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In-Depth: Michael Petrilli's 5-Part Argument About School Choice, Tests &...
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In-Depth: Michael Petrilli's 5-Part Argument About School Choice, Tests & Long-Term Outcomes
By Michael J. Petrilli
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This series of essays originally appeared at EdExcellence.net
Part I: How to think about short-term test score changes and long-term student outcomes:
Last month, the American Enterprise Institute published a paper by Colin Hitt, Michael Q. McShane, and Patrick J. Wolf that reviewed every rigorous school-choice study with data on both student achievement and student attainment — high school graduation, college enrollment, and/or college graduation. They contend that the evidence points to a mismatch, specifically that "a school choice program's impact on test scores is a weak predictor of its impacts on longer-term outcomes."
Below is a series of essays I wrote on the paper, which I believe is fundamentally flawed. I have several concerns, including:
1. The authors included programs in the review that are only tangentially related to school choice and that drove the alleged mismatch, namely early-college high schools, selective-admission exam schools, and career and technical education initiatives.
2. Their coding system — which they admit is "rigid" — sets an unfairly high standard because it requires both the direction and statistical significance of the short- and long-term findings to line up.
3. In their conclusions, they extrapolated from their findings on school choice programs and inappropriately applied them to schools.
First, let's consider the value of looking at long-term outcomes and what they can and cannot tell us about schools and programs.
Let's start with where the AEI authors got it right. We all hope that our preferred education reforms, at least the most ambitious ones, will "change the trajectories of children's lives." That's particularly true for children growing up in poverty, who typically face depressing odds of success if they attend mediocre schools. They may drop out before finishing high school, or they might graduate but with minimal skills. Either way, they're unlikely to complete postsecondary education or training or master the "success sequence," and are thus likely to work low-wage jobs and not enjoy the fruits of upward mobility. Many will struggle to form an intact family, and their children will grow up poor and then repeat the cycle. It's a bleak picture.
It's different for affluent children, of course. Great schools may change their trajectories, too, but it will be subtler because they will probably do reasonably well regardless due to the advantages they usually receive at home. Most will graduate high school and go to college no matter what. But with a great education, they have a good chance of learning more, which will help them get into and through a better college and eventually do more and better in the labor market.
For all children, we hope that fantastic schools will benefit them in other long-term ways that are important but harder to measure: encouraging them to become active, informed citizens; identifying strengths and interests that they might put to good use in a career; and helping them become people of good character.
So, yes, long-term outcomes are extremely important, especially for children for whom positive outcomes are far from assured.
Will all effective programs show long-term effects?
As the AEI authors write, it would be deeply disappointing if major reforms of schools and schooling moved the needle on test scores but didn't have a lasting impact on kids' lives. In effect, we'd be fooling ourselves into thinking that we're making a big and enduring difference when in reality we might be wasting our time or money that could better be spent on other strategies.
Of course, it would be unfair to apply such a high standard to small, incremental changes, like adopting a better textbook or extending the school day. Nobody would expect tiny tweaks to have profound impacts, such as transforming a future high school dropout into a college graduate. But if they help lots of students become marginally more literate or numerate, they are still worth doing.
For major, expensive, disruptive reforms, however, stronger long-term outcomes are not too much to ask. And of course the most effective reformers are already aware of this. Consider KIPP, which has been obsessed from day one not just about student achievement but also at getting its KIPPsters to and through college, consistently tracking its numbers and refining its model. Which has properly led the organization to look at much more than just short-term test scores as indicators of whether their students are on track. Much of today's interest in non-cognitive skills grew out of this work.
If a program showed large and significant impacts on achievement, especially for low-income kids, but poor results on long-term outcomes, it would certainly raise alarms. It might indicate that the program was overly focused on reading and math, or was teaching to the test, or was crowding out other strategies or activities that would actually help kids succeed in the long run. Unless, of course, there were issues associated with the long-term measures themselves.
The problem with high school graduation rates
It almost goes without saying, but at a time when high school graduation rates are skyrocketing, in part thanks to "credit recovery" initiatives and other dubious practices, we must view this measure with a healthy dose of skepticism. Now that most states allow students to graduate without passing an exit exam, or even a set of end-of-course exams, we cannot pretend that the standards for graduation are consistent from school to school. As a result, we must be careful with how we interpret positive or negative impacts on high school graduation rates, especially when evaluating high schools themselves. Boosting graduation rates might mean that schools are better preparing students to succeed — or it could mean that they have lowered their standards.
It would also be inappropriate to assume that a high school that boosts student achievement and better prepares its graduates to succeed in college would also raise its own graduation rates. In fact, we know from a 2003 study by Julian Betts and Jeff Grogger that there is a trade-off between higher standards (for what it takes to get a good grade) and graduation rates, at least for children of color. Higher standards boost the achievement of the kids who rise to the challenge, and helps those students longer-term, but it also encourages some of the other students to drop out. If a high school could manage to both boost achievement and keep its graduation rate steady, that would be an enormous accomplishment. Yet by the logic of the AEI review, such a school would show a mismatch between short-term achievement impacts and "long term" attainment ones. Such logic is faulty.
Programs that don't test well
On the other end of the scale are programs that appear to be failures when judged by short-term test-score gains, but that produce impressive long-term results for their participants. It's this category that most concerns Hitt, McShane, and Wolf, especially in the context of school choice. "In 2010," they write, "a federally funded evaluation of a school voucher program in Washington, DC, found that the program produced large increases in high school graduation rates after years of producing no large or consistent impacts on reading and math scores." Later they conclude that "focusing on test scores may lead authorities to favor the wrong school choice programs."
It's a legitimate concern, and one I share (setting aside my misgivings about high school graduation rates expressed above). I played a tiny role in helping launch the D.C. voucher program when I served at the U.S. Department of Education, and I support the expansion of private school choice programs for low-income students. I can imagine why the private schools in the D.C. program might struggle to improve test scores, especially when compared to highly effective (and highly accountable) D.C. charter schools and an improving public school system. But I can also imagine that the experience of attending a private school in the nation's capital could bring benefits that might not show up until years later: exposure to a new peer group that holds higher expectations in terms of college-going and the like; access to a network of families that opens up opportunities; a religious education that provides meaning, perhaps a stronger grounding in both purpose and character, and that leads to personal growth.
It would be a shame — no, a tragedy — for Congress to kill this program, especially if it ends up showing positive impacts on college-going, graduation, and earnings. The same might be said about large voucher programs in Ohio, Indiana, and Louisiana, all of which have shown disappointing early findings in terms of student achievement but might be setting children on paths to future success. Policymakers should be exceedingly careful not to end such programs prematurely.
There are therefore several things to think about as we further explore the AEI study: long-term outcomes do indeed matter a lot, especially for poor kids; if large test-score gains don't eventually translate into improved long-term outcomes, it is a legitimate cause for concern; and we must stay open to the possibility that some programs could help kids immensely over the long haul, even if they don't immediately improve student achievement. At the same time, we should be skeptical about using high school graduation rates as valid and consistent measures of attainment.
So is there really a mismatch between short-term scores and long-term outcomes, especially for school choice programs? And do existing studies really raise red flags about using test scores to make decisions about individual schools?
Part II: When looking only at school choice programs, both short-term test scores and long-term outcomes are overwhelmingly positive
The AEI paper focuses on a specific question: Is there is a disconnect for school choice programs when it comes to their impact on student test scores versus their impact on student attainment outcomes, namely high school graduation, college entrance, and college graduation rates?
It claims to find such a disconnect. As the authors put it, "A school choice program's impact on test scores is a weak predictor of its impacts on longer-term outcomes." But read the fine print because this conclusion follows from two big decisions the authors made, both of which are highly debatable. Had they gone the other way, the results would show an overwhelmingly positive relationship between short-term test score changes and long-term outcomes.
What were those decisions?
I am also concerned that the authors extrapolated from their findings about programs and inappropriately applied them to schools.
In this post, I tackle the first concern: whether Hitt, McShane, and Wolf included studies they should not have. How might their results look had they chosen differently?
What counts as a school choice program?
The AEI authors were extremely inclusive when deciding which studies to review. In their words:
We use as broad a definition as possible for school choice. We do so for two reasons. First, we wanted to gather the largest number of studies possible to examine the relationship between achievement and attainment impacts across studies. Second, school choice is bigger than voucher programs and charter schools. Many large districts have embraced a portfolio model of school choice governance, which intentionally offers a wide array of public (and sometimes private) school choices to parents. The diversity of the studies we collected mirrors the diversity of choice options that portfolio school districts attempt to offer.
That's fair up to a point; surely looking beyond just vouchers and charter schools makes sense in a world with many kinds of choice. But I would add two commonsense criteria for deciding what should be in and what should be out. First, is school choice central to the program, or is it incidental? And second, is it a program for which a reasonable person would expect to see both achievement gains and positive long-term outcomes if the program is successful? Let's apply these criteria to the types of programs the authors reviewed.
There's no doubt that private school choice, open enrollment, charter schools, STEM schools, and small schools of choice count as "school choice" programs, ones that legitimately could be expected to boost both short-term test scores and long-term outcomes for their participants if effective.
But the other categories fail our test. Early-college high schools are nominally schools of choice. No one is forced to attend them, but choice is incidental to the model. The heart of the approach is getting students on college campuses, taking college courses, and pointing them toward a possible associate degree along with their high school diploma.
Likewise with selective enrollment high schools, such as Stuyvesant High School in New York City. Sure, students "choose" to go to Stuyvesant in the same way that they "choose" to go to Harvard. But if ever there was an example in which schools choose the students rather than the other way around, this is it. And given these schools' highly unusual, super-high-achieving student populations, we wouldn't be surprised if was hard to detect either achievement or attainment effects. Everyone who goes to these schools or almost gets in (the students used as controls in the relevant studies) are super high-achieving and likely to graduate from college, not to mention high school, regardless.
Or consider Career Academies and other forms of career and technical education. Students enroll voluntarily in these programs, but what's much more important is their unique missions and designs. We wouldn't necessarily expect CTE students to show as much academic progress as their peers in traditional high schools because they are spending less of their time on academics! But high-quality CTE could still boost high school graduation, postsecondary enrollment, and postsecondary completion.
So let's see how the results look for the bona fide school choice programs versus the others. (See here for a table listing all studies, how they were coded by the AEI authors, and which ones I counted as "school choice.")
Several findings emerge from these tables. First, the school choice programs show overwhelmingly positive impacts on both achievement and attainment; it's more of a mixed bag for the non–school choice programs, which tend to do worse on achievement but well on attainment. And that leads to the second key point: the mismatch between short-term test scores and long-term outcomes — to the extent that it happens — is driven largely by the non–school choice programs. For bona fide school choice, there's a very good match: 38 percent of the studies show a statistically significantly positive impact in ELA, 43 percent in math, 45 percent for high school graduation, 50 percent for college enrollment, and 50 percent for college graduation. If we look at all positive findings regardless of whether they are statistically significant, the numbers for school choice programs are 76 percent (ELA), 76 percent (math), 77 percent (high school graduation), 88 percent (college enrollment), and 100 percent (college graduation). Everything points in the same direction, and the outcomes for achievement and high school graduation — the outcomes that most of the studies examine — are almost identical.
So is it true, as Hitt, McShane, and Wolf claim, that "a school choice program's impact on test scores is a weak predictor of its impacts on longer-term outcomes"? It sure doesn't appear so. But perhaps these aggregate numbers are hiding a lot of mismatch at the level of individual programs.
Part III: For the vast majority of school choice studies, short- and long-term impacts point in the same direction
Above, I argue that Hitt, McShane, and Wolf erred in including programs in their review of "school choice" studies that were only incidentally related to school choice or that have idiosyncratic designs that would lead one to expect a mismatch between test score gains and long-term impacts (early college high schools, selective enrollment high schools, and career and technical education initiatives). If you take those studies out of the sample, the findings for true school choice programs are overwhelmingly positive for both short- and long-term outcomes.
Below I'll take up another problem with their study: They set an unreasonably high bar for a study to show a match between test score changes and attainment. Let me quote the authors themselves, in a forthcoming academic version of their AEI article:
Our coding scheme may seem rigid. One can criticize the exactitude that we are imposing on the data, as achievement and attainment results must match regarding both direction and statistical significance. We believe this exactitude is justified by the fact that the conclusions that many policymakers and commentators draw about whether school choice "works" depends on the direction and significance of the effect parameter. As social scientists, we would prefer that practitioners rigidly adhere to the convention of treating all non-significant findings as null or essentially 0, regardless of whether they are positive or negative in their direction, but we also eschew utopianism. Outside of the ivory tower, people treat a negative school choice effect as a bad result and a positive effect as a good result, regardless of whether it reaches scientific standards of statistical significance. Since one of our goals is to evaluate the prudence of those judgments, we adopt the same posture for our main analysis.
And later:
Our resulting four-category classifications might be biasing our findings against the true power of test score results to predict attainment results, as it is mathematically more difficult perfectly to match one of four outcome categories than it is to match one of three. Moreover, the disconnect between test score impacts and attainment impacts might be driven by a bunch of noisy non-significant findings not aligning which each other, which is exactly what we might expect noisy non-significant findings to do.
It is indeed a rigid approach the authors used in the AEI paper, and in the forthcoming academic version they appropriately test to see whether their findings might change if they treat non-statistically-significant findings as null, regardless of whether those findings point in a positive or negative direction. Their results were largely the same.
But there's another reasonable way to look for matches, and that's seeing whether a given study's findings point in the same direction for both achievement and attainment, regardless of statistical significance. In other words, treat findings as positive regardless of whether they are statistically significant, and treat findings as negative regardless of whether they are statistically significant.
That's what I do in the tables below, based on Hitt's, McShane's, and Wolf's coding of the 22 studies of bona fide school choice programs. The shaded cells show the number of studies with findings that match — either both pointing in a negative or both pointing in a positive direction.
Analyzed this way, we see that the impacts on ELA achievement and high school graduation point in the same direction in 16 out of 22 studies, or 73 percent of the time. For math, it's 13 out of 20 studies, or 65 percent. For college enrollment, the results point in the same direction 100 percent of the time.
Now, perhaps we should be worried about the six estimates in ELA and seven in math where achievement and high school graduation outcomes pointed in opposite direction. So let's dig into those.
First, studies found that three school choice programs improved ELA and/or math achievement but not high school graduation:
1. Boston charter schools
2. SEED charter school
3. Texas I-STEM School
Keep in mind that for both SEED and the Texas I-STEM School, the results for achievement and high school graduation were both insignificant. So these might actually be matches. Still, for Boston charter schools, there is a clear mismatch, with significantly positive results for ELA and math and significantly negative results for high school graduation. So is this cause for concern? Hardly. As I wrote on Monday,
We know from a 2003 study by Julian Betts and Jeff Grogger that there is a trade-off between higher standards (for what it takes to get a good grade) and graduation rates, at least for children of color. Higher standards boost the achievement of the kids who rise to the challenge, and help those students longer-term, but it also encourages some of the other students to drop out.
There's good reason to believe, based on everything we know about Boston charter schools and their concentration of "no excuses" models, that they are holding their students to very high standards. This is raising achievement for the kids who stay but may be encouraging some of their peers to drop out. This trade-off is a legitimate subject for discussion — is it worth it? — but it's not logical to conclude that the test score gains are meaningless. Especially since Boston charters do show a positive (though statistically insignificant) impact on college enrollment.
How about the four programs that "don't test well" — initiatives that don't improve achievement but do boost high school graduation rates? They are:
1. Milwaukee Parental Choice
2. Charlotte Open Enrollment
3. Non-No Excuses Texas Charter Schools
4. Chicago's Small Schools of Choice
(Only the Texas charter schools had statistically significant impacts for both achievement (ELA and math) and high school graduation. Milwaukee's voucher program had a significantly negative impact on ELA; the findings for math and high school graduation rates were statistically insignificant. In Charlotte and Chicago, all of the findings were statistically insignificant.)
The other day, I wrote:
It's this category that most concerns Hitt, McShane, and Wolf, especially in the context of school choice. "In 2010," they write, "a federally funded evaluation of a school voucher program in Washington, DC, found that the program produced large increases in high school graduation rates after years of producing no large or consistent impacts on reading and math scores." Later they conclude that "focusing on test scores may lead authorities to favor the wrong school choice programs."
It's a legitimate concern, and one I share … the experience of attending a private school in the nation's capital could bring benefits that might not show up until years later: exposure to a new peer group that holds higher expectations in terms of college-going and the like; access to a network of families that opens up opportunities; a religious education that provides meaning, perhaps a stronger grounding in both purpose and character, and that leads to personal growth.
It would be a shame — no, a tragedy — for Congress to kill this program, especially if it ends up showing positive impacts on college-going, graduation, and earnings.
So I agree that these mixed findings are a red flag and should give policymakers pause before moving to kill off such programs. I'm encouraged that there are only four such studies in the literature among the 22 examined here, just one of which had statistically significant findings for both achievement and high school graduation. But still, such initiatives may well be changing students' lives, although we wouldn't know that by looking at test scores alone.
Does that mean that we shouldn't use test scores to hold individual schools accountable? Including closing weak charter schools or cutting off public funding to private schools of choice if they diminish achievement?
Part IV: Findings about school choice programs shouldn't be applied to individual schools
Above, I've shown that the overwhelming majority of studies looking at bona fide school choice programs find positive effects on both short-term test scores and long-term student outcomes, especially college-going and college graduation. It is simply incorrect to claim, as the AEI authors did, that "a school choice program's impact on test scores is a weak predictor of its impacts on longer-term outcomes."
Still, there are a handful of examples of school choice programs that diminished achievement but improved high school graduation rates, including the Milwaukee voucher program and a set of Texas charter schools. I agree with Hitt, McShane, and Wolf that it would be a mistake for policymakers to prematurely kill off initiatives such as these, which may be helping students in ways not captured by reading and math scores.
But does that mean we shouldn't close individual schools that persistently hurt student achievement? Including charter schools? The AEI authors seem to think so. Jumping from their findings on programs and extrapolating them to schools, they write: "If test score gains are neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for producing long-term gains in crucial student outcomes, then current approaches to accountability for school choice programs are questionable at best.… Focusing on test score gains may lead regulators to favor schools whose benefits could easily fade over time and punish schools that are producing long-lasting gains."
Let me explain what's wrong with this logic.
1. Nobody measures high schools by their test scores alone
Hitt, McShane, and Wolf seem to think that "regulators" are closing charter schools, or turning off the public funding to private schools participating in voucher programs, based merely on low test scores. To my knowledge, that is never the case, especially for high schools, because every state accountability system and every charter school authorizer looks at high school graduation rates, too. And of course the Every Student Succeeds Act requires those graduation rates to be baked into high school ratings. So an individual high school would need both low test scores and graduation rates to be at risk of landing in a "regulator's" bull's-eye. One with strong graduation rates would be fine.
2. Holding elementary or middle schools accountable for long-term impacts is not practical
But what about elementary or middle schools that diminish student achievement, yet somehow increase their pupils' odds of graduating from high school many years later? Should we worry about regulators "punishing" such schools? Shouldn't schools in those programs get a reprieve?
This is where we have to be careful to distinguish between programs and schools. The AEI team reviewed studies about the former, not the latter. We know from those studies that a handful of programs as a whole worsened achievement but improved graduation rates (a set of Texas's charter schools, for example). What we don't know is whether there was a similar mismatch at the school level. We don't whether there were any, say, charter middle schools in Texas that reduced achievement but increased their students' odds at graduating from high school. We simply don't know.
Hitt, McShane, and Wolf would err on the side of leniency for schools with poor achievement, holding out hope that they might be helping their students long-term in ways not captured by test scores. This, they note, is particularly salient because these are schools of choice, and thus determined by parents to be better options than the alternatives.
There's a case to be made that regulators should never overrule the wishes of parents, but that case is not informed by the evidence the AEI authors reviewed. There is simply nothing in the data to suggest that individual schools that diminish achievement are improving attainment. Nothing. So let's have the debate on moral or philosophical or policy-preference terms, rather than pretending that empirical evidence signals the proper outcome.
And in my view, we shouldn't grant low-achieving elementary and middle schools a reprieve while we wait to see whether they improve long-term outcomes, because by the time we had proof, the school in question would be years older. It might be a completely different place. We couldn't possibly close a school based on how it affected an earlier generation of students. We must either hold elementary and middle schools accountable for the outcomes of current students or not at all.
Hitt, McShane, and Wolf are right to worry about promising programs and schools getting shuttered before they have a chance to prove themselves over the long term. High-quality charter authorizers address this concern by doing a comprehensive review of schools before deciding whether to close them. If there are reasons to believe that test scores don't capture all the value the school is providing, its leaders have ample opportunities to make their case to officials. As a charter authorizer myself, I can say that we are eager to be persuaded by such evidence. And as Andy Smarick has argued, voucher programs need something akin to authorizers, too, so that decisions about participating schools can be informed by nuance and human judgment, not just by test scores and other data points. (Maybe that's what Indiana is currently stumbling into.)
But the charter schools that do get closed are not, in my view and experience, diamonds in the rough. They are campuses with depressingly low pupil achievement, poor student-level growth, and very little successful teaching and learning in their classrooms. They are places where authorizers can see with their own eyes that weak instruction, mediocre curricula, poorly prepared or demoralized teachers, and often well-meaning but ineffective leaders add up to poor educational experiences for their charges. Is there some remote chance that such schools are doing something positive for their students that might be found by a study 10 years hence? I guess it's possible. But there's nothing in the research literature to suggest that it is so, and a lot in the literature to indicate that the kids — especially if they are poor — dare not wait that long.
Part V: Yes, impacts on test scores matter
A final summary of the paper and what I believe is wrong with it:
What the AEI authors did
Hitt, McShane, and Wolf set out to review all of the rigorous studies of school choice programs that have impact estimates for both student achievement attainment — high school graduation, college enrollment, and/or college graduation. To my eye, they did an excellent and comprehensive job scanning the research literature to find any eligible studies, culling the ones lacking the sufficient methodological chops, and then coding each as to whether they found impacts that were statistically significantly positive, insignificantly positive, insignificantly negative, or significantly negative.
They then counted to see how many studies had findings for short-term test score changes that lined up with their findings for attainment. After running a variety of analyses, Hitt, McShane, and Wolf concluded that "A school choice program's impact on test scores is a weak predictor of its impacts on longer-term outcomes."
Where the AEI paper erred
But the authors made two big mistakes, as I argued Tuesday and Wednesday:
● They included programs in the review that are only tangentially related to school choice and that drove the alleged mismatch, namely early-college high schools, selective-admission exam schools, and career and technical education initiatives.
● Their coding system — which they admit is "rigid" — set an unfairly high standard because it requires both the direction and statistical significance of the short- and long-term findings to line up.
Both of these decisions are subject to debate. There's an argument for making the choices the authors did, but also for them going the other way. What's key is that different choices would have resulted in dramatically different findings.
For bona fide school choice programs, short-term test scores and long-term outcomes line up most of the time
If we focus only on the true school choice programs — private school choice, open enrollment, charter schools, STEM schools, and small schools of choice — and we look at the direction of the impacts (positive or negative) regardless of their statistical significance, we find a high degree of alignment between achievement and attainment outcomes. That's because, for these programs, most of the findings are positive. (That is good news for school choice supporters!)
Thirty-eight percent of the studies show a statistically significantly positive impact in ELA, 43 percent in math, 45 percent for high school graduation, 50 percent for college enrollment, and 50 percent for college graduation. If we look at all positive findings regardless of whether they are statistically significant, the numbers for school choice programs are 76 percent (ELA), 76 percent (math), 77 percent (high school graduation), 88 percent (college enrollment), and 100 percent (college graduation). Everything points in the same direction, and the outcomes for achievement and high school graduation — the outcomes that most of the studies examine — are almost identical.
We also find significant alignment for individual programs. The impacts on ELA achievement and high school graduation point in the same direction in 17 out of 22 studies, or 77 percent of the time. For math, it's 13 out of 20 studies, or 65 percent. For college enrollment, the results point in the same direction 100 percent of the time.
Here's how that looks for the specific studies:
Studies found that three school choice programs improved ELA and/or math achievement but not high school graduation: Boston charter schools, the SEED charter school, and the Texas I-STEM School. But there's an obvious explanation: These are known as high-expectations schools, and such schools tend to have a higher dropout rate than their peers. That hardly means that their test score results are meaningless.
At the same time, there were four programs that "don't test well" — initiatives that don't improve achievement but do boost high school graduation rates: Milwaukee Parental Choice, Charlotte Open Enrollment, Non-No Excuses Texas Charter Schools, and Chicago's Small Schools of Choice. (Charlotte also boosted college graduation rates.) Of these, only the Texas charter schools had statistically significantly negative impacts on achievement (ELA and math) and significantly positive impacts on attainment (high school graduation). That's a true mismatch, and cause for concern. But it's just a single study out of 22.
Meanwhile, the eight studies that looked at college enrollment all found that test score impacts and attainment outcomes lined up: seven positive and one negative.
So is it fair to say, as the AEI authors do, that "a school choice program's impact on test scores is a weak predictor of its impacts on longer-term outcomes"?
Where the debate goes from here
I've tried this week to keep my critiques substantive and not personal. I know, like, and respect all three authors of the AEI paper, and believe they are trying in good faith to help the field understand the relationship between short- and long-term outcomes.
What I hope I have demonstrated, though, is that their findings depended on decisions that easily could have gone the other way.
What all of us should acknowledge is that this a new field with limited evidence. We have a few dozen studies of bona fide school choice programs that look at both achievement and attainment. Most of these don't examine college enrollment or graduation. That's not a lot to go on, especially considering the many reasons to be skeptical of today's high school graduation rates.
Given this reality, we should be cautious about making too much of any review of the research literature. I believe, as I did before this exercise, that programs that are making progress in terms of test scores are also helping students long-term. Others believe, as they did before this exercise, that there is a mismatch. Depending on how you look at the evidence, you can argue either side.
What we don't have, though, is a strong, empirical, persuasive case to ditch test-based accountability, either writ large or within school choice programs.
Do impacts on test scores even matter? Yes, it appears they do. We certainly do not have strong evidence that they don't.
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Michael J. Petrilli is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a distinguished senior scholar at the Education Commission of the States.
@MichaelPetrilli contributors@the74million.org
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Wednesday, September 28th, 2016 | Posted by Peter Mulvany
Libya: Haftar Explains His Vision of New Libya
Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar, who was not straightforward about his ambitions to serve as the country's leader, has however stated in an interview, "military people who were elected to lead their country achieved remarkable success."
Libya needs a leader with "high-level military experience" to govern it, He said giving examples of senior military leaders that have ruled Western nations. He also mentioned the most recent example in North Africa, that of President Sisi of Egypt.
but makes it clear that priority should be given to security, political and social stability.
Haftar has refused to recognize the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) and claimed that illegal migration to Europe from the Libyan shores highlights the "absence of state authority" in Tripoli.
He alleged that the Libyan capital has been "hijacked" by armed gangs and accused Islamist factions there of creating the disorder.
GNA Prime minister-designate is presently in Paris where he met President Francois Hollande. The French President renewed his government's support to the GNA in hunting down and neutralizing terrorist groups in Libya.
The Field Marshall is loyal to the Tobruk-based House of Parliament. His forces recently took over oil infrastructures and handed them over to the National Oil Corporation. Haftar claimed that "the Libyan National Army's priorities are to protect the oil fields and ports of export."
Meanwhile, reports have emerged that Haftar has requested weapons from Moscow and an official, familiar with the dossier, said there was a meeting between Libya's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Abdel Basset Badri, who also doubles as Haftar's special representative, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.
The source stated that during the ambassador's one-day visit to Moscow on Tuesday, he discussed with Bogdanov the issue of lifting the embargo on arms supplies.
"Libyans are asking us to send them small arms, but also equipment, including planes. Also, they asked Moscow to start an anti-Islamist military operation in Libya that is similar to the one in Syria," the source said. Haftar visited Russia in June and made similar requests during discussions with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia's Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.
The Libyan Field Marshall also wants the UN to lift the arms embargo on the country and to help it neutralize the "huge quantities" of mines left behind by the Islamic State in freed residential areas.
Written by: Peter Mulvany on September 28, 2016.
Posted by Peter Mulvany on Sep 28 2016. Filed under Headlines, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Grand Traverse Bay Underwater Preserve is the state of Michigan's 12th designated underwater preserve. The GTBUP encompasses the east and west arms of Grand Traverse Bay from Cathead Bay in the northwest over to Norwood in the northeast. The Grand Traverse Bay Underwater Preserve is an all volunteer non-profit 501 (c)3 which maintains an underwater preserve in Grand Traverse Bay. The purpose of the preserve is to promote underwater recreation and Maritime Heritage & Tourism in the Great Lakes. The waters of the GTBUP contain shipwrecks from the 1800s up to the 1970s, historically significant cultural sites such as one of the oldest dock remains in Michigan, as well as fun dive sites like a 1970s Ford Pinto. The Michigan Underwater Preserve system was created in 1980 through legislation supported and largely drafted by Michigan sport divers. Since then, divers have ensured that their sport will remain a high-quality activity with stiff penalties for disturbing the shipwrecks and their artifacts. It is a felony to remove or disturb artifacts in the Great Lakes. Those caught removing portholes, anchors, anchor chain, deadeyes, blocks, or other "souvenirs" will have their boat, car, and equipment confiscated immediately and will face up to two years imprisonment and stiff fines.


Toria Garbutt is a spoken word artist from Knottingley – a former mining town in West Yorkshire. From as young as 9 she kept a diary, and wrote poetry by way of navigating an alternative path through the world.
Her début album 'Hot Plastic Moon' is a collection of confessional, observational and character based poetry, with a punk heritage, a staccato heartbeat and a unique flair for storytelling.
In 2017, Toria established herself as a regular support act for Dr John Cooper Clarke on his ongoing UK tour dates. Earlier this year, she launched her début poetry collection 'The Universe and Me'.
2018 has also seen Toria delve into theatre, as a writer on award-winning theatre company Not Too Tame's show 'Northern Souls', which appears at this year's Edinburgh Fringe.


It's Friday!! I'm so happy I could scream!
I would love to take the whole week off next week.
And jet off to Napa Valley with a hot date. I've always wanted to go to Napa- with a hot date.
On Valentine's Day, I would love to have a great brunch at a restaurant overlooking a beautiful vineyard, followed by an afternoon of wine tasting. I love wine, especially with a hot date.
I would wear that outfit. I think it's fashionable, casual, comfy and perfect for the occasion.
I love the pop of color from the J.Crew bracelet. We'll pretend my hot date gave it to me for V-day.
We would spend the rest of the trip eating, sight-seeing and laughing.
I would come home refreshed and relaxed with a renewed spirit.
I hope you have a great weekend! And don't forget to check out my latest giveaway!! The winner will be announced on Monday!
I would LOVE to go to Napa too! here's to dreaming!! I love that red skirt you chose from Mod Cloth. Super fab! Have a great weekend!
I want to jet off to Napa too! And drink lots of wine!! Le sigh...that will have to wait until after June! ;) Hope you have a great weekend girl!
I love this outfit! It's perfection. The red, with the turquoise and pink accents. So pretty!
The skirt is awesome! I'm debating purchasing it. Have a great weekend!
Aw what a perfect outfit for a nice spring day! I love it all!
May I join you in Napa?! Your dreaming adventure has me planning my ideal getaway now too!! Beautiful outfit, I especially love the red skirt and the accessories! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend and Happy Valentine's Day!!
I'm a huge fan of this outfit you put together!!!
Sigh...Napa...if only I could pause everything and go now! Cute outfit and I need that polish (the perfect pink for VDay)!


Styled with damien blouse .
I think I have them in 5 colors now! Great for work.
I love these pants so much, I bought two in black and beige. They are so comfy and look chic. I could wear these all day.
The material is thin but not sheer and very comfortable to wear. The length goes to my ankles (I'm short) so I might need to alter it just to get the cropped ankle length look.
Pants are very comfy but yet can be for work. Length is perfect for me as a petite 5'3 person. Material is light and a bit flowy so it won't be warm for winter unless you wear stockings inside. Would definitely buy another colour.
Will be buying in more colours!
Love the fabric and fit! Perfect for work or going out with friends.
Love these pants. More of a summer pant because of the thin fabric. But very comfortable and they look amazing.
I purchased the black and I wear it for work and on the weekends for a more casual look. It's super versatile and well worth your money. I got another pair in the monterey colour which is a brown olive colour.
I know the care instructions say to dry clean but I put it in the washer and hang it to dry instead. The pants kept their shape very well still. I will be picking up more colours in the future.
These pants are a great basic pant for my work day. They are comfortable and nice fabric. I have them in two colours and would love more.


New Delhi, Feb 01 (ANI): Afghanistan's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Abdullah Abdullah, arrived in New Delhi for a five-day visit to India. Abdullah, Head of the Council of Ministers, will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders. He will discuss key regional and bilateral issues, including security cooperation. Abdullah is scheduled to meet PM Modi on Monday.


text:
The development and developmental consequences of social essentialism
Marjorie Rhodes, Tara M. Mandalaywala
People often view certain ways of classifying people (e.g., by gender, race, or ethnicity) as reflecting real distinctions found in nature. Such categories are viewed as marking meaningful, fundamental, and informative differences between distinct kinds of people. This article examines the development of these essentialist intuitive theories of how the social world is structured, along with the developmental consequences of these beliefs. We first examine the processes that give rise to social essentialism, arguing that essentialism emerges as children actively attempt to make sense of their environment by relying on several basic representational and explanatory biases. These developmental processes give rise to the widespread emergence of social essentialist views in early childhood, but allow for vast variability across development and cultural contexts in the precise nature of these beliefs. We then examine what is known and still to be discovered about the implications of essentialism for stereotyping, inter-group interaction, and the development of social prejudice. We conclude with directions for future research, particularly on the theoretical payoff that could be gained by including more diverse samples of children in future developmental investigations. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1437. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1437. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science
https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1437
10.1002/wcs.1437
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'The development and developmental consequences of social essentialism'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Social Theory Medicine & Life Sciences
Stereotyping Medicine & Life Sciences
Interpersonal Relations Medicine & Life Sciences
Rhodes, M., & Mandalaywala, T. M. (2017). The development and developmental consequences of social essentialism. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 8(4), [e1437]. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1437
The development and developmental consequences of social essentialism. / Rhodes, Marjorie; Mandalaywala, Tara M.
In: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, Vol. 8, No. 4, e1437, 01.07.2017.
Rhodes, M & Mandalaywala, TM 2017, 'The development and developmental consequences of social essentialism', Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, vol. 8, no. 4, e1437. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1437
Rhodes M, Mandalaywala TM. The development and developmental consequences of social essentialism. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science. 2017 Jul 1;8(4). e1437. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1437
Rhodes, Marjorie ; Mandalaywala, Tara M. / The development and developmental consequences of social essentialism. In: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science. 2017 ; Vol. 8, No. 4.
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title = "The development and developmental consequences of social essentialism",
abstract = "People often view certain ways of classifying people (e.g., by gender, race, or ethnicity) as reflecting real distinctions found in nature. Such categories are viewed as marking meaningful, fundamental, and informative differences between distinct kinds of people. This article examines the development of these essentialist intuitive theories of how the social world is structured, along with the developmental consequences of these beliefs. We first examine the processes that give rise to social essentialism, arguing that essentialism emerges as children actively attempt to make sense of their environment by relying on several basic representational and explanatory biases. These developmental processes give rise to the widespread emergence of social essentialist views in early childhood, but allow for vast variability across development and cultural contexts in the precise nature of these beliefs. We then examine what is known and still to be discovered about the implications of essentialism for stereotyping, inter-group interaction, and the development of social prejudice. We conclude with directions for future research, particularly on the theoretical payoff that could be gained by including more diverse samples of children in future developmental investigations. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1437. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1437. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.",
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AB - People often view certain ways of classifying people (e.g., by gender, race, or ethnicity) as reflecting real distinctions found in nature. Such categories are viewed as marking meaningful, fundamental, and informative differences between distinct kinds of people. This article examines the development of these essentialist intuitive theories of how the social world is structured, along with the developmental consequences of these beliefs. We first examine the processes that give rise to social essentialism, arguing that essentialism emerges as children actively attempt to make sense of their environment by relying on several basic representational and explanatory biases. These developmental processes give rise to the widespread emergence of social essentialist views in early childhood, but allow for vast variability across development and cultural contexts in the precise nature of these beliefs. We then examine what is known and still to be discovered about the implications of essentialism for stereotyping, inter-group interaction, and the development of social prejudice. We conclude with directions for future research, particularly on the theoretical payoff that could be gained by including more diverse samples of children in future developmental investigations. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1437. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1437. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
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JO - Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science
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M1 - e1437


text:
Q: Not receiving weekly newsletter Similar to Why did I automatically unsubscribe to about 75% of all my newsletters:
I'm only subscribed to one newsletter (stackoverflow weekly), but I haven't received it since Tuesday 16th Jan - is it related to the infrastructure change?
The subscriptions tab on my profile show I am subscribed.

A: Apologies, the past few days have been problematic on the newsletter front because of the size of the email batches for Stack Overflow and some other network sites.
Essentially we were hitting some request limits sending to our email service. I've tweaked down batch sizes so that everything works a little more smoothly.
Normal service will resume as of next week. Apologies for the inconvenience.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Bright golden flowers up to 20cm across! A New Zealand produced variety that is great for larger or mass plantings. Perfect for along fences or hedges. Easy to grow. Each plant produces many heads.
How To Sow: Choose a sheltered, well drained site in full sun. Sow these seeds direct where to grow in a well prepared seedbed. Sow 2-3 seeds in groups 40cm apart and at a depth of 1cm.
Seedling Care: Keeps seedbed evenly moist during the germination period of 7-14 days. Apply McGregor's FruitMax 2 weeks after germination for healthier plants and a maximum crop. Protect your flower garden from snails and slugs with McGregor's Snail and Slug bait and from White Butterfly with McGregor's Derris Dust.
Hints and Tips: Can grow up to 2 metres tall so will need staking or protection from the wind.


text:
Gov Amaechi $5bn missing from Excess Crude Account
Gov Amaechi $5bn missing from…
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors' Forum (NGF), Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, is alleging the disappearance of $5 billion from the Excess Crude Account and asked for explanations from relevant government agencies.
The Rivers State governor spoke at a retreat organised by the NGF at Giginya Hotel, Sokoto and attended by many governors.
Besides about 15 governors present at the retreat, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, National Chairman of the breakaway faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), aka nPDP, Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, former Kwara State governor, Dr Bukola Saraki, Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, and former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mohammed Uwais, also attended and spoke at the event hosted by the Sokoto State governor, Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko.
The governor asked Nigerians to rise up and ask questions on how the nations resources are being managed by the NNPC and the Finance Ministry in a bid to prevent the a Federal Government from short changing the other tiers of government in revenue allocation.
Amaechi said it was shocking to discover that the ECA, which had a balance of $9 billion in January, had inexplicably dwindled to $4billion without explanation by the Federal Government.
The NGF chairman said, "The Excess Crude Account in January was N9billion. That account belongs to the federal, states and local governments. Today it is N4billion. We don't know who took the N5billion.
"Nigerians need to ask where the money has gone and why their money is being used as private funds."
Amaechi chided the Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for refusing to sign a loan agreement with the African Development Bank to free $200 million for the provision of water in Rivers State because of alleged disagreement between him and the President.
According to the governor, the ADB and the state government had already signed the appropriate documents for the loan only for Okonjo-Iweala to develop cold feet.
He said, "The ADB and Rivers government met and negotiated and they agreed to give us a loan of $200 million to improve water supply in the state.
"We have all signed our own side of the loan agreement but the Finance Minister, who is highly recognised globally, has refused to sign the document to enable us to draw down the loan to provide water for the people of Rivers State on the allegation that Amaechi has some political disagreement with the President."
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tambuwal, lamented the imbalance inherent in the Nigerian presidential system, which has given too much powers to the centre at the expense of other tiers of government and weakened democracy and good governance.
Tambuwal said that the enormous powers vested on the Federal Government under the presidential system has turned the country into a unitary system, thereby deleting the essence of federalism.
"Nigerian's federalism is peculiar as no other presidential system in the world has practised the type that is being run by Nigeria. It is unfortunate that the basic tenets of federalism, which we copied from the United States, are not being implemented in Nigeria."
He said the centre should give certain functions to the states and local governments as is the case in the presidential system operated by many countries around the world.
Also speaking, Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said the unitary system of government in Nigeria had robbed Nigerians of their creativity and innovations and called for a change of the system so as to deepen democracy and good governance.
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State called for a system of government that promotes good governance, merit and competition and eliminate corruption and underdevelopment.
The host governor, Wamakko, explained that the meeting was to examine the myriad of challenges facing the nation and to explore solutions to them in the interest of the people.
Wamakko said that it was time for Nigerians to move above political sentiments and face the real challenges facing the nation.
Meanwhile, the governors demanded an urgent end to the opaqueness in the operations of the nation's oil industry to give room for more transparency in the sector.
The demand is contained in the communique issued by the governors at the end of the retreat.
In the communique signed by Amaechi, the NGF Chairman, the governors noted with dismay the continued conduct of the operations of the NNPC in darkness and the loss of huge revenue by states.
They also asked Nigerians to eschew docility in the face of mounting impunity and demand and better accountability and responsibility from their leaders.
The state CEOs reiterated their demand for state police as guaranteed under a federal system of government in order to strengthen security in the country.
Other governors present at the retreat were those of Zamfara, Nasarawa, Adamawa, Borno, Niger, Jigawa, Osun, Oyo, Kano and Kwara.
By dump2 17th November 2013
Author: dump2
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text:
Can you fight wrongful termination?
Sep 17, 2018 | Employment Discrimination, Family Leave, Sexual Harassment, Wrongful Termination
How to Fight Wrongful Termination If you believe that you were wrongfully discharged from your job, then you may be able to fight wrongful termination. Under the laws of Nevada, employment is considered to be at will, meaning that the employment may be terminated...
Identifying Sexual Harassment in the Workplace and its Effects
Jul 17, 2018 | Sexual Harassment
What is Sexual Harassment in the Workplace and what are the effects? Sexual Harassment in the Workplace affects both Men and Women. The feeling of shame and humiliation affects the lives of employees. Sexual Harassment in the Workplace can be anything from physical...
Christian Gabroy Quoted in Vegas Legal Magazine Sexual Harassment Article
Apr 16, 2018 | Articles, Sexual Harassment
It is getting more and more obvious that the social mores regarding Sexual Harassment are changing. News articles of the Harvey Weinstein incident and subsequent scandals only further push this into the public's eye. But people are still deciding how to react...
Best Employment Lawyers In Las Vegas Get Bigger Settlements
Jan 26, 2018 | Articles, Overtime, Sexual Harassment
Settle Workplace Disputes With the Help of the Best Employment Lawyers In Las Vegas Like any city, Las Vegas has its share of unscrupulous employers. Employees should know their rights if they are ever hired or fired by one. The best employment lawyers in Las Vegas...
8 Things to Know About Workplace Sexual Harassment
Aug 30, 2017 | Articles, Sexual Harassment
8 Things to Know About Workplace Sexual Harassment Workplace sexual harassment is a surprisingly common issue, but that doesn't make it acceptable or okay. It is important to know the facts and laws behind workplace sexual harassment so that you can protect...
Best Las Vegas Employment Attorney
Jun 14, 2017 | Articles, Employment Discrimination, Family Leave, Overtime, Sexual Harassment, Wrongful Termination
Best Las Vegas Employment Attorney Gabroy Law Offices: Raising the Bar on Client Satisfaction Las Vegas is a beautiful city, full of life and things to do. If you love living here, you know you need a good job to support yourself and your family. What happens if...


text:
journalist sources
Scottish indepdence, Scottish Currency, Growth Commission, six tests, Nicola Sturgeon, Cameron Archibald, Dr Timothy Rideout, Keith Brown, Derek Mackay, SNP Conference, SNP19
#SNP19 Currency advocates hit out at claim their amendment is compatible with 'six tests'
"Nobody can be in any doubt whatsoever that people voting for Amendment D supported the tests, because they don't," says Dr Timothy Rideout
The sucessful amendment to the SNP conference Growth Commission motion was preceded by a debate which included brutal criticism of the GC's six tests for an independent currency
Some within the SNP have interpreted the amendment as an endorsement of the tests due to no explicit reference being made of the tests in its wording
Dr Timothy Rideout, the proposer of the amendment at the conference, told CommonSpace he will return to a future SNP conference "with a wooden stake and some garlic" if such interpretations persist
TWO key advocates of the amendment which committed the SNP to implementing a new Scottish currency "as soon as practicable" after independence have refuted claims that the amendment did not represent a defeat for the Sustainable Growth Commission's controversial six tests for abandoning sterling.
At the SNP's Spring conference in Edinburgh yesterday [27 April], a vote on a motion endorsing key aspects of the Growth Commission saw a majority of SNP members revolt against the entreaties of SNP leadership figures - including depute leader Keith Brown and finance secretary Derek Mackay - and endorse 'Amendment D'. This amendment shifts the responsibility of instituting a new currency from the advice of a Scottish central bank to a post-independence Scottish Parliament.
However, the fact that the amendment does not explicitly overturn the six tests the Growth Commission has outlined before a new Scottish currency could be introduced, coupled with the defeat of similar amendments which would have removed the six tests from the motion entirely, has led some within the SNP to argue the amendment is in fact an endorsement of the tests.
Following the vote, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: "Amendment urges progress as quickly as practicable, and six tests to ensure solid foundation for decision are endorsed. We can move forward now with confidence to make the case for Scotland's future in Scotland's hands." This view was echoed by an SNP press officer, who told CommonSpace that the amendment was "kind of in harmony" with the tests.
"My impression of the reaction of the audience is that the Growth Commission in general is not terribly popular, but the six tests and the currency aspect in particular are not popular with the membership of the party." Dr Timothy Rideout
Speaking to CommonSpace, Dr Timothy Rideout – who helped draft the amendment, and whose speech at the conference was largely composed of a brutal, one-by-one critique of the tests – has dismissed such interpretations of yesterday's vote, instead arguing that the amendment's success represents a repudiation of the six tests.
Dr Rideout argued: "If anyone was listening to what I said, more than half of what I said demolished all six of the tests. Nobody can be in any doubt whatsoever that people voting for Amendment D supported the tests, because they don't.
"My impression of the reaction of the audience is that the Growth Commission in general is not terribly popular, but the six tests and the currency aspect in particular are not popular with the membership of the party."
SNP Bannockburn branch secretary Cameron Archibald, who seconded the amendment proposed by Dr Rideout, also told CommonSpace: "Working with Timothy Rideout and others behind the currency campaign, it's clear that we were definitely not endorsing the six tests.
"It's clear that we were definitely not endorsing the six tests." SNP Bannockburn branch secretary Cameron Archibald
"The amendment specifically looks at the mechanism of the six tests, and removes Clause 33, meaning that there will be no annual reporting from the Central Bank in regard to them. So in writing, yes, the six tests would exist – but the mechanisms for the six tests are completely gone. Which puts more emphasis on the National Assemblies and the Scottish Parliament having the final say and control over what actually goes on in deciding our future currency."
Describing how such a decision could potentially be made, Archibald continued: "We can see from the makeup of the Scottish Parliament, the SNP don't have a majority. If they're going to have to negotiate with other parties – and let's be honest, the parties that are going to be most in favour of monetary sovereignty – they're going to have to come to some kind of consensus. And any delay on any kind of consensus around currency is going to create economic turmoil in the future.
"Of course, I don't believe there'll be some sort of apocalyptic vision where parties will be split on this issue; I think there will be some sort of unity. We saw yesterday, in regards to the amendment, it was ultimately accepted, because everyone in the end was happy with it. Between that unity around our proposal, the flexibility of National Assemblies, and ultimate authority being the Scottish Parliament, I believe there can be consensus, and ultimately the six tests will fade into the background."
Reflecting on the acceptance of Amendment D, but also the defeat of Amendment B, endorsed by former SNP MP and writer George Kerevan, which would have explicitly removed all reference to the six tests from the motion, Dr Rideout said: "It's a partial victory, but I think we've established the position that people need to put forward on the doorstep in advance of a referendum is, in the very short term, an independent Scotland will continue to use sterling, but only until the new currency is ready to launch; and that the period between independence day and the launch of the new currency should be as short practicable.
READ MORE: Analysis: A stunning victory for the grassroots of the SNP and Scottish currency advocates
"I deliberately used the word 'practicable' because I didn't want to specify I fixed date; I'm not trying to say it has to be Day One, because I think that's silly. It's open to attack – unionists can say 'What if you're not ready?' In any case, everyone's going to be either drunk or hungover on the first day of independence.
"There's probably going to be a three-year transition – everyone seems to think there's going to be a three-year transition – so that's enough time to get banknotes printed, set up a new bank payment system, sort out the Central Bank, educate people on what's going to happen, issue new bank cards, and set up a new Scottish pound or whatever it's going to be called. And then say, within a month or two of independence day, 'Right, this is the launch day for a new currency.'"
Explaining further why reference to the six tests was not included in Amendment D, Archibald says: "We were working in coordination with George Kerevan and others on a different amendment. The point was to be a group effort. We originally did want to remove the six tests completely, in writing and in mechanisms, but we thought of instead of going against each other, we could do it as a group. So that's why we encouraged ditching the six tests, and moving forward to increased sovereignty faster. So we didn't achieve removing them in writing, but we did achieve removing the mechanisms of the six tests, leaving them as kind of a cloud that really doesn't have any control.
"If B had passed by itself, it would have achieved both; there was more emphasis with D on removing the mechanisms. I would rather we remove the mechanisms while leaving the name [of the six tests], rather than keeping the mechanisms when the name was gone.
READ MORE: SNP conference demands a Scottish currency be ready 'as soon as practicable' after independence
"So I'm quite happy with the rest. Overall, everyone can claim victory – that's why Nicola Sturgeon and Keith Brown are saying the six tests are still there. But how can you apply them? Over time, I predict, National Assemblies and the Scottish Parliament will move to monetary sovereignty faster, and that was the will of SNP delegates yesterday."
Should the SNP leadership continue to present the amended motion as an endorsement of the six tests, Dr Rideout believes the arguments against them should be rearticulated: "I'll be back at the October conference with a wooden stake and some garlic to spear them through the heart – the six tests, that is."
Asked what they felt the next move should be for advocates of a separate Scottish currency, Dr Rideout commented: "Well, to continue to educate in the first instance members of the party, but also members of the public. I already have a list of some much more sensible tests that I would like to see people looking at. Have we got the new bank notes designed and printed? Have we figured out how we're going to manufacture the coins? Have we developed the Scottish bank payment system that would be necessary to implement the currency? Have we identified premises for the Central Bank? Have we sorted out legislation that would have to be introduced in Holyrood to set up the Central Bank? At what point are we going to be able to push the button and say, 'The new currency is now coming'?
READ MORE: WATCH: George Kerevan speaks ahead of crunch currency vote at #SNP19
"Those are the tests we should be thinking about – not some rubbish about whether City of London financiers are happy. I don't care about City of London financiers, and they're irrelevant to the new currency."
Archibald added: "We're already encouraged that SNP members want monetary sovereignty for an independent Scotland sooner rather than later. The next step is to take it to the National Assemblies and reach out to others outwith the SNP to hear their views.
"We already know from last year and the year before that the Yes gatherings heavily rejected the six tests and the Sustainable Growth Commissions. We need to reach out to those Yes voters who aren't SNP members, and see how we can maybe even see outright the rejection of the Growth Commission.
"The best way to convince Scots to back independence is to show them that they have the power. And if you can show that through the National Assemblies, not only will we see a rejection of the six tests, but a greater endorsement of Scottish independence."
In her speech to the party conference on Sunday, Sturgeon made no mention of the six tests controversy, instead focusing on a new Commission on social justice and fairness.
Picture courtesy of CommonSpace
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This is an Arduino Uno and bluetooth based smart lock that use...connections are done. However I am unable to send the lock and unlock state command from my mobile device to the Arduino to move the Servo motor. I want to resolve the basic logic of my Arduino or the Android code as the skeleton is ready. We need to have f2f discussion for this project.
[pro zobrazení URL se přihlaste] for sub menu [pro zobrazení URL se přihlaste] database [pro zobrazení URL se přihlaste] api endpoints [pro zobrazení URL se přihlaste] panel things.


SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA (April 13, 2017) - The Pacific Challenge Series presented by PenneyLawyers.com has been forced to postpone round two of its 2017 season due to wet grounds and unsafe conditions at the All American Speedway in Roseville, CA. Saturday's event will be listed as a postponement with a possible make up date undecided at press time.
The series will continue May 6th in Anderson, CA at the 3/8ths mile Shasta Speedway. Tracy Bolin was the race winner in the series' lone visit to the popular fairgrounds facility in 2016.
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA (April 11, 2017) - The Pacific Challenge Series presented by PenneyLawyers.com visits one its home tracks on Saturday night, when the touring Super Late Model Series invades All American Speedway in Roseville, CA. Jason Romero will look to increase his winning streak at the track to five, after a perfect 4-0 season at the one-third mile in 2016. Saturday's event is the second round of the ten race series.
The racing program will be the start of the 63rd season at the speedway on the Placer County Fairgrounds with Street Stocks, NCMA Sprint Cars, and F4s also scheduled.
Two-time series runner-up and 2014 champion Mike Beeler of Modesto is among the strongest active PCS drivers in Roseville history with ten top-tens in 11 starts and one victory. Beeler opened 2017 with a fourth place finish in the PCS series opener at Madera Speedway.
As for Romero, he ran second in Madera overcoming an early race spin to take a narrow loss to race winner Carlos Vieira. Romero, the 2009 Roseville track champion, will have another familiar Roseville area driver to deal with 2015 series champion John Moore of Granite Bay fresh off a third place finish at Madera. Moore's son Cole, the 2015 Rookie of the Year, has continued to show speed but is yet to win his first race with the tour.
Tracy Bolin of Valley Springs rounded out the top-five at Madera and is searching for some success at Roseville. 2016 Rookie of the Year Matt Wendt had several solid performances at Roseville last year and will try to close one out on Saturday.
2017 Rookie of the Year contenders Alexander Mead of Watsonville and Jack Wood of Loomis come into Roseville with different backgrounds. Mead will be making his first track start while Wood has several years of Legends experience at the track under his belt. Mead was the Penney Racing Supply Hard Charger in his series debut at Madera.
JR Courage, the 2014 Rookie of the Year, counts All American Speedway as one of his home tracks with both his father and brother hoisting track championships in the past. Saturday is expected to be Courage's first start of the 2017 season.
Folsom's Hunter Corbitt only 2016 start came last May at Stockton 99 Speedway and it ended with a grinding crash on the final lap. Corbitt had a strong 2015 season with eight starts including finishes of third and eighth at Roseville and a win at Ukiah and his return to the series on Saturday adds to the strength at the top end of the grid.
Elk Grove's Mike Hite has nearly ten starts at Roseville with a best career finish of seventh, while Hayward's Danny Malfatti showed increased speed at Madera after many off season changes. Both Travis Milburn and Chris Scribner are aiming for returns to action after mechanical woes at Madera. Milburn has seven top-fives in nine Roseville starts while Scribner has a best career finish of third. April 2015 PCS Roseville winner Shannon Mansch is a former touring Late Model champion in the Westcar Series who is always a factor at her home track as well.
The Roseville race is the first of a busy 11-race schedule for NSMS. Lucas Oil is stepping up the tow money program this year whereby the top ten points contenders will each get $200 show-up money, and 11th through 15th will receive $100 at each 2017 points race. This program begins at Lakeport Speedway on May 6.
After the Lakeport show the series heads North to Redwood Acres Raceway in Eureka for a Memorial Day Holiday Sunday event. Then the tour ventures South to Madera Speedway on June 10 for a combo show with the southern-based Lucas Oil Modified Series. Back to Roseville on June 24 to be a part of the Placer County Fair festivities with the Nor Cal Pro-4 Modified Series.
Events in July include the first of two shows at Mendocino County's Ukiah Speedway on July 8, and the second of three shows at Eureka on July 22. Lakeport Speedway, Ukiah Speedway and Redwood Acres Raceway have joined forces to create a mini-modified series with the six North State Modified Series races schedules at these three tracks. The other race at Ukiah will be on August 19, and September 9 is the date for the final Redwood Acres Raceway show.
Shasta Speedway will once again host the "Lloyd Burton Against the Wind Modified Challenge" on September 23. The winner of this prestigious event will have his name engraved on the four foot tall custom-designed wooden trophy donated by Burton's brother-in-law Mort Houston.
The final event will be back at All American Speedway for a Trifecta Championship Night featuring the North State Modified Series, the Pacific Challenge Late Models Series, and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series. This event will be promoted by Bill McAnally Racing Promotions and will be on October 14..
The North State Modified Series is presented by: Protect the Harvest, Swartz Diesel, Lucas Oil, Sinister Diesel, Penney Racing Supply, American Racer Tires, Wrap Star Pro, Naake Suspension, Sunoco Race Fuels, Five Star Bodies, Racer Bling, Wenteq, Keyser Racing Products, Scribner Plastics, DJ Safety, and the Buckhorn Bar & Grill.
NSMS modified rules and procedures are available at www.northstatemodifieds.com.


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Aarathi (Malayalam: ആരതി) is a 1981 Indian Malayalam film, directed by P. Chandrakumar and produced by Soorya Narayanan Potti. The film stars Sukumaran, Mala Aravindan, Ravi Menon and Seema in the lead roles. The film has musical score by M. B. Sreenivasan.

Cast
Sukumaran as Saimon
Mala Aravindan as Damu
Ravi Menon as Ravi
Seema as Aarathi
Vincent as Vijayan
Cochin Haneefa as Gangan
Sankaradi as Balan Menon
Jose Prakash as Major Prathapa Chandran
Santhakumari as Nurse

Soundtrack
The music was composed by M. B. Sreenivasan and the lyrics were written by Sathyan Anthikkad.

References

External links

1981 films
1980s Malayalam-language films
Films directed by P. Chandrakumar

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Fact-Check: GOP Candidates On Taxes And Downgrades The U.S. doesn't have the highest taxes in the world ... but it's close if you're talking about corporate taxes.
Fact-Check: GOP Candidates On Taxes And Downgrades
Fact-Check: GOP Candidates On Taxes And Downgrades 3:46
February 7, 20164:47 PM ET
Danielle Kurtzleben
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took aim at his opponents in Saturday's Republican presidential debate. But how solid is his own record? Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took aim at his opponents in Saturday's Republican presidential debate. But how solid is his own record?
Everyone knows the GOP is the party of small government and low taxes. At Saturday night's debate, the 2016 Republican presidential candidates sparred over who had the best fiscal conservatism cred.
We decided to look at how well candidates told the truth on a few of these claims in our latest debate fact-check.
"After New Jersey raised taxes on millionaires, we lost, in the next four years, $70 billion in wealth [that] left our state." — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
It's not that simple.
He seems to be talking about New Jersey's so-called millionaire's tax that was instituted in 2004 — well before Christie took office — upping the tax rates of high-income people. Christie's number most likely comes from a 2010 study from Boston College that found an outflow of $70 billion in wealth from the state between 2004 and 2008. (Christie vetoed another "millionaire's tax" last year before announcing his candidacy.)
But as is usually the case with economic causes and effects, things are more complicated than that. For one thing, the study's author later cautioned that taxes were "just one possibility" for wealth fleeing the state, as he told NJ.com. And another 2011 study, from researchers at Stanford and Princeton, found that "the policy effect [of the tax increase] is close to zero" in terms of driving millionaires out of the state, as the Wall Street Journal reported.
So Christie is using a number that represents his position well, but there's context and other evidence he is not mentioning here.
"Under Chris Christie's governorship of New Jersey, they've been downgraded nine times in their credit rating." — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio
That's true, but Christie may not be totally to blame.
Rubio is referring to credit rating agencies' grades that they assign to states. These ratings are considered measures of states' financial and economic well-being.
Three agencies tend to get the most attention: Fitch, Moody's, and Standard & Poor's. So to be clear, it wasn't that one agency downgraded New Jersey nine times. Rather, those three agencies did it three times each.
For all of the candidates who have served as governors, NPR looked into their states' credit rating records last year and found that Christie's New Jersey had the worst record of all.
Sometimes when a rating agency downgrades a state, it does mention a governor specifically. In a downgrade in 2014, for example, S&P called Christie out for delaying pension payments.
But it's not all in governors' hands. Rating agencies are trying to take "a fairly long-term view" in estimating a state's fiscal health, as Don Boyd, director of fiscal studies at the Rockefeller Institute, explained to NPR last year. That view extends beyond even when the current governor is in office. Not only that, but governors can't really directly control a state's economy, he added.
(Interestingly, two governors who did pretty well on this measure — former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal — are no longer in the presidential race.)
"Right now, we're the highest-taxed country in the world." — Donald Trump
When it comes to individual income tax rates, the U.S. is about middle of the pack among its peers. As of 2014, the U.S. had the 18th-highest top statutory individual tax rate out of 34 countries, according to the OECD, a group of mostly advanced economies.
And when it comes to total tax revenue, the U.S. is close to the back of that pack. U.S. tax revenue in 2014 equaled 26 percent of its GDP in 2014. The OECD average share that year, by comparison, was 34.4, and at the opposite end of the spectrum, Denmark's figure is nearly 51 percent — a far cry from U.S. revenues.
But then, Trump did go on to mention corporate taxes in his next few sentences. And if he was trying to refer to corporate tax rates, he's much closer to correct. In 2015, the Tax Foundation, a right-leaning tax policy think tank, found that the U.S. had the third-highest corporate tax rate in the entire world, behind Chad and the United Arab Emirates.


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Going back to California: Palo Alto
Back in 2008 I was lucky enough to find myself with three days to drive around California, starting near San Diego. California's a big place, though, so in the end I was only able to cover the south of the state: San Diego, LA, the desert around Palm Springs and the Laguna Mountains. San Francisco and Silicon Valley, both places I've wanted to visit for some time, were hours out of reach. This week, however, I found myself flying into the north of California for a press event in Silicon Valley, with time to take a brief look around.
The event itself was in Mountain View, CA, but at 3pm the day before I found myself down the road in Palo Alto. Any web nerd knows that Google's based in Mountain View, and Mac fans know that the temple of Steve can be found in Cupertino (on Infinite Loop, no less), but Palo Alto is home to the grandaddy of all Silicon Valley locations: the (previously Xerox) PARC, home of Ethernet, GUI systems and more. Sadly PARC is some way south of where I was, so with no car – more on that later – and with only a few hours I walked into the town instead.
The centre of Palo Alto is a nice place to kill a few sunny hours, but I'm not sure you'd want to be kicking around there for much longer without something to do. Besides the restaurants, chain shops and boutiques there's an old cinema:
and in the square down the road a young woman was singing while people browsed a market full of posh foodstuffs. Priuses abound, and a Tesla (license plate: NUCULER) was pulling up. In short, Palo Alto is pretty much every west-coast stereotype you could call to mind. The only thing that stood out to me was the amazing Methodist church:
Sadly I couldn't get a photo inside – a service was taking place – but it's quite lovely, with those tiny windows filled with stained glass picking out coloured spots to illuminate the cavernous interior. Heading out into suburbia you pass lawn signs showing support for green energy, and posh residences complete with landscaped gardens and flags up for sale:
and beyond that to the North, the freeway and then the bay. And that was it – a flying visit to Palo Alto in just a few hours before the jet-lag killed me and I had to sleep. Oh, but what's on TV in Palo Alto? Mainly this, looping every few minutes:
I'd vote for the guy. The next day was all work, reporting from a Symantec press event in Mountain View, but on the Friday I moved up to San Francisco – more on that here.