Hello everyone,
I’ve been taking some time away from blogging these past few months, and its all because I needed to spend some quality personal time with myself. Since I began taking a pre-law course at San Francisco State this fall semester, I hardly have any time on my hands to sit down and express myself personally or professionally anymore. In the past weeks, instead of sitting in front of my computer and writing a paragraph or two, I now spend most of my time taking timed essays and working through logic puzzles. Working through logic puzzles is something I never imagined myself doing back in high school—puzzles were for the dweebs and geeks—but candidly speaking, I get a real kick out of it! In fact, I think logic puzzles help with analyzing hypothetical questions in class. I’m not sure how many of my readers are aware of this, but pre-law hypo exams are extremely vigorous. I’ve already taken a few practice hypos in class and the one thing I've learn quickly is how little time you have to respond to the question, evaluate the facts, and analyze the problem. I remember during my first hypo, my thought process was scattered all over the place and before I knew it--time had run out. Since that moment, I try to utilize majority of my time practicing and studying for the next hypo.
On another note, I also want to take some time to mention a couple of extremely useful books that helped simplify my life this semester. I’ll even go as far as to say that after I integrated these tools that were featured in the books into my writing, I could see a significant improvement. Now, the good thing is that you can find these books just about anywhere, so there is no need to fret about where to grab them. The next, is that they are very inexpensive---roughly $10-$15 max. The first book is called, 501 Grammar and Writing Questions. This book has several exercises in each chapter that review simple rules on word and sentence structure such as, subject verb agreement, pronoun usage, and grammar and punctuation exercises. The second book is called, Legal Writing in Plain English, which also has a ton of exercises, especially, for those who want or are working in the legal field. I won’t give away all the details from this book, but the most pivotal tools I obtained from this book is that all writers must transform themselves into four characters when sculpting a piece literature. If you’re interested in improving your writing or know someone who could use one of these great resourceful books, just click on the link down below.
Take it easy.
Chris
P.S. Today, I would like recognize the lost of a great high school friend---Kimberly Plump---R.I.P.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
54 Years After Brown v. Board: The Deceit of Equality of Education
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001(NCLB) was enacted with the goal of improving academic achievement in public schools through the implementation of assessment and accountability provisions, which are designed to focus increased levels of attention on under-performing groups of students and to close the achievement gap between them and their peers. On its face NCLB appears to be a policy to that recognizes the inefficiencies in public schools and the need to bring about educational equality. However, NCLB is not quite what it appears to be. In the year 2006 the Civil Rights Project at UCLA (CRP) conducted a comprehensive study of NCLB, which made several findings that indicate that NCLB did not have a significant impact on improving student achievement or reducing the achievement gaps.
The CRP reviewed data from six selected states (California, Virginia, Arizona, Georgia, New York and Illinois) where the policy had been in effect for six years. NCLB allows states to design and create its own method of accountability assessment known as, Annual Yearly Progress (AYP). One goal in particular requires all schools and students meet the academic standards for mathematics and reading by 2013-14. To reach this goal, an academic timeline scale was developed called, the “annual measurable objective” (AMO) . According to the policy brief, “In all six states, the performance targets were raised in 2004-05 after remaining the same during the previous three years.” For example, in California the performance target remained at 13% for three years, then in 2004-05 it increased to 23%. Many officials believed the higher increase on standard performance levels, the larger increase of schools that would be placed under the “needing improvement” status. Thus subjecting school district’s to state sanctions . “For example, within California and Virginia, the number of schools identified for improvement increased quite dramatically—176% increase in California and a 94% increase in Virginia over five years”.
Secondly, since it’s enactment the CPR found conflicting information to whether the facially well-intended policy was living up to its name. CPR reported it was difficult to know if whether the NCLB was having an effect on improving academic performance. According to CPR, “States may report that more students are reaching proficiency on state assessments, but this does not necessarily mean academic performance is improving.” When CPR compared state assessment tests to analyses trends of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and found discrepancies in the results. State assessment testing in all six states show a higher inflation to the amount of students meeting the proficiency goals, while NAEP report only a third of those scores. For example, in Arizona the state assessment for reading show 71% proficiency rate, while the NAEP report 24% for reading. The CPR reports there are a few possible reasons to explain these discrepancies, that state assessments are limited to the range of domains it can test. “Once these are decided on, teachers in high stakes situations may teach to the test, which leads to inflated results—test scores increase but without a corresponding increase in knowledge.” Another reason is that rather than testing for higher order or complex thinking skills, the test reflects a narrower range of learning goals. This is detrimental to low-performing students because there are more incentives for teachers to teach to the test in order to increase the number of students meeting proficiency.”
The stakes are higher for “improvement schools” compared to schools that meet the AYP standards. Improvement schools receive far less funding from property tax dollars, thus they are far more under-funded to “meeting AYP standards” schools. In addition, sanctions under NCLB force improvement schools to allocate funding to professional consultation and other academic services, which continues to deprive them from meeting assessment goals because student populations in theses schools are far greater in number to “meeting AYP standards” schools. According to the report, “For the 2004-2005 school year, the percentage of students attending improvement was 23.1% out of the total state’s school enrollment.” Students who attend these schools are adversely affected; the CRP found that many of these schools have an increasingly higher percentage of minority students attending.
In the Law Review article, by Robert L. Carter, Public School Segregation: A Contemporary Analysis. Carter writes, “public schools today are still regarded as “black schools” and others as “white schools”, and black schools have the lowest test scores.” Carter’s argument is parallel to the CRP’s policy brief, which shows:
In all 6 states, Black and Hispanic students compromise a higher proportion of enrollment for schools identified as needing improvement than schools that made AYP. In California and Illinois, for instance, improvement schools serve a school body that is more than 75% to 85% black or Hispanic, while schools that made AYP serve a student body less then 40% minority students in California and 20% in Illinois.
Schools listed as “improvement schools” are serving low-income minority populations. While these schools are struggling to meet the standards levels, they also are hit with more sanctions than opposed to schools that meet the AYP requirements. Therefore, the decision in Brown I, and the decree of Brown II have had an insignificant effect redressing the segregation that still exists in public schools today. Carter suggests that the Supreme Court’s recent decision to remove the judicial supervision in public schools would only allow the system to painfully regress.
The length of judicial supervision should not be relevant…federal courts should not run our nation’s educational system, BUT they should have a serious obligation to stand guard for as long as it takes to ensure that the constitutional right of black children to equal education is fulfilled.
After 54 years of Brown v. Board, public schools are still inherently segregated and minority students are still disadvantaged to the education afforded to white students. NCLB attempts to remedy inefficacies and instill accountability for academic achievement for all students attending federally funded schools, but the policy’s means to achieving it’s ends are egregiously flawed. The sanctions imposed to “improvement schools” are far more disadvantaging to students of color. While this policy is facially attempting to bring equality, the only means to address achieving proficiency standards are to allocate more funding to their scarce resources.
The CRP reviewed data from six selected states (California, Virginia, Arizona, Georgia, New York and Illinois) where the policy had been in effect for six years. NCLB allows states to design and create its own method of accountability assessment known as, Annual Yearly Progress (AYP). One goal in particular requires all schools and students meet the academic standards for mathematics and reading by 2013-14. To reach this goal, an academic timeline scale was developed called, the “annual measurable objective” (AMO) . According to the policy brief, “In all six states, the performance targets were raised in 2004-05 after remaining the same during the previous three years.” For example, in California the performance target remained at 13% for three years, then in 2004-05 it increased to 23%. Many officials believed the higher increase on standard performance levels, the larger increase of schools that would be placed under the “needing improvement” status. Thus subjecting school district’s to state sanctions . “For example, within California and Virginia, the number of schools identified for improvement increased quite dramatically—176% increase in California and a 94% increase in Virginia over five years”.
Secondly, since it’s enactment the CPR found conflicting information to whether the facially well-intended policy was living up to its name. CPR reported it was difficult to know if whether the NCLB was having an effect on improving academic performance. According to CPR, “States may report that more students are reaching proficiency on state assessments, but this does not necessarily mean academic performance is improving.” When CPR compared state assessment tests to analyses trends of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and found discrepancies in the results. State assessment testing in all six states show a higher inflation to the amount of students meeting the proficiency goals, while NAEP report only a third of those scores. For example, in Arizona the state assessment for reading show 71% proficiency rate, while the NAEP report 24% for reading. The CPR reports there are a few possible reasons to explain these discrepancies, that state assessments are limited to the range of domains it can test. “Once these are decided on, teachers in high stakes situations may teach to the test, which leads to inflated results—test scores increase but without a corresponding increase in knowledge.” Another reason is that rather than testing for higher order or complex thinking skills, the test reflects a narrower range of learning goals. This is detrimental to low-performing students because there are more incentives for teachers to teach to the test in order to increase the number of students meeting proficiency.”
The stakes are higher for “improvement schools” compared to schools that meet the AYP standards. Improvement schools receive far less funding from property tax dollars, thus they are far more under-funded to “meeting AYP standards” schools. In addition, sanctions under NCLB force improvement schools to allocate funding to professional consultation and other academic services, which continues to deprive them from meeting assessment goals because student populations in theses schools are far greater in number to “meeting AYP standards” schools. According to the report, “For the 2004-2005 school year, the percentage of students attending improvement was 23.1% out of the total state’s school enrollment.” Students who attend these schools are adversely affected; the CRP found that many of these schools have an increasingly higher percentage of minority students attending.
In the Law Review article, by Robert L. Carter, Public School Segregation: A Contemporary Analysis. Carter writes, “public schools today are still regarded as “black schools” and others as “white schools”, and black schools have the lowest test scores.” Carter’s argument is parallel to the CRP’s policy brief, which shows:
In all 6 states, Black and Hispanic students compromise a higher proportion of enrollment for schools identified as needing improvement than schools that made AYP. In California and Illinois, for instance, improvement schools serve a school body that is more than 75% to 85% black or Hispanic, while schools that made AYP serve a student body less then 40% minority students in California and 20% in Illinois.
Schools listed as “improvement schools” are serving low-income minority populations. While these schools are struggling to meet the standards levels, they also are hit with more sanctions than opposed to schools that meet the AYP requirements. Therefore, the decision in Brown I, and the decree of Brown II have had an insignificant effect redressing the segregation that still exists in public schools today. Carter suggests that the Supreme Court’s recent decision to remove the judicial supervision in public schools would only allow the system to painfully regress.
The length of judicial supervision should not be relevant…federal courts should not run our nation’s educational system, BUT they should have a serious obligation to stand guard for as long as it takes to ensure that the constitutional right of black children to equal education is fulfilled.
After 54 years of Brown v. Board, public schools are still inherently segregated and minority students are still disadvantaged to the education afforded to white students. NCLB attempts to remedy inefficacies and instill accountability for academic achievement for all students attending federally funded schools, but the policy’s means to achieving it’s ends are egregiously flawed. The sanctions imposed to “improvement schools” are far more disadvantaging to students of color. While this policy is facially attempting to bring equality, the only means to address achieving proficiency standards are to allocate more funding to their scarce resources.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Catching Up with Me: Work, School and Play
Wow!
Since my last written statement things are quite busy in my life. The externship opportunity at SF State is going extremely well. Mondays and Wednesdays you can find me at 850 Bryant St, San Francisco (Hall of Justice) working in Department 22. It's the dedicated calendar courtroom for other courtrooms within the Hall of Justice. When criminal charges are filed the Defense Council and D.A meet in Department 22 where the judge (Honorable Judge Tsenin) assign a date for a preliminary hearing or trial. So far, I'm enjoying everyday I there and I walk away retaining something was unaware of before.
As for my other classes, its going good but my Constitution and Individual Rights course is a pain in the hinney!
Since my last written statement things are quite busy in my life. The externship opportunity at SF State is going extremely well. Mondays and Wednesdays you can find me at 850 Bryant St, San Francisco (Hall of Justice) working in Department 22. It's the dedicated calendar courtroom for other courtrooms within the Hall of Justice. When criminal charges are filed the Defense Council and D.A meet in Department 22 where the judge (Honorable Judge Tsenin) assign a date for a preliminary hearing or trial. So far, I'm enjoying everyday I there and I walk away retaining something was unaware of before.
As for my other classes, its going good but my Constitution and Individual Rights course is a pain in the hinney!
Monday, January 21, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Relationships
Looking to a relationships for love is like looking outside of oneself for a lifeline. It's also putting the cart before the horse. Until we discover love within ourselves, we can't authentically share it with anyone else. We confuse the rush of romance for love and give it more weight than it deserves. We give great importance to the symbols that Hollywood has assigned to love - good looks, great sex, an air of success and certain refinements. We are all attracted and entrapped by them. Although these maybe gorgeous accessories, they are not the basis for building a solid lasting relationship. They have absolutely no connection to love because they don't sustain us or satisfy us over time. In other words, it runs out.
Love is everlasting, Love is the activity of life. the active power in everything created, it is present everywhere, at every moment, in exactly the same degree. We are sustained by love and could not separate ourselves from it even if we tried. Love binds us to God, to one another, yet allows us individuality at the same time. A loving relationship is a precious thing, but it's not where love begins. A romantic relationship provides us with an opportunity to express love, but with or without a relationship, love exists in us and as us.
Try not to fall in love with someone partnered/or married to someone else or on the rebound. There are great risks involved. For instance, your "sweetheart or love" is the only person "you know you love deeply from your heart" and you feel the "only" person you will ever love again during your lifetime (no, not a case of infatuation, but true love). Age is definitely not a factor. The young at heart experience alone surpasses the greatest lover. He/she r has a heightened awareness of tender loving care and the propensity to be in touch with your "inner" feelings and perhaps a resourceful teacher. For the first time, you are filled with intense feelings of "love, peace, contentment, joy and passion." You are in love with the feeling of being treated so kindly again. All of your thoughts/feelings are consumed with love. Your "heart skips a beat" and the feeling of "I love him/her with all of my heart is again a part of your spirit." You appreciate and cherish every precious moment.
Although, absence makes the heart grow fonder, you've become familiar with loneliness and alienation (no choice of your own). This infectious smile sends you over the edge. You have never felt a love like this before. You crave intimacy, perhaps, a hug, a slow kiss, dinner, a walk along the beach, to even hold hands when you can, a quick embrace or a rub on the neck, a wink a love note or held snugly in your lover's arms.
Love is everlasting, Love is the activity of life. the active power in everything created, it is present everywhere, at every moment, in exactly the same degree. We are sustained by love and could not separate ourselves from it even if we tried. Love binds us to God, to one another, yet allows us individuality at the same time. A loving relationship is a precious thing, but it's not where love begins. A romantic relationship provides us with an opportunity to express love, but with or without a relationship, love exists in us and as us.
Try not to fall in love with someone partnered/or married to someone else or on the rebound. There are great risks involved. For instance, your "sweetheart or love" is the only person "you know you love deeply from your heart" and you feel the "only" person you will ever love again during your lifetime (no, not a case of infatuation, but true love). Age is definitely not a factor. The young at heart experience alone surpasses the greatest lover. He/she r has a heightened awareness of tender loving care and the propensity to be in touch with your "inner" feelings and perhaps a resourceful teacher. For the first time, you are filled with intense feelings of "love, peace, contentment, joy and passion." You are in love with the feeling of being treated so kindly again. All of your thoughts/feelings are consumed with love. Your "heart skips a beat" and the feeling of "I love him/her with all of my heart is again a part of your spirit." You appreciate and cherish every precious moment.
Although, absence makes the heart grow fonder, you've become familiar with loneliness and alienation (no choice of your own). This infectious smile sends you over the edge. You have never felt a love like this before. You crave intimacy, perhaps, a hug, a slow kiss, dinner, a walk along the beach, to even hold hands when you can, a quick embrace or a rub on the neck, a wink a love note or held snugly in your lover's arms.
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