National Education Standings

No Child Left Behind *(notes)

"What?"
 The Act requires states to develop assessments in basic skills. States must give these assessments to all students at select grade levels in order to receive federal school funding. The Act does not assert a national achievement standard; standards are set by each individual state. NCLB expanded the federal role in public education through annual testing, annual academic progress, report cards, teacher qualifications, and funding changes.

"School Choice"
Gives options to students enrolled in schools failing to meet AYP. If a school fails to meet AYP targets two or more years running, the school must offer eligible children the chance to transfer to higher-performing local schools, receive free tutoring, or attend after-school programs.
-gives the option for students to transfer into a highger preforming school only if the school is not preforming to its highest potential.

"AYP"
Adequate Yearly Progress = measured by state tests

Schools that miss AYP for a second consecutive year are publicly labeled as being "in need of improvement" and are required to develop a two-year improvement plan for the subject that the school is not teaching well. Students are given the option to transfer to a better school within the school district, if any exists.

Missing AYP in the third year forces the school to offer free tutoring and other supplemental education services to struggling students.

If a school misses its AYP target for a fourth consecutive year, the school is labelled as requiring "corrective action," which might involve wholesale replacement of staff, introduction of a new curriculum, or extending the amount of time students spend in class.

A fifth year of failure results in planning to restructure the entire school; the plan is implemented if the school fails to hit its AYP targets for the sixth year in a row. Common options include closing the school, turning the school into a charter school, hiring a private company to run the school, or asking the state office of education to run the school directly.

Prop 37 PROMO

"This does not represent us,"

CAIRO — Islamist militants armed with antiaircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades stormed a lightly defended United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, late Tuesday, killing the American ambassador and three members of his staff and raising questions about the radicalization of countries swept up in the Arab Spring. Response from the violence in Libya.

 

Thoughts:

It's hard for us to distance ourselves from the idea of disturst among Islamic based cultures; especially after the attacks of September 11th, and most recently the killing of the United States ambassador to Libya; however it is not fair to blame an entire religion for the acts of an extremeist few.

Examples:

Though anti-American unrest is sweeping Northern African nations, pro-American rallies are also taking place in Libya after the horrific killing of U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens. Though Ambassador Stevens was killed at the hands of Libyan militants on Sept. 11, 2012, some Libyans are making a point to distance themselves from these terrorists. "This does not represent us," said the sign of one pro-American Libyan. Other supporters expressed remorse for Chris Stevens' killing and one even stated that "Chris Stevens was a friend to all Libyans."

 Just like not all Americans are like the people who made the weird anti-Islam movie that is sparking protests in Muslim nations, not all people in Libya are like the ones who killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens. Some of the people of Benghazi, where Stevens was killed, held a demonstration against terrorism and to show sympathy for the U.S. Libya Alhurra TV, an Internet TV channel founded at the start of the Arab Spring in 2011, posted Facebook photos of a rally there showing support for America and sympathy for Stevens.

 

 

 

 

 

www.theatlanticwire.com

 

 

www.nydailynews.com



Obama WORDLE

Wordle wasn't cooperating with me today! I ended up using a service from worditup.com

Any Donations?

In my struggle to find helpful information regarding the reelection of president Obama, I stumbled upon his website. After providing my email address and zip code here's what I was redirected to. Being a teenager and not being able to vote in this election, it was strange that the first page I see was a donations page, I also noticed this at the end of Obama's speech at DNC.

Obama Romney Poll Result (Retake)

Romney WORDLE

Romney Speech at RNC Reflection

I had a chance to watch the speech live only near the last 15 minutes of it. By that time the speech to me gained a small margin of interest when he began to talk about the many things that Obama was to blame in the country. He may have imposed many new ideas from his perspective, but was all about why it was better to go without Obama this election. Some might say that Obama has the majority of votes already due to minorities and women, and is true to some extent. But with Romney's imposition in this speech, and the current struggles this nation is going through, he might be able to drive the nation to pick him instead of Obama; to try a different man for the job. Romney also spoke of an ideal America, in which "That America" could be more prosperous if he were to be president.

Democrat vs Republican

Comparison chart

	Democrats	Republicans
About:	A Democrat may be one who votes or supports the American Democratic political party, aligns with their leadership and donates, volunteers or participates in the party for purposes of governing the society.	A Republican may be one who votes for the American Republican political Party, aligns with their leadership and donates, volunteers or participates in the party for purposes of governing society
Philosophy:	Liberal	Conservative
Economic Ideas:	Favor minimum wages and progressive taxation i.e. higher tax rates for higher income brackets.	Believe taxes shouldn't be increased for anyone (including the wealthy) and that wages should reflect free market.
Stand on Military issues:	Decreased spending	Increased spending
Stand on Death penalty:	Support for the death penalty is strong among democrats but opponents are a substantial fraction.	A large majority of Republicans support the death penalty.
Stand on abortion:	Should not be made illegal; support Roe v. Wade (some Democrats disagree)	Should not be legal; oppose Roe v. Wade (some Republicans disagree)
Stand on gay marriage:	Support (some Democrats disagree)	Oppose (some Republicans disagree)
Social and human ideas:	Community and social responsibility based	Individual rights and justice based
Traditionally strong in states:	California, Massachusetts	Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas
Symbol:	Donkey	Elephant
Color:	Blue	Red
Founded in:	1824	1854
Website:	www.democrats.org	www.gop.com
Senate Leader:	Harry Reid	Mitch McConnell
Chairperson:	Debbie Wasserman Schultz	Reince Priebus
Famous Presidents:	Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter	Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Abraham Lincoln, Richard Nixon

First Post

This is quite the new experience. Sadly, I feel very awkward right now.