000 children who speak limited English to take the regular exam in January. Students will continue to take the state’s math, social studies and science tests in a variety of foreign languages, officials said....

The trial of a new drug in a London hospital that nearly killed six men three months ago and left them in intensive care for weeks has prompted numerous reports and recommendations that will change the way drugs are tested. But the six men, who were all young and healthy just months ago, now suffer from serious medical problems, and they have been unable to get any of the drug companies involved in the trial to cover their medical expenses, or provide compensation — other than a one-time payment of under $20,000 apiece. In recent weeks, lab tests and medical...

The Agriculture Department said yesterday that it would scale back testing for mad cow disease by about 90 percent, saying the number of infected animals was far too low to justify the current level of surveillance. “It’s time that our surveillance efforts reflect what we now know is a very, very low level of B.S.E. in the United States,” Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said as he announced the new testing program for the disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy. After the disease was found in a Canadian-born dairy cow in Washington in December 2003, the department tested more than 759,000 animals over...

U.S.  Army Staff Sgt. Becker of the 101st Airborne Division drags a sandbag-laden stretcher during the Patrol Competition held at Contingency Operating Base Speicher, Iraq, June 17, 2006.  U.S. Army photo by Capt. Lyn Graves Competition Tests Troops’ Skills Soldiers, airmen climb ladders, run across desert, fire weapons during patrol competition. By  Capt. Lyn Graves 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment TIKRIT, Iraq, July 6, 2006 -- Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division ran across the Iraqi desert, dropped their rucksacks and disassembled and reassembled their weapons behind their backs. They were not suffering from the heat, but competing to...

6/14/2006 - WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFPN) -- A new aircraft with the potential to get up to 30 percent better fuel mileage because of its unique flying-wing shape is being tested by the Air Force Research Laboratory and industry partners. The prototype blended wing body, or BWB, aircraft is a modified, triangular-shaped aircraft configuration with 20 control surfaces along its trailing edge. Researchers believe it will have greater fuel efficiency because more of the plane produces lift. More lift is gained because the wing centerbody, which on a BWB replaces the fuselage of a conventional airplane where the...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - A professional wrestler claimed Friday that the state is intruding on her privacy by requiring her to provide proof from her doctor that she is not pregnant within a week of every match. Julie Utley also said pregnancy testing is too expensive for many women to continue participating in the sport. She estimated it would cost her at least $60 a month for tests. The rule took effect in November and is part of state requirements for licensing contact sports such as professional boxing, wrestling and martial arts. Utley, 19, said she has not wrestled since...

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2006 – A full-scale bio-exercise in the Pentagon parking lot today tested how the Pentagon police, in partnership with local emergency services, would respond to a biological attack at the military headquarters. Red Cross volunteers, acting as potentially anthrax-exposed Pentagon employees, remove their "contaminated" clothing before being "decontaminated" during Gallant Fox 06 May 17 in a Pentagon parking lot. The exercise tested the response of Pentagon police and local and federal agencies to a biological attack at the Pentagon. Photo by Sgt. Sara Wood, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Pentagon Force Protection Agency,...

It’s Prom season, when many parents worry about drinking and driving. But one school is taking a proactive approach to keep its students safe. Elkhart Central High School recently started giving random alcohol breath tests to prom-goers. Roughly, 10-20% of the students will be given the tests, for prom next week, as they drive up to the event. The school says in two years that they have done it, no students have tested positive. “I feel that kids need to be aware that this is going on, so that there’s no drunk driving on prom night,” senior Sarah Fischer told...

4/18/2006 - EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) -- Three Air Force units have started accelerated testing of a LITENING-AT targeting pod. The 416th Flight Test Squadron here is working with the 85th Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., and the 422nd OTES at Nellis AFB, Nev., to update the existing LITENING pod with several new capabilities for warfighters, including a video downlink transmitter currently used in the Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. "The transmitter, called the ROVER Module, was pulled out of the Predator and allows the video the pilot is looking at to be...

UK's bird tests may be missing flu virus 12 April 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition Debora MacKenzie WHEN France reported its first case of H5N1 bird flu in February, the UK's response was adamant: samples had been taken from more than 3500 wild birds, and those tested so far showed the disease was not yet in the UK. Additional precautions, such as moving poultry indoors, were unnecessary, said the authorities. Last week, scientists found H5N1 bird flu for the first time in the UK, in a dead swan in Fife, Scotland. The UK's environment ministry DEFRA again stated that...

3/1/2006 - WESTHAMPTON BEACH, N.Y. (AFPN) -- An Air National Guard rescue unit successfully tested the world’s first multi-person rescue basket, a cage-like device that, once certified, can carry up to 15 people. “We really could have used this after hurricanes Katrina and Rita,” said Lt. Col. Brad Sexton, a program manager in the Air National Guard-Air Force Reserve Command Test Center at Tucson, Ariz. The colonel was one of the first to fly in the Heli-Basket, a 4-and-a-half foot by 8-and-a-half foot metal cage that hangs on a 125-foot cable below an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter. After the three...

Is Britain conducting nuclear tests? Ian Sample Saturday February 25, 2006 The Guardian (UK) Yes and no. On Thursday, Britain took part in a "subcritical" test of nuclear material 1,000ft beneath the Nevada desert. But the explosion was too small to produce a nuclear blast. Known as the Krakatau test, the detonation was conducted, according to the Ministry of Defence, for the purposes of "stockpile stewardship", meaning it served to ensure that the country's nuclear bombs have not deteriorated while in storage and will still go off should they ever be launched. At the heart of the test is the...

A higher education commission named by the Bush administration is examining whether standardized testing should be expanded into universities and colleges to prove that students are learning and to allow easier comparisons on quality. Charles Miller, a business executive who is the commission's chairman, wrote in a memorandum recently to the 18 other members that he saw a developing consensus over the need for more accountability in higher education. "What is clearly lacking is a nationwide system for comparative performance purposes, using standard formats," Mr. Miller wrote, adding that student learning was a main component that should be measured. Mr....

TOWN AND COUNTRY, Mo. - Behind the turreted brick walls of Christian Brothers College High School is a clean-cut student body of about 1,000 boys in collared shirts and dress pants. Tuition for freshmen at the private school in suburban St. Louis will be $9,500 next year, including the cost of a new laptop computer. There is also the chance all parents will be charged another $60 to help pay for mandatory drug tests for students, a rare program hailed by the White House but disparaged by civil libertarians. "I know a lot of people are worried about privacy concerns,...

France tests woman for bird flu More than 20 people in Turkey have been infected with the H5N1 virus A French woman who recently returned from Turkey is being tested in a Montpellier hospital for possible bird flu, the health ministry has announced. A first test was negative, but the results of further examinations are due later on Sunday, the ministry said. The woman had spent two weeks in Turkey, but in a region not known to have been affected, a spokesman said. Bird flu has hit 26 Turkish provinces. At least four people have died from the deadly H5N1...

Tests dash hopes of rapid production of bird flu vaccine 17:43 16 December 2005 NewScientist.com news service Debora MacKenzie The results of first large-scale trials of a low-dose vaccine against H5N1 bird flu have been announced – and they are unexpectedly disappointing. Scientists had hoped that very low doses of vaccine virus would make humans immune if injected along with an immune-stimulating chemical called an adjuvant. But on Thursday, French vaccine company Sanofi pasteur announced that in tests on 300 people in France, they did not. “The prospects for adequate global supplies of an effective pandemic vaccine of any kind...

An Interview with Christina Asquith: About “The Emergency Teacher” Tuesday, November 8, 2005 EducationNews.org Suzi Cottrell Michael F. Shaughnessy Eastern New Mexico University Portales, New Mexico 1) You have recently written a book about “The Emergency Teachers” What prompted you to write this book? Literature is a powerful teaching tool. When I started my first year teaching in a low-income, urban school, I searched for books by other new teachers to use as a model for myself. But I couldn’t find anything that was realistic and written by a teacher. So, when my year ended, and I had learned so...

JERUSALEM - Israel carried out a successful test of its Arrow missile defense system on Friday, intercepting and destroying a missile similar to Iran's long-range Shahab-3. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said an effective shield is needed in light of Iran's threats against Israel and efforts to develop non-conventional weapons. "The state of Israel, which is a clear target of each of these missiles and of the production stations of Iran's non-conventional weapons, reserves the right to have other capabilities to prevent this threat," he said. The Shahab-3 can be equipped with nuclear warheads, and Tehran has said the missile could...

By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer Thu Nov 17,10:30 PM ETTests: Skull Fragments May Be Beethoven's SAN FRANCISCO - A California businessman said Thursday that skull fragments that once belonged to his great-great-uncle in 19th century Europe very likely came from German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Paul Kaufmann made the announcement at the Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University, which helped coordinate forensic testing aimed at authenticating the fragments and determining what killed Beethoven at age 56. The center already has a lock of the composer's hair, which showed he suffered from lead poisoning among other ailments...

SAN FRANCISCO - It wasn't exactly the ancient siege of Syracuse, but rather a curious quest for scientific validation. According to sparse historical writings, the Greek mathematician Archimedes torched a fleet of invading Roman ships by reflecting the sun's powerful rays with a mirrored device made of glass or bronze. More than 2,000 years later, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Arizona set out to recreate Archimedes' fabled death ray Saturday in an experiment sponsored by the Discovery Channel program "MythBusters." Their attempts to set fire to an 80-year-old fishing boat using their own versions...

Has anyone had any experience with Huntington Learning Center? I have a child who has been struggling in school for some time and our efforts have not improved the situation much. My wife suggested we take him to a learning center and we went to Huntington Learning Center, where, after a long discussion with the woman who owned it, we made an appointment to have him tested. The results of the test confirmed what we already knew ($170.00 for the test) and we were then subjected to a 2 hour conference where we were informed that my child's only hope...

Nearly 100,000 California 12th graders — or about 20% of this year's senior class — have failed the state's graduation exam, potentially jeopardizing their chances of earning diplomas, according to the most definitive report on the mandatory test, released Friday.

WASHINGTON They may be brilliant in science and math, but students who can't speak or read English well may be denied a high school diploma because of standardized tests. The findings come from the Center on Education Policy which is looking for ways to help improve education for students with limited command of the English language. -SNIP-

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California election officials have rejected an electronic voting machine by Diebold after tests revealed unacceptable levels of screen freezes and paper jams. Three counties already have purchased the TSX voting machine, which was found to have a failure rate of 10 percent. Secretary of State Bruce McPherson said that was too high a risk and he notified company officials in a letter sent Wednesday. In a mock election held last week to test the 96 touch-screen machines, McPherson noted in the letter that his staff encountered "problems with paper jamming on the ... printer module," he said...