13 student uinons aim to disrupt to convocation

Thirteen student unions today decided to script the 35Th convocation Day of Tribhuvan university(TU) which is slated for December 11 .

The TU is bent on approving the face high decision on December 7 through it's council meeting.

Today decision of the agitating student union came at a matting held here during which the student union chalked out their third- round of stir. TU has hiked the fee by ten of the Bachelors and master Laval.

TU has announced that the revised for structure world come into effect from November But 13 student unions opposites it and submitted a 72 day ultimatum to the vice chancellor prof Dr Madav prased shorma on November 17 demanding to roll back the decision.

TU has said that the fee would not be rolled back at any cost Argus that it was necessary to rise the academic equality of the nation 5 oldest and largest institution of higher education.

Following the adamant stance take by the TU admin instruction the student announced their sound- phose of protest lasting from November 32 to 27 taking to the Himalayan times today pradeep poudel president of Nepal student union said that since the TU administration was not serious to sort out the problems through dialogues they were compelled to announce the third-phase of protest program me.

"We are going to half the TU convocation Day on December 11 and TU assembly on December 7 which is going to pass the fee hake decision."

USC launches 125th Anniversary

Shining the spotlight on itself, the prestigious USC Thornton School of Music, the oldest continuously operating cultural institution in Los Angeles and one of the oldest and most illustrious music schools in the country, celebrates its 125th Anniversary in grand style with the party of the century (and a quarter) on Thursday, September 10, 2009, 5:30 P.M., at USC's Town & Gown. With toasts bubbling forth and music flowing, the dazzling celebration spotlights USC Thornton's remarkable 125-year history, its leading role in the music industry and its focus on the future. The free event for friends and family of USC Thornton as well as community leaders features delicious cuisine, signature cocktails and a wide array of musical performances by the school's outstanding musicians. A performance of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique by the USC Thornton Symphony, conducted by Carl St.Clair, in Bovard Auditorium caps the festivities. Attire is business casual."This is a momentous milestone for a storied institution," says Rob Cutietta, Dean of USC Thornton. "USC Thornton - which was founded long before the birth of the region's film and recording industries, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Opera or any of the Southland's other leading music ensembles or cultural institutions - is truly the cornerstone of culture in Los Angeles. Since its inception in 1884, the school and its acclaimed faculty and alumni have played a pivotal role in the music industry internationally. In marking Thornton's 125th Anniversary, we will reflect on the school's illustrious history, and, in the true spirit of USC Thornton, will look ahead to the next 125 years and plans to help ensure it will continue its cutting edge leadership role."The University of Southern California's Flora L. Thornton School of Music, generally regarded as one of the premiere music schools in the world, offers a unique combination of innovative programs such as popular music performance, recording science, and scoring for motion pictures and television, which stand alongside the more traditional programs in classical music, opera, jazz studies, composition and research. Blending the rigors of a traditional conservatory-style education with the benefits of studying at a leading research university, USC Thornton offers students an unparalleled music education in a real-world context. Its illustrious alumni and faculty have been awarded countless Grammy and Academy Awards and serve as leaders in all facets of the music industry. Celebrated alumni include pop great Herb Albert; film score composers James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith and James Newton Howard; TV/film score composer Bear McCreary; composer and Presidential Medal of the Arts recipient Morten Lauridsen; acclaimed conductors Michael Tilson Thomas and Grant Gershon; opera stars Marilyn Horne, Rod Gilfry, Jessica Rivera and Erica Miller; and esteemed classical guitarist Christopher Parkening. In 1999, philanthropist Flora L. Thornton became the school's benefactor with a naming gift of $25 million, at the time the largest such contribution to an American school of music.

children school's and familie

Ed Balls today praised a race equality initiative in Leeds and announced plans to promote the Stephen Lawrence Education Awards to all local authorities across the country.The awards, which are supported by Stephen Lawrence’s mother Doreen, help schools to promote race equality by formally recognising and ‘kitemarking’ good practice in schools. Leeds City Council has developed the scheme as a way to target parts of their local area facing particular community tensions. The Stephen Lawrence Standard was developed in partnership between Education Leeds, Leeds City Council and Black and minority community representatives, in response to the tragic murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and the publication of the MacPherson Inquiry Report into Stephen’s death in 1999. Two-thirds of schools in Leeds are already taking part in the initiative and Ed Balls now aims to promote this and similar initiatives to all local authorities across the country.He announced plans to promote the Stephen Lawrence Education Awards and the other best equality initiatives like the Rights Respecting School Awards in Hampshire to all local authorities across the country. This will include the DCSF co-hosting an event with Education Leeds to showcase the awards to other local authorities so they can spread the benefits of awards to help schools work in partnership with their local community and other schools to promote equality in all they do. We will also prepare a tool-kit to help other areas who want to introduce awards in their schools.Attending a ceremony celebrating the achievements of the participating schools in Leeds, Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, said: "Schools have a key role to play in building a fair, integrated and tolerant society for all children growing up in Britain today. I believe a Stephen Lawrence Education Award is a sign of a good school. It means they’re committed to doing all they can to show that racism has no place in their school and that pupils understand different cultures and backgrounds. “Winning a Stephen Lawrence Education Award is a great achievement and I congratulate all of the schools, teachers and pupils who are leading the way in Leeds. I want to do more to spread what Leeds is doing to other areas where it can also make a real difference.”Chris Edwards, Chief Executive of Education Leeds, said:”It is testament to the successes of the Stephen Lawrence award that the Secretary of State is attending the ceremony this year. The award is unique to Leeds but is a fantastic example nationally of what can be done to promote the importance of race equality to all children and young people.“We want all schools to be inclusive, brilliant learning places and this amazing scheme is really helping. It enriches learning, broadens young people’s horizons and embeds a culture of equality in our schools and communities.”

Editor's Notes
This press notice relates to 'England'
1. The Stephen Lawrence Education Standard was developed in partnership between Education Leeds, the Leeds City Council and Black and Minority community representatives, in response to the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the MacPherson Inquiry Report. Launched in 2003, the Standard evolved from a competitive award established in 2000 and was the first of its kind in the country. A ceremony each October celebrates the achievements of the participating schools.

2. To achieve the award, schools and early years centres have to demonstrate knowledge, understanding and evidence of promoting inclusion and race equality to help transform education. The latest awards, presented by Ed Balls today in Leeds, takes the total number of accredited schools and early years centres in the city to more than 200.3. The 12 criteria of the Stephen Lawrence Education Standard are:
• A whole school approach.
• School self-evaluation.
• A written race equality policy.
• Written anti-racist and anti-bullying policies, with clear procedures to deal with racial harassment and bullying.
• An effective approach to monitoring and responding to racist incidents.
• An inclusive policy on the procedures for pupil admissions, assessment and transfer.
• A written policy for involving parents, carers and the community in working with and supporting the school.
• An inclusive curriculum which positively reflects a culturally and religiously diverse society, promotes race equality, and prepares pupils to become responsible citizens.
• An effective monitoring process of black and minority ethnic pupils, particularly to academic attainment and exclusions. Target should be set for improvement for all groups of children.
• The effective monitoring of staff recruitment, staff development and governors appointments, with targets for recruitment from ethnic minority groups.
• Mandatory anti-racist training for all staff and governors.
• Race equality and community cohesion action plans

GAP not solely resposibli

I high school student bust their butts to earn good grades score high one the SAT'S and get involved in extra curricular activities to beef up their collage application After they get into collage, student pull all nighties, attend (almost) every class and spend hours in the library all to boost their grade point average high enough to impress employers.
But just how important is your GPA to employers ? where all of those group study sessions and late nigh spent cramming worth it?
The majority of employers (62percent) don't have a minimum GPA requirement for hiring collage graduates, according to career Builder Com's "collage Job Forecast 2008" six percent of employers will accept below a 2.5 GPA while and additional 31 percent require a 3.0 and above only 11 percent require a 3,5 and above.

wourld Online Bachelor's Degree

Today, the world has become very competitive and so as the importances of education. So there are many reasons why people are seeking for online bachelor's degree. They have found that a bachelor's degree gives them an edge over the competition and can sometimes sway a promotion or potential employer to swing their way. The online bachelor degree is making it easier than ever to obtain your degree while working or handling everyday life.A bachelor's degree is an undergraduate academic degree. The name bachelor was given to the degree because of the English word bachelor, meaning "young apprentice." A bachelor's degree is the first degree a student can receive in his or her academic career, with the exception of the associate's degree. The bachelor's degree is sometimes awarded after earning an associate's degree, though it is often the first degree that is earned. Whether or not an associate's degree can be earned first depends upon the area of study. A master's is generally the degree that can be earned following a bachelor's degree, which can then be followed by a doctorate degree.One of the aspects of online education that people do not understand is how you get the hands on training that many fields require. While you may or may not need this in the bachelor-degrees that you plan to get, you will find that information about this is easy to find at the online university's websites.There are many programs that are offered through online bachelor-degrees. If you would like to know if any of the programs or classes that you need to take are available to you on the web, all you need to do is to log onto any of the various online schools and find out. This level of education that the bachelor-degree is one that is advanced and will require much learning.Well, in many cases online bachelor degrees are being offered by accredited colleges that are not only online but have a physical campus as well. However, there are a growing number of institutions that are strictly online. A bachelor's degree is an investment in your future. While most on-campus bachelor's degree programs take a minimum of four years, many online schools also offer accelerated studies. An education through an online university is one of the best ways to learn and to stay on the cutting-edge of technology.The cost of obtaining an online bachelor degree is comparable to obtaining a regular bachelor degree. Though many people will find the cost of higher education outside of their budgets, online bachelor degree programs offer financial assistance.When choosing an online bachelor degree program you want to find one that matches your needs. Make sure that the institution is accredited in your state to ensure that you degree will be valid to all future employers. The area of study and method of learning, whether obtaining an online bachelor degree or earning it in a traditional classroom, are all personal choices that must fit with your professional and personal goals, schedule and budget.

education most likely

On the day of the big football game between the University of Missouri Tigers and the Cowboys of Oklahoma State, a football scout named Dan Shonka sat in his hotel, in Columbia, Missouri, with a portable DVD player. Shonka has worked for three National Football League teams. Before that, he was a football coach, and before that he played linebacker—although, he says, “that was three knee operations and a hundred pounds ago.” Every year, he evaluates somewhere between eight hundred and twelve hundred players around the country, helping professional teams decide whom to choose in the college draft, which means that over the last thirty years he has probably seen as many football games as anyone else in America. In his DVD player was his homework for the evening’s big game—an edited video of the Tigers’ previous contest, against the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Shonka methodically made his way through the video, stopping and re-winding whenever he saw something that caught his eye. He liked Jeremy Maclin and Chase Coffman, two of the Mizzou receivers. He loved William Moore, the team’s bruising strong safety. But, most of all, he was interested in the Tigers’ quarterback and star, a stocky, strong-armed senior named Chase Daniel.
“I like to see that the quarterback can hit a receiver in stride, so he doesn’t have to slow for the ball,” Shonka began. He had a stack of evaluation forms next to him and, as he watched the game, he was charting and grading every throw that Daniel made. “Then judgment. Hey, if it’s not there, throw it away and play another day. Will he stand in there and take a hit, with a guy breathing down his face? Will he be able to step right in there, throw, and still take that hit? Does the guy throw better when he’s in the pocket, or does he throw equally well when he’s on the move? You want a great competitor. Durability. Can they hold up, their strength, toughness? Can they make big plays? Can they lead a team down the field and score late in the game? Can they see the field? When your team’s way ahead, that’s fine. But when you’re getting your ass kicked I want to see what you’re going to do.”
He pointed to his screen. Daniel had thrown a dart, and, just as he did, a defensive player had hit him squarely. “See how he popped up?” Shonka said. “He stood right there and threw the ball in the face of that rush. This kid has got a lot of courage.” Daniel was six feet tall and weighed two hundred and twenty-five pounds: thick through the chest and trunk. He carried himself with a self-assurance that bordered on cockiness. He threw quickly and in rhythm. He nimbly evaded defenders. He made short throws with touch and longer throws with accuracy. By the game’s end, he had completed an astonishing seventy-eight per cent of his passes, and handed Nebraska its worst home defeat in fifty-three years. “He can zip it,” Shonka said. “He can really gun, when he has to.” Shonka had seen all the promising college quarterbacks, charted and graded their throws, and to his mind Daniel was special: “He might be one of the best college quarterbacks in the country.”
But then Shonka began to talk about when he was on the staff of the Philadelphia Eagles, in 1999. Five quarterbacks were taken in the first round of the college draft that year, and each looked as promising as Chase Daniel did now. But only one of them, Donovan McNabb, ended up fulfilling that promise. Of the rest, one descended into mediocrity after a decent start. Two were complete busts, and the last was so awful that after failing out of the N.F.L. he ended up failing out of the Canadian Football League as well.
The year before, the same thing happened with Ryan Leaf, who was the Chase Daniel of 1998. The San Diego Chargers made him the second player taken over all in the draft, and gave him an eleven-million-dollar signing bonus. Leaf turned out to be terrible. In 2002, it was Joey Harrington’s turn. Harrington was a golden boy out of the University of Oregon, and the third player taken in the draft. Shonka still can’t get over what happened to him.
“I tell you, I saw Joey live,” he said. “This guy threw lasers, he could throw under tight spots, he had the arm strength, he had the size, he had the intelligence.” Shonka got as misty as a two-hundred-and-eighty-pound ex-linebacker in a black tracksuit can get. “He’s a concert pianist, you know? I really—I mean, I really—liked Joey.” And yet Harrington’s career consisted of a failed stint with the Detroit Lions and a slide into obscurity. Shonka looked back at the screen, where the young man he felt might be the best quarterback in the country was marching his team up and down the field. “How will that ability translate to the National Football League?” He shook his head slowly. “Shoot.”
This is the quarterback problem. There are certain jobs where almost nothing you can learn about candidates before they start predicts how they’ll do once they’re hired. So how do we know whom to choose in cases like that? In recent years, a number of fields have begun to wrestle with this problem, but none with such profound social consequences as the profession of teaching.
One of the most important tools in contemporary educational research is “value added” analysis. It uses standardized test scores to look at how much the academic performance of students in a given teacher’s classroom changes between the beginning and the end of the school year. Suppose that Mrs. Brown and Mr. Smith both teach a classroom of third graders who score at the fiftieth percentile on math and reading tests on the first day of school, in September. When the students are retested, in June, Mrs. Brown’s class scores at the seventieth percentile, while Mr. Smith’s students have fallen to the fortieth percentile. That change in the students’ rankings, value-added theory says, is a meaningful indicator of how much more effective Mrs. Brown is as a teacher than Mr. Smith.

local school of our old

Before Gov. John Baldacci announced his plan to cut $63.1 million from the current state budget, local school districts knew they'd be taking a hit.

Districts had been warned this might be coming back in the spring, and both the Wells-Ogunquit Community School District and RSU 21 had plans in place for dealing with the funding loss. The surprise was that the cuts, announced by the Maine Department of Education on Friday, Nov. 20, were in some instances deeper than expected.

"We had preliminary meetings because we knew this would come through," said WOCSD Superintendent Elaine Tomaszewski on Friday. "But we anticipated $182,000, not the $213,558. That's a big discrepancy."

Department of Education Commissioner Susan Gendron said the cuts to education total $38 million, all of which will come out of districts' general purpose aid.

"It is important to understand that in calculating the reductions to each school administrative unit, we have not changed the total Essential Programs and Services allocation for individual units or the statewide total," she said.

Gendron reminded districts that no cuts will be final until they receive legislative approval.

That's hardly a consolation to RSU 21 Superintendent Andrew Dolloff, who said the $883,392 in funding the district will lose will not affect staffing this year, but will almost certainly force personnel cuts in the future.

"Although it appears we will be able to make the reductions without any loss of jobs or programs this year, there is little chance of accomplishing the same goal next year," Dolloff said in a release Monday. "We will have to take a hard look at all of our programs, and unless there is better news coming from Augusta or Washington, some tough decisions will have to be made."

Tomaszewski said her board had already identified areas in the budget that could be cut, including travel, conferences and supplies. The board looked at things that would least affect students.

"But now we're going to have to go further," she said.

In RSU 21, Dolloff said unanticipated revenue from Medicaid reimbursement and a reduction in the special-education budget for out-of-district placement are largely responsible for making up the funding lost.

"It is our intent to keep these cuts as far away from classroom instruction as possible," he said. "That's not easy when nearly 80 percent of the budget is tied up in personnel costs — the vast majority of which have a direct impact on our students' learning and safety."

campus news

Illicit file sharing isn’t just for kids these days. Once mainly used for downloading pirated music, sites have sprung up on the Internet that allow free swapping of academic journals (think Napster’s younger dweeby brother).

A new study, published in the Internet Journal of Medical Informatics, looks at a site aimed specifically at medical professionals and students and finds that thousands of people were obtaining non-open-access materials free of charge. The article says that in a six-month period of watching the unnamed site, nearly 5,500 articles were exchanged, costing journals about $700,000 in that time, or about $1.4-million a year.

The site had 127,626 registered users, who during the study period put in requests for 6,587 journals. There was an 83 percent success rate in finding the article. Nature and Science were the most commonly swapped journals.

The article does not focus on the ethical implications but does say, “In the field of medicine, ethics plays a pivotal role, and yet the site displays activities by medical students, teachers, and practicing professionals that are ethically dubious.”

Wired Campus reported earlier this week about another attempt to give more access to subscription journal articles. This effort, called Deep Dyve, is a legal rental program that allows users to access articles for a set amount of time with a fee.

Education at the mercy of strikes

On December 7 Maoists called an educational sector bandh demanding the security of the Maoist affiliated teachers. Due to this all the schools and +2 colleges remained closed the entire day throughout the nation. This is not the first time that protesters are staging a strike that affects the academic institutions. Strikes and academic institutions have become interrelated. The Nepalese academic environment has been deteriorating since last few years due to widespread and damaging strikes. Strikes are hitting the academic institutions very hard. Strike has become a common but serious issue due to the never-ending political instability and selfish political interest among the political parties and their allied student organisations. Various political parties including Maoists are using Nepal bandhs, regional bandhs, district bandhs, education strikes and many other disruptions to flout their power and express dissatisfaction over the issues they have been raising. However they don't seem to be aware of the adverse effects of such actions on the academic environment of the colleges, universities, schools etc. Students, guardians and teachers are frustrated by such frequent strikes. They feel that the future of the students is at stake. The nation's future is under siege.

The frequent strikes and bandhs have derailed the education sector. No can deny that the student movement has played a significant role in politics from the beginning. In 1980, the then king had to declare referendum on the system due to the pressure from the student movement. Likewise the 1990's restoration of democracy also preceded active student participation in the political movement. Democracy has been pushed off track. Students are naturally, a vital section of the Nepalese society that gets agitated when the country's democracy is at stake. Colleges and schools are naturally the venues to hold political debates and organise their political ideas. Despite these facts, the political parties and their student allies must not forget that education is the foundation of both nation and democracy. We can find so many examples of continuance and maintenance of academic environment even in the countries driven by sharp political instabilities.

Keeping in mind these concerns they must rethink their strategies of agitation and expressing the voice of discontent. They should not hesitate to declare academic institutions as zones of peace and parties should give necessary emphasis to keep the education sector out of politics. The right of students to education is being violated by the so-called bandhs. The constitution of the kingdom of Nepal clearly guarantees individuals the right to education and right to engage in the occupation of their choice. The political agenda is dominating the education sector. The government has neither succeeded in providing an adequately secure environment nor addressed the issues of loyalty raised by the students.

Before it gets worse all the related sections of the society and the nation as a whole must immediately take some crucial steps to secure the bright future of the younger generation and the country itself.

Education at the mercy of strikes

On December 7 Maoists called an educational sector bandh demanding the security of the Maoist affiliated teachers. Due to this all the schools and +2 colleges remained closed the entire day throughout the nation. This is not the first time that protesters are staging a strike that affects the academic institutions. Strikes and academic institutions have become interrelated. The Nepalese academic environment has been deteriorating since last few years due to widespread and damaging strikes. Strikes are hitting the academic institutions very hard. Strike has become a common but serious issue due to the never-ending political instability and selfish political interest among the political parties and their allied student organisations. Various political parties including Maoists are using Nepal bandhs, regional bandhs, district bandhs, education strikes and many other disruptions to flout their power and express dissatisfaction over the issues they have been raising. However they don't seem to be aware of the adverse effects of such actions on the academic environment of the colleges, universities, schools etc. Students, guardians and teachers are frustrated by such frequent strikes. They feel that the future of the students is at stake. The nation's future is under siege.

The frequent strikes and bandhs have derailed the education sector. No can deny that the student movement has played a significant role in politics from the beginning. In 1980, the then king had to declare referendum on the system due to the pressure from the student movement. Likewise the 1990's restoration of democracy also preceded active student participation in the political movement. Democracy has been pushed off track. Students are naturally, a vital section of the Nepalese society that gets agitated when the country's democracy is at stake. Colleges and schools are naturally the venues to hold political debates and organise their political ideas. Despite these facts, the political parties and their student allies must not forget that education is the foundation of both nation and democracy. We can find so many examples of continuance and maintenance of academic environment even in the countries driven by sharp political instabilities.

Keeping in mind these concerns they must rethink their strategies of agitation and expressing the voice of discontent. They should not hesitate to declare academic institutions as zones of peace and parties should give necessary emphasis to keep the education sector out of politics. The right of students to education is being violated by the so-called bandhs. The constitution of the kingdom of Nepal clearly guarantees individuals the right to education and right to engage in the occupation of their choice. The political agenda is dominating the education sector. The government has neither succeeded in providing an adequately secure environment nor addressed the issues of loyalty raised by the students.

Before it gets worse all the related sections of the society and the nation as a whole must immediately take some crucial steps to secure the bright future of the younger generation and the country itself.

Education at the mercy of strikes

On December 7 Maoists called an educational sector bandh demanding the security of the Maoist affiliated teachers. Due to this all the schools and +2 colleges remained closed the entire day throughout the nation. This is not the first time that protesters are staging a strike that affects the academic institutions. Strikes and academic institutions have become interrelated. The Nepalese academic environment has been deteriorating since last few years due to widespread and damaging strikes. Strikes are hitting the academic institutions very hard. Strike has become a common but serious issue due to the never-ending political instability and selfish political interest among the political parties and their allied student organisations. Various political parties including Maoists are using Nepal bandhs, regional bandhs, district bandhs, education strikes and many other disruptions to flout their power and express dissatisfaction over the issues they have been raising. However they don't seem to be aware of the adverse effects of such actions on the academic environment of the colleges, universities, schools etc. Students, guardians and teachers are frustrated by such frequent strikes. They feel that the future of the students is at stake. The nation's future is under siege.

The frequent strikes and bandhs have derailed the education sector. No can deny that the student movement has played a significant role in politics from the beginning. In 1980, the then king had to declare referendum on the system due to the pressure from the student movement. Likewise the 1990's restoration of democracy also preceded active student participation in the political movement. Democracy has been pushed off track. Students are naturally, a vital section of the Nepalese society that gets agitated when the country's democracy is at stake. Colleges and schools are naturally the venues to hold political debates and organise their political ideas. Despite these facts, the political parties and their student allies must not forget that education is the foundation of both nation and democracy. We can find so many examples of continuance and maintenance of academic environment even in the countries driven by sharp political instabilities.

Keeping in mind these concerns they must rethink their strategies of agitation and expressing the voice of discontent. They should not hesitate to declare academic institutions as zones of peace and parties should give necessary emphasis to keep the education sector out of politics. The right of students to education is being violated by the so-called bandhs. The constitution of the kingdom of Nepal clearly guarantees individuals the right to education and right to engage in the occupation of their choice. The political agenda is dominating the education sector. The government has neither succeeded in providing an adequately secure environment nor addressed the issues of loyalty raised by the students.

Before it gets worse all the related sections of the society and the nation as a whole must immediately take some crucial steps to secure the bright future of the younger generation and the country itself.

"Opponents have several objections, but one is primary: The outcomes are nebulous, hard to measure, and ... concern attitudes, values, beliefs and emotions rather than academic achievement," said Bruno Manno, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, in a recent scholarly look at the OBE controversy. Alarmed parents argue that OBE reeks of social engineering and behavior modification and are forming grassroots networks to resist educators who are pushing OBE as the cure-all for underachievement. Tarring all education reform with a broad brush, the harshest critics have slapped the OBE label on numerous progressive education theories and practices percolating in the schools, making OBE the whipping boy for all of the changes they believe are leading to further "dumbing down" of education. Classroom practices they see as manifestations of OBE include cooperative learning; deemphasis of competition; heterogeneous grouping of children of vastly different abilities; multiculturalism and self-esteem courses; scorning of rote memorization of multiplication tables, spelling words and historical dates; and the abandonment of traditional testing and grades in favor of checklists of goals attained and protfolios of work. Critics also equate OBE with "mastery learning" in which teachers teach until every child has learned the concept and passed a test on it. Children may retake tests until they pass. Phyllis Schlafly, president of the conservative watchdog group Eagle Forum and an OBE foe, recently derided the following "antiacademic" pupil outcomes sought in Kentucky's OBE plan: * Establish goals for improving and maintaining self-esteem. Plan, implement and record accomplishments. * Identify and analyze stressful situations in your life. * Interview a graduate from a substance-abuse program; create a case study of his or her drug history. * Examine the mental and emotional wellness of past or present world leaders. OBE's kindest critics think it's a good idea that has been hijacked. "The idea of OBE is perfectly sound," says American Federation of Teachers President Albert Shanker. "What else would you want except to measure the outcomes? Get away from the idea of how much money we spend on kids, what the class size is, how many hours a kid spends in class, how many courses he's taken. That doesn't tell you what he's learned. What we want are the outcomes." But Shanker acknowledges the theory can be abused. "Unfortunately, some folks got hold of the outcomes and decided that they didn't care very much about academic outcomes. What they wanted to know were touchy-feely outcomes. What were the attitudes of these kids toward other kids or toward certain social issues?" Despite the criticism, Shanker believes that if parents understood the idea of OBe, they would support it. "I think the majority of American parents and citizens would go along with the idea [that] we want to see what the outcomes are, but what they want would be the academic outcomes." But Cheri Pierson Yecke, who was named 1988 Teacher of the Year in Stafford County, Va., links the continuing decline in test scores to "reforms" such as OBE. "Academic performance has fallen in many of the reform districts, in part because precious time is being diverted away from academics in order to socialize students," she says. "In 1983, 'A Nation at Risk' concluded that not enough time was being spent on academic courses. Were educators listening? Apparently not." Yecke spent nine years teaching and is now a doctoral candidate in educational psychology at the University of Virginia and a member of the Governor's Commission on Champion Schools.

stuednts Keys

"Opponents have several objections, but one is primary: The outcomes are nebulous, hard to measure, and ... concern attitudes, values, beliefs and emotions rather than academic achievement," said Bruno Manno, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, in a recent scholarly look at the OBE controversy. Alarmed parents argue that OBE reeks of social engineering and behavior modification and are forming grassroots networks to resist educators who are pushing OBE as the cure-all for underachievement.
Tarring all education reform with a broad brush, the harshest critics have slapped the OBE label on numerous progressive education theories and practices percolating in the schools, making OBE the whipping boy for all of the changes they believe are leading to further "dumbing down" of education. Classroom practices they see as manifestations of OBE include cooperative learning; deemphasis of competition; heterogeneous grouping of children of vastly different abilities; multiculturalism and self-esteem courses; scorning of rote memorization of multiplication tables, spelling words and historical dates; and the abandonment of traditional testing and grades in favor of checklists of goals attained and protfolios of work. Critics also equate OBE with "mastery learning" in which teachers teach until every child has learned the concept and passed a test on it. Children may retake tests until they pass.
Phyllis Schlafly, president of the conservative watchdog group Eagle Forum and an OBE foe, recently derided the following "antiacademic" pupil outcomes sought in Kentucky's OBE plan:
* Establish goals for improving and maintaining self-esteem. Plan, implement and record accomplishments.
* Identify and analyze stressful situations in your life.
* Interview a graduate from a substance-abuse program; create a case study of his or her drug history.
* Examine the mental and emotional wellness of past or present world leaders.
OBE's kindest critics think it's a good idea that has been hijacked. "The idea of OBE is perfectly sound," says American Federation of Teachers President Albert Shanker. "What else would you want except to measure the outcomes? Get away from the idea of how much money we spend on kids, what the class size is, how many hours a kid spends in class, how many courses he's taken. That doesn't tell you what he's learned. What we want are the outcomes." But Shanker acknowledges the theory can be abused. "Unfortunately, some folks got hold of the outcomes and decided that they didn't care very much about academic outcomes. What they wanted to know were touchy-feely outcomes. What were the attitudes of these kids toward other kids or toward certain social issues?" Despite the criticism, Shanker believes that if parents understood the idea of OBe, they would support it. "I think the majority of American parents and citizens would go along with the idea [that] we want to see what the outcomes are, but what they want would be the academic outcomes."
But Cheri Pierson Yecke, who was named 1988 Teacher of the Year in Stafford County, Va., links the continuing decline in test scores to "reforms" such as OBE. "Academic performance has fallen in many of the reform districts, in part because precious time is being diverted away from academics in order to socialize students," she says. "In 1983, 'A Nation at Risk' concluded that not enough time was being spent on academic courses. Were educators listening? Apparently not." Yecke spent nine years teaching and is now a doctoral candidate in educational psychology at the University of Virginia and a member of the Governor's Commission on Champion Schools.

Apple developing new Mac for education

The new low-cost PC, which will act as a replacement for Apple's now defunct eMac line, appears to be on track to catch the latter half of the 2006 educational buying season.

Based on a series of proprietary checks, it's believed that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is aligning component suppliers for a manufacturing ramp of the computers that it plans to initiate around the September timeframe.

Technically, this means that Apple's much anticipated professional line of Intel-based Power MacMac Pro" moniker -- won't be the last of the company's PC offerings to make the transition from PowerPC to Intel chips.

In keeping true to its roots of designing educational Macs as plug-and-play solutions, people familiar with Apple's product roadmap say the company is building the new Mac around an all-in-one enclosure. Though unlike the eMac, which employed cumbersome CRT-based displays, the new educational computer will follow a design pattern similar to the company's LCD-based iMac Core Duo desktops, these people say.

The departure away from CRT displays and towards pricier flat-screens means that Apple will have to carefully balance its component costs and shave as much as possible off the computer's bill-of-materials if it plans to hit a home run with educational institutions.

Although the Mac maker said its U.S. educational channel sales increased by approximately 16 percent during the first quarter of 2006 compared to the first quarter of 2005, the company has come under tremendous competitive pressure in the sector over the last several years.

"Uncertainty in this channel remains as several competitors of the company have either targeted or announced their intention to target the education market for personal computers, which could negatively affect the company’s market share," Apple has repeatedly stated in regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "Although the company believes it has taken certain steps to strengthen its position in the education market, there can be no assurance that the company will be able to increase or maintain its share of the education market or execute profitably on large strategic arrangements."

But just as Apple's is expected to incur increased costs associated with transitioning its educational Mac to more modern technologies, the computer's new industrial design is expected to eliminate some of the financial complexities of the eMac. One of the pitfalls Apple discovered while building the unwieldy CRT-based Mac was that its bulbous enclosure quickly became one of -- if not the most -- expensive part of the computer to manufacturer.

In using its new iMac design as a blueprint for the eMac replacement, Apple will also save on freight and packaging costs that will result from the computer's substantially smaller footprint and lighter weight . It's also believed that the Mac will borrow industry standard components already employed by Apple's Mac mini and MacBook line of consumer PCs, enabling further cost reductions.

In April of 2004, the last time Apple introduced a major revision to the eMac, it priced models at $799 and $999. While pricing for the new educational Mac has yet to be determined, it should fall well below the company's low-end consumer iMac offering, which fetches $1299.

It's still unclear whether the computer will be made readily available for purchase by the average consumer.

When Apple introduced the eMac as a low-cost alternative to the flat-screen "sunflower" iMac in April 2002, it initially restricted sales to educational buyers. However, demand for the computers amongst consumers proved to be so strong that a month later the company made the educational Mac available to the general public.

On October 12, 2005, shortly before the computer met its ultimate demise, Apple once again restricted sales to educational institutions and returned to its "E is for Education" marketing scheme that had been attached to the product from its inception.

After exhausting much of its remaining eMac inventory to educational buyers later that year, Apple began offering its higher-margin all-in-one iMac as a replacement for the eMac. The company plans to continue to offer the iMac to its educational customers until the new Intel-based eMac successor makes its debut in the fall. computers -- expected to make their debut this summer under the "

50 games, 50 years of school

To celebrate the state's 50th anniversary of football playoffs, azcentral.com is republishing all of The Arizona Republic's original state championship stories at highschools.azcentral.com.

It's a look at yesteryear's great moments and heroes. Some of the old stories are not much longer than a brief from a roundup, and the change in writing style over five decades can be equally interesting. But they're all there.

You can also vote for the most exciting championship game ever and take a look at our slideshow.

To whet your appetite, here's our 50 Games for 50 Years: A look at the some of the most thrilling championships.

You can cast your vote for the most exciting in each conference.

Take a look, and we think you'll agree with us: They're a lot more exciting than your typical .

1959-69

1959 5A: Richard Bryant's interception at Phoenix South Mountain's 1-yard line with 37 seconds remaining preserved a 7-7 tie with Yuma in the first official big school state championship game.

1961 5A: Gus Moreno, whose missed an extra point earlier, kicked an 11-yard field goal with 1:30 to play, capping a 10-point Tucson Pueblo rally and giving it a 16-14 win over Phoenix St. Mary's.

1962 1A: A 20-yard pass from Joe Ready to Bruce Hodges late in the third quarter made Camp Verde the first champion from Yavapai County as it beat Patagonia 32-31.

1964 2A: Marana held Willcox on downs on its own 3-yard line in the fourth quarter before scoring the game-winning on halfback Frank Ard's 48-yard run in the game's closing minutes for a 14-7 win.

1964 3A: Bill Bolling recovered a Flowing Wells fourth-quarter fumble in the end zone for a touchback, then Winslow marched 80 yards, producing the game's only points on a quarterback Tine Lopez's 1-yard touchdown run with 1:20 to play in a 7-0 win.

1966 3A: A fumble set up a short game-winning drive, capped off when quarterback J.T. Burchett sneaked in from 1 yard out with seven minutes, as Eloy Santa Cruz beat Avondale Agua Fria 16-13.

1966 5A: Keith Ritchie's diving 34-yard touchdown catch from Art Monje with 41 seconds remaining gave Tucson High a 14-7 win over Mesa Westwood.

1968 3A: Jimmy Calvin blocked a punt, chased it 30 yards into the end zone and fell on it for the winning touchdown with 2:55 remaining in the game as Coolidge beat Peoria 27-20. Peoria drove to the Coolidge 4 in response, but was pushed back by penalties and ran out of time.

1968 4A: Rick Brensleck, a 5-8, 190-pound defensive tackle, produced the game's only score on an 84-yard fumble return with 43 seconds to play as Flagstaff Coconino beat Tucson Flowing Wells 6-0.

The 1970s

1970 3A: Ray Darden plunged 3 yards for the game-winning TD with only nine seconds showing on the clock, as Parker rallied from a 13-0 deficit in the game's final 1:52 to beat Snowflake 16-13.

1971 2A: Gilbert's Ray Pace returned an interception 23 yards for a touchdown with 4:55 left in the ball game, but Gilbert failed to convert two chances at the two-point conversion to win as Round Valley held on for a 13-12 win.

1971 5A: A crazy finish. Tucson quarterback Frank Castro's two touchdown passes in the final 4:07 sandwiched Fred Mortensen's 50-yard touchdown pass to Rick Molina for Tempe as Tucson beat Tempe 20-14.

1972 3A: Santa Cruz's C.T. Strange returned an interception 62 yards for a touchdown with 1:41 to play, but Miami answered with Dan Rodriguez's 57-yard touchdown pass to George Padilla and Gilbert Beltran's two-point conversion run with 59 seconds left as Miami topped Santa Cruz 22-21.

1973 5A: Tucson Palo Verde's 80-yard scoring drive in the game's final six minutes put coach Van Howe out as a winner in a 22-20 victory vs. Phoenix Camelback.

1974 5A: Roger Overton's 2-yard run and two-point conversion run gave Phoenix Camelback a lead, which the defense preserved with a two-point conversion stop and a late fumble recovery as Camelback beat Phoenix St. Mary's 22-20.

1975 5A: Randy Barkley scored on a 2-yard run with 17 seconds left and Herman Gutierrez kicked the decisive extra point as Tucson Amphitheater beat Phoenix Maryvale 23-22.

1977 4A: Tucson Canyon del Oro quarterback Jeff Carreon scored a touchdown with less than three minutes remaining, then booted a 46-yard field goal with 32 seconds to play to give CDO a 9-7 victory over Gilbert.

1977 5A: Todd Greer's 2-yard scoring run capped a 13-play, 72-yard drive early in the fourth quarter as Tempe McClintock rallied to beat Phoenix Washington 14-9 in a game that featured two future quarterback stars, McClintock's Rick Neuheisel and Washington's Mike Pagel.

1978 3A: Mike Cade rushed 20 times for 299 yards and five touchdowns, including the game-winner with 1:53 to play, returned a kickoff 70 yards for another score and caught a two-point conversion pass as Eloy Santa Cruz beat Willcox 40-36.

1979 1A: Quarterback Spencer Brown scored on a 2-yard with 31 seconds to play as St. David beat Salome 28-22.

1980s

1981 1A: With star running back Eddie Mavis sidelined after taking an elbow to the throat moments before his replacement, Marco Valenzuela, scored the winning touchdown from 3 yards out with 17 seconds left, lifting Maricopa past Suffolk Hills 20-14.

1982 2A: Decided underdog Willcox stopped Blue Ridge inside the 1-yard line in the game's final minute, then, after a safety, withstood a 51-yard field goal attempt as time expired to win 13-11.

1982 4A: Vinny Zanzucchi's 13-yard scoring pass to Daniel Casados with 41 seconds to play lifted Flagstaff past Tucson Flowing Wells 10-7.

1985 5A: Reggie McGill's 47-yard touchdown run with 4:40 to play lifted Phoenix St. Mary's to an 11-7 win against upset-minded Glendale Apollo.

1986 2A: Brad Hyatt's 13-yard blocked punt return before halftime proved to the game's biggest play as Thatcher beat Willcox 13-10.

1986 4A: William Babb's 1-yard sneak with 49 seconds remaining completed a nine-play, 68-yard drive as unranked Peoria rallied to beat Avondale Agua Fria 29-23.

1988 4A: Keith Huckaby's 1-yard run with 6:18 to play proved to be the winning score, and Toby Cluff's interception ended Peoria's final possession as Avondale Agua Fria beat Peoria 13-7.

The 1990s

1990 4A: Tucson Sabino drove 79 yards on six plays, culminated by a 15-yard touchdown pass from Tom Brown to best friend Kip Canatsey with 3:57 left as Sabino beat Peoria 31-28.

1991 1A: Two 10-0 teams meet, no one wins. Second-ranked Fredonia missed a two-point conversion attempt with 3:22 left and top-ranked Patagonia held on for a 36-36 tie.

1992 5A: Though otherwise marred by a postgame fight, Mesa held off a late rally and beat Mesa Mountain View 14-8 to win one for ailing coach Jim Rattay.

1994 1A: Mayer and Heber Mogollon's defenses came up with stops in the final minutes, played in a driving rain, and the teams ended up in a 20-20 tie.

1994 4A: Quarterback Aaron Dumsch led Tucson Sahuaro on a 12-play, 77-yard drive, scoring on a 6-yard draw with 1:27 to play, then running around left for the two-point conversion, as Sahuaro tied Peoria 17-17 in Howard Breinig's final game as Sahuaro coach.

1994 5A: Jeff Voigt managed to shovel a 7-yard scoring pass to Brooks Tyree through a swarm of defenders on fourth down with 24 seconds to play, capping an 18-play, 80-yard drive that gave Phoenix Horizon a 16-14 win against Phoenix St. Mary's.

1995 1A: Billy Johnson rushed 34 times for 180 yards, and Jake Bundy added 127 yards on 13 carries, as Fredonia held off a big Mogollon rally for a 38-32 win.

1996 3A: Stephen Waldo's 16-yard field goal with 17 seconds to play lifted Lakeside Blue Ridge to a 22-20 win over Queen Creek Arizona Boys Ranch.

1996 4A: Todd Mortensen's 7-yard scoring pass to Justin Taplin lifted Tempe to a 20-17 overtime victory against Glendale Ironwood, Tempe's only outright state championship.

1997 5A: Mesa Mountain View's defense stopped Antrel Bates on a fourth-and-one play at the Amphitheater 40, then the offense capitalized with a scoring drive that ended on Brad Malone's 18-yard scoring run with 2:39 to play as Mountain View beat Tucson Amphitheater 28-24.

1999 3A: Show Low nose guard J.R. Pearce stopped backup quarterback Alex Moro's run on a 2-point conversion attempt with 1:59 to play, sealing a 26-25 win for Show Low against Lakeside Blue Ridge.

2000-Present

2000 2A: Michael Romney broke a tackle to score from 1 yard out with 3:19 to play, then outran two defenders and beat everyone to the corner for a go-ahead 2-point conversion, and finally intercepted a pass with 38 seconds to play to seal a 14-13 Thatcher victory over St. Johns.

2001 5A: Down 10-0 late in the third quarter, Mesa Red Mountain rallied on Mike Chacon's 57-yard punt return and Steve Smith's 4-yard run with 1:41 to play, clinching a 13-10 win against Chandler Hamilton on Billy Fulcher's interception.

2002 4A: Controversy reigned as Steve Hoffman's apparent 18-yard fourth-down catch to the 1-yard line with 1:54 to play was ruled juggled out of bounds, and Scottsdale Chaparral held on to beat Phoenix Greenway 21-14.

2003 5A: Tramell McGill's 5-yard run gave Chandler Hamilton a lead in the third overtime, then Hamilton's defense stopped Marc LeBaron on fourth down from the 1-yard line to end the game as Hamilton beat Mesa Mountain View 35-28.

2004 3A: Bryce Talbot kicked a 29-yard fourth-quarter field goal to cap Lakeside Blue Ridge's rally from a 24-6 halftime deficit and give it a 25-24 win against Coolidge.

2004 4A: Down 34-6 at the half, Phoenix Moon Valley scored 39 unanswered points and stunned Glendale Cactus 45-34 in the biggest turnaround in big-school state championship history.

2005 1A: After blowing a 20-6 lead and falling behind 28-26, Pima bounced back to beat Mayer 40-34.

2005 5A-I: The Drive. Heavy underdog Phoenix Brophy drove 99 yards on 17 plays against Chandler Hamilton's highly touted defense, scoring on an 8-yard pass from sophomore Bryan Berens to Matt Smith with 34 seconds to play, as Brophy upset Hamilton 15-14.

2006 3A: Coolidge converted a fourth-and-19 on Andrew Ashford's 29-yard reception from Jesse Wheeler, then T.J. White scored the game-winning 4-yard touchdown the next play as Coolidge beat Wickenburg 28-21.

2007 2A: Shad Bride scored the game-winning two-point conversion in overtime as St. Johns beat Phoenix Arizona Lutheran 21-20.

2007 4A-I: Steven Chiappetti capped a 67-yard drive by kicking a 30-yard field goal with two seconds left as Scottsdale Saguaro beat Tucson Canyon del Oro 23-21.

2008 3A: Josh Frewin's extra point in the second overtime proved to be the difference as Payson rallied from a 20-0 deficit to beat Lakeside Blue Ridge 34-33.

collage news services

KATHMANDU: Padma Kanya College students today burnt the effigies of Home Minister Bhim Rawal and IGP Ramesh Chand Thakuri in protest against what they described as ‘indecent act’ meted out to them by DSP Prakash Karki of Maharajgung Ward Police Office during yesterday’s protest rally.

Accusing the DSP of ‘pulling their college dresses’, and using ‘abusive languages’, college girls halted the traffic for about two hours in the road adjacent to PK Campus.

Following the incident, police briefly detained a dozen students from the Campus. In the scuffle that ensued between the police and the students, Laxmi Dahal, Kaushila Bhatta and Chanda Sharma sustained injuries.

A dozen others, demanding justice for Suntali Dhami - a policewoman raped by her co-workers in Achham -were detained and released later. Dhami is in ‘preventive detention’ in the hospital and the protesting college girls were not permitted to see her.

PK students are scheduled to organise torch rally midday tomorrow, in protest against ‘police highhandedness in their peaceful rally.’

“Midday torch rally also symbolises the fact that the government is still keeping women in darkness and had curtailed their freedom,” said Lal Kumari Pokharel, president of Free Student Union, PK Campus unit.

She also regretted that none of the organisations working under women rights issues joined hands with them in their programme.

“Even the student unions showed hardly any interest in our programme,” she remarked, adding, “Whatever may be the case, we will not quit our agitation until justice is done to Dhami.”