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The new approach is called standards-based grading and is becoming more common across the country. Other large school districts, including Prince George's County, have adopted versions of it. Baltimore City established 50 as the floor for number grades several years ago.
Teachers will report behavior, effort, class participation and whether the student has done homework on the report card, but it will not be counted as part of the grade. Homework will be assigned but not graded. There are exceptions for longer assignments such as an English essay or a biology lab report, which will continue to be graded, White said.
What irks some teachers, said Abby Beyton, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, is that behavior isn't part of the grade.
"My folks are concerned that the behavior and attendance is going to get lost in the shuffle," Beyton said.
Teachers want students held accountable for their behavior and attendance in some way, and she is looking for tweaks that can be made to the policy that will accomplish that.
Beyton acknowledged teachers in the county are split on the new policy.
"There are lots that are upset and lots that aren't," she said.
Martin Stranathan, a biology and chemistry teacher at Dulaney High School, doesn't find the policy troubling. He has been using a version of it on his own for years to focus students on the excitement of learning rather than the grade.
"Honestly, I stopped grading homework 15 years ago," he said.
That hasn't stopped him from giving students feedback on their work. He said most of his students do the homework he assigns, particularly because he points out that they will be quizzed on the material.
Rick Wormeli, an education consultant who lectures on grading and homework, said Baltimore County's new policy is a model for others.
"I was thrilled that Baltimore County is becoming a flagship for wisdom on this," he said.
Wormeli said the no-grading policy reflects "a major cultural shift" that is usually controversial when first introduced. He argues that putting homework and behavior in a separate category on report cards actually elevates the attention students will pay to it.
Another aspect of the policy being criticized is the letter grades. The county is changing the grading scale so that a failing grade goes from 50 to 59 rather than from 0 to 59. The rest of the scale remains the same, with 60 equivalent to a D, 70 is a C, 80 is a B, and 90 is an A.
White explained that students who get a zero on an assignment or test will have a difficult time improving their grades even if they begin to do better as the year goes on.
"We want to make sure students can recover from a low grade," she said.
When struggling students feel they can never catch up because of a zero grade, they are demoralized, Wormeli said.
"It forces the kids to give up," he said.
Along with the no zero policy, teachers will be able to offer students multiple chances to prove they have learned a lesson. So if a child fails a test or turns in an essay and gets a low grade, the student may retake the test or rewrite the essay. White said teachers can put a cap on the number of do-overs they allow.
Nicole Yoder, a former teacher and a parent of an elementary school student, finds that aspect of the policy "ludicrous" because students will feel they can do the work whenever they feel like it.
"It kind of takes away the purpose of doing the assignment," she said. "It takes complete student accountability and student responsibility out of the equation."
Yoder worries that students who work very hard and do all their work will be getting the same grades as those who don't do the work but can pass the tests.
The grading policy was developed after two years of review by a large group that included teachers, principals and administrators in the school system. The new policy is being tested this year across the school system. White said it can be revised next summer after feedback.
Yoder has discussed the policy with teachers and believes many are confused by how to carry it out.
Yoder believes successful people usually put in a great deal of effort to master their work but that is not the message children in county schools will get from the new policy.
Her daughter, a sophomore, recently completed a 25-page packet of homework for an Advanced Placement class in psychology. She did very well on the assignments but told her mother, "It doesn't matter because it is not a test and doesn't count."
THIERRY HENRY has risked the wrath of Arsenal fans after revealing last night that he is a Spurs fan.
The Arsenal legend tweeted his allegiance to Spurs late last night.
But don't worry Arsenal fans, his tweet wasn't about north-London rivals Tottenham, he was congratulating NBA side San Antonio Spurs.
The Spurs won their fifth NBA title last night after securing a 4-1 series victory over the Miami Heat last night.
The victory for the Spurs saw them land a their fifth NBA title, their first since 2007.
After the game Henry couldn't hide his excitement at the result and congratulated his friends in the Spurs side.
He tweeted: "Congratulations for San Antonio Spurs. 5th title. Especially to my boy @tonyparker best point guard. Respect Tim Duncan and Manu #GoSpursGo."
Some fun news now from the great, mysterious void. We’re talking about outer space here — or rather, outer space by way of Houston. That’s where designer Michael Okuda is being honored by NASA with an Exceptional Public Service Medal for both his work on numerous Star Trek film and television projects since the mid-1980s, as well as helping out within the space agency itself, both outlets having been informed by one another over the decades, with Okuda as something of the middle ground in between. The designer, a long time space fanatic, has worked with NASA over the years designing patches for missions and memorials, as well as general design work throughout a number of programs. And for his work, he’ll be receiving an honor (along with 50 pages worth of other people and teams [pdf]) come July 9th at the Johnson Space Center (which we’re guessing maybe they’re not making him design).
DO–Gee 22 run (run failed).
DO–Smartt 2 run (Hurst run).
SC–Berman 12 pass from Sears (Paulson kick).
SC–Reaves 1 run (run failed).
SC–Reaves 60 punt return (Paulson kick).
D–Oganesyan 4, Je. Jamison 12, Cisco 6, Hall 3, McGinnis 14, Bryant 8, Ja. Jamison 6, Holmes 6. R–Oehler 9, O’Brien 13, Nolan 10, Mata 16, Sparks 4, Siler 11, Purvis 6, Gohl 4, Gutierrez 3.
R–Vickery 23, Rogers 8, Flaherty 1, Larson 17, Maderlios 2. S–Beaman 7, C. Jones 7, S. Jones 3, Trull 30, J. Collins 7, B. Collins 4, O’Connor 3.
B–Mayhew 2, Fane 1, Lateef 2, Clarke 2, Burton 4, Hogue 12, Crumpton-Murray 4, Tolbert 4, Heimerdinger 9, Leggett 14. P–Huntsberry 18, Perlow 11, Richardson 2, Birchell 4, Ferreira 22, Scott 2, Bridges 2, Lillis 20.
V–L. Clark 9, Golden 2, Montgomery 2, Tolton 7, Moody-Wiggins 3, Williams 6, Latchison 2. D–Coleman 2, Mason 7, Murphy 2, Meehan 17, Lathe 13.
Fresno (11-4) –Tyus Millhollin 28, Christian Carroll 15, Ian Miller 6, Fred Lavender 6, Zach Savage 4, Jordan Hollins-Buckner 4, Jess Spivey 3, Josthin Dawkins 2, Eric Pierce 2. Totals 20 23-25 70.
Cosumnes River (7-5) – Jordan Roberson 19, Leondre Lintz 19, Khari Hutt 8, Victor Wariso 6, Robert Tolbert 4, De'Rajaee Austin 2, Trevor Hooper 2, R.J. Gonzalvo 1. Totals 20 16-24 61.
Halftime–Fresno, 27-24. 3-Pt Goals–Fresno 7 (Millhollin 3, Carroll 3, Spivey 1), Cosumnes 5 (Lintz 3, Roberson 1, Hutt 1). Team Fouls–Fresno 21, Cosumnes 21. Fouled Out–Eads (F), Nuno (F).
Aldebaran's NAO educational and research robot.
Japanese giant Softbank now owns 95% of the shares in French robotics company Aldebaran. The new shares come from Bruno Maisonnier, who will step down as CEO of the company he founded on March 4.
Softbank took a 78.5% interest in Aldebaran in 2011. In 2014, Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank, introduced Pepper, a humanoid robot with a cloud-base intelligence system that, according to Softbank, allows Pepper to read human emotions based on facial expressions and tone of voice.
The robot stands roughly 4 feet tall and launched in Japan last year, but has yet to make it to the U.S. Thanks to an IBM Watson backend, Pepper has already learned to speak Japanese.
The departure of Aldebaran's founder is noteworthy and somewhat murky. Just last year, Maisonnier expressed his excitement about the Softbank partnership: "Masayoshi Son is a visionary. He had a dream and deep conviction that robots would help people and change the world. He wanted to be part of that."
Now Son will be much more than just a part of the future of Aldebaran's robotic future. The company is appointing a new CEO, Fumihide Tomizawa, who currently serves as Softbank Robotics president. He joined Softbank in 2000.
As for why Maisonnier is stepping down — he will still serve as a special advisor to Masayoshi Son and Softbank Robotics — he said in a statement that he is 'stepping back" to "gain perspective," and "fundamental things happened in the world, political, human, and technological ones, that need to be analyzed deeply and integrated into the founding bricks of the future robotics area.
Softbank's growing investment and control in Aldebaran is notable for another reason. It's one of the few robotics companies not bought by Google. The company has grabbed up more than half a dozen robotics firms in the last few years.
Aldebaran has been making educational robots, like NAO, since 2008. Maisonnier told me that, as of 2014, they had sold roughly 5,000 units of the pint-sized robot.
He had anticipated much higher levels of production for Pepper, especially with Softbank’s significant investment. "[Son] is investing and giving us the wings to fly faster and ordering us a new robot," said Maisonnier last year. "He’s a disruptive CEO."
During a CES 2015 robotics panel I moderated in January, Maisonnier insisted that Pepper was still on track to arrive in the U.S. before the end of this year and that it would cost just $1,500.
Aldebaran representatives wouldn't comment on the future of Pepper or the company. But they did say that Softbank still plans to release Pepper in Japan and then gauge reactions before deciding whether or not they want to sell the robot in other regions.
Acer America has announced the availability of its new Acer B326HUL WQHD LED 32-inch display delivering ultra-high resolution, significant viewing area and an ergonomic stand for professional customers in the United States.
The WQHD 2560 x 1440 resolution provides four times the resolution of standard HD 720p. The high pixel density delivers images with excellent detail, making it perfect for advanced HD productivity and multimedia applications such as video, photo and presentation editing. The large screen is ideal for viewing large spreadsheets and the wide 178-degree viewing angles make the display well-suited for presentations and collaborating with others.
"The new Acer B326HUL display was engineered to provide commercial customers with a very comfortable and productive viewing experience," said Edward Chan, product manager for Acer America. "Professional users will benefit from the superb image quality and large viewing area that enhances collaboration and significantly reduces scrolling through spreadsheets. IT professionals will appreciate the excellent connectivity, power savings and VESA mounting capability that maximizes work space."
The new display has a 16:9 aspect ratio and 300 nits brightness. The crisp 100,000,000:1 maximum contrast ratio provides a high level of clarity, while the fast 6 ms response time contributes to sharp images, critical for viewing video. Featuring 100 percent sRGB, the Acer B326HUL provides exceptional color accuracy and with 6-axis color adjustment, users can customize the hues and saturation of each color. In addition, Acer eColor Management allows users to optimize image performance to best suit the viewing scenario.
The Acer B326HUL touts a clean design with venting integrated into the grooves for a sleek look and feel. A storage tray houses common office items and a magnetic surface on the stand base accommodates paper clips. It also provides a convenient smartphone holder and two 2W speakers. VESA compliant, it can be mounted on a wall to free up desk space.
Acer ComfyView non-glare protection provides a polarizer material to reduce unnecessary lighting reflection for more comfortable viewing. The ergonomic design optimizes the viewing position for maximum comfort. Boasting a multi-function ErgoStand with tilt, swivel and height adjustment, the display can tilt 25 degrees up or -5 degrees down for finding the optimum view. It can also swivel 60 degrees to the left or right, while the height can be adjusted 150 mm up or down.
Offering an array of connectivity options, the Acer B326HUL comes with two HDMI ports, DVI-D (Dual Link) input, DisplayPort and a USB 3.0 hub, so users can connect multiple peripherals simultaneously.
EPEAT Gold registered, the highest level of EPEAT registration available, the display meets all of EPEAT's required criteria and at least 75 percent of EPEAT's optional criteria. The Acer B326HUL is constructed of mercury-free, recycled material to reduce the environmental impact.
It's also LED-backlit, which reduces energy costs by consuming less power than standard CCFL-backlit displays. ENERGY STAR and TCO 6.0 qualified, it adheres to strict environmental, performance and ergonomic design standards.
The new Acer B326HUL Series display will be available at Acer resellers and leading online retailers in the U.S. this month with prices starting at $899. It features a standard three-year warranty.
Even Bluetooth Headsets Have an App Store! Are High Tech Toilet Apps Next?
Matt put the $99.99 ICON through its paces and tried out a couple of apps with varying but mostly postive results. One of the less than glowing aspects was the iPhone 3GS’ apparent inability to route music to the headset instead of its own speaker. The Nokia N97 mini was able to perform this task correctly according to Matt. So, the iPhone’s less than spectacular Bluetooth implementation was the issue in that test.
One ICON feature that looks very useful is the ability of the ICON to work with its iPhone app to provide its battery level as a icon on the iPhone’s screen. It can also alert you about a low battery condition with an audible message in its own ear piece.
Earlier this week, we got to see more of the new character Ken from Toy Story 3 thanks to a short series called “Ken’s Dating Tips” on the Disney Pixar YouTube page. The film is doing great this weekend, and some of that may be due to the popularity of Ken, who we already met in another viral video from the animation studio. Get Ken’s dating tips after the break.
Last October, Google shut down Google Music in China, and today, some nine months later, the company appears to have cut the cord on a similar experimental service that it ran in India.
As NextBigWhat reports, the Google.co.in/music URL now redirects to the Google search page for India. Other pages, like the help section, bring up the 404 error shown below.
Though the service is offline, the company has not officially communicated its closure. We’ve reached out to Google to get more details. Medianama reports that the catalog had gotten old of late, showing signs that the service was gathering mothballs and suggesting that this is an all-out switch off rather than an outage.
Update: Google has confirmed the closure with a statement that we’ve included in full at the bottom of this post.
Google launched Music in India in October 2010. Like the Chinese offering, users could search out and stream tracks from a range of partner sites right from the Web-based Google service.
In a world in which music is often licensed to a limited number of streaming services, multi-platform offerings like Google’s are something different in that users can play music from multiple services from just one spot. Ultimately, it looks like there was not enough potential in the business for Google to keep the service — a product of its experimental Labs division — going.
The apparent closure of Google Music India follows the shuttering of Flipkart’s Flyte digital music store in May. Unlike Google Music, Flyte was not free and it charged customers to download DRM-free tracks. However, both may have suffered from increased competition as freemium streaming startups Dhingana, Saavn and Gaana continue to grow both on the Web and via mobile apps.
All three of the aforementioned services offer a free-to-use ad-supported service, alongside a Spotify-style premium monthly subscription that includes offline support and storage on mobile.
We have decided to shut down our Google Music Search service in India. This is part of an ongoing effort across Google to bring greater focus to our portfolio of products. Our goal is to simplify and improve the Google experience for our users and to devote more resources to high impact products that improve the lives of millions of people. In the case of music, we felt that there are many legal music options for users now featured in Search. Online entertainment will remain an important area for Google in India.
I didn’t come to Washington to bide time or to play fast and loose with other people’s money — something the big spenders do to buy votes. I ran for Congress to do something meaningful, to spend my energies wisely and get our fiscal house in order.
The reason is relatively simple: Servicing a $20 trillion debt threatens to bankrupt the United States, and in the process, the future of our children. Projections from the Government Accountability Office show that, absent policy changes, the debt-to-GDP ratio will easily surpass its historical high of 106 percent in the very near future.
Indeed, interest payments are now set to total $768 billion per year and will skyrocket to over $1 trillion should artificially low interest rates return to their post-WWII norm.
But the knee-jerk reaction to raise taxes is not the answer. Last year the federal government collected a record $3.26 trillion — that’s $3,260,000,000,000 — yet still incurred a $587 billion deficit. Even doubling the tax burden of the top 1 percent of income earners wouldn’t eliminate our annual deficit.
Besides, our income taxes are already the most “progressive” among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, and corporate levies are the highest in the industrialized world — so make no mistake, any ruse to raise taxes will end up soaking the middle class.
That’s why we put tax reform in the budget blueprint to be voted on this week. Without growth we won’t solve our debt crisis; and the current tax code’s deterrent to work, savings and investment has already given us an economy stuck in low gear — yet to hit the post-WWII average of 3.3 percent annual growth in the last decade.
So for the first time in decades, this year’s Budget Resolution directs Congress to address the main driver of our woeful federal fisc — mandatory or non-discretionary spending.
As the nearby chart clearly shows, if nothing is done to control the costs of entitlements, they will swallow the federal budget whole. The Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18) budget finally addresses this by adding work requirements to mandatory welfare programs (such as SNAP’s food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families — TANF); advancing medical malpractice and federal land reforms — and yes, finally tackling the unsustainable growth of Medicaid.
In the wake of Obamacare’s expansion of the $500 billion Medicaid program, it now constitutes the nation’s fastest growing entitlement. Moreover, by agreeing to finance 90 percent of the cost of covering able-bodied childless adults under the Affordable Care Act expansion, the system — originally designed for the blind, the disabled and poor children — has simply been flooded with more people than taxpayers can handle.
Coupling reasonable per-capita limits on Medicaid — first proposed by President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, when program costs were about a third of what they are today — with state flexibility finally puts the program on much sounder footing for those it was intended to serve.
Of course, finally addressing the part of the budget on auto-pilot is no excuse to let profligate discretionary spending off the hook. When it comes to avoiding an American sovereign debt crisis, everyone should do their part. And that means genuine “shared sacrifice” by rising above party politics and scrutinizing some sacred cows of your own.
That’s why I’ve introduced H.R. 2040, the Defense Spending Accountability Act, which requires the Pentagon to finally audit its books. Since 1995, the Defense Department has been on the GAO’s “high risk list” for deficiencies in their financial management. Yet in a report released earlier this year, the agency found the DOD budgetary schedules are so disorganized that they cannot be properly audited.
No doubt there are legitimate reasons for rebuilding our military, which I support — but in a defense department with an astonishing 800,000 civilian employees, we must all recognize the difference between spending for readiness and simply spending.
The Congress should restore some fiscal sanity by embracing reform of both our tax code and the federal budget. In fact, long overdue constraints on spending and incentives for economic growth may be our last, best hope for re-establishing a vanishing American Dream for the next generation.
Jason Lewis represents Minnesota’s 2nd congressional district and serves on the U.S. House Budget Committee.
Lucifer box office collection Day 10: The film starring superstar Mohanlal became the fastest Rs 50 crore earner in the history of Malayalam cinema.
Lucifer box office collection day 10: The Mohanlal film is a blockbuster.
And, now with the film releasing in the Telugu states, it is expected to set the cash registers ringing. “#Lucifer is slated for a grand release in Telugu States on April 12th,” shared Ramesh Bala on Saturday.
Apart from Mohanlal, Lucifer has an ensemble cast supporting the film. Manju Warrier, Indrajith Sukumaran, Tovino Thomas, Nyla Usha, Bala, Vivek Oberoi and Sachin Khedekar among others have also played important roles in the movie.